Rick Warren Says Late Son Got Illegal Gun on Internet

ABC News ^ | April 12, 2013 | Arlette Saenz

[yongin]

Pastor Rick Warren said Thursday that his son, Matthew, purchased an unregistered gun over the Internet. It was that weapon that he used to take his own life last week after years of battling mental illness. "Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun. I pray he seeks God's forgiveness. I forgive him. #MATTHEW 6:15," Warren tweeted Thursday. The Orange County Sheriff's Department told the Associated Press it is trying to identify the seller, but the gun's serial number was unreadable, making it difficult to trace the firearm.

[Winstons Julia]

Lesseee... what do we know about California? We know they have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, right? We know this, right?

And we know that they are hopelessly inept at getting guns away from criminals and the mentally incapacitated, right?

I mean, there’s been article upon article about it.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/california-cant-afford-to-enforce-its-own-gun-laws/

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=8973241

So...even though Cali has incredibly restrictive gun laws... they can’t enforce them. This is why adding MORE is ludicrous.

Regardless of whether or not Matthew Warren was a prohibited possessor (and you have to admit that from what his parents have said...if he was VERY depressed from childhood, he may well have been) he got that gun... apparently, illegally.

Again... Rick Warren didn’t toss down the gauntlet for gun control ... quite the opposite.

He is saying what the police have told him. His son got an ILLEGAL weapon.

Unregistered, with the serial number scratched off.

Thank God Rick didn’t Tweet: “I forgive the gun that killed my son.” eh?

He forgave the person who sold his son the illegal weapon. And AGAIN... No gun control law would have prevented the tragedy.... because the gun was unregistered and illegal.

“It makes a big difference. Possibly. Yes, and possibly, he was not a prohibited possesor. We do not know, do we?”

Yet. It may come out later. But it doesn’t really matter. Rick Warren didn’t do some huge egregious damage to the gun debate and, as I said, the case of Matthew Warren can’t be argued to SUPPORT gun control.

Now. I’m going to enjoy the rest of my night. I hope you do, too.

[Myrddin]

I'm sorry too. My home and family are in Idaho. I've been working in San Diego since June 2009 to keep food on the table after Obama arrived. I wanted to buy a specific rifle and knew that I can't do that in CA as an ID resident. All Summer and Fall in 2012 I looked forward to going home for Christmas and being able to purchase the rifle in ID. My date to drive home...Dec 14th. About the time I was leaving the Barstow gas stop, it was apparent that a shooting event had occurred. By the time I reached Idaho, the panic buying mode was in full swing. The rifle I wanted was scooped up and gone. I had to return to San Diego on Jan 2nd. No purchase and no opportunity to do so. The jackasses in DC may well legislate me out of the opportunity before I can go home again.

[Vendome]

Wasn’t saying Rick is lyin.

Poor man has been through enough.

The story about the kid buying a gun off the internet and that is is unregistered(they don’t know that it wasn’t and that they may not be able to trace the gun.

No? Really? The serial number was rubbed off every part? Okay, i accept that as a stipulation before extancy. However, as someone who deals in the Internet as a service I sell, the only way they would know if he bought it off the Internet is from his computer.

From there they work backward to the seller tracing.

LEO is putting this out there and implying a whole lot that seems, scratch that, is fishy.

I’m not the only network guy thinking this....

Hope I didn’t offend.

[MHGinTN]

I believe Rick Warren is a twisted person. Maybe he has become that with too much attention, but he is using his son’s tragic suicide to further an agenda, and I suspect he knows he is doing that, so he is willingly tying the suicide to the agenda he supports. I cannot respect a man who claims to be a Christian leader lending himself to the leftist agenda. It reminds me of the woman who drives her pregnant daughter to an abortuary yet claims publicly to be pro-life.

[Vendome]

My shotguns aren’t registered.

Yeo, boating accident.

[Vendome]

Bitcoin!!!

[Vendome]

Didn’t fully comprehend your OP.

[rmh47]

Yep. If you've ever seen how footprints of compressed snow will sometimes remain after the surrounding snow has melted, it's an analogous process. When a serial # or other text is stamped into a metal it compresses the metal under the stamp increasing its molecular density as compared to surrounding metal. Even if the serial number is filed or worn down to the bottom of the impressions (i.e. the stamped digits and/or letters), the metal underneath will be denser, and when given a modulated acid bath to remove the less dense surrounding metal, they can generally be raised.

While that is generally true, there are ways around it. The stamped numbers can be made unreadable easily enough if you know what you are doing.

Fortunately, most criminals don't know how to do this.

[rmh47]

See my post #168.

[Ann Archy]

DUH....the police will find out in 2 seconds where he got the gun from!!

Rick will move out his Global Warming agenda now for his anti-gun agenda...instead he should be going after MENTAL HEALTH and how it's handled!!

[Red in Blue PA]

Rick Warren’s son kills himself so 100 million law abiding citizens should suffer the consequences.

Yup, makes sense to me/s

[eastforker]

Here is a clue guys. It is quite easily done to remove a serial number that can not be raised. All it takes is a little knowledge in how to do it. And there is more than one way to do it.

[Dusty Road]

Somebody may have already pointed this out, I’m not going through all the comments to find out. If the weapon origonaly had a S/N and it was removed that person commited a crime. If he sold it he commited a crime. If a person buys a weapon with the S/N revoved they commit a crime. Everything about this transaction was a crime, the fact that it was done over the internet is irrelevant. His son and the person he purchased the weapon from both commited a felony offense.

This is a prime example of why gun regulation will not work.

[eastforker]

Exactly right. A drill and the right size bit would work well, and other ways of course.

[beandog]

How does anybody know that it wasn’t Warren’s son who took the serial number off the gun after he purchased it.

[GeronL]

why would anyone need to go through all that just to kill themselves? All you have to do is go to certain neighbors

[Vendome]

One wonders....

It just so highly unlikely that someone mailed a gun without proper documentation.

Further, they imply, by ommission, that’s just how it happened but, they can’t ir may not be able to determine who he bought it from.

Well, I guess if it’s just that important to them then, yea, I guess a lack of any real effort will have that result.

[Finny]

You are blinded by your emotions and clearly have shut your mind closed to the whole picture. Only you know yourself, but have you honestly read the posts critical of Warren, or read the first few words before donning blinders?

The man VOLUNTEERED THIS INFORMATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA in a public conversation about his son's death. He actually had the temerity to "forgive" the person who sold the gun!!! As a Christian, doesn't that STINK to you?

[2nd amendment mama]

All firearms, save antique or curio long guns, must be transferred thru an FFL

Um...no. Maybe where you live but not here in South Carolina.

[Finny]

I agree. Christianity doesn't work because of what people do in big gatherings or groups, it succeeds because of what people each do alone in life, decisions that for Christians, are formed in their personal relationship with Jesus in how they deal with what life throws their individual way. That's what it comes down to, and that's why I have no business condemning Warren or his son with regard to suicide -- I can only pray for ths soul of the kid.

You're so right. My tagline -- the quote doesn't say "our" feet or "our" path. We come in alone, and we go out alone. Alone accountable to God, alone moved by Jesus.

Warren repels me, where as the Televanglists like Billy Graham have only amused me. I like "do your alms in secret" and respect that it restricts what I can indluge in. I cannot criticize someone as being stingy because someone I may least suspect might be a generous Christian in the most real sense, doing alms in secret. It's an example that shows no one but Christ knows any one's relationship with Him. I have to accept that someone else's relationship with Christ is necessarily and rightly out of my ken. I have other things to be doing, like tending to my own.

But as for radio ... I do appreciate hearing a good fired-up preacher now and again! I may not agree with that person's "take" on the bible, but it's interesting to hear and contemplate. In small doses!!!