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 ...
If I knew where this guy lived, I’d bring a six pack of beer to his door.
Once again proving the low IQ of most cops.
IF they make you register it, do us a favor and shove it up bloomberg’s arse instead.
Some loophole in the city code that faithful replicas of antiques do not count as antiques?
“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.”
The irony...still think you live in the “home of the free”? Pffft!
Is it me or does he look a little like DH?
Not the America I knew...
“Once again proving the low IQ of most cops.”
Unfair. the cops are just enforcing the stupid local law that the city council enacted.
NYC ping
What’s your opinion?
He looks like the illegitimate love child of Duncan Hunter and Tommy Thompson
It’s a relief to know that there is no more crime in Bloomberg’s New York. Obviously, the city cops have nothing much else left to do these days.
This is NYC you’re referring to - I’d say 97% of them are in on it.
LOL! That's terrible
Well BG, it seems the Feds too are after blackpowder firearms. There is a big BATF surcharge on all such weapons. It is invisible to most buyers who get their flintlocks and percussion weapons from retailers but I noted it on the Tennessee Valley Arms website when I considered ordering a Kentucky/Pennsylvania/Tennessee styled flintlock.
In NJ, if you inherit it you do not have to register it. However, if you buy it it must be registered.
He needs to get 60 patched balls and some FFFF and FF powder. The FF is used for the main charge and the FFFF is used for the flashpan to be ingnited by the flint. Smaller caliber rifles and pistols/revolvers need FFF for the main charge. Cannons use single F.
question: how did the cops find out about the gun? turns out this dude made a silly mistake and the cops found out about the gun.
my statement: the cops who are investigating this have no desire to go after it. they are being told to do it by their boss. and sure enough that is the case!
what a joke. cops do not make laws, legislators do. cops do not make decisions about their cases, their bosses do. and more often than not those bosses are sitting around in an office all day salivating at the chance to get a gun number so they can get a pat on the back from the big bosses/mayor.
geeez....leave the guy alone. Spend your time confiscating guns from you know...criminals?
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