Mass. man planned terror attacks on US malls

The three men often discussed their desire to participate in “violent jihad against American interests” and talked about “their desire to die on the battlefield,” prosecutors said. But when they were unable to join terror groups in Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan, they found inspiration in the Washington-area sniper shootings and turned their interests to domestic terror pursuits while they plotted the attack on shopping malls, authorities said.

And get this:

Mehanna had “multiple conversations about obtaining automatic weapons and randomly shooting people in shopping malls,” Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks said. Prosecutors would not say which malls had been targeted.

Loucks said the men justified attacks because U.S. civilians pay taxes to support the U.S. government and because they are “nonbelievers.”

The mall plan was abandoned after the men failed to track down automatic weapons, Loucks said.

We’re all told how simple it is for just anyone to pick up assault weapons at gun shows. We’re all told how automatic weapons are flowing over the border and fueling the drug war in Mexico. We’re all told these things over and over by government officials, the media, and activists.

Yet three wannabe terrorists were unable to arm themselves with automatic weapons.

Cat Attack on a turkey hunter.

Police in Western Massachusetts collect 98 firearms in Gift for Guns program

The “gifts for guns” exchange conducted on Saturday at six area drop-off locations netted 98 firearms, including a German World War I pistol and a Japanese World War II rifle.

“You could clearly see the relief on those people’s faces” when they turned in the guns, said Baystate Health spokesman Benjamin C. Craft.

Criminals are known to favor century-old German pistols and WW2 Japanese rifles.

As for “off the street,” these aren’t “off the street” if, by “street” you mean out and in use. These are obviously NOT in use and owned by someone who will NEVER use them. Otherwise they wouldn’t have, you know, been turned in for a grocery card.

Sent in by a reader who writes:

All the content you’ve come to expect is there: the little old lady with the valuable turn-in that goes to the blast furnace instead of a dealer or musuem; the accompanying photo of weapons turned in, comprising antiques and scoped rifles; and the language of how it’s x guns now “off the street”, although the article clearly explains that most of this stuff is antique or in peoples’ homes and NOT under someone’s trenchcoat.

Anything valuable could have been sold, or even given as a gift-in-kind for a tax benefit. It would have been worth exploring whether the Springfield Armory Museum operates as a 501c3, and would have accepted a historic weapon. Might have been nice to get rid of a firearm you don’t want AND get yourself a nice deduction too.

I knew times were tough in Massachusetts, but I had no idea about this:

Since 1994, the number of federal firearm licenses – FFLs – issued in Massachusetts has declined from 4,109 to 531, or by 87 percent. [emphasis Murdoc's]

That’s what Murdoc calls a shockingly large number. These two issues are where a lot of it comes from:

The first is the Brady Bill, named after White House press secretary James Brady who was shot in an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981. It increased the license fee from $10 per year to $200 for the first three years and $90 for each three-year renewal.

The second piece of legislation was the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, also known as the Crime Bill. It requires applicants for the federal licenses to notify their local police department, submit fingerprints and a photo with the application, and certify that their businesses adhere to local zoning regulations.

It also requires gun dealers to have an established location for their shops that must be separate from their residences. This eliminated many hobbyists and part-time dealers.

But, what does “eliminated” really mean here? In at least some cases, it probably means “Many hobbyists and part-time dealers stopped legally selling firearms.”

Here’s a bit more background:

At the time, the Clinton administration was concerned about smaller gun dealers operating under the radar and potentially outside the law.

Ah. We’re concerned about potential law-breakers, so we’ll make it more expensive to follow the law. That will keep people from doing it illegally.

And:

Police departments complained that with dealer licenses easy to obtain and difficult to track, they were often the last to know to whom the licenses were issued.

Ah. We used to be the last to know who legal dealers were. Now we’ll never know about any of those folks.

So, as a recap, the increased fees and paperwork hurt everyone except bigger businesses and crooks.

Hat tip to the reader who forwarded this story!

Apparently there’s going to be a follow-up to the state quarters program from the US Mint, and the state of Massachusetts has a page where you can vote for the historic location to use.

Under Hampden County is this little spot: Springfield Armory National Historic Site

Lot of great hardware came out of that place. Got Murdoc’s vote.

Big hat tip to the reader who sent this in.

Failed to post this when it came out, but here it is: Pelham chief, Westfield Sportsman’s Club plead innocent in boy’s machine gun death

Innocent pleas to the charge of involuntary manslaughter were entered in Hampden Superior Court on Monday on behalf of Pelham Police Chief Edward B. Fleury and the Westfield Sportsman’s Club, accused in the accidental death of an 8-year-old Connecticut boy.

The charges followed the Oct. 26 death of Christopher K. Bizilj, of Ashford, Conn. The boy died from a head wound when he lost control of a Micro Uzi submachine gun he was firing at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club gun show.

The police chief owns COP Firearms & Training, the place of the accident.

The father will, apparently, not be charged. I can understand that he’s suffered a lot and will suffer more, but it’s difficult to see how someone else can be legally at fault while he isn’t.

The state law which prohibits furnishing automatic weapons to persons under the age of 18 was broken. State Rep. Michael A. Costello (D-Newburyport) says he will support a bill raising the the age requirement to 21.

And that would have helped how, exactly?

And, inevitably, in the comments section of the news item:

I don’t think this is what our forefathers had in mind when they wrote the second amendment to the Constitution.

No, it’s not. Most people would be shocked if we made provisions for what the Second Amendment is really about.

Dr. William Petit, whose wife and two daughters were killed by two career criminals in Cheshire, CT, last year, has become an activist for the “Three Strike Law.” The law would five a mandatory life sentence on anyone convicted for the third time for a violent felony.

Petit’s wife and youngest daughter were raped. The mother was strangled to death and the two girls were tied in their beds and left to die when the two invaders set the house on fire.

ABC’s Good Morning America brought on a home defense “expert” who suggested that wind chimes and cactus on the windowsill would deter invaders.

UPDATE: From a commenter:

If cactus was actually effective at stopping malefactors, CT and MA would’ve required a license to buy, sell, and transport it long ago.

I meant to post on this incident yesterday but didn’t get to it. An 8-year-old boy at a machine gun shoot event shot himself and died of his wounds. Obviously tragic, it isn’t clear to me how both the father (who was right there) and the range safety officer could have let this happen.

I’ve not been to one of these public-type machine gun events, but I guess I wouldn’t think they’d let little kids shoot them. And a little light weapon like an Uzi, with less mass to absorb the kick and a shorter barrel to more quickly point in a bad direction seems like it would probably be even more dangerous for a little shooter than a larger weapon.

Regardless, the father blew it big. I’m sure he knows it, too. I can’t imagine that.

Meanwhile: DA: criminal charges possible in boy’s Uzi death

Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett said Tuesday he hasn’t been able to find any law that would authorize a child to possess or fire a machine gun.

I thought laws were limits, as in: Shouldn’t he be looking for laws precluding a child to possess or fire a machine gun?

Of course, there’s this:

In response to this tragedy, Freedom States Alliance (FSA), a national coalition of gun violence prevention groups along with the New England Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence (NECPGV), are calling for legislation to be passed immediately that would require that no child under the age of 18-years-old be allowed to use or operate any fully automatic machine gun, or semi-automatic assault weapon under any circumstances including at a “machine gun shoot,” shooting competition or firearm demonstration.

Maybe I missed something. Was there any gun violence involved? If not, what are they doing getting in the mix?

More info and discussion at Alphecca.

I don’t watch Boston Legal or whatever this is from, but someone at work was telling me about it. Now Breda posted the video:

Breda adds:

shoulda been center mass, center mass, center mass but yeah Denny Crane never fails to crack me up

Surprise, surprise, surprise:

D.C. police have scaled back plans to go door-to-door asking residents in high-crime neighborhoods whether officers can search their homes for guns as part of a new amnesty program aimed at getting weapons off the streets.

The Safe Homes program instead will be offered by appointment only at residents’ request, said Chief Cathy L. Lanier.

The program was supposed to begin last month but was delayed after a backlash from residents, D.C. Council members and the American Civil Liberties Union. The critics said some residents could feel pressured or intimidated by officers asking to enter their homes.

It’s not often I find myself on the same side of a headline issue as the ACLU, but this is one of those times.

The start date has been pushed back to mid-June.

I noted this last month and also pointed out a similar program in Boston that I had mentioned previously. The current Washington Post article notes the Boston effort:

That department has yet to get a call to search a home.

“We’re still waiting for the phone calls to come in,” said Elaine Driscoll, spokeswoman for the Boston police.

How shocked can anyone be that the phones aren’t ringing off the hook with calls from people inviting the police over to search their homes?