BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The District Attorney’s office filed a dozen felony gun charges Thursday against a member of a prominent farming family.
According to court documents, the California Department of Justice raided Jeffrey Scott Kirschenmann’s home last month, after he tried to register an illegally modified gun online through the state’s website.…
According to court documents, the DOJ began investigating Kirschenmann when he electronically submitted photos of an illegally modified AR-15-style firearm.
Retired KCSO Commander Joe Pilkington is a court recognized firearms expert. He could not speak directly to Kirschenmann’s case but says the laws are changing so frequently, it’s often hard to keep up with the latest regulations.
“Just in the last few years, there have been lots of changes in gun laws,” he said. “Making an effort, a good faith effort to comply with these really complicated laws, should count for something.”
A new state law requires assault-style weapons be registered by the end of June.
Member of prominent farming family faces felony weapons charges
I want you to digest the story: He tried to comply with the state mandated registration. He volunteered the information in good faith. He got arrested and is facing felony charges. The State has made the whole set of gun laws so baroque and complicated that people will mess up and end up being felons.
Mr. Kirschenmann is the CEO of Kirschenmann Farms which is a big supplier of potatoes for Frito Lay so you know he ain’t some poor redneck slob in a trailer park. Now, if I were a suspicious individual and decided to check political contributions and find out that although Jeffrey Scott Kirschenmann does not show up as an individual giving money, there is a fair amount of Kirschenmann kin working in the Kirschenmann Farms who donated to Republican causes.
Now I am sure that the good folks of California Government would never stoop so low as to arrest somebody with ties to donations to the Republican party. Let’s not speculate like that.
This also reminds me something from the book Unintended Consequences where Joh n Ross mentions that Gun Laws are more likely to be used against the people with money than your average criminal. And that leads you to something I should be mentioning more often and I don’t:
Felons are exempted from registering weapons.
United States Supreme Court
HAYNES v. UNITED STATES, (1968)
No. 236
Argued: October 11, 1967 Decided: January 29, 1968
Petitioner was charged by a three-count information filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas with violations of the National Firearms Act. 48 Stat. 1236. Two of the counts were subsequently dismissed upon motion of the United States Attorney. The remaining count averred that petitioner, in violation of 26 U.S.C. 5851, knowingly possessed a firearm, as defined by 26 U.S.C. 5848 (1), which had not been registered with the Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate, as required by 26 U.S.C. 5841. Petitioner moved before trial to dismiss this count, evidently asserting that 5851 violated his privilege against self-incrimination, as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
And there you have it folk. If you try to obey the convoluted gun laws of California (in this case) and register your weapon, you may end up a felon. But only if you are a felon, you can ignore any Gun Registration law without fear of legal consequences.
Aside from the infringement on rights in this case, any law that is too hard for a layman to comply with because it’s ever-changing, complicated, and opaque is a terrible law. It’s not designed to foster a societal good, just to ensnare folks.
And the people that put the politicians that make these stupid rule/laws are spreading to my state. Texas is slowly getting californicated. Without lube or a courtesy reach ’round.
I wonder if this could be used as a defense. For example: Suppose I have a rifle in my safe that’s illegal to own in California, for whatever reason. Further suppose that, for whatever reason, I have to move to California. I toss it in the moving truck without making required mods to bring it into compliance (if that’s even possible).
Now, the moment I step over the state line with that rifle, I’m a felon; I just haven’t been convicted of such yet. But does that mean I still have to register the rifle as an illegal-to-own-in-CA rifle? If I do, I’m self-incriminating.
I have to wonder if a similar defense couldn’t be applied here. Although, perhaps, because the gent attempted to comply with the law, he voluntarily self-incriminated. Agh.
“Gun Laws are more likely to be used against the people with money than your average criminal.”
That makes perfect sense. The average middle- to upper-middle-class citizen has much more to lose than the average criminal lowlife, but doesn’t have the resources to mount a full-on high-power legal defense (or, let’s be honest, buy his/her way out of it).
It really is something one has to think about if the local or state gun laws are changed under you.
Everyone is a criminal. We just don’t know what “they” want to charge us with when they decide we deserve deserve personal destruction.
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229
Boris is right. They go after us because we have something to lose, and something to live for, “Our Lives, our Fortunes, our Sacred Honor.” Don’t believe me, just go ask President Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, or General Flynn, or anyone in their well compensated legal teams. Robert Mueller’s goal isn’t justice, it is revenge for Hillary’s team that was cheated out of power by President Trump and us boobs.