William Wolf arrested on weapons charge

[notorial dissent]

Demo, welcome back, long time no see, no hear, missed you.

Wolf is a certified, and scary nutball, he has, at least at last report, lots of equally nutball scary friends. Yeah, I think the first of many shoes may just be hitting the floor.

[grixit]

Hi y'all.

Hi. I understand that, being a big time author now, you can't always get down here to the kiddie pool, but it's good to know you haven't forgotten us entirely.

I see you've outgrown your avatar again-- may i suggest a photo of Hunter S Thompson on a motorcycle?

[guilty]

A popular YouTube phenomenon is to give a gun-ignorant little ole girl, usually in a tiny top, a big gun with a powerful load and film their first shot. Laughter ensues when the trusting neophyte is assaulted by the recoil they never knew was coming.

Besides needlessly teaching an avoidance of firearms, the jokers setting up these tricks don't realize or care that a way too heavy recoil can really hurt people. Heavy bruises, eye socket injuries from recoiling scopes, detached retinas from massive recoil and worse are real possibilities. There is a documented case of a woman being given a massive Smith & Wesson 500 handgun, shooting it and then killing herself when the recoil of her first shot and her inexperienced grip pushed the pistol under her chin. . .only to have it discharge a second time, killing her.

Life ain't fair. She's dead and Wolf is getting three hots and a cot at the tax payer's expense.

I saw a report (and video) fairly recently about a young girl who was given a fully automatic firearm at a firing range. She was inexperienced, and the recoil turned the weapon in her hands and killed the instructor.

[Pottapaug1938]

There was an incident from October of 2008, in western Massachusetts, in which an 8-year-old boy, who with his father was attending a gun fair put on by the police chief of Pelham, Mass., (located a few miles southwest of Pottapaug Mountain). With his father and the range instructor by his side, fired an Uzi submachine gun. The child could not control the recoil upward, with tragic results.

The police chief was acquitted of the criminal charges against him, while the sports club which hosted the event was fined $11,000 and volunteered never to host a similar event, involving automatic weapons, again.

[arayder]

The growth of tourist/adventure shooting has led to mishaps like these.

It's one thing to have your uncle or neighbor take you to the range to shoot a .22 rifle after having drilled you on gun safety. But it's quite another thing for somebody with no shooting experience to show up with a credit card insisting on renting a full auto rifle.

I was at a range that rents machine guns years ago. While I was in the shop the crusty old owner was asking a guy who had just come in from the range, "How's the English couple doing out there?" The guy said, "I dunno." I poked my head out the door to see the couple "adventure shooting", unsupervised and struggling with a 1911 (a .45 pistol) and waving it around in the process. Thankfully there was nobody else on the range at the time. I left. I have since wondered if the owner ever went out to act as a range officer.

[Hyrion]

The growth of tourist/adventure shooting has led to mishaps like these.

Not sure I'd agree with that statement. Increased the occurrences of such: certainly.

I have since wondered if the owner ever went out to act as a range officer.

Now that I'd agree with: the serious lack of responsibility shown is absolutely directly related to the mishaps.

If the news has posted the facts correctly, that situation with the 8 year old boy had the father insisting he fire a full-auto uzzi instead of taking the advice of the individual (ironically 15 years old) overseeing that booth and starting with something more controllable.

"Either you fire this low powered firearm first, and we slowly graduate up to the high powered you want while making sure you can still safely control the firearms all the way up to that point including by only firing that high power in single shot mode first - or you don't touch the firearms! If at any point, you start to loose safe control over the firearm, we stop and go no higher. If at any point, you decide you don't want to handle the kick of higher power, we stop and go no higher."

I seriously have to question the intelligence of some of those "instructors" or parents who allow anyone - let alone a child who is nowhere near as physically strong as the parent - to move straight to a high powered firearm.

Parents: at least check it out yourself before you decide your child can handle it.

[Pottapaug1938]

Had I been on that range as a safety officer, and if I had decided to permit the 8-year-old to fire an Uzi, there would have been a short, thick chain near the muzzle so that it could not have been elevated or moved to either side more than a few inches; and there would have been some sort of firing port so that there would be no possible way for that muzzle to point anywhere but downrange. I also would have made sure that I had fired the Uzi myself so that I knew, among other things, about its recoil properties.

[AndyK]

To continue off topic:

Within five miles of my lovely retirement home in South Carolina, there are no less than three ranges offering the opportunity to go fully automatic.

Don't believe me? Just look at tha billboards along I-95.

And, by the way, our neighboring county has just terminated health care benefits for its employees (annual cost ~ $700,000) but is planning to develop a public firing range (on previously restricted parkland) fior an estimated $900,000.

[Duke2Earl]

Just more evidence (as if any more was needed) about the increasing insanity of our society.

[LPC]

Just more evidence (as if any more was needed) about the increasing insanity of our society.

Another data point: In some states it is illegal for a pediatrician to talk to parents about guns in the home as a danger to children.

[Fmotlgroupie]

Just more evidence (as if any more was needed) about the increasing insanity of our society.

Another data point: In some states it is illegal for a pediatrician to talk to parents about guns in the home as a danger to children.

I really don't mean to step on the toes of the American-Quatloisian community, and especially mods, but are we edging unnecessarily towards a political topic that might produce intra-Quatloosian conflict?

[JamesVincent]

I really don't mean to step on the toes of the American-Quatloisian community, and especially mods, but are we edging unnecessarily towards a political topic that might produce intra-Quatloosian conflict?

Yes.

[wserra]

I really don't mean to step on the toes of the American-Quatloisian community, and especially mods,

Why not? We step on each others' toes all the time.

but are we edging unnecessarily towards a political topic that might produce intra-Quatloosian conflict?

There is a bright line between political issues related to gun ownership and the wisdom (not to mention constitutionality) of a statute singling out a particular subject as verboten in a doctor-patient encounter.

That said, both issues are off-topic for this board. For those who wish to read further, a recent Harvard LR note discussing the best-known of these cases - Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida, 760 F.3d 1195 (11th Cir. 2014) - expresses my views.

[JamesVincent]

That said, both issues are off-topic for this board. For those who wish to read further, a recent Harvard LR note discussing the best-known of these cases - Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida, 760 F.3d 1195 (11th Cir. 2014) - expresses my views.

I would disagree a few points but a very good writeup. Thanks for sharing.

[LPC]

Just more evidence (as if any more was needed) about the increasing insanity of our society.

Another data point: In some states it is illegal for a pediatrician to talk to parents about guns in the home as a danger to children.

I really don't mean to step on the toes of the American-Quatloisian community, and especially mods, but are we edging unnecessarily towards a political topic that might produce intra-Quatloosian conflict?

Which was part of my point.

Objective data about health and safety are political issues. It is illegal for a physician to talk to a parent about the safety of their children.

That's evidence about the increasing insanity of our society.

And, if my talking about the subject is banned as "political," that simply confirms my point.

[arayder]

The guns rights activist got all in a sweat about doctor's asking about guns in the house back in the 1990's.

If I recall the series of questions asked by doctors, nurses and social workers involved asking about smoke detectors, seat belt/car seat use and firearms. The idea was that any patient who said he/she didn't have a working smoke detector would be referred to a charitable agency that would help them get one. Anybody who said they had firearms would be helped to get a safe storage system, if they didn't have one already. Sometimes the person would get a gun lock handed to them on the spot. Anybody needing a car seat would also be helped. Anybody not wearing seat belts would would get the follow up question, "Whatsamatta you?"

The NRA, which has a problem with anybody asking about guns or keeping statistics, got all bothered about doctor's asking about guns. I suppose a few gun phobic doctors may have given patients problems about their firearms. I don't know of any doctor turning in a felon or such in for firearm possession. But the whole idea at the start was a sort of public health effort aimed at reducing needless deaths and injury due to fires, firearm mishandling and car crashes.

[The Observer]

And, if my talking about the subject is banned as "political," that simply confirms my point.

Really? Review this thread at the moment it got derailed from talking about William Wolf and his weapon charge to non-related items about the recoil of guns, guns improperly used or fired, guns in the hands of children, the fact that a state law forbids doctors to discsuss guns as a health hazard, and the NRA overreacting. All of this had nothing to do with a sovrun. But a lot of it had to do with political observations about guns.

Two years ago such a derail of the topic would have descended into a maelstrom of hostility, name-calling, and ugliness. These types of derailed discussion came within inches of the site being shut down for good. This kind of political discussion caused us to lose quality posters and members. This site was never intended to be a forum for dicussing anything other than scammers and tax cheats.

Yet the fact that a rule that is in place for the express purpose of preserving this site from the kind of insanity that ensued is seen as some sort of proof of insanity in society in general is ironic. It is a simple rule, yet we have one or two long-time regulars here that violate it all the time, solely in the interest of pushing their political view point.

Maybe that is the real proof of insanity in our society, that people do not accept the intent behind a rule, a law, a statute or policy simply because they do not want to give up their own personal desires or viewpoint instead of seeing something more important or better kept intact.

At this point forward, the discussion on this thread about gun issues in general needs to stop. Unless it is commentary directly about Wolf's involvement with guns and being arrested for it, it should not be here. If it continues, all posts on this thread unrelated to Wolf will be removed. There are a number of places on the Internet where one can go and discuss guns to their heart's delight. But this site, with its insane rules, is not one of them.

[fortinbras]

An article about Wolf:
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2015/04/0 ... ns-charge/

[Lambkin]

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-a ... c1b27.html

An undercover FBI agent who sold an illegal fully automatic shotgun to an anti-government activist from Gallatin County told a federal jury in Billings on Tuesday that the buyer, defendant William Krisstofer Wolf, knew the weapon was an automatic and showed no hesitation in buying it.

[Arthur Rubin]

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-a ... c1b27.html

An undercover FBI agent who sold an illegal fully automatic shotgun to an anti-government activist from Gallatin County told a federal jury in Billings on Tuesday that the buyer, defendant William Krisstofer Wolf, knew the weapon was an automatic and showed no hesitation in buying it.

Possible. It's also possible that the agent browbeat Wolf into buying the weapon. But we'll never know, unless the buy was recorded.