When Only the Police Have Guns...

...someone will try to take them.


Not representative of the weapons stolen!
The flowers on the magazine are a nice touch, though!

Whenever someone proposes taking all guns out of the hands of individual citizens and just keeping them in the hands of police and the military, I think of stories like this one:

OAKLAND — A 21-year-old Montalvin Manor man dubbed a "potential domestic terrorist" by authorities after he stole numerous firearms from patrol cars in Contra Costa County last winter was sentenced Tuesday to 63 months in federal prison.

Daniel William Vess accepted at plea deal from federal prosecutors in an Oakland courtroom and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a stolen firearm. His sentence includes three years in a supervised release program after he is released from prison.

Sheriff's officials said Vess used pry bars and other tools from December 2008 through February 2009 to break into patrol cars and SWAT vans parked in secured lots at the offices of the California Highway Patrol in Martinez, and at Contra Costa County Sheriff's facilities in Martinez, Richmond and Clayton.

”Daniel Vess, 20, was in county jail on unrelated charges when sheriff’s investigators allegedly connected him to four weapons and equipment thefts in December and January from the sheriff’s office and the California Highway Patrol,"

-Capt. Daniel Terry, Contra Costa County Sheriff's office.

A thief in jail on other charges? Whodathunk it? Just what kind of weapons and equipment did he steal?

On April 14 investigators served a search warrant on Vess’ home at 1240 Karen Road in an unincorporated area of San Pablo, where they found about $10,000 to $15,000 of stolen weapons and equipment,including several assault rifles, a modified shotgun, ballistic vests and helmets, night vision equipment, military fatigues and about 5,000 rounds of ammunition, Terry said. Vess’ pickup truck was equipped with a siren and strobe light allegedly stolen from a police vehicle and bore a fictitious law enforcement emblem identifying him as a “Fugitive Recovery Agent,” according to Terry.

Mind you, these are not the "so called "assault" rifles that are merely semi-automatic weapons, these are the genuine article, select fire weapons. Stories of people stealing weapons from military armories and from police are not common, but they happen often enough to know that the anti-gunners plans to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals is doomed to failure.

Cross posted at Say Anything