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Question of the Day: Define a “Small Arsenal”

Robert Farago - comments No comments

Man found with small arsenal on Houston Hyatt Regency’s top floor before New Year’s Eve celebration, police say. That was the headline at foxnews.com before commentators guffawed at the idea that “an AR-15, a shotgun, a handgun and lots of ammunition” constituted a “small arsenal.” The headline now reads . . .

Drunk man found with weapons cache on Houston Hyatt Regency’s top floor before New Year’s Eve celebration, police say. 

Cache as cache can? Anyway, nothing happened and “investigators couldn’t speculate about the man’s intent.” And our question is simple enough: what IS a “small arsenal”?

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Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

0 thoughts on “Question of the Day: Define a “Small Arsenal””

  1. Are you implying that news commentators where trying to sensationalize this story by using hyperbole? As if!

    Let’s just say what we mean and not try to make ourselves too clever.

    Reply
  2. That’s it, Glock is on my shit list of companies that can’t make anything new that’s interesting. I’d rather have Glock 19’s with 17 slides and Glock 26’s with 19 slides, but Glock won’t do it so screw them.

    I tell you, the people running Glock right now are idiots and are in fact killing the company. They can’t make anything that gets people to buy their stuff. Gen 5? Please, you’re better off with a Gen 2, 3, or 4.

    And I own two Glocks, might get a 10mm in the future, so I like Glock pistols, but the Glock company is really just run by morons.

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  3. Not an arsenal, but at least 3 guns.

    I would define a small arsenal as multiple guns for each category (carry, duty, and crossover pistols; sporting and defensive/competition shotguns; 0-50 yard, 100-300 yard, and 1,000 yard rifles.)

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  4. The .22 WMR has potential in a rifle although I would be careful that the bullet met the 12″ to 18″ penetration standard. In a short barrelled pistol, like the LCR, it loses so much velocity that I would rather have eight rounds of .22 LR than six of the magnum.

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  5. So the hotel security tries to force him back to six room for being drunk. ( understandable) then one of the charges he is arrested for is trespassing?

    With the guns listed this guy might just be a three gun competitor.

    There has to be far more to this story than what is being reported.

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  6. By liberal definition, a small arsenal is more than one firearm and more than 1 round of ammo. Throw in another guy, an AR and a 30-round ‘clip’ and you have a small army of degenerates.

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  7. Glock can never seem to please everyone no matter what they release. This is more than likely a start to a “crossover, X” line of glocks. Maybe they will introduce a G19LX next? A G19 frame with a G34 slide would please me. This G19X is cool but doesn’t really call to me like some other glocks have in the past. I still may get one though lol

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  8. I don’t understand the reason for this. Seventeen round capacity instead of fifteen? And is this new gun called the 19Ex or the 19-10?

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  9. Different strokes and all that, but I’d really like to know what deranged universe some PotG live in where their only choices for defense are .22 pocket guns and forceful language.

    “Any gun is better than [x].” No shit? Here I was, thinking a friendly smile would do the trick! Yeah, some things aren’t so simple they’re brilliant, guys; they’re just plain simple. Know what is so simple it’s brilliant? Not picking just “any” gun to trust your life with in the first place.

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  10. Outstanding article. Thanks much and sorry about the nay sayers. There’s really isn’t any amount of data and facts that will satisfy them. They are too invested in their religion(s)…

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  11. Chief “disarm’em” Acevedo has come out and said the man simply didn’t want to leave them in vehicle overnight and they did not think he had any intent to do harm with the weapons.

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  12. “But police Lt. David Gordon told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Transportation Security Administration agents held the man at McCarran International Airport late Tuesday to confirm the validity of the Utah hunting tag.”

    What does this have to do with terrorism?

    I didn’t know cougar carcasses were explosive. Maybe they only go boom with a pressure switch? Or the guy & his friends might hijack the plane with “claw cutters.”

    Where’s the terrorism charge against this guy? He was on the “watch but don’t stop” list? Existing warrants? Known terrorist affiliates?

    Post a disaster their existing surveillance, screening, and counter measures didn’t stop, we give them limited additional mandates they insist they need or it’ll happen again. They also pinky-swear this stuff will only be used to “keep us safe” from terrorists blowing up airplanes.

    Then, when they find anything they think is weird they hold you however long they feel like & check with everybody else in the country to see if there’s maybe something they can charge you with. It’s like driving in New Jersey.

    But what do you expect from an “administration” that notes they took ~4,000 guns from citizens who are not terrorists last year, and area all excited that they’ll be doing the same thing next year. So, people who are only “criminal” but not really, as they don’t go to jail, because of the TSA’s rituals.

    It’s like imposing on people who haven’t done anything wrong is the point. (Which it is. The press if for their sponsors, Bloomie & his ilk, to show that if you can’t get em one way, here’s another.)

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  13. The little NAA revolvers have a place. That place is “I don’t want to carry a gun today, so I’ll carry this.” It’s the perfect gun for people who will almost never find themselves in a threatening environment, but still want to be prepared.

    Yes, it has severe limitations. But it has advantages too. It’s a great running/biking/hiking gun, it can literally go almost anywhere unnoticed, and several models have quality sights on them, that allow shooters to take advantage of the mechanical accuracy they possess. There is no reason not to carry it. Even if you have a bigger gun on body already.

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    • True, and I want a Ranger II quite desperately, but I pocket carry an LCP II everywhere and everyday, and find it to be no more obtrusive than the Freedom Arms mini revolver (the guys NAA bought the patent from) that I used to have.

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  14. An AR, a shotgun and a pistol sounds more like a basic 3 gun setup, so maybe he was in town for a competition. These days an “arsenal” is pearl clutching media speak for any scary weapon they don’t like, plus one a meaning clearly detached from the classic definition of a place that makes guns. A more accurate term might be armory, and even then it would require multiple examples of the same type of gun, intended to equip a group.

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  15. So instead of driving to Nevada or Arizona to buy ammo, they can drive to Nevada or Arizona to buy ammo and shoot it at the range also in Nevada or Arizona near the ammo store, or perhaps even attached, and drive back to California only with their now dirty firearm in need of cleaning.

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  16. Starting today, Rhode Island’s “pill mill” bill takes effect. The intent of the law is to combat the opioid epidemic. The new law allows federal law enforcement agencies to access state electronic prescription drug records without a warrant. There are concerns about whether to allow the DEA and FBI to investigate people involved in the medical marijuana industry. The Department of Health maintains the drug database and has been given significant authority to set the rules.

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  17. It is not a requirement of voting to be able to actually name who your current congressional representative or senators are.
    Likewise, many people avail themselves of their Right to Keep and Bear Arms without the slightest clue what that right actually means or what the laws are in their state.
    I’ve long since stopped being surprised at the level of ignorance seen outside of the circle of this website and others like it: the truth is, we here on TTAG are kind of weird… we are intimately aware of our rights and the law. And I haven’t the slightest idea of how to improve on the ignorance of the general public without violating the right we hold most dear.
    Still… it’s very frustrating when one of the wilfully ignorant of this world is held up as an example of what the rest of us are.
    ????

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  18. I want to be in charge of the firearms industry for one day. I would ban all sales of all firearms and ammunition to all law enforcement agencies and National Guard units in New Jersey, New York, California, Maryland, the city of Chicago, the city of Seattle, and any others I may have missed, until such time as they repeal every last one of their anti-2nd Amendment laws, rules and regulations. If their citizens, who they regard as subjects, can’t be armed to protect themselves then their cops and soldiers shouldn’t be either.

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  19. “In the quest for increased regulations on firearms, one common refrain from gun control activists is…”

    Bang on. Sentence first. Trial after.

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  20. The vast majority of comments under the story take the WSJ and anti gunners to the woodshed on this issue. The journal has a few lefties on it’s payroll, almost impossible not to.

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  21. As you say, “Serial numbers and gun registration play a key role in police and government investigations, allowing officers to trace a weapon’s history and owners….Citation? *crickets chirping*” The time tracing plays a role–which it actually does on rare occasion–is when the owner (or someone in the owner’s family) is the shooter, or where there is an actual sales record to the ultimate shooter. I saw one of those on Kenda just the other night, but clearly if a gun is stolen tracing is useless. So just what ARE the statistics as to when tracing (which the ATF actually pushes) is useful? Inquiring minds want to know!

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