57Chevy said:
You are more than likely a member in good standing (papaerwork and all) to your local hunting/fishing/
shooting club. And likely without any similar past records with police forces like these guys. I think that is the reasoning of them making mention of it in the paper and the report. By the way, a little acetone works well to remove the stencilling from ammo boxes.
Actually no. The reason that they mention it is because it is standard procedure for almost all police depts to put a bad light on firearms owners. If you, for whatever reason, receive a visit from your local constabulary and they decide they have cause to remove your lawful firearms, the following will appear in the local news.
"Police remove a veritable arsenal and thousands of rounds of ammo from local."
What did they really get? They got your centrefire deer gun, your .22 rifle and your shotgun that you get ducks and partridge with. 4x25 12 guage shells (25 ea of slug, #4, #7, #8 shot), 50x centrefire(165 gr for deer & 200 for moose) and two bricks of .22 (1000 rds) that you use to spend afternoons at the range with your son or daughter. Total count 1150 rds.
If your rifle has a detachable box mag or a pistol grip, it will be invariably described as a high powered assault rifle. If it is scoped, the latest ploy is to call it a high powered sniper weapon.
Unlawful storage charges amongst others, whether firearms or ammo, are often maliciously laid in order to gain bargaining power and force the defendent to spend thousands of needless dollars on legal defence. In many cases it works. The defendent can't afford the time or money to fight it and surrenders his guns and accepts a weapons prohibition to make it go away. A good lawyer, time and money will normally see these charges tossed.
The fact is, most police are not familiar with the firearms laws simply because thery are not required to have a PAL or RPAL for their service weapon. Just like soldiers. Ergo they have never taken the courses or spent the time to learn the chaotic and contradictory bowl of spaghetti laws, that normal firearms owners have to learn.
For the cops, it's all abour PR and lots of good evil looking PR means more funds. And that's what the whole blown up rhetoric boils down to.