Posted on 07/20/2002 10:55:01 AM PDT by RCW2001
Saturday, July 20, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/20/national1301EDT0525.DTL
(07-20) 10:01 PDT WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) --
A man armed with an assault-style rifle opened fire on a helicopter landing in a residential neighborhood, thinking the chopper was carrying terrorists, police said.
Helicopter pilot John S. Sutton landed his helicopter July 13 at the home of businessman John Peters to pick him up, police said.
John Chwaszczewski, a semiretired construction worker, became alarmed when he saw the chopper swoop down over his garage, about a block from Peters' home.
"Maybe I overreacted, but I did feel this was terrorism at its utmost," Chwaszczewski said.
Chwaszczewski told police the shooting was "a natural reaction," after having watched the events of Sept. 11.
A woman who identified herself as Sutton's wife said he would have no comment.
Sutton was charged with recklessly operating an aircraft, a misdemeanor, Deputy Police Chief Ken Middlebrook said Friday. If convicted, he could face a month in jail.
Chwaszczewski was charged with interfering with an aircraft, discharging a firearm, an AR-15 rifle, in a public place, reckless handling of a firearm and assaulting Sutton. He faces up to eight years in prison and $10,000 in fines if convicted.
©2002 Associated Press
Oh yeah, sure.. Osama has waved off of targets like skyscrapers and now prefers to attack garages and gazebos in residential neighborhoods.
Someone get the hook! Quick!
No kidding. Another story on this guy said that he took a saw to his AR-15 and cut it up into pieces after the shooting. Just as well as it would've been confiscated. If this guy can't hit what he's shooting at with an AR-15 (and good thing at that) he has no business being a gun-owner.
Mental-midgets like this guy are the types of people the anti-gunners use that broad brush to paint us all with.
This is not a good thing. As the so-called "Assault Weapons" ban nears the end of its ten year term, we are going to be hearing more and more about just how dangerous every rifle which can accept a magazine is.
After all, no one needs anything other than a single shot .22 to hunt ducks with. Normal capacity magazines are the answer to the problem of re-load time. Anti-gunners will continue to attack firearms until the only legal rifles are those which allow only a single round to be chambered manually and which is incapable of penetrating heavy clothing.
Then they will outlaw those.
About a month after the 9/11 attacks I was suddenly disturbed by two Low Observable Bell Helicopters zipping over my house 100 feet above the deck.
Both black and moving quick enough that I was unable to read their markings.
We have a Nuclear reactor about ten minutes flight time from my house and we have a grip of Al Fuqra wanna-be Terrorist Brothers about ten minutes flight time in the opposite direction.
I immediately called my friend who is one of the heads of security at the reactor. He urged me to immediately phone both the FAA/FBI....
...come to find out, I have a low altitude military flight path that goes right over my rural house. It had been pretty much unused but when 9/11 occured it was reactivated.
Since then I have had everything from C-130 transports to F-15 fighters zipping overhead.
~grin~
Honestly, I would not be surprised if the "assault rifle" ban was allowed to silently sunset. It is a joke as it is. I go to gunshows and AK-47s are cheaper and more plentiful than prior to the ban. You can buy them without those gay thumbhole stocks as well.
Liberals believe in black helicopters too, at least when the GOP is in power.
Ya think! What an idiot. He was lucky it wasnt DEA going in after some of his in-bred neighbors on a drug post or he would be a dead idiot and anti-fed contingent here would be blaming the DEA for killing this poor defenseless man in his own yard.
They certainly are more plentiful. But have you noticed the costs. Used to be you could buy an SKS with all the accesories for $89. Now you have to give $250 for one in good condition.
Some clearly are the same.
I've noticed that. However, the SKSs that are available aren't the Chinese ones. I paid $125 for my SKS and $350 for my AK --both Chinese. Now the SKSs are Yugoslavian or Russian and the AKs are Romanian. I don't think the Chinese ones are imported anymore and I've seen the Romanian AKs (wich are nicer IMHO than the Chinese models) going for $249.
I think the SKSs have risen in price becaus they aren't a "true" assault rifle (I do hate that term) and are more popular in places like urban areas where "assault rifle" ownership is heavily restricted. The prices aren't reflective of availabiltity but rather demand.
Pardon the off-topic post.
No, wait a minute, he got charged, cops don't get charged.
Never mind.
Gee, no agenda there!
Anti-gunners can't wait to use stories like this against us...
Well, you could always move to England or Australia. There's no crime there now since they took away their citizens right to legally own fire arms. Right? We'd sure miss an old timer like you.
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