Michael Littlejohn holds the custom-made rifle in question.Posted on 07/29/2009 9:48:47 AM PDT by BGHater
Like America's first soldiers at the Battle of Brooklyn, Michael Littlejohn is fighting for his right to bear arms.
The Revolutionary War buff charges the Bloomberg administration with tyranny for trying to seize his handmade flintlock rifle - a dead ringer for the weapon once used against the redcoats.
"This is the last legal gun that you can have without registration in New York," Littlejohn said. "And yet Mayor Bloomberg is driven crazy by my flintlock gun - the one that won the American Revolution."
Littlejohn fired the first shot when he hired a Tennessee blacksmith to recreate the vintage rifle. It arrived at his Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, apartment in June - followed quickly by city cops.
Police claim it's illegal for Littlejohn to keep the flintlock without a gun license.
Littlejohn, 50, cites the earliest American patriots as his inspiration while refusing to surrender his firearm or apply for a license.
The social worker is also clinging to a little-known exemption in the city's strict gun laws.
The loophole allows license-free ownership of "antique firearms" - defined as rifles that require the bullet and gunpowder to be loaded separately.
Littlejohn's rifle appears to fit the bill.
Loading the weapon, he explains, is a multistep process that takes several pokes with a ramrod and up to a minute to complete.
To fire, the rifle relies on a sharpened piece of flint that produces a spark when the trigger is pulled. That point is moot, Littlejohn says: He doesn't own gunpowder or bullets.
That's not enough to make the NYPD retreat.
The cops visited Littlejohn's apartment and sat down this month with the Tennessee blacksmith who forged the rifle.
Michael Littlejohn holds the custom-made rifle in question.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Readon Fox News this mornign that NYC is buying one way plane tickets for homeless people/families to relocate and reduce some of the burden on the shelters...
If NYC PD thinks because they do not like a law, law abiding citizens can be harassed until submission is a dangerous prededence. Imagine in the future, a mayor and police chief thinks blacks voters cheat in elections and decide that blacks cannot vote despite the US Voters Right Law and use phalanxes of policemen near voting booths to do Homeland Security style searches for drugs, and weapons and detain blacks as they attempt to vote, challenging them to spend legal fees to undo the act.
Cops in this country are obligated by their position not to enforce illegal laws. Same thing as a military unlawful order.
I recently bought a black podwer gun in PA and there was absolutely no paperwork or background check required.
Like someone else has said, the cops must have all of the crime under control to harass this citizen.....and that’s what it is, harassment.
It’s like Keller didn’t happen. We need lawsuits under 18 USC 251 and 252 (violation of civil rights). If we had a fedgov that cared about its people’s rights, wed get prosecutions, too, but that’s not going to happen...
No offense, but that's just why I don't want to be a NYC cop. I know I could handle a firearm far better than the ones who only go to a range to requalify, but just the stigma of the city and PD... I don't want to be associated with it. I have an old friend who's a cop, as well as a cousin by marriage.
Nice neighborly thing for the Staples copy center to do, do you think the manager was a Dem?
Not the America I want to know....
There’s a Staples not too far from me, it was probably that one.
I guess they won’t be getting my business.
One more reason I love Texas, what a joke NY is and yet upstate NY is made up of good ol’ folks, they are NOT NYCers.
When we had moved to NM in the 50s, I would strap my Model 63A Windchester .22 to my Cruisaire motorscooter and go through town to my favorite rabbit hunting area in the neaby San Juan River valley, nary a peep from anyone including police who I knew, as a kid “knows” adults—by sight.
Never shot myself or anyone else but shot lots of rabbits for me and my Navajo friends. Today’s society is sick, we have no liberty like we used to...
The cops statement in the article about the direction for their actions coming from above indicates the source of this persecution is not the police.
Its the little pipsqueak of a pansey Mayor who thinks his ability to jump from one political party to another with equal facility and his millions of dollars qualifies him to be President of the U.S.
My guess is this came direct from Mayor Bloomberg’s playpen - excuse me, office.
According to the Federal Government, this “weapon” is not even a firearm as it does not fire fixed ammuniation and is loaded from the muzzle. But you can expect Holder and his puppeteer Obama to get right on solving that little omission.
It should be apparent to ANYONE who reads this episode taht the driving force behind gun control has little or NOTHING to do with public safety.
it's unfortunate, but if you want to carry a gun you might have to move.
i'm one heck of a shot though.
Are you going to tell them why you are not doing business with them any more?
Oh I’m definitely moving south. Far cheaper living in every aspect, as well as respect for peoples’ privacy and life.
when i retire in 14 years i’ll join you.
Perhaps I will need to dig a basement for my house.
After 20 or 25 years you retire with pension?
20 years. half pay. full benefits for me and my family as long as i am alive.
oh, plus the variable supplement which means i get a check for $12,000 every december in addition to my pension.
“The loophole allows license-free ownership of “antique firearms” - defined as rifles that require the bullet and gunpowder to be loaded separately.”
So the rifle can be brand new and an antique at the same time? Makes no sense which is the norm in NYC.
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