Ravenwood - 04/30/04 06:30 AM
In "gun free" New York City, I guess it doesn't take much to make up an arsenal
New York City police have uncovered an arsenal of weapons, ammunition and home-made bombs in a raid on a Staten Island home, a police spokeswoman said.They don't say what the nature of the bombs or guns are. I have a high degree of skepticism though, considering the media often considers household chemicals or gun reloading supplies (such as black powder) to be bomb making equipment. The guns could be illegal machine guns or Red Rider B-B guns; the shoddy reporters just don't give any more information.According to Officer Jannara Everleth, the NYPD Drug Enforcement Task Force on Wednesday entered the single-family home and discovered the stash of munitions, including seven homemade bombs, 10,000 rounds of ammunition and 13 guns.
Given that, this guy could have been the next Timothy McVeigh, or he could just be an avid collector with an interest in plumbing supplies. Who knows?
I guess what I mean to say is that in this particular case, "arsenal" is clearly used for the shock value. In my opinion, an arsenal is thousands of guns, mostly of the same type. If I drive down to Quantico and ask to see their arsenal, aside from being beat up by an 18 year old marine, I'll probably find thousands of M-16s and M-16 variants. They may have some heavier and lighter guns, but overall, its a lot of the same type of guns. If the police break down a guys door and find 13 different firearms, some big and some small and all different calibers, that's not an arsenal. It's a collection.
Now Ravenwood, you know that Marine won't beat you up. He'll politely tell you that the arsenal is off-limits to unauthorized personnel.
Only if you persist will he beat you up.
Posted by: Kevin Baker at April 30, 2004 10:42 AMActually, I doubt the Quantico would have an arsenal, per se. Probably has many arms rooms full of rifles and machine guns though.
In modern parlance, an arsenal is a facility that repairs and/or builds military weapons and equipment, such as Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.
Quantico is home to the weapons training battalion and has lots of shooting ranges. I don't know if what they have qualifies as an "arsenal" per se, but I do know it's more than 13 guns.
Posted by: Ravenwood at April 30, 2004 4:14 PM10,000 rounds for 13 guns?
That's... [removing socks to count toes] ...slightly more than 750 rounds PER GUN.
That's a month's shooting.
Anywhere else but New Fucking York, this guy would be given a ticket for insufficient ammo to meet his militia requirement, as laid down by the Constitution.
Which reminds me, I'm down to my last 1,500 rounds of .45 ACP... time to visit CheaperThanDirt.com.
Posted by: Kim du Toit at April 30, 2004 7:51 PMI used to carry 1,000 rounds around in a corner of my briefcase just to show how silly the number was (it was a factory shrink wrapped double brick of 500 rounds of .22 Long Rifle) .
And an "arsenal" is where arms are manufactured, an "armoury" is where they are stored.
Posted by: htom at May 1, 2004 6:47 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
