VICE News reports on the upcoming trial of US Marine Sgt. Zachary Sorrell.
Long story short, a bullshit argument and false accusation by this cat's bitch ex-girlfriend resulted in Sgt. Sorrell being caught with legally owned firearms in his camping trailer while on vacay in California. Sgt. Sorrell is a certified firearms instructor well versed in small arms from around the world, and he purchased all of the firearms through verifiable, legal processes in the states they were procured. Unfortunately for him, these same firearms that are legal everywhere else are illegal in California, so he's now facing felony gun charges.
As noted in the report, it's the perfect setup for gun rights groups to challenge California's overly restrictive firearms laws, which differ so broadly from the rest of the nation. This is somewhat similar to the recent case in NJ, which was dropped by the local prosecutor after public pressure from the NRA, where a single mom of 3 young children was facing a minimum 10 years in prison for mistakenly driving across the state border from PA to NJ with her legal concealed weapon. The mom had been brutally assaulted in the past too. Both cases have defendants who it is natural to feel empathy for, and the cases are pretty cut and dry that nowhere else in the nation besides California, Connecticut & NY would this man be facing gun charges. Gun rights groups will be taking this one to the federal courts as fast as they can get it there, guaranteed. California is going to take it in the ass on this one.
These types of cases are a philosophical struggle for me personally because at heart I'm a state's rights guy, but at the same time I abhor laws which, intentionally or unintentionally, make criminals out of law abiding citizens. Another one in this realm is Washington state's new I-594 law, which makes it a felony to loan your brother a hunting rifle for the weekend or to let an acquaintance at the shooting club get some trigger time on one of your guns, among other things.
Long story short, a bullshit argument and false accusation by this cat's bitch ex-girlfriend resulted in Sgt. Sorrell being caught with legally owned firearms in his camping trailer while on vacay in California. Sgt. Sorrell is a certified firearms instructor well versed in small arms from around the world, and he purchased all of the firearms through verifiable, legal processes in the states they were procured. Unfortunately for him, these same firearms that are legal everywhere else are illegal in California, so he's now facing felony gun charges.
As noted in the report, it's the perfect setup for gun rights groups to challenge California's overly restrictive firearms laws, which differ so broadly from the rest of the nation. This is somewhat similar to the recent case in NJ, which was dropped by the local prosecutor after public pressure from the NRA, where a single mom of 3 young children was facing a minimum 10 years in prison for mistakenly driving across the state border from PA to NJ with her legal concealed weapon. The mom had been brutally assaulted in the past too. Both cases have defendants who it is natural to feel empathy for, and the cases are pretty cut and dry that nowhere else in the nation besides California, Connecticut & NY would this man be facing gun charges. Gun rights groups will be taking this one to the federal courts as fast as they can get it there, guaranteed. California is going to take it in the ass on this one.
These types of cases are a philosophical struggle for me personally because at heart I'm a state's rights guy, but at the same time I abhor laws which, intentionally or unintentionally, make criminals out of law abiding citizens. Another one in this realm is Washington state's new I-594 law, which makes it a felony to loan your brother a hunting rifle for the weekend or to let an acquaintance at the shooting club get some trigger time on one of your guns, among other things.
