Apparently the tactics from the story from Mississippi I told you about Saturday are a thing now. Three men backed a car (well, probably only one was driving) into The AR Bunker in Newnan, Georgia at about 5 a.m. Sunday morning. The men took less than a minute to jump out and clean out the display cases. The store’s owner initially estimated losses at $50-70,000, but later revised that estimate down to about $40-50,000, after discovering that about half the guns they took (11 of 22) weren’t actual AR-15s, but .22LR copies. There was also an estimated $15,000 in damaged inventory and. . .
another $15,000 in building repair costs. Police arrived less than 20 seconds after the burglary, but the thieves got away. Investigators think that they had an accomplice waiting on the nearby interstate, and they carried the rifles through the woods to that car, leaving the one they’d crashed into the store behind. That car had been stolen from nearby Union City. Click the photo above for video of the robbery.
Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from Gilbert, AZ, southeast of Phoenix. Several schools in Gilbert were placed on lockdown today after a suicidal person was reported to police. He had apparently made threats earlier in the day, and while there was never indication he was on a school campus (or headed for one), at least three schools were locked down for a couple hours. The lockdown was eventually lifted, and at some time later police located the suspect, and said no charges are forthcoming.
ctsheepdog writes:
The local Connecticut media is starting to pick up on the discrepancies between the preliminary AW and LCM counts and the previous estimates of relevant rifles and mags (particularly the 2011 OLR report). What if vulnerable politicians (Dem, GOP, Malloy) are worried about having to deal with election-season questions on what good a law does if it is massively ignored? How does a sitting governor deal with a question like: “Governor Malloy, what do you say to the Sandy Hook families now that it appears your signature gun law has been roundly ignored by Connecticut gun owners?”
Now imagine that in an effort to defuse this as a campaign issue, “they” decide late in this legislative session (say late April) to have the Legislature pass a 6-month extension that opens on May 1st and runs through October 31st. Or choose any start and end dates you want as long as the final count will not be disclosed to the public until after the first week of November (hint hint, after Election Day). Sure, some pols will still have to defend their votes but at least an “open registration” period will not force them to acknowledge that the law was a dud or worse. Could they be that cunning?
A group of Washington state lawmakers are sponsoring a bill that would exempt firearms from sales tax for the next ten years. They reason that firearms are a “basic necessity” like food and water, and thus, like food and water, should be exempt. The exemptions would apply to firearms and firearms ammunition, including cartridges, primers, cases, bullets, and gunpowder, and would expire July 1, 2024. The bill was introduced on January 20th, and is now in the hands of the House Finance Committee. Supporters are hopeful for its chances of passage, but they would be, wouldn’t they.
The Yankee Marshal on Open Carry Nutjobs & Gun Rallies (specifically at gun rallies). I’m sure many of you will disagree with him. Let’s hear it.
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Good luck finding ammo for those .22LRs.
Good luck passing a pro gun bill in the WA State Legislature.
it may be a bit too blatant, but we just got suppressors OKed a couple years back, and may get SBRs this year.
of course we may also get WAGR/MDA/Bloomberg UBCs via I-594.
I am SUPER excited about the prospect of WA allowing SBRs. That is the last barrier to us seriously considering a move out there from this hellish state of MD.
We are already pro gun in WA State. It’s an ‘open carry’ and ‘shall issue’ State. There are other States out there throwing a rope over a tree for any lawmaker that would dare introduce such a bill.
Larry, I do understand WA State. I’ve lived here for the most part of 46 years. I have open carried in the past, but I prefer to CCW with my shall issued CPL.
I’m not trying to disagree with you, but don’t forget our legislature has mucho democratos, as well as GOPs on the fence. Don’t forget the Guv’na, he got a solid “F” from the NRA.
I sincerely hope all goes well in spite of all the Californication here.
Watch for new regulations stating gun shops must all be steel reinforced concrete bunkers.
As I adjust my tin foil hat, I put forth that these incidents may be a false flag to accommodate passage of just such legislation. Another way to accomplish more back-door infringement by legislating away the ability to operate this type of establishment. We know their tactics have NO limits.
Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean my intuition is incorrect.
If I owned a gun store, I might look into some steel reinforcements – especially at 40k of stock missing plus 15k damaged and another 15k in damages to the store.
*&%$*&^%$ criminals!!!
I’m pretty sure that’s why places like Lloyd’s of London are still in business.
Hopefully their business insurance policy is paid up, covers burglary, and their deductible isn’t stupidly high.
These tactics were popular for awhile at electronics stores until they got smart and started putting 6 inch steel poles into the concrete in front of their windows and doors. It seems a little bit irresponsible to have that many weapons unsecured and in open view through your windows and have zero security except an alarm. If we can’t depend on the police to be in the vicinity when we need their protection, how can this guy think they will be there in time to protect his stock?
I was thinking the same thing …
Just took a look at a website that sells “bollards” (the name of those post things). They say that their strongest ones can stop a 15000 lb. truck going 50 mph. I’m not sure how much they cost, but I have to think it would be better to spend the money on those vs the hassle of a large theft of inventory and major repairs.
One word: bollards. OK, two words: steel bollards.
They didn’t have any. Duh?
$65 with free shipping
Yes, bollards. We design them to resist the vehicular impact, and I’d have them if I owned the property the said gun store were located.
The problem is that the gun store may lease the retail space, and the store may not have a say in whether to put up the bollards. If the property owner says “nyet!”, then no bollards.
The best little gun store in my neighborhood is one such. No bollards. Just steel grates inside the windows (which is part of store-specific remodeling), which may or may not withstand a vehicular impact.
I’m not disagreeing with your point. I’m just saying there might have been an unfortunately plausible reason there wasn’t any.
I have seen a LGS in a lease space use giant boulders on the sidewalk out front.
A few gun stores in our larger cities (ahem, cough “Boise”, cough) have installed those large cement traffic divider “fences” in front of their stores to prevent this kind of vehicle-assisted entry.
These smash & grabs are nothing new, they have been happening for years.
Most LGS have bollards to prevent this.
I would like to call the massive failure of DISconnectedcut’s (illegal) registration scheme the result of an act of equally massive non-compliance, but I have the sneaking suspicion that some of them were just too lazy to do it.
Either way, they should damn well carry on not doing it anyway like any good citizen would.
Interesting that the ATF jumped all over the AR theft – of course, if they find them, they can hustle them over the border to their friends in Old Mexico, off the books.
I believe that this very well MAY be an ATF operation. The evidence is the fact the perps were almost certainly the group that had visited the store. Secondly, after careful training by ATF agents on what to steal, they chose the 22’s. Those two factoids alone point to a government involvement.
Ah, come on, they were only off by 0.003 inches.
0.004″
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.223_Remington
* Correction* 0.001″
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_lr
F*ck, I gotta get outta here.
Roger, out…
But wait… these criminals didn’t get background checks!?!?
-Mind Blown-
WTF? Do they not keep thei guns in a safe when they’re closed?
Shift 500 lbs worth of awkwardly-stacking hardware every day and then re-display and arrange them every morning? Only if the store has Gun Elves.
I know stores that do.
I used to work in a gun store doing the same thing every day I worked there. So yes it happens. The only elf was me doing it by myself.
Every gun store I’ve been to does it. You’d have to be a moron not to.
I know of three gun sellers that pull their stock at night, and of at least three more that don’t. Two of the ones that do are big box stores (Bass Pro and Gander Mountain). There are at least a half dozen other gun stores in the Orlando area that I don’t frequent enough to know either way.
As much of a hassle as it is we remove all rental firearms and Class 3s from their display cases and store them in safes every evening at closing. It’s the only responsible thing to do IMO short of obtaining mega-dollar secure display cases.
I live about 20 minutes from the AR Bunker. It’s a good store, they do tons of business, TONS. I hate to see them done like that . They have very knowledgeable gunsmiths and sales people and most of the smithing is done while you wait. It’s a real shame.
One thing that irks me about them is that they advertise “high capacity” mags on their website. Gets me all kinds of perturbed.
I bought a rifle from the AR Bunker, and they were a pleasure to do business with. Sad to see this happen to them!
It is hit or miss with me agreeing with The Yankee Marshal on many issues, but I am with him on this one -It’s a gun rally for pete sake!
It would be like not riding your motorcycle to a motorcycle rally because – well… why would you even go to a motorcycle rally and not ride a motorcycle (unless you did not have a motorcycle & were just window shopping)
Open cary at a gun rally is not taking your guns to Starbucks, it is demonstrating safe and responsible gun ownership in public where people will be looking to see what happens, and actually expecting to see some guns being open carried.
Open carrying your gun to Starbucks is indeed demonstrating safe and responsible gun ownership in public – if you’re actually open carrying and not doing political posturing.
What some “open carriers” do (making a big show of whatever they’re doing) isn’t actually open carry, IMO. It’s political activism. Open carry is BORING. It’s exactly the same thing as concealed carry without the “concealed” part. It’s doing normal, everyday stuff while armed.
If open carry is confined to political rallies, it does NOT show that it is a normal activity – in fact, it does the opposite. It suggests that carrying a firearm is only a political stunt, and not a normal, everyday thing.
Anyone got the numbers handy for pre-registration estimates of “assault weapons” (damn, I hate feeling forced to use that term… But we’re not the ones doing the counting) and the number actually registered?
If my memory dredge is working correctly, the latter number is around 50k, true?
As in, peanuts compared to the pre-ban estimate?
It’s gotta be high, especially when you consider that the “AWs” which would be required to be registered would include all pistols with threaded barrels and even things like M1As and Mini-14s because of threaded barrels. I guarantee you that there are lots of CT residents who don’t even know that they own “AWs”, because the guns aren’t black and don’t have pistol grips. Remember, CT already had a 2-feature AW ban in place.
Hmmm, thanks for the on-the-ground reporting.
If your government asked you politely via an illegal regulation to do something illegal twice (or even three times), and you refused, does that mean you have integrity or does that mean you’re a damn criminal who just – WHACK – won’t WHACK – listen – WHAM?
I’m sure the M1 Garand will eventually make its way to some anti-rights state AWB in the future. It has a scary bayonet lug, a magazine(internal) and a clip!
The politicians in CT got what they wanted (even though they didn’t). They passed laws, got on their podiums saying they will prevent another Sandy Hook (even though they won’t), and had the media cover the “long” lines outside State Police HQ’s of people registering their “AW’s” and “LCM’s” (even though they’re not). This is their “victory”…for now. I don’t see them pushing anything further in an election year. Word is that Malloy aides have said there is nothing “guns” related on his agenda for ’14. Hopefully, ’14 will be his last year in office.
I saw an estimate somewhere in the Interwebz that the number registered by the deadline represented at most 5% of those thought to be present in the state.
I had to laugh. Even if every person had decided to register, did the state have the personnel to handle that number in the time allotted?
So what you’re telling me is that a reliable (read as: outside KA and NYcity) test case on mandatory gun registration (even on specific types/firearms/models, we don’t need to get into that right now) shows significant evidence to the effect of being even more of a joke than alcohol prohibition?
I’d call that at least an encouraging sign.
This sums it up:
http://wizbangblog.com/2014/01/28/how-did-millions-of-high-capacity-magazines-disappear-in-connecticut/
Thanks, Mark. Appreciated.
Numbers and analysis make for rational arguments, but hypothesis and conjecture without the former make for shouting matches.
Was a background check included on each AR that left that building through the broken window??
Now repeat after me, you lily liver’ed mothers against everything, background checks are ONLY FOR THE LAW ABIDING.
My local gun store has large concrete blocks out front, and now I know why. That’s crazy, but I suppose that would be the easiest way to break into a store that has that level of security…
Nobody said all criminals are stupid.
But, like, 98% of all criminals caught fit that description, and the other 2% just had a really unlucky day.
So draw your own conclusions on the average intelligence of low-level, habitual lawbreakers.
I’m in agreement with the Yankee Marshal.
Really no different than car rallies, 4-20 rallies, or any other rally.
Some are there to shop, some to gawk, some to participate.
ctsheepdog, Matt in FL:
When we use terms like “AW” and “LCM” we are adopting the language of our opponents and thus a defeatist stance.
That’s not just my semantic pedantism. It’s very well-funded advice.
DO NOT call it an AW. It’s a MSR or SAR. It’s a SCM not a LCM.
(I rarely subscribe to blog comment threads, so if a response to anything is needed, Matt has my email).
+1 and For The Record, only used the term above because I figured that’s what MOMS or who/whatever used when they did their “research” prior to the new ban in CT being passed.
My liberal and conservative friends tend to put on the “here we go again” face when I attempt to enlighten them about the origins of said term in relation to Things That Are Real From History Or Today That Can Be Held such as the StG44 (if very rich and/or Syrian), AK47, or M16 assault rifle.
It might partly be that “sturmgewehr” is fun to say.
If you look at how they use the words, pretty much everything is an “Assault Weapon.” That’s also why there is so much non-compliance; most people don’t realize their gun has just been re-labaled as an “Assault Weapon” due to the totally bizarre nature of the law.
But, taht’s the purpose of most gun laws. Not to do anything useful, because a gun law can’t be useful. It’s about making a minefield of crazy things taht are illegal that no sane person would ever think of, thus end up becoming a felon just because they’re NOT crazy. The Democraps aren’t as stupid as you think. If the remaining unregistered guns remove all their owners from the voting pool…. Get it? Felonize the opposition.
Language is major battlefront in the war for hearts and minds. Even our own.
I agree with DrV: a 30 round AR mag (or if you really want to be technical, 20 rounds) is standard capacity. The laws that state otherwise are an aberration. No police officer, military infantryman, or spec ops unit uses 10 round AR mags or 10 round mags in a 9mm pistol. The AR was designed for 20 and 30 round mags, the Beretta M9 was designed for 15 round mags, and the Glock 17 was designed for 17 round mags. Standard. An Assault Weapon is a weapon used in an assault – it could be a fork, knife, baseball bat, or a firearm. An AR-15 is an AR-15, modern sporting rifle, self defense rifle, or a patrol rifle. None of my AR15s have assaulted anyone, nor have they ever been used to endanger the safety of another person.
Well said DrVino.
Thanks for the Daily Digest, Matt. Always looking forward to it.
Seconded. Much appreciation for the digest.
Seriously, moving out of Newnan was the best choice I ever made (second was ditching that horrendous southern accent). The community is a poster child for Obama’s great vision and the cops are lucky if they could pass an aptitude test let alone a physical fitness test (thus the reason why the ATF jumped all over this right away). I’m not even going to give an analytical point of view on who took the weapons and their affiliation. If Union City PD weren’t beyond crooked they would be able to recover them fairly easily by visiting a few select neighborhoods.
/rant
I’m not sure of the logic surrounding a temporary lifting of sales tax on an item. If it’s essential, it’s just as essential in a month.
Posturing before mid term elections…
You’re adding logic to politics, never the two shall meet.
Never been to a gun shop in my town that doesn’t have concrete pylons in front of the entrance or any door (glass or metal) for that matter. If a thief wants to bull their way through a block wall….then good luck to them.
Though I’ve seen one where you can go through the suite next door and go through the drywall separating the interior wall…
I know of a gun shop that has a “night watchman”.. he would be lying in wait for them to jump out of the car. He is trained to go for the magenta’s.. they would have been found lying on the floor holding on to what ever was left.
Looks like Yankee lost some weight, good for him. I don’t like his videos, but it’s good to see he is taking better care of himself, you’re more likely to die from a fork than a firearms.
As far as people openly carrying guns at Gun Rally, the questions isn’t why would you, its why wouldn’t you?
So the Yankee Marshall is for and against Open Carry. Hope the fence he’s sitting on doesn’t chafe too badly.
He in fact “open carries” himself on the 2nd of every month and makes a video about it.
There’s the comment I was expecting.
So a person leaves an unsecured car laying about and the car is used in a crime. Shouldn’t the irresponsible owner of that vehicle face penalties?
I am in MS, and can tell you this MO has been going on for at least 20 years here. The thieves first steal a car, or more likely a sturdier truck, to crash the gun shop. The better shops around here now have much better barricades than in the past.
I saw it ten years ago at big chain hardware stores. Thieves would back in through sliding doors and down the main aisle to the power tools. They drove better than Ricky bobby.
My wife and I are strolling into Gander Mountain and I ask her “do you know what these posts in front of the door are?” I said that “these are to stop vehicles from bashing down their doors and thieves stealing the guns. I think that the insurance companies require this.”
The last part was a guess. What do insurance companies require, anybody know?
Mine does not.
I get Yankee Marshall’s point, but I think we should be able to open carry or concealed carry wherever and whenever we want and are comfortable with. By “comfortable with” I mean to acknowledge that there is a tactical advantage to concealed carry in day-to-day carry as well as it keeps the gun ignorant from screaming “OMG! He/She has a GUN!” in public places and creating an unwarranted ruckus. Where I disagree with Yankee Marshall is his absolutism. It should be the carriers’ choice.
Although I cannot think of any reason I would lug my rifle or shotgun around when going to Wal-Mart or the Movie Theater (except that I did not own a handgun), I think that should be a free choice, as well.
In our great-great-great granddads’ day it was thought that people who open carried were honest, upright citizens and people who concealed carried were likely up to no good. Times have changed.
Face it, carry laws mainly benefit the Law Enforcement Agencies, allegedly making it easier for them to make a snap judgement about who is a “good guy” and who is a “bad guy” in public. As applied to the rest of us, these kinds of laws infringe our Constitutionally Protected Right to Keep and Bear Arms, expose us to danger from “bad guys with guns” (while waiting on the Police to arrive), enable innocent people to get shot and killed by BGWGs, women to get raped, School Children to get killed and terrorized, and Businesses to get robbed.
A person legally carrying a gun accepts the risk that Law Enforcement may mistake him/her for a BGWG and unpleasantness may ensue, but for all the DGU’s I have read, the instance of that happening has been very rare, so, to my mind, it is an acceptable risk and much preferable to being victimized by a criminal, or having to stand by helplessly whilst someone else is victimized. As O’Reilly likes to say, “I am a simple man and like simple things. Tell me, where am I wrong on this?”
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