Clippings From a Society With a Gun in Every Home

Whatever our success in tracking down Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda or other overseas terrorists, Americans here at home intend on taking no chances. Domestic gun sales have shown a steady rise of better than 10 percent since Sept. 11, adding significantly to the 200 million or more firearms already thought to be in private hands.

Against an otherwise lethargic yuletide market, The Wall Street Journal reports heavier than usual sales of firearms as Christmas gifts, some even for children. Who can say? Perhaps bin Laden will have displaced Charlton Heston as the gun industry's man of the year.

Unless that honor already belongs to William Bloomquist of Baldwin, Maine. Determined to discourage any terrorists passing his way, this 43-year-old lawyer has crammed his basement with 81 guns and bazookas along with 20,000 rounds of ammunition, plus a supply of practice rockets and hand grenades. Tipped off by a nosy neighbor, police served a restraining order barring further expansion of Bloomquist's private arsenal.

We are indebted to assorted news sources, mainly the Associated Press, for this and other highlights of America's post-9/11 arms buildup. They add up to a familiar catalog of bank heists and armed holdups, family fatalities, neighborhood gang and drive-by killings. Shoot-'em-up venues have ranged from a factory floor in northern Indiana (1 dead, 7 wounded) to an outdoor swap meet in south central Los Angeles (3 wounded).

For homegrown terrorism, we needn't look beyond southern Oregon. A lingering public dispute over Klamath Basin water rights -- farmers versus fishermen and tribal Indians -- climaxed in a weekend shooting spree. For most of an afternoon, angry landowners riddled street signs and store fronts in rural Chiloquin.

There's been the usual abundance of "I didn't know it was loaded" mishaps. One of these brought tragedy two days after Christmas to a police SWAT exercise in East Providence, R.I. Chief Gary Dias said a new member of his force died from a fellow trainee's rifle fire during a hostage drill. Since the action was not supposed to involve live ammunition, a state inquiry is under way.

But if there is a seasonal award for incompetence with firearms, it must belong to Robert Wissman of Goshen, Ind. He is the jilted lover who toted a 12-gauge shotgun into a millwork factory that also employs his one-time girl friend and a rival for her affections.

Wissman intended killing both. He failed, possibly for lack of proper NRA training. Although wounding seven other workers, his fusillade struck neither of the prime targets. A coroner's report says Wissman then needed no fewer than four gun blasts to end his own life.

The Second Amendment is touted for the gun rights it guarantees hunters and sportsmen, upstanding folk who know all about safety in the wilds.

This could hardly describe 22-year-old Chris Garcia of Pacoima, Calif. Hunting with friends in the Angeles National Forest, Garcia climbed a tree for a better view of the woody terrain. He slipped and fell, accidentally discharging his high-powered rifle. A bullet passed through Garcia's left hand and into his face. He will live.

Hunting in Montana's Blackfoot-Clearwater wildlife area, Timothy Helston, 54, of Great Falls shot an elk. Proceeding to gut the animal where it fell, he failed to detect the approach of a grizzly bear. Helston's mauled corpse was found by rangers, who ordered the area closed indefinitely.

Shooting an elk brought lesser retribution to Rudolph Stidham of Jackson, Ken. Thinking he had an enormous deer, Stidham proudly paraded the carcass around town in his pickup. But more experienced hunters informed Stidham he had bagged one of 1,300 protected elk that wildlife officials sought to restore in the Appalachians.

The errant hunter faces up to $8,000 in fines, plus possible jail time. Said an irate game commissioner: "Anyone who can't tell an elk from a deer should forfeit his firearms."

Finally, a gun owner checking luggage at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport was asked by a ticket agent to demonstrate that his rifle was not loaded. Seconds later, its accidental discharge sent a bullet through a plate glass window and into a planter.

No charges were filed. Delta Airlines boarded the man and his wife for their holiday flight without further incident.

Posted for information and discussion only.











              Thursday, November 29, 2001

              Arsenal seized from
              Baldwin home

              By DAVID HENCH, Portland Press Herald
              Writer

              Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
                                               
                                                 E-mail this story to a
                                                        friend

                                                           
               

              BALDWIN — Authorities investigating a domestic abuse
              complaint Tuesday night found a cache of military weapons,
              including a .30-caliber machine gun, dozens of
              semiautomatic rifles and more than 20,000 rounds of
              ammunition. There is apparently nothing illegal about the
              weapons themselves, but investigators say they also found
              11 marijuana plants and processed marijuana, totaling about
              one pound.

              William C. Bloomquist, 43, of Sunset View Road faces three
              counts of aggravated assault and a misdemeanor charge of
              marijuana cultivation after turning himself in to the
              Cumberland County Sheriff's Department on Wednesday.

              Bloomquist is charged with
              assaulting his wife, former
              University of Southern
              Maine basketball star
              Kateriina Pulkkinen. He is
              accused of shocking her
              repeatedly with a stun gun
              and hitting her with a
              flashlight, assaults that
              allegedly occurred over the
              past month.

              Sheriff Mark Dion
              displayed Bloomquist's
              arsenal at a press conference at the county Law
              Enforcement Center.

              "It's almost like Mr. Bloomquist knew the Constitution's
              Second Amendment right to a well-regulated militia and took
              it upon himself to be personally responsible for its
              armament," Dion said.

              The weapons were seized because authorities said they
              wanted to avoid the possibility of serious injuries.

              Bloomquist, through his lawyer, denied the accusations of
              domestic violence and said they are the product of a
              contentious divorce. He also said there is nothing illegal
              about the weapons. 

              "Mr. Bloomquist is a licensed arms dealer, and all of these
              arms that have been taken are displays. Most weren't
              operable at the time, and he was in possession of these
              firearms and weapons legally," said attorney Robert
              Andrews.

              He would not comment specifically about the drug charge.

              Detectives with the sheriff's department began investigating
              the case Monday after Pulkkinen reported that her husband
              had bragged of killing people. Investigators determined there
              was no truth to such stories, but did conclude that
              Pulkkinen's statements justified charges of domestic assault.

              On Monday, Pulkkinen obtained a temporary
              protection-from-abuse order.

              Alerted to the presence of the guns, more than a dozen
              Cumberland County sheriff's detectives and deputies
              approached the expansive house in the Saddleback Hills at 5
              p.m. Tuesday to serve the protection order on Bloomquist
              and to help Pulkkinen retrieve her belongings.

              Officials say that in abusive relationships, the most
              dangerous period for the victim is when she decides to leave.

              Bloomquist was not at home when officials arrived.

              In a wall of built-in bookshelves filled with law journals,
              investigators say they discovered that a section swung
              outward. Behind that was a hidden door, wired to a device
              like a firecracker that would make a loud noise but cause no
              injury.

              The passage led to a basement room where investigators
              found Bloomquist's collection.

              Amid the 81 guns - semiautomatic rifles, carbines and pistols
              from a variety of countries - was a rifle with a night-vision
              scope, two rocket launchers, boxes of ammunition and hand
              grenades.

              They also say they found a working .30-caliber Browning
              machine gun. And outside on the front deck, overlooking the
              steep hillside approach to the house, was a mount for the
              gun.

              Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and
              Firearms and the state police bomb squad assisted in
              Tuesday's operation. 

              Bloomquist also owns an armored personnel carrier, though
              it was not at his home when police arrived because it was
              being repaired.

              The department has not confiscated the weapons, though if
              Bloomquist is convicted of felony assault he will lose his
              right to own a firearm.

              Pulkkinen does not accuse Bloomquist of using the guns in
              an assault, though they did contribute to her intimidation, as
              did his stories about having killed people, according to
              officials and her lawyer, Judith Wohl.

              Wohl said that divorce proceedings are not under way,
              though she said Pulkkinen plans to file for divorce soon.

              Bloomquist graduated from the USM in 1992 with an
              international studies major. The Portland Press Herald ran a
              story in 1989 about a thesis that Bloomquist wrote
              advocating a more aggressive war on drugs.

              Bloomquist is a former Planning Board member in Bridgton.

              In his second year of law school, Bloomquist was offered an
              internship with the Cumberland County District Attorney's
              office, but the offer was rescinded following a background
              check with the Bridgton Police Department.

              Bloomquist graduated from the University of Maine School
              of Law in 1998, but he has been unable to pass the Maine
              Bar exam in many attempts, most recently in July.

              Dion said authorities have been puzzled by how Bloomquist
              could afford such an extensive weapons collection - which
              authorities say is worth more than $100,000 - and an elegant
              house when he does not appear to have a job.

              Bloomquist said that he is self-employed, doing legal work
              and investigations and that he also sells firearms.

              Pulkkinen, who is from Finland, graduated in 1993 from
              USM, where she was a center for the Huskies basketball
              team and scored more than 1,000 points. She is a social
              worker.

              The two have been married for about 10 years and have no
              children.

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