Virginia Tech student accused of having assault rifle and trying to buy ammo

CNN ^

[MNDude]

Virginia Tech student accused of having assault rifle and trying to buy ammo By Nicole Chavez and Keith Allen, CNN

Updated at 7:32 AM ET, Wed January 31, 2018

History of the modern assault-style rifle 01:40 (CNN) — A Virginia Tech student was arrested Monday after police said he had an assault rifle and was trying to buy 5,000 rounds of ammunition. Yunsong Zhao, 19, has been charged with illegal possession of an assault rifle while not being a US citizen, according to an arrest warrant obtained by CNN affiliate WSLS. Police say Zhao had bought a former police vehicle -- which still had police markings -- and installed a special bumper to the car. The freshman student had also researched bulletproof vests, the document states. Virginia Tech Police Chief Kevin Foust said Zhao was arrested without incident following a "lengthy investigation."

[familyop]

"'person' means any individual person - non-citizens included"

Yep.

Amendment XIV
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

[Emphasis in bold is mine.]

[CharlesWayneCT]

I wondered about that, not about buying the cruiser, they are often very good deals, but why the police would have let one of their cars go to auction without first removing all markings.

[CharlesWayneCT]

More information at this link: Student allowed to have gun but not high-capacity magazine

According to this article, the student had a Bushmaster XM-15 rifle, not an assault weapon. He is allowed to own that rifle

And, he bought a 30-round capacity magazine in January. Apparently, he's allowed to own that as well.

What he is NOT allowed to do in this crazy country of ours, is to insert that magazine INTO his rifle. So, knowing he bought both, the watched him. "When Zhao retrieved the gun from the locker, Blacksburg police were notified and a detective watched as Zhao inserted the magazine into the rifle and fired. "

Now, if he legally purchased both parts, my question is, how obvious would it be to him that he was not legally allowed to put those two things together, simply because of his immigration status?

From the search warrant: ""It is not illegal for Zhao to own the two separate items," the search warrant said. "If Zhao inserts a 30 [round] magazine into the rifle (changing the status of the rifle to assault firearm) is when it becomes illegal for him to possess due to his Student Visa status."

So, he was arrested for buying two items he was legally allowed to own, which he stored legally, but in a way that made it obvious when he used them, and then USED those two legal items together at a registered gun range, where he placed the two items together, creating an "assault rifle" which was illegal for him, an immigrant, to have.

Frankly, this stinks.

[AppyPappy]

The same range used by the VT shooter in 2007. Too many similarities.
The VT Police would have needed to follow him to Pandapas Pond to watch him commit the crime. They could have told him “Hey, don’t put those things together. It’s a crime”.
But why not just keep the rifle in your pickup truck at Foxridge apartments? The whole thing is weird.

[WayneS]

Ah, the good old catch-all equal protection clause...

You're right. You've convinced me. There should be no laws preventing anyone residing in the United States, citizen, non-citizen, people here on temporary visas, illegal aliens - anyone - from exercising their rights as protected by the 2nd Amendment.

How silly of me to have ever said, or even thought, otherwise.

[SteveinSATX]

Does the NRA get credit for this too?

[OldMissileer]

Reasonably inexpensive ammo is for .223 is of the order of 40 or 50 cents per round, AFAIK.

Depending on where you go on the Web you can buy 1000 rounds of Lake City 5.56 NATO M193 for less than $300 before shipping. That makes it around $0.30 per round if you include about $20 shipping fee.

When I go out to my property and shoot 5.56 I usually end up firing about 500 rounds. 5000 rounds will last me two or three months. That is the down-side to owning an AR. They are so fun and easy to shoot you burn up a lot of ammo, but it is better than partying and drinking away the money.

[OldMissileer]

The VT shooter had a vest where he stored all the magazines. I don’t recall if it was bullet-proof.

The Press squealed that he had a "bullet proof" vest but it was not.

[publius911]

I thought that Constitutional rights applied to everyone in the US.

A patently absurd statement.

Would that include criminal MS-13 killers and as yet undiscovered koranimal killers?

Think! Doofus...

[familyop]

"Ah, the good old catch-all equal protection clause...There should be no laws preventing anyone residing in the United States, citizen, non-citizen, people here on temporary visas, illegal aliens - anyone - from exercising their rights as protected by the 2nd Amendment."

Except for the fallacy of the undistributed middle. Some of those groups aren't like the others in some important ways.

Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
Wikipedia
Meaning of "the right of the People" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Meaning_of_"the_right_of_the_People"
[...]
An earlier case, United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez (1990), dealt with nonresident aliens and the Fourth Amendment, but led to a discussion of who are "the People" when referred to elsewhere in the Constitution:[168]

The Second Amendment protects "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms," and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments provide that certain rights and powers are retained by and reserved to "the people" ... While this textual exegesis is by no means conclusive, it suggests that "the people" protected by the Fourth Amendment, and by the First and Second Amendments, and to whom rights and powers are reserved in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, refers to a class of persons who are part of a national community or who have otherwise developed sufficient connection with this country to be considered part of that community.

There were several different reasons for this amendment, and protecting militias was only one of them; if protecting militias had been the only reason then the amendment could have instead referred to "the right of the militia to keep and bear arms" instead of "the right of the people to keep and bear arms".[169][170]
[...]

168. Kopel, David B. (1999). The Supreme Court's Thirty-five Other Gun Cases: What the Supreme Court Has Said about the Second Amendment. Independence Institute. Retrieved March 17, 2013.

[familyop]

The lawyer who wrote the following cited Fletcher v. Haas and gave us this link. His article is really well written, concise and informative.

http://ia600607.us.archive.org/23/items/gov.uscourts.mad.135876/gov.uscourts.mad.135876.31.0.pdf

Permanent resident aliens have second amendment rights too
Posted on April 2, 2012 by John Pierce
http://monachuslex.com/?p=143

Bio excerpt from the bottom of his page linked above:
“Monachus Lex is written by Virginia attorney John Pierce. John is a life-long gun rights advocate, an NRA certified instructor and co-founder of the nationwide gun rights group OpenCarry.org.”

Thanks to John Pierce!

[familyop]

On permanent resident aliens and the Second Amendment, you two might want to have a look at the quotations and links in the following comments in this thread. Hope the information is helpful.

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3627760/posts?page=70#70

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3627760/posts?page=71#71

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3627760/posts?page=61#61

[familyop]

Some visitors can also legally possess firearms, some of them under particular conditions. But sorry, I didn’t have time to research that much for now.

[familyop]

The link didn’t work for me, so this is from a quick search.

Former Virginia Tech student was allowed to have gun, but not with high-capacity magazine
http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/montgomery_county/former-virginia-tech-student-was-allowed-to-have-gun-but/article_47983e3e-6501-56aa-b328-b61f7e4989df.html

[familyop]

My dorm in a university in the Midwest was next to a Chinese dorm in the ‘80s, and one of my English comp. instructors was a PLA captain. Interesting people to learn from. Zhao is a big shot back in China with his friends having a definite language advantage there. That’s going to stir things up more later on. They all go through a PLA school before visiting the States to get degrees. The following article is a good one to learn from for this particular topic, if you don’t have much time and want an easy read.

The cave the Chinese president called home
http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/xi-jinping-cave/index.html

[WayneS]

That is exactly the point I was making to the other person with whom I was exchanging posts prior to you inserting yourself in to the discussion.

And for the record, just to be clear, I was being 100% sarcastic.

[familyop]

Good! Thanks!

[zeugma]

Some visitors can also legally possess firearms, some of them under particular conditions. But sorry, I didn’t have time to research that much for now.

The thing that came to mind for me immediately was an example of a foreigner from Australia who wants to go hunting on a deer lease in Texas. Suppose his guns get lost or destroyed. Would he be SOL? I would hope not, but given the insanity that is our current government, I wouldn't be entirely surprised.

[Pontiac]

“...had bought a former police vehicle — which still had police markings...” Seems like a bad practice.

Mostly because it is a lot of work and requires a lot of special chemicals to get the decals off without destroying the paint.

The cars are usually bought by dealers for resale.

The dealers know that by law the decals must be removed and remove them before they put them on their lot for sale.

I am guessing that this student bought the car at auction himself.

[AppyPappy]

I think you need a special registration to buy from the auction.