A construction crew in Redmond, Oregon unearthed a pile of World War II-era ammunition on Thursday, and police called in the Air Force to dispose of it. The linked small-arms cartridges may have been related to a large military exercise that took place in the area from July to October 1943, when elements of the 91st, 96th, and 104th Infantry divisions ranged over seven counties in central Oregon. Those units then deployed around the globe to Italy, the Far East, and France and Germany. The article refers to the ammunition as “unstable,” but I’m pretty sure that at this point the only way it’d be unstable is if you tripped over it and fell down. Read on . . .
Instead of a Lockdown of the Day™, a good story. Some ammunition fell out of the jacket pocket of an upperclassman at Oyster River High School in Durham, New Hampshire on Thursday, and in a increasingly vanishingly rare moment of sanity, nobody freaked out, and the student is not being expelled or banished to an alternative school. The student had been at a firing range with his father Wednesday night, and Thursday morning some forgotten ammo fell from his jacket pocket and onto the floor. The school resource officer and the local police were called in, but they quickly determined that there was no ill intent by the student. Deputy Chief Rene Kelley said no charges would be brought, and Superintendent Dr. James Morse said that although it was against policy to bring ammunition to school, given the nature of this case, the student would not face severe punishment. “It was truly just an accident,” said Morse.
They do things differently across the pond, a bit. A man involved in a bitter divorce in the Scottish town of Brechin was accused by his wife of illegally hoarding ammunition. She reported him to the authorities because he did not possess a firearms certificate for that amount of ammunition. The 53-year-old man is a former Territorial Army firearms instructor, and has been engaged in a long-running acrimonious split from his wife. He was out of the country at the time of the offense, with the ammunition locked in a safe back at home. The amount of “hoarded” ammunition? 100 rounds of .270 and 50 rounds of .22LR. He had a license for 60 rounds of .270 from 2009, but that was expired, and an additional 40 rounds made him chargeable for 100. Saying he was no longer interested in firearms, he cooperated and turned the ammunition over to police, and was fined £250 (a little over $400) for his trouble.
“Gun control advocates say arrest of California lawmaker is setback for legislation” is the title of an article over at the StarTribune, which is really all the information you (or I) need. The article is referring, of course, to the arrest of California state Senator Leland Yee for conspiracy, bribery, corruption, and best of all, gun-running. Paul Song, executive chairman of Courage Campaign, said Yee was probably the second most outspoken gun control advocate, after Dianne Feinstein, and that his arrest left them “scrambling for someone to pick up that mantle.” He went on to say, “If it wasn’t so sad it would be comical.” I’m pretty sure we’re going to come at it from the comical end of the spectrum.
A group of rural sheriffs in Colorado is suing to overturn the gun control laws that were passed last year, saying that the measures were arbitrary, knee-jerk reactions by city politicians unfamiliar with guns who needed to look like they were doing something in the wake of the Aurora theater shooting. “The problem is, who is the government to tell a citizen how many rounds they need to defend themselves?” says Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County, Colo. The trial, which began today, is expected to last about two weeks. According to NPR, whatever the outcome, both sides will likely appeal.
Richard Ryan is back this week with the newest installment of his Breakdown series, where he takes events from modern movies and attempts to duplicate them in real life. This episode talks about hacking home electronics for nefarious purposes, be it simple surveillance or something a little more… noisy. And of course, there’s high-speed video of the noisy stuff.
Sheet explosive. That is just awesome.