NYPD cracks down on Flintlocks

[jimmy olsen]

Fucking fascists.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/07/29/2009-07-29_replica_rifle_has_brooklyn_man_at_odds_with_cops.html

Up in arms over gun: Replica rifle has Brooklyn man at odds with cops

BY Joseph Goldstein
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Wednesday, July 29th 2009, 4:00 AM

Like America's first soldiers at the Battle of Brooklyn, Michael Littlejohn is fighting for his right to bear arms.

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."

Littlejohn fired the first shot when he hired a Tennessee blacksmith to recreate the vintage rifle. It arrived at his Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, apartment in June - followed quickly by city cops.

Police claim it's illegal for Littlejohn to keep the flintlock without a gun license.

Littlejohn, 50, cites the earliest American patriots as his inspiration while refusing to surrender his firearm or apply for a license.

The social worker is also clinging to a little-known exemption in the city's strict gun laws.

The loophole allows license-free ownership of "antique firearms" - defined as rifles that require the bullet and gunpowder to be loaded separately.

Littlejohn's rifle appears to fit the bill.

Loading the weapon, he explains, is a multistep process that takes several pokes with a ramrod and up to a minute to complete.

To fire, the rifle relies on a sharpened piece of flint that produces a spark when the trigger is pulled. That point is moot, Littlejohn says: He doesn't own gunpowder or bullets.

That's not enough to make the NYPD retreat.

The cops visited Littlejohn's apartment and sat down this month with the Tennessee blacksmith who forged the rifle.

The lead detective on the case told Littlejohn's lawyer that he had orders "from higher-ups" to pursue the case, according to an e-mail the lawyer sent to Littlejohn.

Littlejohn's interest in the Revolutionary War dates to his childhood. He grew up playing tag outside the upstate Newburgh house used in 1782-83 as Gen. George Washington's headquarters.

As an adult, he joined in Colonial American reenactments in Virginia and Georgia.

The NYPD learned about Littlejohn's $825 rifle when he left a receipt inside a Staples copy center, prompting a call to the cops.

Cops aren't threatening to arrest Littlejohn - yet. Lawyer Joyce David, who represented Littlejohn until it became too expensive, says her ex-client could wind up with a summons.

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.

http://24.97.137.100/nyc/
The exemption in question.

§ 10–305 Exemptions. The sections requiring rifle and shotgun permits and certificates and prohibiting the possession or disposition of assault weapons shall not apply as follows:

b. Antiques and ornaments. The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to antique rifles and shotguns which are incapable of being fired or discharged or which do not fire fixed ammunition, or those weapons manufactured prior to eighteen hundred ninety-four and those weapons whose design was patented and whose commercial manufacture commenced prior to eighteen hundred ninety-four and whose manufacture continued after eighteen hundred ninety-four without any substantial alteration in design or function, and for which cartridge ammunition is not commercially available and are possessed as curiosities or ornaments or for their historical significance and value...

[Habbaku]

   Yankees.

[derspiess]

Glad the NYPD is devoting so many resources to this case

[Valmy]

Wow a guy owns a replica of an incredibly inaccurate fire arm that he has neither shot nor powder for.  That strikes me an incredibly dangerous threat to city security.

[jimmy olsen]

Wow a guy owns a replica of an incredibly inaccurate fire arm that he has neither shot nor powder for.  That strikes me an incredibly dangerous threat to city security.

Lets fly a detective out to Tennessee to interrogate the gunsmith immediately!

[Grey Fox]

Just get a license, ffs.

[jimmy olsen]

Just get a license, ffs.

Why should he if the law's on his side?

[Malthus]

Just get a license, ffs.

Why should he if the law's on his side?

Law's ambigous, according to your extract. Whether or not the exemption applies depends on what he intends to use his flintlock for. If he's using it for home defence, he needs a license; if to hang over the mantel as a sort of Revolutionary War Decor, he doesn't.

... and are possessed as curiosities or ornaments or for their historical significance and value...

In short, it's not a "right to bear arms" sans license so much as a "right to arms-themed interior decorating". 

[Josquius]

These journalists deserve to be shot for that opening.

[Strix]

I might be wrong but I think the article is ignoring the real legal issue created by the guy having this gun in the city which is that there is a city ordinance about not having a gun (I am not sure if long guns are included or not) within the limits of NYC without a special permit or permission.

I don't know the exact ordinance. I do know it exists because the only two classes of people in NYS that can carry handguns in NYC without a permit are State Troopers and Parole Officers. Any one else must have a permit or receive permission including any visiting law enforcement.

They are pretty strict about it. Just ask Plaxico Burress.

[Caliga]

DON'T TREAD ON ME 

[Eddie Teach]

I might be wrong but I think the article is ignoring the real legal issue created by the guy having this gun in the city which is that there is a city ordinance about not having a gun (I am not sure if long guns are included or not) within the limits of NYC without a special permit or permission.

Is that ordinance not the one with the exemption the guy is pointing at?

[Strix]

I might be wrong but I think the article is ignoring the real legal issue created by the guy having this gun in the city which is that there is a city ordinance about not having a gun (I am not sure if long guns are included or not) within the limits of NYC without a special permit or permission.

Is that ordinance not the one with the exemption the guy is pointing at?

I wasn't sure. The article said New York but they may have been talking about NYC. They tend to refer to NYC as New York. That's why I stated I might be wrong. NYS Law also has an exemption for antique firearms.

[CountDeMoney]

You know, all you fuckers are poking fun at the NYPD over this, but who's going to be laughing when he affixes his bayonet.

[HVC]

If he was black the president would stand up for him