Hell must have truly frozen over: the Star Telegram [AKA the Startle Gram] ran a positive story on firearms. It is great to hear this gentleman finally got a family heirloom back in his possession.
This story is a good reminder for all of us to keep an updated list of our firearms and their serial numbers.
Mystery solved: Woman on WWII vet’s gun ID’d
Posted on Sat, Aug. 30, 2008
Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler spent much of early Friday morning on the phone, talking to people about the Case of the Dark-Haired Beauty on the .45 Pistol.But none of the callers could answer Fowler’s questions about the seized weapon — who was the woman in the photos beneath the pistol’s custom plexiglass grips and who was the gun’s owner?Then, about mid-morning, an emotional Jim Morris called from his home in Stephenville with a story about a Nebraska girl who met a young officer from Texas and sent him off to fight the Germans.
Within a few hours, the case was solved.
“I have no doubt it’s his pistol,” Fowler said. “It’s a great ending to a mystery.”
Morris, 62, can hardly believe that he opened his morning Star-Telegram and saw his father’s service weapon and his mother’s picture, in the hands of the Parker County sheriff. He had all but given up hope he would see it again.
“Nothing in this world that I owned had more sentimental value to me,” he said. “That gun meant the world to me. It means the world to me. I was in tears when I read that article.”
Last October, someone stole three guns from Morris’ house, including his father’s .45-caliber Army pistol. He filed a police report with Stephenville but did not have the serial numbers.
Two months later, sheriff’s deputies in Parker County seized the weapon while executing a search warrant at a house near Azle. But because the serial number wasn’t in a crime database, they didn’t know to whom it belonged. They put it in a property room, where Fowler — a history buff — found it this month and renewed a search for the rightful owner.
Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, James L. Morris — born in Palestine, reared in Maypearl — dropped out of the Texas Tech University engineering program and enlisted in the Army. The Army sent him to officer candidate school in Virginia.
There he met Velma Cashatt, a girl from Harrison, Neb., who had gone to Washington, D.C., to work for the government during the war.
They married before he shipped out with the 82nd Engineer Combat Battalion, which landed at Omaha Beach two weeks after D-Day. Morris served as the battalion’s executive officer and later its commanding officer as the unit fought through France and Germany in 1944 and ’45, including the Battle of the Bulge.
“He got to see a lot of the horrors of that time,” his son said.
The custom, plexiglass hand grips came from the windshield of a crashed German bomber.
“His men took that windshield out and made those grips for his weapon,” Jim Morris said. “They really admired him.”
His father died last September at the age of 89. His mother died in 2005.
About 10 years before his father died, Jim Morris, a retired Navy chief petty officer, asked him for the gun. After losing it for nine months, he plans to drive to Weatherford on Tuesday to retrieve it and thank Fowler.
“I never thought I would see it again,” he said. “My son will get it when I pass away.”
Fowler, for his part, isn’t quite done with the case.
“I expect I’ll be filing charges of possession of stolen property on the guy who had it,” he said.
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Sheesh… I wonder what would have happened if the poor guy in this story was transporting the firearms in question as gifts for friends and relatives. I never knew that checking into a hotel with your firearms, which I personally would not leave in the rental car, would get you arrested. As the story plays out I will have to watch and see if the guy was a crazy person or just an average Joe who became a victim of circumstance. My bet is it was the latter.
Man arrested carrying weapons at Pelosi hotel
By P. SOLOMON BANDA Associated Press
Article Launched: 08/24/2008 12:47:18 PM PDT
DENVER—A Wyoming man remained jailed Sunday after trying to check into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s downtown Denver hotel while carrying two hunting rifles and two pistols.
Pelosi was briefly evacuated from the hotel on Saturday when 29-year-old Joseph Calanchini of Pinedale, Wyo., tried check in to the hotel, authorities said.
Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said Calanchini faces a charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon after police officers at the Sheraton hotel noticed him carrying a rifle-type case while checking in. Wiley said he didn’t know if the weapons were loaded.
Pelosi and other guests were briefly evacuated from the hotel but were never in danger, Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said.
“The speaker was never in any danger and she appreciates the quick and professional response of the police,” Daly said.
Calanchini remained at Denver City Jail on Sunday on $10,000 bond, said Denver Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Steckman. Calanchini did not have a concealed weapons permit, said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety.
Authorities said Calanchini was in town on business and had had the weapons worked on, including the mounting of site scopes, to prepare for an upcoming hunting trip.
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While I can appreciate the need to investigate crimes, and have the utmost respect for law enforcement officers; I cannot agree with the tactics employed by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in their investigation of a shooting in Weleetka, OK.
Excerpt from Tulsa World article:
The OSBI agents knew the caliber of the guns used in the killings, so they merely checked with area gun dealers and pawnshops to determine who had bought or recently pawned .40-caliber Glocks.
That prompted concern Tuesday among many in the public, who noted that Oklahoma does not have a gun-registry law nor a central database of gun owners.
Tom Harris, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in Tulsa, confirmed that.
According to Harris, most states, including Oklahoma, and the federal government do not have lists of registered gun owners.
He said the only way to get a listing of gun owners is by canvassing gun dealers or pawnshops individually to find out who bought weapons — as the OSBI did.
Harris said gun dealers — “federal firearms licensees” — have to fill out ATF form 4473 whenever a weapon is purchased. The form lists the buyer, the address and other pertinent information.
They also have to contact the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to determine whether the prospective buyer can legally purchase a weapon.
Harris said the 4473 forms stay with the gun dealers and are not submitted to any government agency. They are, however, available to law enforcement.
If a gun dealer goes out of business, the 4473 forms are stored in an ATF warehouse, he said.
Thus OSBI developed a Pseudo list of gun owners in the area with a particular make and model of pistol. These owners were then contacted and asked to volunteer their weapons for testing by OSBI. These tactics, while they may have been the only option for the OSBI, skirt on the edge of Oklahoma laws and individuals rights. In particular laws that prevent Oklahoma from maintaining a list of registered gun owners etc.
Individuals who either ignored or did not comply with the original request are now reprieving letters requesting compliance. The OSBI, should take note that individuals may ignore these requests based on the 5th amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution.
Hopefully this crime will be solved by OSBI without further trampling of individual gun owners rights.
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- Heller Kitty Rifle
I decided to investigate this confusion and came to the found the following:
The EXPIRED (1994-Sept 2004 enforcement period) assault weapons ban (officially know as, Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) had the following restrictions:
The Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 specifically prohibited manufacture and sale of:
- Norinco, Mitchell, and Poly Technologies Avtomat Kalashnikovs (all models)
- Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and Galil
- Beretta Ar70 (SC-70)
- Colt AR-15
- Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, and FNC
- SWD M-10, M-11, M-11/9, and M-12
- Steyr AUG
- INTRATEC TEC-9, TEC-DC9 and TEC-22
- revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar to) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12
In addition, the bill banned any semi-automatic rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and that also has at least two of the following characteristics:
- a folding or telescoping stock
- a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon
- a bayonet mount
- a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor
- a grenade launcher;
The bill banned any semi-automatic pistol that can accept a detachable magazine that also has at least two of the following characteristics:
- an ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip
- a threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer
- a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to hold the firearm with the
- nontrigger hand without being burned
- a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded;
- a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm
- Finally, the bill banned any semi-automatic shotgun has at least two of the following characteristics:
- a folding or telescoping stock
- a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon
- a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 5 rounds
- an ability to accept a detachable magazine
It should be noted although the Federal ban expired in September 2004, Certain states have maintained restrictions on “assault” type weapons.
Info from NRA (Pre-Heller):
“Assault weapons” are prohibited in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Some local jurisdictions in Ohio also ban “assault weapons.” Hawaii prohibits “assault pistols.” California bans “assault weapons”, .50BMG caliber firearms, some .50 caliber ammunition and “unsafe handguns.” Illinois: Chicago, Evanston, Oak Park, Morton Grove, Winnetka, Wilmette, and Highland Park prohibit handguns; some cities prohibit other kinds of firearms. Maryland prohibits “assault pistols”; the sale or manufacture of any handgun manufactured after Jan. 1, 1985, that does not appear on the Handgun Roster; and the sale of any handgun manufactured after January 1, 2003 that is not equipped with an “integrated mechanical safety device.” Massachusetts: It is unlawful to sell, transfer or possess “any assault weapon or large capacity feeding device” [more than 10 rounds] that was not legally possessed on September 13, 1994 and the sale of handguns not on the Firearms Roster. The City of Boston has a separate “assault weapons” law. The District of Columbia prohibits new acquisition of handguns and any semi-automatic firearm capable of using a detachable ammunition magazine of more than 12 rounds capacity and any handgun not registered after February 5, 1977. Virginia prohibits “Street Sweeper” shotguns. (With respect to some of these laws and ordinances, individuals may retain prohibited firearms owned previously, with certain restrictions.) The sunset of the federal assault weapons ban does not affect the validity of state and local “assault weapons” bans.
The states and cities that maintained parts of the ban have caused this ban to live on. Thus the root of the pre-ban / post-ban confusion. Luckily this ban is only in certain geographic areas which have been anti-gun for some time. Perhaps with some more time and decisions out of the Supreme Court, we can get back to normal.
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