It’s a Saturday afternoon in Connecticut and you’re out running errands when you decide to pop into the bank. You walk in and notice that there’s a guy with a gun hanging around the place. Being in Connecticut, you’ve been conditioned to see “gun” and think “criminal,” so you decide to tip off the teller to what you think is an imminent robbery attempt. Now, there’s a right way and a wrong way to let the teller know. It seems safe to say that handing the person behind the counter a piece of paper where the only word on it is “GUN” constitutes the wrong way . . .
From ArcaMax:
The holder of the gun had no ill intent and was legally permitted to carry it, and Robert Gursky, 50, was arrested after alarming the staff of the town’s TD Bank branch, police said.
“He (Gursky) was trying to relay to the teller (that) someone had a gun,” Glastonbury Police Agent Kevin Szydlo said, which included writing a note to a teller with the word gun.
The teller and other bank staff became alarmed and activated the bank’s robbery protocol. Police arrived, tracked down and interviewed Gursky and arrested him, the Hartford Courant reported Tuesday.
I’m not opposed to open carry, I just don’t personally see the need for it. And I don’t want to run the risk of having those who can’t disassociate guns and criminals from calling the cops on me. I prefer to avoid all unnecessary contact with the police and carrying concealed allows me to defend myself while keeping a nice, low profile.
The reason I like this story isn’t because someone got arrested, but because the article was written in a dispassionate just-the-facts-ma’am manner. Instead of sensationalizing it like, oh, CNN would have done, they simply stated the facts of the case. And for that, we salute you.
I’ve owned one of these in 5.45×39 for a while, so some comments:
1. My magwell was tight with polymer mags, but was great with steel.
2. Most front sight tools don’t like the front post. You’ve got to file your tool until it can get all the way around it.
3. The side rail is maddeningly useless if you care about cheek weld. I wound up using a TWS Dogleg cover, but this introduces its own set of problems (namely, all the good stuff for 5.45×39 needs a side rail!). Why M+M doesn’t fix this, I don’t know. If you’re into American stuff, RS Regulate’s AK310 mount compensates for the high mount.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that rifle… I just feel like a couple adjustments would have made it truly amazing.
Wahoo!
Hot diggity dawg!
Custer had it coming? Now that sound interesting. I would agree his out sized ego set him up, but only the Indians thought he had it coming.
Damn, the Federal 5.56 did me in. I would have been soooo close.
AND I FORGOT SALES TAX, DERP
I don’t understand. He handed the teller a note that said “gun” and then left? That makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, the method of conveying the message was undeniably stupid, but he left? They had to track him down elsewhere?
It’d be nice if the original article had informed us what he’d been arrested for? Who the hell writes these things, anyway? If you were the reporter, wouldn’t you consider the charge to be somewhat important? Bank robbery, terroristic threats, disturbing the peace, kicking a puppy?
For the record, though they don’t link back to it, the stupid ArcaMax/UPI story mentions the Hartford Courant. Five seconds of Google got me this story, which indicates he was cited for breach of peace.
So wait… I’ve got an idea. He performed an action in response to a perfectly legal situation which caused a police response, and was charged with breach of peace, which I think of as a lesson to “know better next time and don’t waste LEO time.” All these idiots who call the cops on legal open carriers and force a police response… Can we start charging them with breach of peace, for being ignorant of the laws in their jurisdiction? Nuisance call about a legal open carrier, $100 fine and a copy of the local gun laws. Whaddya think?
I’d love it, especially in my neck of the woods where people are prone to call on an open carrier. However, there is liability to consider here. If the cops tell people to STFU when they see a man with a gun, what about the unusual case in which they fail to respond when trouble is indeed brewing?
I guess there could be some middle ground, like the police operator asking the person if the gun is in a holster or held in the carrier’s hand, and what the carrier is doing. Maybe gently tell the caller that it is perfectly legal to carry a gun. “Given that, would you say the man with the gun is doing anything suspicious or threatening, or does he just look like he’s going about his business?”
The cops won’t do any of this, though. They’ll come immediately to detain the carrier, which will just re-enforce the perception of the public that the cops should get involved every time a civilian goes openly armed.
That’s all more general, of course. In this particular case, the person sounding the “man with a gun” alarm was just totally stupid. As if a bank robber would sit and wait patiently, with an exposed and holstered gun, for his turn at the teller.
I’ve read of some pretty stupid criminals…
Matt, I read the guy carrying the gun was an LEO. Can you confirm this?
He really needed to notify other people in the room about an OPEN carrier?
I bet he’s the guy that taps his passenger and says, “motorcycle” on the highway every time one rides by. Thanks, Captain Obvious.
Rhode Island has an expression that has to do with this:
“My grandfather from Naples lived to 100 years old.” “How did he live that long?” “He didn’t say nothin’.”
Everyone needs an old Italian grandfather that teaches the lesson to mind one’s own business and not panic. Just squeeze your own carry pistol tight.
What would make it legal to carry a gun in a bank? Other than being a LEO? Don’t federal laws preclude that?
I thought of doing this a while ago… start by asking someone if they support the AWB, and if they say yes ask them what an assault weapon is. My guess is less than 5% of people would know, making the AWB look more like the dihydrogen monoxide esque hoax that it is.
Dude in the red hat nailed it… for Josh Sugarman,
only if the bank posts a sign at the door….. most states anyway
Thanks a bunch guys. Very generous of you.
Tom
Congrats!
Dang it! My SWAG guess was 1417.22+tax. I toyed with the idea of just leaving it at that number without saying+tax. too!
In CT the police got a stern talking to by the DESPP special licensing review board because a while back they had been arresting people under a breach of peace violation for open carrying. The review board then “clarified” that CT law does not specify the method of carry, and thus open carry is legal, unless there is some extenuating circumstance to suggest that there was intent to cause alarm. I’ve attached one version of the memo.
http://ctcarry.com/Document/Download/a034b530-1221-425d-a99f-53af710ff219
Oh, and BTW: Why can’t I be accosted by pretty girls on the street and asked for my opinion on guns? Huh?
There just ain’t no freakin’ justice in this world.
Lol…thanks. Where are you located…maybe we’ll do a video! 😉
Hopefully the dipshit will loose his 2A rights so he can’t buy a gun. And the bank should close his account and tell him to take it elsewhere.
“I’m not opposed to open carry, I just don’t personally see the need for it.”
Amen. And the other guy is an unbelievable moron.
Perfect fur a trapper!
A pistol with a stock and no SBR stamp?! Is this blasphemy?
NO! THIS IS AN…airgun…
Legal right?
I bought mine just before the election and gun control scare for a little under $600 from KYGunCo. I absolutely love it, and I have to agree with this review 100%. I plan on Duracoating it desert camo(I live in AZ) and getting a fore grip and a cheap red dot for it, but i was very impressed by the accuracy OOTB. I managed a 1 1/2 inch group at 50 yard my first time out with it, with the stock iron sights. Can not beat it for the money. There are better AK’s out there for sure, but not at that price!
I bought this exact setup from Pyramyd air appox. ten years ago. Lightened up the trigger a little. Absolutely love it!
It’s like the Kestrel Armor helmet from Mass Effect 2, sans the sensors that make it, you know, work.
Apt natural, … I have a gub …
Personally I stay away from this kind of ammo. Why make my defence lawyers job harder? If you miss the ammo performance is irrelevant anyway.
I like the Daisy Avanti myself. Taught me how to refine my trigger pull to be more consistent.
I’ve found “mass shootings” are like “binge drinking” where studies are concerned. Depending on the study binge drinking is 4, 5 or 50 drinks. Depending on the study a “mass shooting” is 4, 5 or 50 victims.
There is no shock value in saying 60% of college aged adults consume 5 drinks on a Friday night. There is plenty in saying 60% of college aged adults binge drink every weekend.
I do think carrying an AR-15 to something like a farmer’s market is pretty tone deaf. If they just wore pistols, nobody would raise a stink… but raising a stink was probably the goal of the OC activists here.
These guys who OC long guns in places where they could not use them without a high risk of collateral damage are starting to remind me of the nudists in San Francisco. They think it is their right to make everyone look at their flabby butts and their twig and berries, but the reality is nobody wants to see it. For years the city just told them they had to put towels down if they used public seating until finally the demand to clamp down on them built to a rumbling crescendo.
The vast majority of the nudists in San Francisco were male homosexuals that enjoyed exhibitionism. They exploited a legal loophole to sexually assault the people of San Francisco. Many years ago, I a saw a photographer’s collection of images from the Folsom Street Fair… a gathering of homosexuals in San Francisco, and what I saw there was shocking. Sodomy in windows, old perverts on parade in full bondage gear and little else. Penetrative acts on the street, children were present in the frame. It was biblical.
Do we really want to become like those Nudists in San Fran? Because that is where these OC long gun guys are taking us. It is a good right to have, in case something crazy happened, but we all know the utility of the rifle for self defense is much lower than it is for hunting. Leave it in your damn truck and carry a pistol.
LONESTAR!!!!
MDA would be wise to study authoritarianism. From the beginning they have been a high right authoritarian organization. (Right doesn’t mean right as in conservative but as in righteous in the political science theory of HRAs.) Exclusion of any outside groups, ideas or thinking. Not just exclusion but meeting any counter information with hostility. Any member of the group that doesn’t follow the rest of the group to the letter will be expelled in order to maintain the purity of the group.
These symptoms and more are signs of an HRA.
He should have said “There’s a man with a gun over there, we got to beware”.