When I was a kid, I remember playing with something like this, and thinking it was the coolest water pistol I had ever seen. But in our modern society, which seems to be entirely ruled by hysterical and fearful people, such things aren’t sold anymore. There’s no better example than in New York, where their hysterics has descended into this:
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said his office has sent letters to more than 100 retailers ordering them to halt sales of look-a-likes that violate the ban.
State law requires toy guns to either be made from materials that couldn’t possibly be confused with an actual weapon, or carry colorful markings including a big orange stripe.
Inspectors with Cuomo’s office said they conducted spot checks and found plenty of toys on sale that didn’t follow those rules.
Imagine where we’d be if instead of policing toy stores for improperly painted toys, the authorites were, call me crazy here, out trying to catch actual criminals. But that’s not all. We have yet another example of New York City slipping head first off the water slide of reality here too:
The Revolutionary War buff charges the Bloomberg administration with tyranny for trying to seize his handmade flintlock rifle – a dead ringer for the weapon once used against the redcoats.
“This is the last legal gun that you can have without registration in New York,” Littlejohn said. “And yet Mayor Bloomberg is driven crazy by my flintlock gun – the one that won the American Revolution.”
I’d like to buy this guy a beer for standing up to Bloomberg over this. The police say he can end all this if he just complies with the non-law.
A police source says the war could end peacefully if Littlejohn applied for a permit with the NYPD handgun license division.
Littlejohn would rather fight. The Brooklynite says he’s willing to sue for his rifle rights.
I hope he does, but thanks to Sonya Sotomayor, there is no Second Amendment for New York residents, and if she has her way on the Supreme Court, there never will be. That might be of little consequence though, because he is within his legal rights. No license is required in New York City for the possession of a long gun which does not fire fixed ammunition. The law is clear on that. If Bloomberg wants to press this, he’ll be acting under color of law, and I hope Mr. Littlejohn sues him.
That requires hard work. Effort. And danger.
Easier to pick on the law abiding, then when that doesn’t work, claim you need more power to crack down on the law abiding. Viscous circle, yes, but effective if you’re in the whole Power game.
Bloomburg has already shown that he doesn’t care about the law. When it’s inconvenient he’ll either ignore it (the gun shop stings in other states) or force the city council to change it (Term limits)
“The NYPD learned about Littlejohn’s $825 rifle when he left a receipt inside a Staples copy center, prompting a call to the cops.”
The whole point of gun control is to change the culture. They have succeeded in NYC. Oh Noes! He left a receipt at staples that says “gun” on it. Everybody Panic!
The whole point of gun control is to change the culture.
That pretty much sums it up.
So, some overweening bureaucrat (possibly the Mayor, maybe just a lesser idiot) wants to extort money. Using police, who do not sound happy about it either else why admit they are being pressured?
So, he is supposed to register it even though the law specifically states he need not. Well, I guess he could volunteer to do the unnecessary.
Oh, and register it as a handgun. Does that look like a handgun? Would it really be legal to so register it? If that can be registered as a handgun, can a 155mm Howitzer?
Yes. He must register his reproduction flintlock rifle with the handgun license division! You… wait, what?
This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 7/30/2009, at The Unreligious Right
One of the best toys I ever owned was a .38 snubnose, in gunmetal gray and with brown plastic grips. It looked fairly real, which was I loved it so much.
I believe it was (quelle horreur!) a cap gun as well.
I knew a Class III dealer in the ’70s who had the barrel of an Uzi painted orange. It excited quite a bit of comment.
Mr. Littlejohn has contacted New York attorney Jerold E. Levine (thegunlawyer.net), and Mr. Levine has agreed to represent him pro bono. Mr. Levine has much experience fighting the anti-gun NYC bureaucracy.