This is why I absolutely love the Orange County Register.  California may not have a lot of things going for it, but columnist Gordon Dillow is one of them.  It does my heart good to read this at the breakfast table.

[url]http://www.ocregister.com/local/dillow.shtml[/url]


The arrest of David Reza brought together two subjects that always seem to make some people - and certainly the news media - get all weak-kneed and squishy inside.

One subject is nuclear power.
And the other is guns.

Reza is the 44-year-old Laguna Niguel man who was arrested Tuesday on allegations of threatening to kill some of his former co-workers at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Sheriff's deputies who searched his home and a storage unit said they found some 4,000 to 5,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 250 firearms - including, police say, some illegal "assault weapons," dummy hand grenades and other military gear.

All of which may be true. On the other hand, in a jailhouse telephone interview with a Register reporter, Reza insisted that he never threatened to shoot anybody. He also said the weapons were simply an antique gun collection that he's been building since he was a kid - and it does appear that some, perhaps even most, of the seized weapons were antiques and even BB guns.

Of course, the legal system will have to sort all that out. If Reza made threats against somebody, or otherwise broke any laws - even some of the more inane state gun laws -- he'll have to suffer the punishment.

But what got me was the breathless way the national and local news media reacted to the story. I mean, you'd think we had all come this close to being atomized in a giant mushroom cloud rolling up out of San Clemente.

And why? Because the suspect had worked at a nuclear-power plant - and nuclear plants, as we all know, are bubbling cauldrons of radioactivity just waiting to blow, easy targets even for a fired pipe fitter whose access and security clearance had been yanked years ago.

And even worse, the guy had guns! Lots of guns! And ammo! No, wait, not just a bunch of guns and ammo. According to various news accounts, the man had an "arsenal," "a weapons cache," "a huge arms cache." And why would anyone need a "weapons cache" - unless, of course, he was a terrorist?

Well, I don't want to alarm anybody here. But I know a lot of guys - hunters, gun collectors, target shooters - who have scores of firearms legally in their possession.

In fact, if you searched my secure gun-storage area, you would find that over the years, I've accumulated guns and ammo in what some people might consider to be cache quantities. Nothing even close to Reza's numbers, of course, and all of it legal, but still enough to give some sensitive people a case of the weapons-cache willies.

But so what? That doesn't make me a terrorist. Or a criminal.

Once again, I'm not defending Reza here; I don't know all the facts of the case. But I wish the news media would pause and take a deep breath when covering these kinds of stories.

And try to remember that sometimes, one man's cache can simply be another man's collection.

[img]http://www.ocregister.com/mainart_thu.jpg [/img]
A sheriff's investigator carries some of the guns reportedly found in suspect David Reza's storage locker Wednesday in San Juan Capistrano.
Photo: Chas Metivier / The Register

The "grenades" were inert, either practice dumies or dewatted.  Much less dangerous than the ert variety.

The newshead breathlessly explained that "powder" to make them "live" was stored right next to the paperweights.  Wonder what kind of powder, IMR4064?  I know that inert grenades are illegal in this hell hole, but I've seen the "take a number" desk sets out in the open at gunshows.

Also, the "rocket launcher" was a used LAW tube, an LEO was carrying it by the cap lanyard and it spun so you could see all the way through it.  Notwithstanding the anarchist cookbook, we used to call that "trash."

I am sure that they've got some tape recordings or something of David Reza threatening co-workers which makes him a dumbass.

But like the picture above, all I saw on the news was a whole lot of wood. Mostly antiques and single shot type rifles and Winchesters. I did see two AR-15's but they looked legal. There was one M4 type posed next to an unattached grenade/flare launcher. Neither one illegal when kept separate. And as for the Missile Launcher, also empty and without projectile and probably inert.

My bet is on a conviction of making terrorist threats = misdemeanor and maybe a loss of a few guns. People have to learn that you don't make threats, even as a joke, when you work at a Nuclear Power facility.

Found this information in another web article:
----------------------------------------------
Among the firearms were M-16s, an AR-15 assault rifle, four inert grenades, a light anti-tank rocket launcher [b]and brass knuckles[/b], according to authorities.

Three deputies conducting the storage facility search got sick from gas they inhaled when they opened an ammunition box. They were treated at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo and released.

Jaramillo said that the hand grenades found by deputies were inert but that Reza had "the necessary powder and everything else that would make them active."

Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Henderson said that some of the weapons Reza had were registered "but not all were."

[b]The guns "have to be taken apart to see if they have something that makes them automatic or if they are semiautomatic" before it can be determined if they are legal to possess, the prosecutor said.[/b]

They will no doubt be examined with hammers and blowtorches.

The one I saw in amongst his leverguns on the boob tube last night appeared to be an airsoft gun. It had the little red "fake gun" identifier on the muzzle.

I just had a picture in my head of some guy taking apart all those lever-action rifles to see if the "have something that makes them automatic..."

Most people probably don't know what "inert" means.  However, it is a felony under Caliban law to possess an inert hand grenade.  They were outlawed several years ago.

It used to be a popular office joke to have a mock grenade with a "Complaint Form" attached to the pin.  Not since the Caliban cleaned up all profane non-PC idols.

The "M16s" and AR-15 might actually be legal, if Reza registered them as Assault Weapons and they are in proper semiauto configuration.  If he's got M16 fire control parts he could be looking at both state and federal unregistered machinegun charges whether or not they are capable of automatic fire.

Possession of brass knuckles is a felony under Caliban law.

A Brass Knuckle firearm?! COoL! Ya think it hurts to fire it?

Who writes these things?

This goes to show everybody, be REALLY careful what you say at work, especially if the management knows you are a gun owner. With all the shoot-outs at work involving disgrunted employees, and the heighten alert of law-enforcment against "terrorists;" "what you say can be used against you in a court of law." This guy was STUPID! he should have just quit and go on to something else and we would have never heard about him; but now the next time he sees his beloved gun collection, it will most likley in the form of a rebar. I would also like Mike Corona of Orange County is a real pro-gun sheriff for So. Calif. anyways.

The 3 long guns that the guy is holding in one hand (must be pretty strong) appear to be BB guns.

OMG....amd to think, I used to LIKE California somewhat!

If that's true, that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

Robby

Glad I wasn't the only one who had this image....hmmm, would the news article read:

"David Reza was arrested yesterday with a large arsenal of fully automatic lever action belt-fed daisy BB guns."

medcop

Those brass knuckles are going to do him in.

Maybe they should learn to keep their noses out of where they don't belong. [;D]





hehe...I too pictured someone taking apart the Winchesters.

Though if those "M16's and AR15's" weren't full auto before, they will be shortly.

I still think they're BB guns.  First, the guy would have to be pretty strong to carry 3 "real" long guns in one hand.  I had ones very similar to these when I was a kid.  All are by Daisy.

The lever gun that looks like a Winchester 94- Daisy BB gun.  The lever is open, but there is no bolt protruding from the receiver.  Also, appears hammer is forward with lever open. Can't happen on a Winchester, but it can on the Daisy.  Note the discolored area on the mag tube, in front of the forearm.  I believe that is part of the BB magazine.  It's similar to an ejection rod on a SA revolver.  

The gun that looks like a shotgun - Daisy pump BB gun.  Very small forearm (hidden by head).  Diameter of barrel is because BB's are stored in bulk in the barrel.  Hinged mechanism (visible) from forearm to receiver that folds in the middle.

The other one- the cheapest plain-jane gun that Daisy made.  No forearm, but a lever action with large diameter barrel for BB storage.

Maybe I'm wrong but they all "fit" and BB guns were mentioned in the article and I know these things have collector value.