A few days ago we brought you the story of an “assault rifle” that was found on the street by a resident of Redondo Beach, CA. Part of that story was that the rifle was contained in what looked like the “carrying case for a musical instrument” and that the Redondo Beach PD cleared a block of residences around it before sending in the bomb squad. Readers here commented derisively on both of those points. Now the person who found it has provided photos (one of which is above) to the local paper, and the story becomes clearer. While people can be stupid, scared critters about guns, and while the police can and do often overreact to minor situations. . .
neither of those appear to be true in this case. Having been a band geek (well, orchestra) in middle and high school, I can tell you that’s definitely a converted musical instrument case. So mystery #1 solved. But what about the bomb squad? Well, apparently the case was “ticking,” a sound which was found to be coming from a recordable greeting card inside the case. More photos over at redondobeach.patch.com or by clicking the photo above.
No Lockdown of the Day™ today, whee! Don’t take this as a sign of sanity. I’m sure it happened, it just didn’t cross my desk.
Oregon state senators will bring a bill requiring background checks on private sales to the floor in February’s legislative session, a bill that is very similar to one that didn’t make it out of committee last year. Despite the confidence in its passage expressed by supporters, the advancement of the bill is likely more for political capital in the upcoming election than in the hopes it will pass. Senators Bruce Starr and Betsy Close are both Republicans in districts where Democrats have a voter registration majority, and their “no” votes against this bill will certainly be used against them in November.
In the land of the disarmed, the man with one bullet is… at least a prince. The ownership of firearms is severely restricted in the Bahamas, but that doesn’t stop criminals there from having them. However, the lack of supply (and being an island nation) shows, such as in the case of a man stopped while driving on Grand Bahama who was found to have in his waistband a GLOCK-brand GLOCK .40 with a magazine containing one (1) live round of .40 caliber ammunition. Just like the gun that you carry is better than the gun you leave at home, I suppose one bullet is better than none.
The subject of “theme park carry” regularly comes up in the AR15.com Florida Hometown Forum, and as you’d expect, there are people who come firmly (and loudly) down on both sides of the issue. Things are a little different elsewhere (I guess this is another “Be glad you live in the U.S.” item), as a woman was arrested at Hong Kong Disnleyland Monday for carrying a stun gun and pepper spray in her bag. The items were discovered when a park inspector looked in her bag at the entrance, and the 25-year-old woman was arrested for alleged possession of firearms or ammunition without a license. She is liable for up to 14 years’ imprisonment and fines of up to HK$100,000 (about $13,000 US).
I don’t always really “get” The Yankee Marshall’s humor, but when he does informative posts, they’re usually pretty good. In this one, he does a quick comparison of the Springfield Armory XDs in both .45 and 9mm. He doesn’t tell you which one is “better,” he just tells you how they’re different. It’s interesting to me how you can see the difference in the recoil.
Maybe seeing the difference is in my imagination. I should Pepsi challenge it.
Looks like an SBR, too. Man, will that guy be sorely disappointed to lose it, too, ’cause you know those jack-boot morons will never give it back under any circumstance.
In this case the gun belonged to the Jackboots in the first place.
Just gonna hazard to guess that the likelihood of that being a registered SBR is probably pretty low. I doubt many cops in this guys’ position would even think twice about building an SBR AR, knowing that nobody will likely try to screw with them over it.
Im sure we will never hear the truth of what is going on here. I don’t have anything against police, but you can’t deny that ‘the thin blue line’ often ensures that police never do anything wrong.
The part that bothers me is the greeting card recording device…
I can understand an LEO with a full auto SBR. I can understand an LEO putting that SBR in an instrument case, in order to be discrete to the public… I could even see an LEO being careless with that case. But from the Pictures in the article, there wasn’t a “greeting card” in the case that just happened to make noise and scare people. There is a recording and sound device placed in the case. It has had the card removed from it purposefully. That I know of they don’t just sell the guts of those cards at Walmart.
Someone bought a recordable greeting card, took it apart and put the recorder in this case on purpose. Then recorded a ticking sound for playback… And then rigged it to play when the box was opened.
I have Inferred the ticking sound played when the case was opened because: No one would take home a ticking case they found on the street, and in the photos there is an unexplained cord hanging from the lid of the case, I infer that to the method for activating the “ticker”.
So what the hell is really going on here?
Why would someone rig up a case that ticks when you open it? And then put a gun in it? And then leave it out for someone to find? Is this some kind of test to see how long it takes for people to react?
And further I will be very skeptical of any future claims it was stolen and abandoned. It wasn’t Stolen. Especially in a state with gun laws as restrictive as CA, a gun like that is too nice, too tempting, and too valuable. If someone HAD stollen it, it would be gone to the black market. I just can’t imagine someone being willing to steal from an LEO and then saying, “oh crap, I didn’t know it was a gun! I can’t have a gun like this, its illegal! I better ditch it on the next corner.”
BATFE sting operation!
You want my guess? Here you go.
I think whoever customized this case to hold that rifle installed that card themselves, and recorded on that greeting card a joke, or a warning, or… who knows what. Maybe it played a massive fart every time the case was opened. In any case, that was a (insert time here) ago, and the batteries have since almost, but not completely died, and so all the mechanism can manage to do at this point is try, which results in a ticking sound. It has the energy to know it’s supposed to play something, but it doesn’t have the energy to actually do it.
Musical greeting cards are common components of IEDs, seems a legit concern given the suspicious nature of the case.
I’ve considered converting an old guitar case specifically to avoid catching the eyes of my whacky California neighbors. Seems the owner of that case had a sense of humor?
Yankee Marshall’s an all right dude. He’s opinionated, keeps it short and sweet (under 10 minutes) and seems to have about the same level of impulse control when it comes to new guns as I do. It’s also kinda nice that he’s a bit more left-of-center than your average gun channel, so he’s one that I suggest to my more left-leaning friends- just about all of whom are now at least somewhat interested in guns, oddly enough.
“…about the same level of impulse control when it comes to new guns as I do.”
That is, next to none?
Yup, that’s the one.
He doesn’t strike me as left at all, maybe just not as hardcore focused as other channels. Of course I only just subscribed to his channel like three days ago, so I have not seen most of his older stuff.
He’s pro-gun and pro personnel responsibility but does not conform to the republican platform on social issues.
Perhaps he’s a Southpark republican.
Is that what they are called? Crap. I hope I’m not one of those. I hate South Park, but from what I have gleaned of the politics in the show, I mostly agree with the views presented.
1 bullet? So they even have a Barney Fife in the Bahamas. His gang has plenty of ammo, they just don’t give him more than 1 at a time.
Any recent shootings in that area? Maybe 1 bullet is all he had left. Maybe he was cruisin’ lookin for more.
The Yankee Marshal kind of sucks (for me) i just dont find him as entertaining as other gun channels and his jokes always fall flat on me
+1, he has the personality of a pet rock, Randy
I was indifferent to Yankee, until I watched a few of Gunwebsites chats with Yankee in them, that got me off the fence with a quickness, now I can’t stand him.
TTAG I’m sort of disappointed that we heard NOTHING from you guys about Gabby Giffords testifying in support of Washington state’s own I-594 UBC bill today. Gabby flew all the way from AZ to speak in a state that she’s not even a resident in, taking time away from WA residents who wanted to give their input to THEIR representatives – not Gabby’s.
WA and OR are in Bloomberg’s sights, and I’ve heard very little about it here other than the mention in this DD article.
http://capitolrecord.tvw.org/2014/01/gabrielle-giffords-testifies-at-washington-gun-initiative-hearing/
I hope they stay the way they are. Except WA needs to legalize suppressor hunting.
Wouldn’t the guy who shot her have passed a background check anyway? So it would have been pointless.
Jared Lee Loughner did in fact pass a NICS check, because he was never prosecuted for a handful of run-ins with the law.
And wasn’t it a ccw holder who stopped the shooter? Sure he didn’t use his firearm but that simply highlights the ability of an armed person to determine when to respond and with how much force. They will never give him his due cause it pokes another hole in their argument that once armed we will take any opportunity to kill.
i feel sad for ms giffords i think i might kill myself if someone took my mind from me like that psycho did her
Calling her husband a psycho may be a bit over the top. An evil, manipulative bastard, yes, but a psycho……wait a tick. You weren’t talking about Kelly were you? My bad.
Sooo…since no one has said it yet, guess it’s just me…but is that flashlight mounted backwards?
Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of finger room between it and the forward grip…
It looks like it’s on some kind of swiveling mount.
It doesn’t look like it’s mounted at all, in any of the photos.
I saw it too, but take note of the size restrictions of the case. Seems you would just loosen the thumbscrew, flip the light around and you’re G2G.
It’s in an offset picatinny mount ring that’s been removed from the rail and it’s resting in that position. I’ve got a flashlight floating around here in the same sort of set up. In fact I think that flashlight has the same $5 ring I got on Amazon.
Holding control while hitting the plus key will zoom in your web browser, control and zero will reset the zoom. Works wonders for checking out photos that have details that are too small.
I can now say that today was not wasted. I learned something new! Thanks for the tip.
Control plus the mouse wheel works too.
In the picture at the top, The flashlight is NOT mounted at all. It’s just sitting in the case backwards. It you look closely you can see the thumb screw that should secure the clamp to a rail, away from the gun completely. Its one of those cantilever mounts.
a 6 shot .45 acp. Over a hundred years of developement and the auto loader is equal to the revolver.
No, the revolver is still more reliable.
Ha!
Over a hundred years of development and people are still happily carrying around 3 lbs of hog leg, steel in .45 acp with only 1 or 2 more rounds than a revolver and calling it “new.”
Well technically a lock down was already posted today,
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/01/daniel-zimmerman/breaking-cop-shoots-truant-at-honolulu-high-school/
though since that was over an actual incident I don’t think that counts.
FWIW, I saw the difference in the recoil – heck, I almost felt it!
Troll Level: EPIC.
Nice gun ! What’s the problem? Oh that’s right, those idiots on Calif. are waiting for it to jump up and shoot someone.
If you follow the link there is a picture labeled something like “the disassembled weapon.” It shows the magazine removed and nothing else. It made me laugh.
Really? I think the Yankee Marshall is pretty damn funny. The first video I saw of his, I think titled “Only Idiots Buy Glocks”, instantly earned a subscription. Video is funny and his responses to the people who don’t get satire in the comments are awesome!
Yep that is definitely a musical instrument case.
So ultimately, the original owner is guilty of felony dumb-assery. The greeting card was a nice touch.
Ugh. The dreaded A2 style grip. SUCKS
The VFG is way too far back and dude might want to think about turning his flashlight around.
What a way to ruin an SBR
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