AK-47(ish) guns in the news

[iverglas]

It seems to be that time; we don't want a backlog building up again.


http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1211618104162901.xml&coll=2

CLEVELAND

Teen sought in gun burglary

Police are seeking an 18-year-old suspect wanted for stealing an AK-47 assault rifle and ammunition Thursday from a home safe in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood. Police are looking for Jason Gallardo of Cleveland, whom they believe has four stolen guns, including the AK-47. Lt. Thomas Stacho said Gallardo was with four men who burglarized a Cleveland firefighter's home on Cress Avenue about 9:50 p.m. Police said they arrested three accomplices: Gallardo's brother, Eric Gallardo, 19, of Brooklyn; Eric Hahn, 20, of Parma; and a 17-year-old Brooklyn resident. Gallardo is known to frequent Cleveland's West Side and the western suburbs of Parma and Brooklyn. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call 216-623-5518.

Now what would they want that for? Everybody knows it's useless.


Okay, a little catch-up still:

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/mostpopular/news-article.aspx?storyid=50132&provider=top

OCALA, FL -- The teenager accused killing two Gainesville college students in the Ocala National Forest tried to get the stolen gun back to its owner after the shootings.

Leo Boatman, 19, has been charged in the two Jan. 3 murders.

Investigators say Boatman took the AK-47 he and his uncle were holding for a friend, Lucas Merryfield, into the woods on the same day students Amber Marie Peck and John Parker went camping.

The teen's uncle, Victor Boatman, told detectives the he didn't see his nephew or the AK-47 again until two days later. Victor Boatman told officials his nephew came back with the gun with a loaded magazine.

Merryfield picked up the gun from the pair's home the next day, the same day Leo Boatman put a .22-caliber rifle with a scope on lay-away, according to detectives.

Why would someone be "holding" an AK-47 for a friend?

I guess Leo won't be passing that background check now. Or do outstanding murder charges without convictions not count?


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004435794_armyranger24m.html

Saturday, May 24, 2008

A former Army Ranger accused of masterminding a bank robbery in Tacoma two years ago, and then claiming he'd done so to draw attention to war crimes he'd witnessed in Iraq, was arraigned in U.S. District Court on Friday.

... He faces a litany of charges, including armed robbery, conspiring to commit armed robbery, brandishing a firearm in relation to a violent crime and possessing a hand grenade, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

According to court documents, Sommer recruited two other U.S. Army Rangers, Chad Palmer and Alex Blum, and two Canadian nationals, Tigra Robertson and Nathan Dunmall, to participate in the August 2006 robbery of the Bank of America on South Tacoma Way.

Federal police and prosecutors allege Sommer discussed his plans at length with Byrne, recruited Blum to drive the getaway car and provided Palmer and Dunmall with loaded, fully automatic AK-47 assault rifles.

Prosecutors said Sommer and Robertson carried loaded semiautomatic handguns and wore soft body armor as protection when they entered the bank wearing black masks and military garb, ordered tellers to turn over money and open the vault.

I guess they didn't need those AK-47s. Or maybe they were for shooting cops with after the robbery.


http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0524gangbust0524.html

The Arizona Republic
May. 24, 2008 12:00 AM
East Valley police departments combined resources to arrest 210 suspects, including 86 known gang members, during a three-week crackdown that ended last week.

The crackdown, called Operation City Limits, was announced Friday.

"The bottom line is to take repeat offenders victimizing our communities off of our streets," Mesa Police Chief George Gascón said Friday about the sweep from April 30 to May 17. "It sends a message to all the bad guys that we're working together."

... The Gilbert, Scottsdale and Gila River police also participated in the operation, along with the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Police also seized $10,000 in cash and about $100,000 worth of property, including two sawed-off shotguns, an AK-47 assault rifle and several semiautomatic handguns.

Just collectors.


Whuh-oh. A little foreign news. Can't resist.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=38d5cba3-cd45-42f2-9de5-a5f8612679be

Published: Friday, May 23

HALIFAX - A member of a prominent Nova Scotia family is facing charges in what the Canada Border Services Agency says is one of the most significant hauls of illegal and restricted weapons it has ever made.

A 21-year-old Halifax man, Alexander Stuart Lindsay, will be in Halifax provincial court Monday for a bail hearing. He's charged with 10 Criminal Code violations, including trafficking in weapons - ranging from submachine-guns to handguns and body armour - and with Customs Act violations. Lindsay was arrested May 14 after police raided his Halifax apartment and a storage unit. He's been in custody since his arrest pending the bail hearing.

No ammunition was found in the haul, but investigators seized high-powered Russian-made assault weapons, including a disassembled AK-47. They also found various handguns in different stages of assembly, Israeli-made Uzi submachine-guns and MAC-10 submachine-guns, body armour and armoured face masks.

... Investigators said they wouldn't talk about the reasons they believe Lindsay possessed the arsenal.

Just a snot-nosed rich brat, doing what snot-nosed rich brats do because they can, I guess.

... The seizure in Halifax came on the heels of 33 arrests in what police call a major gun smuggling operation involving the importation of prohibited weapons from the U.S. into New Brunswick. Investigators don't believe the two are connected.

Police seized guns, drugs, money, child pornography and a homemade bomb as part of the New Brunswick investigation, which began last September. The May 13 raids in New Brunswick were conducted in Saint John and St. Stephen, a small town on the U.S. border.

Well! Surely not firearms being smuggled into Canada from the US ...


http://www.wibc.com/News/Story.aspx?ID=91970

Man Robs Eastside Applebee's with AK-47 (Indianapolis)
5/23/2008

Metro Police are looking for a man who robbed an Applebee's with an AK-47.

Sergeant Matt Mount says it happened early Friday morning in the 7300 block of East Washington Street.

Mount says the suspect went into the restaurant as the manager was closing up for the night. Mount says the AK-47 was never fired, but it's dangerous for someone to be roaming the streets with that type of high-powered weapon.

Oh well then. He didn't fire it.


http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/05/23/2008-05-23_goodbye_you_lousy_drug_thugs.html

Friday, May 23rd 2008, 4:00 AM

Notice to customers at the Bronx River Houses: Speed, Wod, Rad, Little Tokyo, Monkweed, Trash, Puff and the rest of the sales staff have closed up shop, courtesy of law enforcement.

All told, 23 of the full-service crack cocaine and heroin business sales clerks will not be back for awhile, authorities said, pending federal trials and likely sentences ranging up to 20 years to life.

They were all busted Wednesday after a year-long joint local and federal investigation, with a number of undercover buys.

Another individual was arrested and charged with selling an AK-47 automatic rifle to an undercover officer.

Another admirer or fine gunsmithing, obviously.


Does (do?) the Virgin Islands count? They're, like, a US colony or something, right? I don't quite understand all that. Canada doesn't have colonies.

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17624756

Thursday, May 22nd 2008

ST. CROIX - Pandemonium broke out early Wednesday morning at Luis Hospital when five gunmen forced their way into the hospital past multiple layers of security and shot a patient to death in his bed.

The violence erupted just before 4 a.m., sending nurses and patients running for cover and ending in the gangland-style execution of 28-year-old Shadrach Frett, a patient in Bureau of Corrections custody who was recovering wounds he received during a shootout last week in Catherine's Rest.

... Frett had been hospitalized after a shootout in the Catherine's Rest area May 12 that left Frett and a 25-year-old man wounded.

Police said that while investigating the shooting, they found an AK-47 assault rifle in the apartment Frett shared with Laura Trotman, 45, of Catherine's Rest.

A little more catch-up.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1397329/arivaca_woman_gets_3_years_probation_for_helping_sister_hide/

21 May 2008, 21:00 CDT

May 21--An Arivaca woman was sentenced Wednesday to three years probation for helping her sister dump a body down a mine shaft.

Stacey Leigh Sharp, Tommie Joe Holliday and Stephanie Lynn Bartlett, 41, were arrested last summer after detectives found Bobby Lee Gatlin's body in the shaft.

... Court documents indicate Bartlett was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Gatlin. For several years, they had been living in makeshift camps outside Arivaca with Bartlett's three teenage sons and other homeless people.

Bartlett told authorities she shot Gatlin with an AK-47 after he came after her with an ax and threatened to kill her and her children. She said she'd found the weapon in the desert.

Okay, that one was news of the weird.


http://www.deridderdailynews.com/articles/2008/05/21/news/news1.txt

This year LTPOA honored the Beauregard-DeRidder SWAT Team, along with Phelps Corrections Center’s SWAT Team, because of their heroic service during a dangerous seven-day mission in September 2007 in South Beauregard Parish.

During that week, the group worked together to protect Beauregard citizens from a suspect who allegedly pulled an AK-47 assault rifle on a State Trooper and ran into the woods.

While on the run, the suspect allegedly broke into homes in South Beauregard Parish, robbing homeowners of weapons. Officials also say that during attempted negotiations, the suspect threatened to kill any police officer attempting to apprehend him.

During those seven days, the SWAT team was able to keep the suspect contained within a six-mile perimeter. The team worked non-stop to maintain safety of residents, entering and securing 21 homes and buildings, and working with blood hounds to track the suspect. The officers also kept the large crowd at the nearby South Beauregard Homecoming football game safe, along with the students attending the dance the following night. The week-long pursuit ended after the suspect took his own life.

Noooo. Stealing guns from people? We all know that's not what happens when people have guns in their houses.


Catching up still ...

http://www.theledger.com/article/20080521/NEWS/805210387/1134

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Man Gets Life Sentence In 2005 Shooting Death

Prosecutors argued Mercedes-Castro, 24, of Poinciana, was one of three men who went to rob Derek Phillips during the early morning hours of Nov. 29, 2005. Phillips, 36, was sleeping when an AK-47 assault rifle was fired through the window of his Pilchard Drive home. He was shot just above his mouth and the bullet exploded through the back of his head.

http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/05/drug_team_seizes_ak47_cocaine.html

OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP -- The Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team found crack cocaine, powder cocaine and an AK47 assault rifle Monday during a raid of an apartment in Oshtemo Township, police said.

Two men, ages 17 and 18, who lived at the apartment, were arrested by police following the search, police said. Their names were not released.

Police said the 17-year-old was arrested on charges of possession with intent to deliver crack cocaine and felony use of a firearm. The other man was arrested on an outstanding warrant.

Sheesh. You'd almost think those drug dealers imagined they were in some sort of war ... and thought it wise to have the right tools for the job ...


http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080520/LOCAL07/805200351

May 20, 2008 6:00 a.m.
Partygoer robbed by man with AK-47

A man reported being robbed outside a Weisser Park Avenue home after a party early Sunday morning.

Fort Wayne police were called about 2 p.m. Sunday on the report of the robbery. The man told officers he and a friend were held up at gunpoint after leaving a house party on Weisser Park Avenue sometime after 4 a.m. Sunday, a police report said.

The victim said while the two were leaving the home a man came from behind him holding an AK-47. The gunman told the victim and his friend to give him everything they had. Another man was with the gunman, but the victim said he did not appear to be armed, the report said.

The victims gave the robbers money and jewelry they were wearing, the report said.

One man was described to be in his 20s, 5-foot-8, thin, black, with short dreadlocks, wearing a white T-shirt, a backward black baseball cap and armed with an AK-47 with a strap, the report said.

Oh, who knows. Maybe it wasn't really an AK-47.

And if those stupid party-goers had just been packing heat like they oughta have been, if they'd been responsible, well, obviously they wouldn't have got robbed.



Okay. There's more. But that's all for you.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

1. Do you have a point?

These are useless anecdotes according to the gun grabbers.

David

[AtheistCrusader]

2. What's this for?

You seem to be focusing on one particular model of rifle, that is often mis-identified in initial news articles. (Often mistakenly identified as an AK-47, when it's really an SKS or other rifle) Do you have a reason for singling out one specific model of firearm?


Your third story is interesting. He was apparently active duty military. I live in Washington State, and I know that it is illegal to posess a fully-automatic weapon here unless you are a manufacturer/armorer that does business with an out of state entity that can legally posess them, you are a police officer/law enforcement, or active duty military.

I wonder if their use of fully-automatic AK-47's will be ignored, or if they will also (hopefully) face weapons charges in addition to the robbery, etc. Technically it's ok for a soldier to have them, but I don't imagine they were actually issued to his unit, so I wonder on which side of the law that will fall. Also, sort of wondering why he would choose that weapon when he would have had access to significantly better firearms.

[Retired AF Dem]

3. To much

Thunder Bird again?

[iverglas]

4. given your inability to spell one-syllable words

that might not be a bad guess.

[Retired AF Dem]

5. Much perfer

Heineken myself. :)

[iverglas]

6. okay, one-syllable words

and two-syllable words.

Wanna take a shot at three?

I don't actually think Thunder Bird is made for export. I have to make do with things like

http://cms.jacksontriggswinery.com/ViewObject.aspx?sys-Portal=1&sys-Class=Wine&sys-ID=50

[SteveM]

22. What? Suffering from "bad guess?" (nt)

[Wcross]

7. They should BAN AK-47(ish) guns in Canada!

Is that what you want for your country? Great! Have at it.

You seem to be quite prolific posting here regarding gun laws that you will never be subject to. :wtf: I have one question for you. Why are you here? Is this the best place for a Canadian to discuss gun laws? Wouldn't it be more productive to debate with Canadians about Canadian gun laws?

[iverglas]

8. eh?

That's Canadian for :wtf: , eh?


You seem to be quite prolific posting here regarding gun laws that you will never be subject to.

Was there something in this post about gun laws??

Maybe you meant to post in a thread in which I'd posted about gun laws in, say, the US.


Wouldn't it be more productive to debate with Canadians about Canadian gun laws?

Nah, that'd be boring.

So, Ian, whaddaya think about those gun laws, eh?
Well, Sylvie, I think they're just fine, eh?
Fuckin' eh.
Let's go get a two-four, eh?

[Wcross]

9. Yada yada yada.....

I guess you were just practicing your click & paste skills? You are only fooling yourself. I find it odd that someone would be so obsessed with the United States and our gun policy in particular.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

14. So you did just want to post meaningless anecdote.

I'm glad there was no purpose to it.

David

[Tejas]

15. and ban Canadian Nationals with AK-47's......

......ban them from committing armed robbery here in the US.

[iverglas]

16. now that looks like fun

I have no idea what it's about, but it looks like fun. I'm sure there's something there that we'd all find amusing. But you're not gonna tell ...

[Tejas]

18. "I have no idea what it's about" - clue: it's written in your OP n/t

[iverglas]

19. ha, missed them

What kind of Galliano Island hippie names its kid "Tigra"?

http://alexgarciainseattle.blogspot.com/2006/08/tacoma-bank-robbers-have-myspace.html

Guess he won't be in no reserve no more.

Some kinda weird cross-border Christian military brotherhood. Unless the ringleader just did his recruiting off myspace ...

Have no fear though. Canadians are indeed banned from holding up banks in the US, I daresay.

[Tejas]

21. thank you, enjoy your pie - n/t

[TPaine7]

10. What's the point?

[krispos42]

11. These stories can't be right!

There was no shooting thousands of rounds from the hip, like the VPC says they are used for! No innocent bystandards killed by the gross! And not a single bayonetting!

Eye iz confuzilled.

:crazy:

[iverglas]

13. confuzilled

Very good, very good.

http://fr.thefreedictionary.com/fusil

[krispos42]

17. Ha!

Wish I could take credit for it, but it was an accident. However, fusil as in fusillade! "the simultaneous firing of a number of firearms"

I learned something new today!

:-)

[TPaine7]

12. well, that was a giant flop,

wasn't it then?

I hope the investors aren't too disappointed.

[benEzra]

20. Thanks for proving my point.....or, you're really reaching, these days...

Teen sought in gun burglary

"Police are seeking an 18-year-old suspect wanted for stealing an AK-47 assault rifle and ammunition Thursday from a home safe in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood. Police are looking for Jason Gallardo of Cleveland, whom they believe has four stolen guns, including the AK-47."

(iverglas) Now what would they want that for? Everybody knows it's useless.

So, burglars where you're from never steal jewelry, DVD players, coins, or other valuable items from homes? You can't use a $500 gold necklace as a street weapon, either (well, unless you're Kirsten Prout in Elektra), but that wouldn't stop most burglars from stealing one.

I saw on the local news here last year that some thieves broke into a house and stole some African-big-game hunting rifles. Doesn't mean that Holland and Holland double rifles are the new "weapon of choice of criminals," though...

OCALA, FL -- The teenager accused killing two Gainesville college students in the Ocala National Forest tried to get the stolen gun back to its owner after the shootings.

Leo Boatman, 19, has been charged in the two Jan. 3 murders.

Investigators say Boatman took the AK-47 he and his uncle were holding for a friend, Lucas Merryfield, into the woods on the same day students Amber Marie Peck and John Parker went camping.

The teen's uncle, Victor Boatman, told detectives the he didn't see his nephew or the AK-47 again until two days later. Victor Boatman told officials his nephew came back with the gun with a loaded magazine.

Merryfield picked up the gun from the pair's home the next day, the same day Leo Boatman put a .22-caliber rifle with a scope on lay-away, according to detectives.

(iverglas) Why would someone be "holding" an AK-47 for a friend?

Well, the most obvious reason would be that his friend is a student at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and lives in on-campus housing where guns are prohibited. You did notice that this occurred in Gainesville, yes?

I've personally held a gun for a semester for a friend attending college---he lived in on-campus housing and was from out of state, so he stored his Glock 9mm with my wife and I during the semester (and examining it led my wife to buy her own Glock some years later).

And I also had a trusted acquaintance hold our family's guns in his safe for us when my son had one of his heart surgeries; I think it was during our son's first heart surgery at Boston Children's in '99, when he was an infant.

And of course, we know that if the nephew had purloined a .30-30 deer rifle instead of a functionally identical non-automatic AK, the bullets would have just bounced off the victims and everyone would have been OK.

I guess Leo won't be passing that background check now. Or do outstanding murder charges without convictions not count?

I believe being under indictment for murder makes you ineligible to buy a gun (I believe it's even on the Form 4473), but I would have to look it up in the 500ish-page BATFE Federal Firearm Regulations Reference Guide to say so for sure, and I damn well have better things to do with my time that that this weekend.

A former Army Ranger accused of masterminding a bank robbery in Tacoma two years ago, and then claiming he'd done so to draw attention to war crimes he'd witnessed in Iraq, was arraigned in U.S. District Court on Friday.

... He faces a litany of charges, including armed robbery, conspiring to commit armed robbery, brandishing a firearm in relation to a violent crime and possessing a hand grenade, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

According to court documents, Sommer recruited two other U.S. Army Rangers, Chad Palmer and Alex Blum, and two Canadian nationals, Tigra Robertson and Nathan Dunmall, to participate in the August 2006 robbery of the Bank of America on South Tacoma Way.

Federal police and prosecutors allege Sommer discussed his plans at length with Byrne, recruited Blum to drive the getaway car and provided Palmer and Dunmall with loaded, fully automatic AK-47 assault rifles.

(iverglas) I guess they didn't need those AK-47s. Or maybe they were for shooting cops with after the robbery.

Hmmm, U.S. Army Ranger (1) returns from Iraq and (2) is in possession of hand grenades and NFA Title 2/Class III restricted automatic AK-47's, which have not been sold in the United States since 1986, and all extant pre-'86 examples are closely tracked by the BATFE.

I think the big question is, how did he smuggle them back from Iraq? Because he damn well didn't buy them here.

Of course, this citation had absolutely nothing to do with non-automatic civilian "assault weapons", but who cares, it's good spin, eh?

East Valley police departments combined resources to arrest 210 suspects, including 86 known gang members, during a three-week crackdown that ended last week.

The Gilbert, Scottsdale and Gila River police also participated in the operation, along with the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Police also seized $10,000 in cash and about $100,000 worth of property, including two sawed-off shotguns, an AK-47 assault rifle and several semiautomatic handguns.

The police arrest TWO HUNDRED AND TEN suspects and find ONE AK, and you take that as evidence that AK's are extremely common in criminal hands?

Maybe on Opposite Day, that would be evidence for your thesis. On any other day, not so much.

Whuh-oh. A little foreign news. Can't resist.

HALIFAX - A member of a prominent Nova Scotia family is facing charges in what the Canada Border Services Agency says is one of the most significant hauls of illegal and restricted weapons it has ever made.

A 21-year-old Halifax man, Alexander Stuart Lindsay, will be in Halifax provincial court Monday for a bail hearing. He's charged with 10 Criminal Code violations, including trafficking in weapons - ranging from submachine-guns to handguns and body armour - and with Customs Act violations. Lindsay was arrested May 14 after police raided his Halifax apartment and a storage unit. He's been in custody since his arrest pending the bail hearing.

No ammunition was found in the haul, but investigators seized high-powered Russian-made assault weapons, including a disassembled AK-47. They also found various handguns in different stages of assembly, Israeli-made Uzi submachine-guns and MAC-10 submachine-guns, body armour and armoured face masks.

(iverglas:) Well! Surely not firearms being smuggled into Canada from the US ...

Well, since submachineguns have been as tightly controlled in the USA as in Canada since 1934, methinks either the paper got something wrong, or those guns originated outside the United States.

And FWIW, an AK-47, whether a real one or a non-automatic civilian lookalike, isn't "high powered"; it's at the low end of the rifle power spectrum, not the high end. Minor quibble.

http://www.wibc.com/News/Story.aspx?ID=91970

Man Robs Eastside Applebee's with AK-47 (Indianapolis)
5/23/2008

Metro Police are looking for a man who robbed an Applebee's with an AK-47.

Sergeant Matt Mount says it happened early Friday morning in the 7300 block of East Washington Street.

Mount says the suspect went into the restaurant as the manager was closing up for the night. Mount says the AK-47 was never fired, but it's dangerous for someone to be roaming the streets with that type of high-powered weapon.

Oh well then. He didn't fire it.

And such incidents are so rare that the choice of gun made big news. "Man robs convenience store with Jenkins pistol" would never make the headlines, because it's not out of the ordinary; the use of an AK lookalike is.

Notice to customers at the Bronx River Houses: Speed, Wod, Rad, Little Tokyo, Monkweed, Trash, Puff and the rest of the sales staff have closed up shop, courtesy of law enforcement.

All told, 23 of the full-service crack cocaine and heroin business sales clerks will not be back for awhile, authorities said, pending federal trials and likely sentences ranging up to 20 years to life.

They were all busted Wednesday after a year-long joint local and federal investigation, with a number of undercover buys.

Another individual was arrested and charged with selling an AK-47 automatic rifle to an undercover officer.

Another admirer or fine gunsmithing, obviously.

And if it was indeed an "AK-47 automatic rifle", where the hell did it come from?

And it wasn't siezed relating to a violent crime; it was a sting in which an undercover officer set up one of the criminals to find and sell him an AK (automatic or not), meaning the choice of gun was made by the undercover police officer. Which doesn't exactly help your case.

Does (do?) the Virgin Islands count? They're, like, a US colony or something, right? I don't quite understand all that. Canada doesn't have colonies.

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_...

Thursday, May 22nd 2008

ST. CROIX - Pandemonium broke out early Wednesday morning at Luis Hospital when five gunmen forced their way into the hospital past multiple layers of security and shot a patient to death in his bed.

The violence erupted just before 4 a.m., sending nurses and patients running for cover and ending in the gangland-style execution of 28-year-old Shadrach Frett, a patient in Bureau of Corrections custody who was recovering wounds he received during a shootout last week in Catherine's Rest.

... Frett had been hospitalized after a shootout in the Catherine's Rest area May 12 that left Frett and a 25-year-old man wounded.

Police said that while investigating the shooting, they found an AK-47 assault rifle in the apartment Frett shared with Laura Trotman, 45, of Catherine's Rest.

The Virgin Islands are partly a British territory, and partly a U.S. "insular area," the legal status of which escapes me. The gun laws in the U.S. Virgin Islands are far more restrictive than those in the United States, and seem broadly similar to those in Canada (full licensure, full registration, stricter controls on weapons types, etc.).

Given the location and the local laws, I suspect that those AK's didn't originate in the United States, but rather in Central or South America, where the real thing is endemic.

A little more catch-up.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1397329/arivaca_w... /

21 May 2008, 21:00 CDT

May 21--An Arivaca woman was sentenced Wednesday to three years probation for helping her sister dump a body down a mine shaft.

Stacey Leigh Sharp, Tommie Joe Holliday and Stephanie Lynn Bartlett, 41, were arrested last summer after detectives found Bobby Lee Gatlin's body in the shaft.

... Court documents indicate Bartlett was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Gatlin. For several years, they had been living in makeshift camps outside Arivaca with Bartlett's three teenage sons and other homeless people.

Bartlett told authorities she shot Gatlin with an AK-47 after he came after her with an ax and threatened to kill her and her children. She said she'd found the weapon in the desert.

Okay, that one was news of the weird.

Doesn't exactly help your case, though. If her story is correct, that shooting would have been ruled justified self-defense had she not panicked and decided to cover it up, BUT given her background and surroundings, I imagine she did not trust the system to get a fair trial. Not saying she was correct, just that a lot of people who have been homeless in the recent past tend to fear the police.

Neither I nor anyone else has ever said that the AK or any other small-caliber carbine isn't an EXCELLENT home-defense gun in many circumstances. If someone holding an axe kicked in my door yelling that he was going to kill me and my children, he'd be rather likely to be catching some "AK" rounds as well.

This year LTPOA honored the Beauregard-DeRidder SWAT Team, along with Phelps Corrections Center’s SWAT Team, because of their heroic service during a dangerous seven-day mission in September 2007 in South Beauregard Parish.

During that week, the group worked together to protect Beauregard citizens from a suspect who allegedly pulled an AK-47 assault rifle on a State Trooper and ran into the woods.

While on the run, the suspect allegedly broke into homes in South Beauregard Parish, robbing homeowners of weapons. Officials also say that during attempted negotiations, the suspect threatened to kill any police officer attempting to apprehend him.

During those seven days, the SWAT team was able to keep the suspect contained within a six-mile perimeter. The team worked non-stop to maintain safety of residents, entering and securing 21 homes and buildings, and working with blood hounds to track the suspect. The officers also kept the large crowd at the nearby South Beauregard Homecoming football game safe, along with the students attending the dance the following night. The week-long pursuit ended after the suspect took his own life.

(iverglas) Noooo. Stealing guns from people? We all know that's not what happens when people have guns in their houses.

He wasn't carrying a rifle on the street. He was carrying a rifle in the woods, where the rifle need not be concealed on the person. I have pointed out that lack of concealability is the reason rifles aren't commonly involved in street crimes of violence.

Prosecutors argued Mercedes-Castro, 24, of Poinciana, was one of three men who went to rob Derek Phillips during the early morning hours of Nov. 29, 2005. Phillips, 36, was sleeping when an AK-47 assault rifle was fired through the window of his Pilchard Drive home. He was shot just above his mouth and the bullet exploded through the back of his head.

I have never said that rifles are never used in violent crimes. I said they are the LEAST misused of firearms in violent crimes, even though a very low level of misuse does occur.

If you post another four hundred or so rifle-murder anecdotes, you might get them all. And if you post another 800 or so, you MIGHT catch up to the number of people killed with shoes and bare hands.

Fact: Rifles are the least misused of firearms in the United States in violent crimes, including but not limited to murder. Posting a few carefully selected anecdotes doesn't change that fact.

OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP -- The Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team found crack cocaine, powder cocaine and an AK47 assault rifle Monday during a raid of an apartment in Oshtemo Township, police said.

Two men, ages 17 and 18, who lived at the apartment, were arrested by police following the search, police said. Their names were not released.

Police said the 17-year-old was arrested on charges of possession with intent to deliver crack cocaine and felony use of a firearm. The other man was arrested on an outstanding warrant.

Sheesh. You'd almost think those drug dealers imagined they were in some sort of war ... and thought it wise to have the right tools for the job ...

Given the popularity of civilian AK's in U.S. homes, a random sampling of homes in my neighborhood would turn up several AK's. And we're not drug dealers.

Fact is, AK's belong to the least likely class of firearm to be used by drug dealers. But who cares about general facts, right? We like anecdotes.

One percent of crimes can sound like a lot if you speak of the one percent as if it's something common. But in statistics, that's called "lying."

May 20, 2008 6:00 a.m.
Partygoer robbed by man with AK-47

A man reported being robbed outside a Weisser Park Avenue home after a party early Sunday morning.

Fort Wayne police were called about 2 p.m. Sunday on the report of the robbery. The man told officers he and a friend were held up at gunpoint after leaving a house party on Weisser Park Avenue sometime after 4 a.m. Sunday, a police report said.

The victim said while the two were leaving the home a man came from behind him holding an AK-47. The gunman told the victim and his friend to give him everything they had. Another man was with the gunman, but the victim said he did not appear to be armed, the report said.

The victims gave the robbers money and jewelry they were wearing, the report said.

One man was described to be in his 20s, 5-foot-8, thin, black, with short dreadlocks, wearing a white T-shirt, a backward black baseball cap and armed with an AK-47 with a strap, the report said.

Oh, who knows. Maybe it wasn't really an AK-47.

Hmmm, presumably inebriated guy gets robbed from behind at night, and tells police the gun was an "AK-47." Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't help your case any, unless you have a few tens of thousands of AK robberies to cite.

Okay. There's more. But that's all for you.

Then thank you for proving my point.

AK's are so rarely misused that even with the heavy Von Restorff bias toward AK mention in news coverage, this is all you can come up with.

A thousand people a month are murdered in this nation of 300 million people, and you think listing 5 deaths and a few nonviolent crimes demonstrates that the MSM's breathless "AK menace" is a fact? You know better than that.

Fact is, you seem to want very, very badly to believe that civilian AK lookalikes are a major crime problem in the United States, but they just aren't.

2006 data: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_20.html

Total murders.............................14,990..........100.00%
Handguns...................................7,795...........52.00%
Other weapons (non firearm, non edged).....2,158...........14.40%
Edged weapons..............................1,822...........12.15%
Firearms (type unknown)....................1,465............9.77%
Hands, fists, feet, etc......................833............5.56%
Shotguns.....................................481............3.21%
Rifles.......................................436............2.91%




http://www.atf.gov/firearms/ycgii/2000/generalfindings

Table 4: Top Ten Long Guns by Type and Caliber/Gauge
by Age Group of Possessor

Long Gun Type and Caliber - All Ages

Shotgun 12 GA...........6,854...............35.5%
Rifle .22...............4,076...............21.1%
Rifle 7.62mm............1,729................9.0%
Shotgun 20 GA...........1,277................6.6%
Rifle .30-30..............616................3.2%
Shotgun .410 GA...........615................3.2%
Rifle .223................599................3.1%
Rifle 9mm.................412................2.1%
Rifle .30-06..............410................2.1%
Shotgun 16 GA.............409................2.1%
Top Ten Long Guns......16,997...............88.0%
All Long Guns..........19,311..............100.0%

AK's (7.62x39mm) fall into the 7.62mm category. That category also includes the SKS (most popular centerfire rifle in America), Ruger Mini Thirty, and presumably any guns chambered for the more powerful 7.62x51mm (.308 Winchester cartridge), a popular deer round that is also used in the Springfield M1A, civilian CETME's, FAL lookalikes, and some HK's. So AK's are only a part of that 9%, but that 9% is the upper bound on AK's in the YCGIS.

[SteveM]

23. Your forbearance and thoroughness make my day (nt)

[TPaine7]

24. Brilliant . . . Don't expect a response.

[radioburning]

25. 13 for you...13 million for us.

How many legal owners of AK-47's didn't do anything with their rifles except enjoy them in this time period? Anti's=baby out with the bathwater...

[iverglas]

26. hahaha, baby bathwater

Jered Townsend: “This is my baby, purchased under the 1994 gun ban.”

Joe Biden: “I’ll tell you what, if that’s his baby, he needs help.”


Joe Biden, the best president the US will never have, tellin' it like it is.


That Jered, with his incisive commentary on current events; a neverending source of online amusement.

http://www.parentdish.com/2005/08/16/chrysler-ceos-wife-subject-of-underage-drinking-scandal/

Gisele Zetsche, wife of Chrysler Group CEO Dieter Zetsche, is in hot water after serving beer to several underage teens at her Bloomfield Township home in June. The party was attended by one hundred teens; Gisela was present but her husband was not. Police responding to a noise complaint, and charged her with allowing minors to drink. According to witnesses this is not the first party hosted at the Zetsche home with alcohol provided to minors. In April 2004 an after-prom party was attended by several hundred students and lasted until 4 a.m. In Germany, where the Zetsche's are from originally, the legal drinking age is 16. Dieter Zetsche is unavailable for comment. "I think it's adequate that you talked with the public relations department (of Chrysler)," he said from the front door of his home. "Let's just leave it at that, OK?" Several parents of the 21 teens cited for underage drinking at the June party said they were upset with Mrs. Zetsche for allowing it to happen. These parties are not entirely new, as Jay Allen reported in April, but police in Bloomfield Township are, according to Chief of Police Jeffrey Warner, paying more attention to the issue as it's a "serious offense." Perhaps the Zetsche's need to read "How to be a cool yet responsible parent"?

Jered Townsend 12-18-2005 @ 6:34PM

It is quite amazing that the police officers on the scene could smell alcohol 50 yards away on the street. The cops must be superhuman. Let's be real, no one can smell alcohol 50 yards (150 feet) away.

Er ... what?


http://www.peterfeddo.com/node/28

The crazy guy with the automatic weapon in the YouTube debate? Yes, he is indeed crazy:
<defunct link to a Detroit Free Press article>

Jered Townsend is a single, 30-year-old gun enthusiast who lives north of Flint on a rural road with his parents and his baby. Well, "baby" is his way of putting it. He doesn't have children. ...

Jered Townsend said he doesn't carry a gun on him often, mostly just around the holidays.

"Let's say you go to Christmas shop and the stores are packed and you know you got cash on you," he said. "Anything can happen anywhere. But we're not cowboys anymore. There's carjackings all over. It doesn't just happen in the inner city anymore."

Mostly just around the holidays. Will that qualify as festooning?

[radioburning]

27. As usual you've missed the point and went off on a completely unrelated tangent

By "baby out with the bathwater" I meant there are at least 80 million gun owners, and when a small minority do idiotic things your only solution is to get rid of all guns. That's throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Somehow, and I don't know where you got the idea that there was some kind of connection here, you turned this into the guy from youtube and festooning. With how much you post on here it's amazing to me how mis-matched your logic and arguments are on a regular basis. Why am I even arguing with you? You're just going to turn around and chalk everything I say up to A: I'm a right wing, macho gun-nut oblivious to all reality except for the perverted and psychotic love affair I have with dirt cheap fully automatic thermo-nuclear grenade launchers B: I'm a man, so therefore anything I say is automatically rife with ignorance, ulterior motives, lies, and pure hatred for anything remotely female.

You must have had something really bad happen to you, all that ever comes out of your mouth hostility, sarcasm, condescension, scorn, and hate.

[iverglas]

29. aha!

I'm a right wing, macho gun-nut oblivious to all reality except for the perverted and psychotic love affair I have with dirt cheap fully automatic thermo-nuclear grenade launchers

I'd better bookmark this one!


You must have had something really bad happen to you, all that ever comes out of your mouth hostility, sarcasm, condescension, scorn, and hate.

Sigh. Jered Townsend was a riot. You're just dull.

[radioburning]

31. Once again, I've made a valid point and the only answer you can come up with is name calling. BTW

BTW-which one is it? Am I so entertaining I deserve a bookmark, or just dull?

I'm a right wing, macho gun-nut oblivious to all reality except for the perverted and psychotic love affair I have with dirt cheap fully automatic thermo-nuclear grenade launchers

"I'd better bookmark this one!"


You must have had something really bad happen to you, all that ever comes out of your mouth hostility, sarcasm, condescension, scorn, and hate.

"Sigh. Jered Townsend was a riot. You're just dull."

[radioburning]

32. Proving for the umpteenth time, iverglas, 9 times out of 10, I debate circles around you! I OWN YOU!

I've owned you so many times on here you're almost like a little pet I carry around in my pocket.

[radioburning]

33. I've owned you so many times I should have renter's insurance on you.

[benEzra]

28. And that justifies banning the most popular rifles in America, how?

Though I guess dredging up that red herring was easier than addressing post #20, in which it was pointed out that most of your anecdotes didn't support your position at all. The MSM's breathless "AK menace", and the broader "assault weapon menace," are entirely constructs.

You are starting from the presumption that AR-15's and civilian AK's need to be banned, and from there are grasping at straws trying to demonstrate that those rifles are a serious crime problem in the United States. But they just aren't. Rifles are the least misused class of firearms in the United States, period.

As I have mentioned many times before, it is that type of post hoc rationalization of nonsensical positions that has put the U.S. gun-control lobby in the dubious position it is now in.

[iverglas]

30. what the hell are you on about?

Sheesh, nobody has to be as much of a Jered Townsend fan as I am, but really, this droning tedium is just ... droningly tedious.

[benEzra]

34. The "droning tedium" in the room is the "Black Rifles are the Bogeyman" chant.

Josh Sugarmann wrote his little proselytizing tract in 1988 or so, and the MSM and the gun-control lobby have been chanting "rifles are the weapons of choice of criminals" ever since. It's as baseless now as it was then.

The late Pete Shields (head of what is now the Brady Campaign 1978-1989) was no less a crusader than Sugarmann and Helmke et al, but he WAS less of a zealot:

"(O)ur organization, Handgun Control, Inc. does not propose further controls on rifles and shotguns. RIFLES AND SHOTGUNS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM; they are not concealable." (Pete Shields, Guns Don't Die--People Do, Priam Press, 1981, pp. 47-48, emphasis added).

That statement is just as true now as it was then.