The state of New York isn’t a fan of people making their own firearms. They’ve banned so-called ghost guns for just that reason.
Gun control like that works, or so we’re told. In fact, this claim is repeated pretty much any time someone says it doesn’t, and so if gun control works so well, it’s clear that the state of New York has no “ghost guns” lying about, right?
Or, at a minimum, they’re pretty rare and two random people aren’t going to be “stockpiling” them.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Thursday that Hyung-Suk Woo and his father, Ji-In Woo, were arraigned on charges of criminal possession of a weapon after a search of their Fresh Meadows home uncovered ghost guns, including assault weapons, as well as silencers made with a 3-D printer and other weapons-related paraphernalia.
…
On Feb. 14, officers from the NYPD and the District Attorney’s Detective Bureau executed a court-authorized search warrant at the defendants’ residence and recovered:
- Two loaded and fully assembled AR-15 style ghost gun assault rifles
- Two loaded and fully assembled 9 mm semiautomatic ghost gun pistols with assault weapon characteristics
- One loaded and fully assembled 9 mm semiautomatic ghost gun pistol
- Fifty-eight high-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition, 13 of which were personally manufactured
- One ballistic vest
- One ballistic helmet
- Fifteen additional unserialized lower receivers, including eight AR-15 style rifle lower receivers and seven semiautomatic pistol lower receivers
- Four firearm silencers, three of which were personally manufactured utilizing 3D printing;
- A drill press and other tools used to manufacture and/or assemble ghost guns
- Approximately 1,000 rounds of ammunition
The duo are looking at 15 years in prison for a variety of charges.
Granted, I haven’t got a clue what “pistols with assault weapon characteristics” actually means–more accurately, what this specifically means. I have ideas, but who knows if I’m right or if it’s something else–but the headline calls it “stockpiling” with a whopping five completed firearms.
I’ve got more guns than that and I’m not that serious about accumulating guns.
Granted, there were 15 lowers, all of which are illegal in New York, as are the suppressors which are illegal without a NFA permit anywhere.
Why, it’s almost like these two had absolutely no respect for the law.
New York’s extensive gun control laws clearly didn’t do a whole lot to stop these two, and yet there’s no indication we’re dealing with career criminals, either. None of the charges seem to suggest either was a prohibited person, for example, as you’d expect to find with a career crook.
This means that regular guys could acquire a number of firearms in violation of New York State law and apparently do so without a great deal of difficulty.
Look, people are going to do what they want to do. If you give them a pathway to do it legally, most will go that route.
However, the more difficult you make that pathway, the more likely that some are going to just say, “screw it!” and become outlaws.
Every person has their line in the sand; one that New York clearly crossed when it comes to this father-son duo and and a whole lot of other people, and they’re no longer going to be interested in walking the straight and narrow path.
New York lawmakers have only themselves to blame for it, too.
