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Up in arms over gun: Replica rifle has Brooklyn man at odds with cops
NY Daily News ^ | 29 July 2009 | Joseph Goldstein

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; US: New York
KEYWORDS: banglist; bloomberg; brooklyn; donttreadonme; rifle; shallnotbeinfringed
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To: BGHater

He plans on using it for crawl-by shootings, I guess.


41 posted on 07/29/2009 10:54:39 AM PDT by Hatteras
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To: Hacklehead

Antique design.


42 posted on 07/29/2009 11:11:57 AM PDT by Shooter 2.5 (NRA /Patron - TSRA- IDPA)
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To: thefactor

You get a $12,000 check every year? Nice


43 posted on 07/29/2009 11:13:58 AM PDT by wastedyears (The Tree is thirsty and the hogs are hungry.)
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To: BGHater
"... The flintlock rifle 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."

Meanwhile, out here in Northern Nevada, my county sheriff signs our machine gun permits with a grin on his face if you catch him in the hallway at the station.

44 posted on 07/29/2009 11:20:59 AM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: BGHater

look for a big increase in driveby musketings...


45 posted on 07/29/2009 11:22:40 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB (ACORN:American Corruption for Obama Right Now)
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To: BGHater

‘followed quickly by city cops.’

Arseholes in fancy blue costumes; there seem to be a great many of them in NY - and, alas, all around the US. In the 30’s and 40’s, these types wore black or brown.


46 posted on 07/29/2009 11:23:39 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: John Galt's cousin

They could simply ignore it and deal w/ real crime but instead.... I think we’re back to the IQ thing.


47 posted on 07/29/2009 11:35:13 AM PDT by 556x45
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To: Shooter 2.5

The actual statute is below. It seems pretty clear that a permit is not required.

Antiques and Replicas:

Antique rifles, shotguns and handguns, and replicas thereof, generally are exempt from the above restrictions and can be bought and possessed without a permit. (Persons who shoot muzzle loading handguns must be properly licensed.) Antique handguns must be unloaded and possessed without the materials to load same.


48 posted on 07/29/2009 11:39:54 AM PDT by Hacklehead (Liberalism is the art of taking what works, breaking it, and then blaming conservatives.)
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To: WKUHilltopper

You should still be able to have cap-and-ball rifles, handguns, and shotguns, as long as they are only muzzle loadrers, per what they quoted as the “law”.


49 posted on 07/29/2009 11:46:39 AM PDT by 2harddrive (S)
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To: wastedyears

thats aside from the regular pension. it’s called a variable supplement. you pay into it your whole career and get an annual check in december when you retire. i figure it’ll be good for property taxes, buying a car, whatever. it is taxed federally, of course, but it’s a good deal.


50 posted on 07/29/2009 12:31:56 PM PDT by thefactor (yes, as a matter of fact, i DID only read the excerpt)
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To: NMEwithin

He IS a criminal in THEIR minds because he owns a gun. That’s their “logic.”


51 posted on 07/29/2009 1:20:26 PM PDT by mrmeyer ("When brute force is on the march, compromise is the red carpet." Ayn Rand)
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To: BGHater

You don’t have to excerpt the NY Daily News or the NY Observer. Otherwise, thanks for posting a story that makes NYC look absurd with its hoplophobia obsession.


52 posted on 07/29/2009 1:55:12 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: BGHater
a little-known exemption

It's not the only one. There are other options which are unregulated in NY.

53 posted on 07/29/2009 1:58:19 PM PDT by ctdonath2 (John Galt was exiled.)
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To: BGHater

A police source says the war could end peacefully if Littlejohn applied for a permit with the NYPD handgun license division.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

They want him to get a permit from the HANDGUN division for a FLINTLOCK RIFLE! Nothing illogical there, NO SIR.


54 posted on 07/29/2009 2:33:28 PM PDT by RipSawyer (Change has come to America and all hope is gone.)
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To: John Galt's cousin

Actually the police are being ordered to ignore the law and persecute a man with a legal “non-firearm”.


55 posted on 07/29/2009 7:34:38 PM PDT by rmlew ( The SAVE and GIVE acts are institutioning Corvee. Where's the outtrage!)
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To: brushcop
I'm currently staying near a very, very, very small village in very, very rural NM. A couple of boys, probably 6 and 8 were walking up the road as I was driving down it, early one morning (false sunrise), and when they saw my vehicle, they made sure the muzzles of the weapons (.22s?) were pointed into the bar-ditch.

I gave them a hand salute as I dusted by them, and yelled out the window "good luck".

I spent the next 8 hours to my destination, wondering how a liberal would have reacted. My conclusion, the kids would be toast. I'm glad it was me there, that morning, and not a lib.

And I'm glad the kids were well trained.

/johnny

56 posted on 08/03/2009 4:49:27 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (God Bless us all, each, and every one.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Now that experiece warms the cockles of my heart! There are still REAL kids out there, thanks for that! Regardless if .22s or BB guns the safety concern/discipline is just as valid, great !


57 posted on 08/03/2009 5:03:27 PM PDT by brushcop (SFC Sallie, CPL Long, LTHarris, SSG Brown, PVT Simmons KIA OIF lll&V, they died for you, honor them)
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To: brushcop
After I passed them by and did the appropriate NCO/adult response thing, I teared up like a little girl. Who knew that there were places left in the US that little kids could still do that.

I did a lot of traveling/shooting in the early mornings as a kid. I thought that part of America was gone.

/johnny

58 posted on 08/03/2009 5:07:45 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (God Bless us all, each, and every one.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

I suspect that there are many more of us that would respond the same way as you did than you might think. In those little villages in NM and some small towns here in Texas, I don’t think there’s the level of obsession with texting and iPods; I saw some kids with fishing rods heading down to our now trickling “river” (severe drought) in Central Texas so there’s still “hope” but a real hope, not the phony stuff being touted today.


59 posted on 08/03/2009 5:43:20 PM PDT by brushcop (SFC Sallie, CPL Long, LTHarris, SSG Brown, PVT Simmons KIA OIF lll&V, they died for you, honor them)
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