Posted on 05/28/2008 8:52:11 AM PDT by mnehring
Investigators say a ‘‘survivalist” with a stockpile of food and more than 30 weapons and 230 pounds of chemicals was ‘‘rolling along” in producing explosives in his Gaithersburg townhouse when he was arrested last week.
When authorities searched the man’s home, they also found his 12-year-old son sleeping with a loaded handgun under his pillow and another within reach, county police said.
An anonymous tip about illegal fireworks led federal and county investigators to James L. Boka, 47, officials said. He was arrested May 21 and charged with 11 counts of possession of a destructive device, two counts of reckless endangerment and one count of weapon endangerment to a minor, according to a statement from county fire officials. He was released from custody the same day on $60,000 bond.
‘‘The amount of chemicals that he had in his house were a public safety hazard,...‘‘...We were just glad we were able to stop this guy because he was already rolling along.
A James Boka registered with an online Ron Paul county group described himself as a U.S. Navy veteran who has worked inside Washington for 25 years in nearly every major agency, including World Bank, Pentagon.
I have been aware of the plan to destroy the USA for many years now and I have grown tired of preaching the danger to so many people who do not want to hear it,the profile continues. ...There is nothing more important to any American right now than to fight off the attempts of the New World Order and its puppet masters from destroying the last few pieces of the United States Constitution before it is too late. I want to help in any way I can so my son does not grow up in a fascist police state.
(Excerpt) Read more at gazette.net ...
Dumbass move for sure.
But the several hundred pounds of mystery chemicals would bother me
Kind of depends on the chemicals. 50 lb of glycerin and 100 lb each of nitric and sulphuric acids might make me worry, IF HE WERE COMBINING THEM, but just having them around in case, not a worry. I'd be more concerned about gasoline stockpiling. I remember the gasoline crunch brought on by dismal Jimmah's profund ignorance of economics (now displaced by Obama in the ignorance category) and people storing gas in plastic milk jugs. There were a number of fires due to vapor seepage and leakage.
“An anonymous tip about illegal fireworks led federal and county investigators to James L. Boka”
Firecrackers now require a Federal response?
Automatics use ‘magazines’, some speed loaders for revolvers are commonly known as ‘moon clips’ (as opposed to stripper clips). The locked case I use doesn’t use keys, it is a quick access that you press a code in similar to this:
http://www.pistolsafestore.com/GV1000DLX.htm
Of course, I am not going to be so arrogant as to say people shouldn’t listen to you simply because you don’t know these common little things.
...of course, I’m not even sure why I’m justifying myself to someone who didn’t even know the basics of the NRA Safety tips or US Army Field Safety manual and called them ‘silly’..
An unloaded gun is never ready to use, unless you want to use it as a club.
Store guns so they are not accessible to unauthorized persons.
Keeping it under one's pillow should ensure that it is inaccessible to unauthorized persons.
When authorities searched the man’s home, they also found his 12-year-old son sleeping with a loaded handgun under his pillow and another within reach, county police said.
If the boy had been properly trained, they would have found him firing a loaded handgun at armed intruders. I don't keep mine under my pillow, but it is within easy reach. Armed intruders, take note.
What benefit do you see in having your revolver unloaded?
I’ve been interested in this subject area for quite some time. Not once have I ever heard of a home defense strategy that involves an unloaded weapon. You would get laughed right out of several discussion groups that specialize in this subject (http://www.thehighroad.org/ or http://www.thefiringline.com/ for example).
Also, you are grossly misunderstanding the meaning of NRA Gun Safety Rule #3. What this is referring to is a weapon that has been brought out (to be cleaned, to be transported to a firing range, to be shown to a friend, etc.) In all of those cases, yes, you want to immediately engage the safety, drop the magazine, rack the slide, and ensure that the weapon is completely unloaded.
In the case of a home defense weapon, it’s considered to be “in use”. It’s not being stored. You are using it for the purpose of home defense. It must be in a useable state (not unloaded or excessively locked up).
Upon reflection I think I’ll give this guy a dumbass and a halfass award. He was a dubass for calling attention to himself, but he wasn’t really prepared. He had enough stuff to get himself into trouble, but not enough stuff to nail the first wave of invaders. I guess the moral of this story is that if you’re really into survivalism, you should have your claymores deployed and ready for the click when they’re lining up to kick in the door otherwise don’t bother or you’ll just get into trouble. (not sure how fireworks aid survival anyway)
When you come right down to it, the only place they'd consider safe is locked in a safe with a 4 number combination. Or better yet, a safe at the gun range, or even better a government arsenal. And the only condition they'd consider safe is unloaded, with the ammo kept in a separate locked container.
Because that is how I was trained starting at around age 10 when I got my first gun. We have children coming into our house often (wife teaches piano), and even though all my guns are locked up and not even where they are apparently visible, I don't want to take a chance with other people's children who may not ever have been around one and know how to handle it. That is the only one where I even keep the ammunition even close to my gun, the others are in a cabinet safe with the ammunition locked in a separate safe drawer below it. I don't care what 'discussion' board may laugh, this is my choice of responsibility based on the situation I am in. I wonder if those discussion boards would laugh at someone keeping a loaded gun under their pillow ala hollywood.
20 seconds is a long, long time. Plus, under stress that 20 seconds could turn in to a minute really easily.
That said, I don't keep my firearms with a round in the chamber, but otherwise at least one is always loaded and ready to go. I keep the hammer back too, which makes chambering a round really fast, and it's only one motion, so even under stress the time to complete it would not increase too much. If I had a double action revolver, it would be loaded with one less than a full cylinder, with the empty one under the hammer.
But that's just me. I don't trust mechanical safeties...although I always carried my shotgun with a round in the chamber and the safety on. Felt pretty righteous about it too, since I knew many who carried with the safety off when in the field.
The explosives, especially making them. Endangering you and yours is one thing, but endangering the folks in the next townhouse/apartment is quite another. But no the charges would be no different
The explosives, especially making them. Endangering you and yours is one thing, but endangering the folks in the next townhouse/apartment is quite another. But no the charges would be no different
Depends on what they mean by loaded and the particular 12 year old. If a revolver with an empty chamber under the hammer is "loaded", and it is, having one under your pillow is about like have a pair of brass knuckles under there, from a safety standpoint. Similarly if a semi-auto with an empty chamber.
The operative word is “ Loadedâ€, it might be that the gun was an automatic, with the clip loaded, but no round in the gun, in that case all that would be needed to load the gun is to work the slide, but the gun without working the slide was not loaded. Hey El Gato, how are you doing with El Pero??
I see things pretty much your way. My headboard pistol is a Glock 22, which I keep fully loaded (15+1) but in a holster. It can’t be fired without removing it from the holster which doesn’t take long. If a home invasion is going down I’m aware I might not have long. If I do have time to walk across the room, woe be unto those who have entered my home without authorization and, unfortunately, to some of my stuff as well when I start firing my 12 gauge at them.
I have to disagree mnehrling, I’m a revolver man when it comes to hand guns and I keep the first chamber empty, the other five are all loaded. Now under the pillow is probably not a real good idea, I like under the matress much better.
I'd like to see just exactly what the so-called "explosives" were. I noticed that the breathless reporting was rather uninformative on this score. "Bomb making materials" are almost anything the cops want them to be.
Fair enough, I’m just glad we are back to this discussion that is actually productive versus the attempted hijacking trying to make this about a presidential candidate whom I won’t name. :->
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