Western Sydney man found with military grade weaponry posed “imminent threat”
31 replies, posted
A man found allegedly harbouring firearms, and more than 2000 rounds of ammunition, swords, knives and crossbows in Sydney's west has been placed in a mental health facility for assessment, police have said.
They also found ballistic vests, armoured helmets, ballistic face marks, handcuffs, more than 100 arrows and "terrorism response" books written by "famous snipers", after executing two search warrants at the Richmond home last Tuesday.
The 64-year-old man was arrested by police who were acting on a tip from the Australian Border Force about firearm parts being imported into the country.
"We've got no direct information of what this individual intended to do" with the weapons, said Stuart Smith, NSW Police's Acting Commander of the State Crime Command.
"We can only interpret the evidence from the scene, and [he was] obviously a deeply disturbed individual who was highly trained with military grade weaponry and reading material … coupled with ballistic protection," he said.
"The threat was real, it was significant, and it was imminent."
Police said the man used to be prisoner officer who had weapons training and was dismissed by corrective services.
"We remain vigilant in terms of our inquiries," Mr Smith said.
"We have to accept we are conscious of what is happening around the world and the NSW Police are here to mitigate the risk.
Western Sydney man found with military grade weaponry posed 'imm..
Fucking Christ that's a lot of weapons and armour.
Opinion time but why do I get the feeling this was more of a collection rather than a "im mentally unstable and gonna go do the terrorism" kind of deal?
Like I know plenty of people that collect knifes or own guns and they aren't crazed lunatics, I kind of doubt anything will come of this if he has the proper licenses.
What I want to know is, what do the journalists consider "Military grade weapons" when that information hasn't even been released? All I see are 4 bolt action rifles in the last shot which are entirely legal here if licensed and kept securely and I would be genuinely worried if our military used those kinds of guns.
Well, he's in a mental hospital for assessment so I guess we'll find out whether or not he was a risk or just a collector
Found another article stating they found pistols hidden in the house guess thats all out the window, have fun in prison my dude.
If you caught a bearded man with a bunch of illegal firearms and a stack of copies of Al Qaeda's magazine, Inspire, would you not be suspicious? It's no proof but it'd lend credence to the idea that the person is up to no good.
It may be innocuous on its own, but in conjunction with other behaviours it can be argued that there was an alternative motive for its presence.
2000 Rounds of ammunition isn't actually that much for most collectors/recreational shooters.
"We've got no direct information of what this individual intended to do"
then why the fuck are you calling him an imminent threat?
"We can only interpret the evidence from the scene, and [he was] obviously a deeply disturbed individual who was highly trained with military grade weaponry and reading material … coupled with ballistic protection,"
I have guns armor and books about guerrilla warfare. not because I have bad intentions, but because I find the stuff interesting. I don't like how they just stereotyped and assumed the worst (at least that's how the article makes it sound)
So where's the sea mine?
Was about to say that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cun-LZvOTdw
Jokes aside, wonder what the man's intentions actually were, anything he said does not seem to be in the article.
What a joke.
This article sure knows how to say a lot without giving any information.
Going by the article, I’m going to have to assume the guy was more than likely a collector who got caught trying to buy stuff that the government doesn’t approve of. The article just comes across as trying way too hard to justify this response by playing into every buzzword in existence. I mean they’re using loaded vague language like “This person is obviously disturbed and mentally ill” without explaining what he could be suffering from.
Like what are they implying the person is mentally disturbed just because he owns a crap ton of weapons?
“This person poses a threat to public safety because they have weapons training and military grade weaponry. Also they have books about terrorism prevention and snipers!”
I practice shooting every once in a while and sometimes play Payday 2, but you don’t see me going out trying to rob banks. Also what is even considered “military grade weaponry”? The handguns and bolt action rifles?
”Over 2000 rounds of ammunition”
Bitch we buy them in boxes of 500 over here.
“Over 100 arrows”
His arrows will blot out the sun!
“Tactical armored vests and helmets/face masks”.
OoOoOh things that can be used to carry ammo and marginally protect you from getting shot! Spooky, kind of like all the gasmasks we’ve got here
“Mr Smith said the case was referred to the state's Drug and Firearms Squad and not counter-terrorism authorities because it "was in relation to a transactional inquiry by the individual … buying tactical equipment and firearms accessories."
There it is. Now I’m not too familiar with how things work in Australia, but did the police just admit they raided someone’s house, just because he called them with a question about buying firearms parts and accessories? If so, that seems kind of fucked unless he straight up told the police he was doing something illegal.
I don't really get how possessing 10 guns and 5 ballistic vests makes you more dangerous than possessing 1 gun and 1 vest. What are you going to do, sprout extra arms to wield your 10 guns? Extra bodies to wear more than 1 ballistic vest at a time?
That's not at all the same as owning some old army manuals or firearms instruction books. Most notably, old army manuals aren't telling you to commit terrorism like a literal terrorist rag does.
We all know we gotta keep them durned glockazine 47 launchers out of the hands of these lunatics
I'm not familiar with Australian gun laws, but what I'm getting from this post:
Is that he actually broke the law. People who do that tend to get arrested (or "kidnapped" as you say).
alternate news sources provide a bit more info
https://www.9news.com.au/2018/09/02/05/25/penrith-sydney-nsw-weapon-stash-stockpile-police-prison-guard
"Det. Supt Smith said the 64-year-old had his firearms licence revoked in 2009 owing to mental health concerns."
the man had his licence revoked, legally not allowed to own any of these firearms. whether he posed a threat to the community or not we will find out i guess but he definitely should not have firearms if he did not have a license.
Yanks goin' nuts in this thread lmao.
Here's the facts: owning firearms without proper licensing and stowage is illegal here. This man had his license revoked on mental health grounds, thus owning all this was illegal. That's it.
Ain't no one's rights gettin' infringed on get outta here.
Pistols in aus are pretty much 100% of the time illegal regardless of what license you have save for professional vermin clearing permits and even then im not sure you can own a pistol.
The vests and helmets are all progressively larger than each other so he can wear them all at once, so when the time comes, he can just find a defensible position, suit up and just sort of sit there with all his firearms loaded and within reach like some sort of ballistic assault turtle.
U gotta think if one vest can protect ur chest rly well......
5 can protect 1 chest five times as well, obviously. If he had a few more he would have been invincible from the front maybe. that would suck!
and more than 2000 rounds of ammunition
So just enough for one trip to the shooting range
From what I understand, y'all need to be part of a pistol club for like a year in order to get one and need to compete with it regularly in order to keep it.
But yeah, illegal is illegal. If he chose to break the law, that's on him.
The amount "lol only 2000 round, we eat that for breakfast" talk is so dumb. No one gives a shit, he broke the law not compared dicks.
Maybe you both missed that nobody is saying he shouldn't have been arrested, everyone's laughing at the cops trying to turn their confiscation of a retiree's personal collection over a revoked license into STOPPED A TERRORIST JUST IN TIME.
Sure, but the article is really trying to spin the whole incident like he was harbouring enough hardware to equip a small army. It's pretty ridiculous.
I'm for more strict gun control, but equating more guns = bigger threat is dumb. It's not like he has 27 arms and can shoot in all directions. All you need is one gun to shoot up a school or public place. If he were selling these guns to criminals or trying to arm some kind of far-right militia, then the number of guns he had would be concerning, but a psycho with 1 gun is just as dangerous as a psycho with 50
We're not talking about the article but the USpunchers comparing dicks about numbers.
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