Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Does this decision seem over-broad to you?
It doesn’t matter that the gun is in somebody else’s locked safe and you don’t have the key. You’re still in possession because you could have burgled the safe. How about the house next door? He could have burgled that, too, or the gun store in Minneapolis.
And since when does the strength of the container determine who has possession of the contents?
Yes, I know, the guy’s a crook and the weapon is illegal. So why bother with procedures? Just go ahead and punish him. He’s probably a TEA Party member anyway, and a Christian besides.
Unless, of course, we actually care about limitations on government and due process and Rule of Law and all those other shyster lawyer loopholes that don’t mean a thing until suddenly the IRS, ATF, NSA and FBI are knocking at your door.
Joe Doakes
As the Obama Administration has shown us, sometimes it’s just easier to get forgiveness than permission.
Sorry, bad link. I’m talking about a new Court of Appeals decision, here:
http://mn.gov/lawlib/archive/ctappub/2014/opa130597-012114.pdf
out of curiosity does that serial number statute apply to firearms (sears catalog item circa 1912) that were manufactured without a serial number?
The infamous Gun Control Act of 1968 (aka GCA 68) required that all firearms manufactured in the US from that point in time forward be marked by the manufacturer with a permanently serial number on the gun’s frame or receiver.
As kel pointed out, some older firearms which were manufactured prior to GCA 68 were made without a serial number. These guns, often lesser-expensive models from the likes of Sears, Wards, High Standard, etc.’ are legal to own as they never had a serial number. As in the story, it is a separate crime to “obliterate” (intentionally remove or alter) an existing serial number from a gun that had one.
It is an abomination to most serious gun collectors to see a gun on which the owner or seller has inscribed their Operation ID#, SSN, or DL numbers with some type of crude engraving device for purposes of identifying the gun in cases of its theft. Some jurisdictions have interpreted the obliterated serial number statute to cases in which the new owner has removed the scratched-on ID markings.
It is also a crime to remove the serial number, or other identifying number, from a non-gun item for criminal purposes.