• Fucking 1,000+ guns seized from Bel-Air Mansion in California
    25 replies, posted
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-atf-lapd-investigation-20190508-story.html A man was arrested Wednesday after authorities seized more than 1,000 guns from a home in Holmby Hills, authorities said. Officials received an anonymous tip about a person illegally manufacturing and selling guns in a home in the 100 block of North Beverly Glen Boulevard, said Officer Mike Lopez, a spokesman with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Must be some connections with the West Philly gangs.
Tremendous quantities of antiques in that pile. Some of the aerial footage I saw yesterday showed at least two Thompsons, what looked like an MG34, an STG44 and who knows what else buried in the piles.
The prince needs a fresh kingdom apparently.
Even more infuriating is that they won't donate the historical weapons to museums for preservation they'll just destroy them with the rest. This hurts my soul as a collector of old weapons, especially from the WW2 era.
I noticed those along with some SVDs, Garands, an Uzi And TWO STG44's holy fuck
Was the mansion missing a ceiling?
Officials received an anonymous tip about a person illegally manufacturing and selling guns in a home I'm either missing a reference or you literally didn't read past the title
The ATF of today isn't the ATF of yesterday. They will probably go to museums as long as LAPD doesn't take possession of them. But I take issue with people who buy historic items - not just guns but cars and art and myriad other categories of artifacts - and lead them to destruction by being reckless. They don't really care about the history, it's just about status, so they give no thought to responsible stewardship. In the case of guns it's always some idiot buying up old guns and storing them like shit then committing a crime and getting them all confiscated. For cars it's people with more money than brains thrashing around vintage muscle cars until they crash them. For art it's lazy/improper storage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS5jqXWECbI
Oh, duh
That many old, rare, and valuable guns inside a mansion, and it not just being a bunch of cheaply made weapons or self manufactured DIY submachine guns and handguns? Nah I’m willing to bet someone with political connections and deep pockets is behind this. Doesn’t really sound like the run of the mill average gangbanger hideout.
For what it's worth: the two Tommies I can see on video are modern reproductions, and one of the Garands has already been bubba'd so they're probably not worth saving.
Wouldn't it make sense for the law enforcement agency to sell the firearms and make shitloads of money
Yeah those are definitely modern Auto Ords now that I look on my computer. On my phone yesterday I couldn't tell.
no wonder wills mom told him to move to bel air...
Plenty of these guns are in a condition that makes it impossible to legally own them. Most black market firearms have their serial numbers and identifying marks (manufacturer name and location) defaced or removed, but federal law requires those markings be clear and present. Additionally in the case of full auto weapons, the law states that only full auto weapons legally registered prior to 1986 are legal to own, so if those guns are either illegally made full auto, smuggled into the country illegally, or were not properly transferred (like I'm guessing the STGs and MG were) they're considered banned guns.
How the hell did he manage to get Soviet-Bloc weapons in the States? That's rather surprising. Looks like a lot of those weapons are stolen though, hope most of them get returned to their owners.
Soviet-bloc weapons are common (a little less common now) surplus weapons. I actually own one myself, a Nagant revolver of 1944 manufacture.
A large amount of eastern bloc weaponry was surplussed after the collapses, there's still multiple companies importing parts kits from all across eastern Europe. Also the Chinese government was allowed to export guns to the US until they got caught smuggling restricted items to gangs, and they're still exporting to Canada.
I wonder what kind of guns this dude was building and if there's any evidence of his guns ending up in the hands of LA gangs. He could be like a mini arms dealer. Also, isn't building guns perfectly fine for personal use/sale if you have the right credentials? What kind of license do you need to legally build and sell guns? And lending guns? You can't borrow your buddy's rifle in Cali?
The sheer amount isn't necessarily indicative of him selling to others. I had customers with similarly sized collections, most of which were either pensioners or doctors with lots of money to burn. Generally if someone is selling under the table so to speak its more about the types of guns they have and the quantity of said guns. This guy had TONS of 10/22's, Various Ruger revolvers, as well as AR-15's and the like. Having multiple of the same model of gun, as in the exact same version of said model, usually points to that sort of thing. With that being said most of the guns I saw were in fact California legal, which makes me wonder if it were a previous licence holders inventory. There were some pretty high end guns in there, like Colt Pythons and PSL's/ *maybe* SVDs, all of which were in pretty damn good shape.
Making and selling guns is a tricky thing because according to the law you're allowed to build guns for personal use, and you're allowed to sell guns you personally own, but you require a license to sell guns commercially. Typically this means that you can get away with building guns either from scratch or from kits, and usually get away with lending or selling some of them, but when you start selling them in large quantities that's when the feds get involved. It's sorta like how with drugs a large amount is considered "intent to distribute" while a small amount is just possession, except in this case possession is 100% legal. Also it's worth noting that when they say building guns, 9 times out of 10 that means they're completing guns from parts kits like I showed above, or what are called 80% receivers which are gun frames that are only 80% complete because the law doesn't consider them legally guns until they're more than 80% complete so before that point they require no permits to own or sell. https://www.80-lower.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/products-57e225f055f319311824153a98b85149.jpg This for example is an 80% lower for an AR15, it is not legally considered a firearm, but all it takes to make it a firearm is boring out the trigger housing which you can do with any drill press, and all the components needed to make it a completely functional gun from there are not legally restricted in any way so they can be bought and sold as you please.
I doubt he was building anything other than maybe AR-15's, he had plenty of guns to sell that doesn't require building anything. It is completely legal to make a gun for yourself so long as you follow the law in regards to overall length, barrel length, firearm classification, etc. To legally build and sell guns you must have an 07 FFL, which requires payment for a license, a background check including fingerprints, an area outside of your personal abode that is zoned for commercial use, insurance, a legally defined level of security for the premises, among other things. Lending guns is dependent on the state, but on a federal level its completely legal to lend someone a firearm so long as they are legally able to possess a firearm. California is a lot more strict, I believe they actually passed a law recently that prevents the lending of firearms without a transfer unless they are immediate family.
Placing my bets: This guy was more then likely involved with collectors who worked via smuggling firearms from conflict zones. Places like Syria are the wet dream of collectors everywhere with how many rare and antique funs are ending up there.
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