Weapons seizure uncovered Holyoke family’s love affair with illegally obtained firearms
—Stephanie Barry | sbarry@repub.com, Weapons seizure uncovered Holyoke family’s love affair with illegally obtained firearms, masslive, (last visited Aug. 6, 2023)
It is a shitty picture of some lovely old weapons. I haven’t even attempted to identify any of them.
The box of stripper clips in the foreground is nice, the pile of magazines in the sink is interesting. I would be happy to take all of those off his hands.
—id.
I’ll spare you the search, the Uzi they are referring to is a semi-auto version. There are no NFA items in the collection.
As always, the reporter is trying to induce a panic. Was this a large collection? Yes. If this was in a free state, the actual collection would not have been an issue. In MA, it is unlikely that they had registered all those firearms. Much less the magazines and ammo.
—United States v. Augusto, No. 3:22-cr-30048, slip op. at 3 (District Court, D. Massachusetts)
English is tricky. Were there hundreds of firearms? Were there hundreds of magazines? Were there hundreds of rounds of ammunition? Or did they just lump them all together to get scary numbers? The statement made in the court filing was that there were more than a dozen semi-automatic rifles … in one of the bathrooms …
—Sentencing Memorandum – #16 in United States v. Augusto (D. Mass., 3:22-cr-30048), No. 3:22-cr-30048
The state is attempting to make it sound horrible, they are attacking this man for not having all of his guns in safes.
… obsessively collected firearms to the point that they could not store them safely.
—id.
—id. at 6
I didn’t know there was a “not for money” clause in the don’t buy guns for others.
—id.
This man is going to lose his Second Amendment protected rights because the government is infringing on his father’s Second Amendment protected rights.
I didn’t find what the father was convicted of doing that made him a prohibited person. It is pretty obvious that he has not been doing evil in a long time.
I’m watching the §922(g) cases wind their way to the Supreme Court. I believe that the court is going to spank the government hard. In Heller, in the dicta, they indicated that §922(g) was presumed to be constitutional. They didn’t clarify that “presumed” means, “We didn’t look at it. That is a question for another day.”
There is no historical regulation nor tradition of stripping The People of their right to keep and bear arms because they are not virtuous people. That is what §922(g) does.
This is just an example of how there are intended consequences.
Of note, I’ve not seen a single story come across my feeds of a person being convicted of straw purchases that was a bad person.
Maybe that’s because they are either getting a sweetheart deal OR they are getting so stitched up that they didn’t stack the federal gun crime on top.
In the early 70s I went with dad to a gun dealers shop/ house… EVERY room in that house was full of firearms. Being a dealer they weren’t loaded. He had literally thousands… we spent all day there. Dad bought 7 or 8 rifles that day. Mass is almost as bad as jersey when it comes to the 2A… sad this great Country has become full of self righteous azzholes bleating like sheep “omg, he had “semi auto” guns!!! 🤢🤢🤮🤮
So the state of MA decided to make an example of a father and son, who loved Westerns, collected the firearms in those movies and loved holding an old relic in their hands, to enhance memories of their cherished past. Today it’s not so cherished anymore.
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But let’s look at the ‘Good’ in this story. Now, fear will be instilled into every citizen of MA who loves firearms history, would never be unlawful, and spends their evenings in their homes enjoying the memories of their grandfathers and great grandfathers, stories of victory in battles they fought in. And holding in their hands one of the weapons those grandfathers swore saved their lives.
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I’m waiting for the upcoming news story of local illegal immigrant’s illegal firearms stockpiles. Holyoke MA, is mostly Hispanic and black today. but the original demographic of the days when it was the Paper Capital of the USA, was Irish and Italian. Today it is called Little Puerto Rico. Crime is rampant and Hispanic gangs rule the town’s nightlife.
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But still, authorities managed to find one of the few old families (The name Augusto is usually Italian but also can be Spanish and in this area a combination of the two ethnicities) who didn’t keep up with the severities of anti-second amendment laws of the past fifty years and so authorities destroyed their lives to show the criminal element of that town, they mean business. The cowards didn’t take the risk of targeting a well-known member of the criminal element of the town. Doing so would have caused a civil war among the gangs, as they would suspect a rival gang ratted them out. Hell would ensue.
“…they could not store them safely…”
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There’s a lot to unpack in this case, and perhaps some good can come of it if it can be used to overturn some of MA’s bad laws.
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But … to be honest, I’m still kind of stuck at seeing those nice older rifles standing all jammed together, in a bathroom, with the seat up. Even with good “targeting” on the part of the men, well, splash happens, and flushing aerosolizes whatever’s in the bowl. I don’t want to think what those rifles’ bores and actions might look like, even aside from the assorted chemical reactions induced by biological effluent. NOT the way to treat a rifle you care about.
Boris, my man, I though the same thing. The biggest threat in that scenario it to the firearm. These guys are not a threat to anyone. Perhaps it’s how they relaxed on the john. Some people read; these guys held beloved firearms. It all comes out in the end and that’s what’s important.
Why did I leave MA?
Oh, yeah.