• California authorities found a man illegally owning 248 guns and 1 million rounds of ammo.
  • The state attorney general said he also had 3,000 magazines and several grenades in his home.
  • The guns included 11 machine guns, 133 handguns, and 60 assault rifles, authorities said.
  • tsuica@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    “Mr. Webley, I trust you have a license for that firearm?” “(mumble mumble)” “He does for this one.”

      • partner0709@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Fuck Trump. Fuck Biden.

        So… Is he an imigrant or not?

        I can bet my ass that he was working with the cartel sending them guns and amo…

        • NotAFuckingBot@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Unless you are Native American (assuming you’re in the US), you (and I) come from a line of either immigrants or slaves, so you might wanna rethink that narrow attitude, bud.

          Also, which out of roughly 150 cartels, precisely, is ‘the’ cartel you refer to?

          • partner0709@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Immigrants before wellfare or after?

            Arent navite Americans also imigrants, coming from Africa right?

            Dude… You cant compare the first couple of people who came and made the US what it is to the people that come and try to take and advantege of it because their country is fucked up.

            Just dont.

            150 cartels, lol… You have no idea how many they are do you?

            Its california so Im guessing the one in Tijuana (from the Felix family) 150 cartels, lol.

  • Bob Robertson IX@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The best part is, it sounds like they arrested him and seized his guns, all without a shot being fired.

    I would love to know why this guy felt he needed so many guns and ammo, because obviously it wasn’t to protect himself from a hostile government.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Perhaps the thing he was worried about wasn’t peacefully being arrested.

      Perhaps the reason this got resolve peacefully is because any violence would have been felt heavily by both sides.

    • LemmyExpert@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      Speaking as a very very casual gun enthusiast myself - - I think it’s a tricky subject. Guns & ammo are great, a million rounds certainly seems excessive, and idk it’s possible this guy was a black market arms dealer for very very bad people.

      When you have guns, you wonder how you’d react to a knock on the door & an attempted gun confiscation. I don’t see many scenarios playing out where violence is called for; they are not (directly) threatening my life, but rather confiscating tool(s) that can be used for hunting, recreation, and yes preserving my life in self-defense. Very not cool. But it’s still technically not a physical threat to me. If I were to pop off some guns in defiance of a gun collection attempt, that would lend credence to the idea that I’m an “unstable person” that “shouldn’t be allowed” to own firearms. Also, my fight isn’t with the guy doing the confiscating. He’s a member of my community, he’s just some guy doing what he’s told, maybe he’s got a wife & kids. What is to be gained from shooting him in the face? Does that not make me a monster? Maybe this guy thinks similarly, he was confronted without a shot being fired.

      No, from one red-blooded American to another, the no-conflict response is wisest & best. Tell them a warrant is needed, when they can’t find what they’re looking for, give them the ol’ classic “lost the guns in a terrible boating accident” line. They will be forced to accept it & move the fuck on. When tyranny reigns, defiance is duty, avoidance/lies/concealment are justified.

      My line of thought is this: you can have twenty safes full of badass guns & ammunition in your basement. But that doesn’t matter if you’ve got a gun to your head on your front porch. What is practical? What is reasonable? What is necessary? Just a handful of nice guns made ready & accessible, a daily carry you’re familiar with, a solid 12-ga, a .223 hunting rifle, and a few thousand rounds of ammo for each caliber you own.

      My gut tells me this guy wasn’t a prepper, if his ungodly massive stores of firearms & munitions were so easily found & rounded up. At least not a good one. My gut tells me this guy was involved in the illegal arms trade, he had a setup in his home that no-gooders could visit & “shop” for what they needed.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        when they can’t find what they’re looking for, give them the ol’ classic “lost the guns in a terrible boating accident” line.

        Ah yes, lie to the cops.

        They will be forced to accept it & move the fuck on.

        Or they’ll actually investigate and found out that you planned out that scenario, and even talked about it on social media.

        • LemmyExpert@lemmy.zip
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          5 months ago

          Ah yes. Lie to the cops. Fucking duh. Idk what deep-dive internet policework your local cops do, but it just doesn’t happen all that often in my opinion. I’ll roll those dice. I only mention it to give others the idea; we the people need to stand in solidarity or our rights will systematically, legally, be taken away.

          If concealment is done properly, there is no physical proof. People literally get away with murder in this manner. Law enforcement doing a sketchy arms confiscation will not aggressively search for…something of low value or concern that they will never, ever fucking find. Common sense. They will be forced to move on. You apparently are not able to understand that. But they will.

          Authority isn’t synonymous with right. The law was rounding up the Jews in Germany. The law was rounding up the runaway blacks in America. At best law is merely a guide for people who are incapable of thinking for themselves, at worst it is a cash/resources/power grab, law does not determine right or wrong. A disarmed population of generally law-abiding citizens is not in the best interest of the private citizens, and I would go so far as to argue the United States.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            we the people need to stand in solidarity

            But not by voting, by breaking the law. In other words, the position you hold isn’t popular enough that you can get there legitimately, you can only get there by breaking the law.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Yup. The guns aren’t there for when a cop is knocking on your door. The guns are there for when a cop is raping your wife.

        And if people think that latter scenario unrealistic, just look at history. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the reason we have a government-recognize right to guns is to prevent that absolute power from existing as a state of affairs.

        It’s okay if the government has the majority of the power. It’s okay if the government has relative power. The guns are here to prevent the government from having absolute power. That’s the kind of scenario where the women are getting raped by the men in uniform, while the men who arent in uniform either watch helplessly or get tortured to death for trying to intervene.

    • Mossy Feathers (They/Them)@pawb.social
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      5 months ago

      Collector maybe? The article makes it sound like they may have been legally acquired prior to him being barred from owning them. That cache may have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the machine guns alone.

      • Bonehead@kbin.social
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        5 months ago

        A collector generally only collects guns, not ammo. You don’t need a million rounds for guns that are too valuable to actually use.

        • Mossy Feathers (They/Them)@pawb.social
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          5 months ago

          It depends on whether you’re a collector or a Collector. Someone who collects them but takes them to gun shoots could easily go through tens or hundreds of thousands of rounds due to how fast some of those guns fire. Millions of rounds seems a bit high, but if he was regularly buying surplus ammo out of habit it seems like you could hit that much without meaning to.

          However, if he was a captial-C Collector, then yeah, millions of rounds is nuts.

      • Fecundpossum@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I find it odd that no one has mentioned the possibility that he could have been a black market dealer. Suppressors, short barreled rifles, and fully automatic machine guns, are all purchasable in the US if you can file the right paperwork and be approved for those purchases by the BATF, under the National Firearms Act (NFA). This approval process includes the ATF having you on speed dial to show up and make sure you still safely possess said items, and aren’t flipping them on the street for a massive mark up.

        While an NFA regulated suppressor might run you $1200 after taxes and fees, a suppressor on the streets without the paper trail might go for closer to 3-5k. Actual transferrable machine guns, due to their extreme rarity in the US, command prices from $10,000 to $60,000 dollars through existing legal channels, and again, could be sold at a massive markup without the baggage of a paper trail. Even firearms legal to own without NFA restrictions would command a sizable markup when sold off the books. And this is how gangs have armed themselves for decades, through dealers just like this.

        • mars296@kbin.social
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          5 months ago

          Based on the picture, he was definitely a collector. There are multiple collector’s items in there. That said, he could be a black market dealer who also purchased collector’s items for himself when he came across them. Also, does California not have more restrictive laws regarding Suppressors, short barreled rifles, and fully automatic machine guns? I thought they had laws regulating magazines to 10 rounds?

          Article confirms that machine guns are illegal in California. He had multiple World War 1 era machine guns and other pieces that could be in museums. This guy should have just moved to a neighboring state. He had the money.

          • Fecundpossum@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Yes, California state laws are more restrictive than the federal baseline, and on that note I would counter that risking a pile of decade long felony convictions seems a bit risky for a “collector”. If dude knows how to acquire all of this restricted hardware without leaving an obvious paper trail, I would imagine he knows the massive consequences of his actions. Possession of even one unregistered NFA item is a 10 year felony. No one takes that risk because “I just think they’re neat!”

          • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago
            • Lewis gun
            • Madsen gun? Zb? Hard to tell
            • Lahti 20mm
            • A few 1919s
            • M2
            • Mp40
            • Various Stens, Uzis, Thompson, MAC 11/10s
            • Sterling SMG
            • 2x Swedish K (or S&W copy)
            • 8x 80% or reweld AKs
            • Grease gun
            • Polish Rak SMG (?)
            • Sig 552/556
            • ‘Solvent trap’ suppressor
            • A lot of generic or DIY looking suppressors

            This screams hardcore collector who was active from the 60s onwards, refused to turn his collection in and said ‘fuck it I’m all in on the felonies already’ and made some stuff himself on the low down. The machineguns may be a mix of NFA and illegal, idk but 80%s and/or parts kits speak to his technical ability

            The Lewis and Lahti is what sways me from illegal dealer to gun nut, no criminal gives a shit about those kind of weapons

            • mars296@kbin.social
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              5 months ago

              There is also an MG 18, the ZB you mentioned may be a Bren gun, and there is a Japanese type 97 machine gun.

              • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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                5 months ago

                Hope that the actual relics with history get kept and put into a museum or something, the WW1 pieces especially, instead of a metal crusher

    • s0ckpuppet@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      I didn’t dig deep for the best prices, but found 9mm 100 counts on some bulk ammo website selling for $31.50. So back of the napkin math says $315,000. Realistically probably a good bit less if you’re buying large quantities, but in any case, it’s a lot of money’s worth just for the bullets.

      • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Large quantiy ammunition buying is super economical, it’s fairly common to see groups of shooting enthusiasts all go in on a pallet of ammo and distribute the ammo amongst themselves. Buying that much alone is a bit strange, but depending on how often you shoot you can go through a loooot of amunition quicker than you realize. Not millions of rounds, but I wouldn’t think twice of someone with a few thousand rounds.

      • FireTower@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Cheap non remanufactured range 9x19mm ammo is about 18¢ a round. Or ~$180 per 1,000 rds.

        But prices vary drastically by cartridge. .22LR might only cost you 10¢ per round but .50 BMG might cost $3.20 per round (both non reman cheapest prices). Without knowing what cartridges they were and how many of each we can’t really calculate the total value.

        This is a good website for the actual market value of ammo:

        https://ammoseek.com/ammo/9mm-luger?co=new

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      5 months ago

      As someone else mentioned, it’s likely he was a black market seller.

      Machine guns can go for $20k+, easy, people with the kind of cash to have a dozen and an ammo stockpile just for collection purposes are going to do it legally.

      • FireTower@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        $20k+ is pretty standard for on register transferable guns. Off register illegal machineguns can go for much less than that, like Glock switches. Unless we’re talking about already very rare models of MGs.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I guess we found the guy causing the Ammo shortage, it wasn’t Obama after all!

    • s0ckpuppet@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      I like how that shortage wasn’t caused by Obama, but instead a bunch of psycho Republicans’ overreactions to a black democrat making it into office.

        • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          He’s floated a lot of “ideas” and most of them are completely fucking mental. Remember drinking bleach to kill covid?

          “Even a broken clock is right twice a day”

          • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
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            5 months ago

            So I believe Trump is a cancer to democracy, but we need to put that sunlight and bleach thing in context. The poor man had just sat through a long presentation that wasn’t about him, and he needed to act out and prove he was important. The other day I was in a middle school class and a kid walked up and farted on a teacher. Same thing, same mentality, same maturity.

      • neuropean@kbin.social
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        5 months ago

        I’m old enough to remember the start of the ammo shortage, it coincided with massive ammo orders from the TSA of all government organizations. They placed massive orders for ammo, completely wiping everything out at the stores. Then, once it was back ordered for months the demand never went back down, nor did the prices.

          • neuropean@kbin.social
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            5 months ago

            That was back in 2008. I did a quick google and everybody parrots Obama causing it. The thing is, we new the military was stock piling ammo like they were hoarding oil. They built a huge reservoir of oil/gas because they realized somebody could turn off the gas flow to the US and bring the military to its heels.

            And so after the marines/army/air force finished buying rounds, the TSA placed a big order and it was all over the news for a while because it’s not like they ever use ammo for anything. Regardless, they spent buckets of cash on a bunch of ammo and almost everything disappeared from the shelves except for 22 long rifle and shotgun shells. Mainly because .22 rounds were useless along with shotgun shells with birdshot.

            As someone that shoots for fun, this was fine with me because that’s all you need. However, ever since that shortage it never ended. People started saying crazy shit like “Obama’s gonna stop all gun sales” or “Hillary is going to ban ammunition sales”. And the only way it stayed un bought is when people would mark prices up on the ammo, yet people keep buying (beyond $2/ bullet now).

            If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d reckon big firearms is out there making the shit up about gun bans or ammo bans, because whenever a rumor goes around that shit flies off the shelf at ridiculous prices. Almost makes me wish I had an ammo company myself.

  • TherouxSonfeir@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    He’s the guy in every movie that shows up in an SUV, pops the trunk, and pulls back a dirty tarp revealing a small arsenal.

  • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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    5 months ago

    That’s crazy, how can someone have a million rounds and nearly a dozen machine guns and NOT blow it all on one fucking sweet range day with the boys?

    • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Imagine living close to Nevada and not using the ammo on a chance to fire some really kick ass guns. That state is like mecca for collectors and automatic weapon lovers.

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      Because, duh, when the new world order or lizard lasers or whatever it’s called these days comes, that million rounds will be his gateway to keep his little empire so filled with freedom! For at least an hour or two!

      It’s an investment!*

      * Disclaimer, this is not investment advice.

  • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    So from what I’ve read he wasn’t arrested because of the quantity of guns and ammo, but just because he wasn’t supposed to have weapons.

    Makes me wonder if there are any laws on the books for how many guns and bullets one person can own and store on their property.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        I am pretty darn pro 2A to the point where I think mag caps are wrong, but even I can see value in amount of guns allowed on one premise type of law. I really don’t want to see some small cult activate a group of home grown terrorists and then them all being able to instantly access weapons from one location. If you’re rich enough to own like let’s say more than 50 guns, your rich enough to pay for some of them to be stored off site and be swapped through if they want to play with their different toys.

        • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I didn’t know what “Pro 2A” meant so I looked it up in the US-English to UK-English dictionary

          Huh, weird, it just says “Coward”

          😂

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Somewhere in another timeline, a person has asked “How on earth would gun laws actually stop a mass shooting like this one involving 11 machine guns and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition?” And then a timeline-traveler would have brought that person to this timeline, and shown them this article, where said individual was arrested ahead of time.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Ok, and I’ve done a shit ton of drugs in Dayton, I get like police chiefs and gang members getting automatic weapons. But this guy seems like a collector and not an arms trafficker (well non-collection trafficker) or something similar. As a person in some seedy shit I just don’t get how you’d even bring that shit up.

        Though as I say this I realize I have gun friends and am probably less degrees of separation from buying a machine gun than I think I am. That’s concerning.

        • NotAFuckingBot@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Fair point, but even as a collector, the number of weapons that went through his hands is quite concerning, to say the least.

          (FWIW, I’m no expert of any kind, but am the son of a gunsmith/Maine State Hunting Guide/competitive marksman/redneck motherfucker who taught shooting and hunter safety, and who loathed the NRA, so my opinion is admittedly a bit skewed.)

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Yeah I’m just some Midwestern dyke who hangs out with unsavory folks but that’s the thing in my perspective, you need a criminal side, a gun side, and to be the sort of person people will consider selling an illegal gun to. All of which is wild to me. Like acid is a pain to get, but machine guns…

            Seriously, I think I’d have an easier time getting machine gun manufacturing going than purchasing

        • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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          5 months ago

          No, you didn’t. Machine guns aren’t legal to own unless you have a very expensive permit which basically grants the ATF an unlimited warrant to perform a search for it.

          Also, this article is about the US, so making that distinction isn’t necessary.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        It really isn’t difficult to buy illegal weapons

        Maybe it should be.

          • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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            5 months ago

            That might help reduce the flow of American guns from coming into Canada.

            Most of the weapons crossing the US/Mexico boarder are going southbound.

            • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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              5 months ago

              Cartels smuggle a fuck ton of weapons, especially automatics, into the US.

              They don’t really have to smuggle them southbound because the US straight up gives them guns to destabilize countries we have financial interests in.