Marin Co. Officers face prison over illegal weapons

[Steyr_223]

Anyone one know anything about this case? What receivers? Were these OLL and parts kits??


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/25/BAGIEVQLPE.DTL&hw=gun&sn=008&sc=474


SANTA ROSA
Officers face prison over illegal weapons

Chronicle staff report

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

A former Santa Rosa firefighter and a Rohnert Park public safety officer have pleaded no contest to charges that they conspired to destroy firearms they had allegedly imported illegally, Sonoma County prosecutors said Tuesday.

Former firefighter Daniel Lusk, 36, and public safety Officer Frank Higdon, 38, each face a maximum term of three years in state prison when they are sentenced May 8 by Judge Lawrence Antolini of Sonoma County Superior Court, said District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua.

Lusk and Higdon pleaded no contest to one felony count each of conspiring to destroy evidence, the district attorney said.

The charges against the two arose out of an investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into illegally imported automatic firearm bodies, Passalacqua said. Agents traced two of the gun parts, called receivers, to Lusk, who told investigators that the parts might still be at his Rohnert Park home, authorities said.

When agents finished questioning him, Lusk called his wife, Cynthia, and Higdon, and told them to destroy the receivers and other assault weapons, authorities said. Higdon was doing so when police arrived at Lusk's home, Passalacqua said.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop charges against Higdon and Daniel Lusk of illegal possession and destruction of weapons, and to drop all charges against Cynthia Lusk.

This article appeared on page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

[bwiese]

These were prob imported MG receivers - "once an MG always an MG".

[DedEye]

This was posted a while ago, if I remember right they were FA Uzis that these guys had.

[tgriffin]

Wonder what these guys would have gotten if they were just average joe's instead of "public safety"

[Hoop]

This was posted a while ago, if I remember right they were FA Uzis that these guys had.

It was a sten and an uzi if I remember correctly, and they decided to "destroy" them by running em over with a friend's fire truck.

[MudCamper]

Sonoma County. And they were not OLLs.

[bwiese]

Any arrests these cops made while in illegal possession of the MGs is now in question.

[sfwdiy]

Anyone one know anything about this case? What receivers? Were these OLL and parts kits??


As I don't own AR (yet) I must confess ignorance about this: Is an AR-15 receiver the same as an M16 receiver? Is it just a matter of having the auto-sear trigger group that makes the gun select fire? Or is the lower actually machined differently in some way that prevents full-auto or burst? If not, one could conceivably make the argument (by "one" I mean "Feinstein/Perata/Nunez/etc") that all AR-15 lowers are potentially machine guns. Please tell me I'm wrong.

--Ben

[ptoguy2002]

As I don't own AR (yet) I must confess ignorance about this: Is an AR-15 receiver the same as an M16 receiver? Is it just a matter of having the auto-sear trigger group that makes the gun select fire? Or is the lower actually machined differently in some way that prevents full-auto or burst? If not, one could conceivably make the argument (by "one" I mean "Feinstein/Perata/Nunez/etc") that all AR-15 lowers are potentially machine guns. Please tell me I'm wrong.

--Ben

There are differences in the way they are machined, but with the case in Wisconsin that just happened, this doesn't really matter for determining if it is a mg or not.
An M16 receiver has a third hole drilled through directly above the safety selector for the auto sear. AR-15 receivers do not have this third hole, and are machined differently on the inside so the internal clearance for this auto sear is not there (so even if you drilled a hole (which would be very illegal byitself), the sear still wouldn't fit).
(Colt also goes one step further and changes the pin dia., but they are the only ones that do this.)
Other differences in the other parts include the trigger parts and bolt carrier.
There are some good pages are ar15.com, and biggerhammer.net, that have hte differences in detail.

[MudCamper]

The weapons included two Sten submachine guns, three Uzi submachine guns and four AK assault rifles, according to the complaint.


From http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20071225/NEWS/712250331

But who really knows. The newspapers rarely get any details right.

[tyrist]

A firefighter and a Public Safety Officer are not Peace Officers. Alot of cities have Public Safety Officers which are nothing more than security guards for government buildings.

[MudCamper]

A firefighter and a Public Safety Officer are not Peace Officers. Alot of cities have Public Safety Officers which are nothing more than security guards for government buildings.

Rohnert Park calls all their cops "Public Safety Officers". Maybe they think it makes them sound more friendly.

[tyrist]

Rohnert Park calls all their cops "Public Safety Officers". Maybe they think it makes them sound more friendly.



I just checked and it seems they have their fire/police departments as one and the same. They must call them Public Safety Officers because they are both Firemen and Police Officers. They cross train them in both fields. Must be a very small community.

[MudCamper]

Must be a very small community.

I guess that depends on one's perspective. To me, 45,000 people in city limits ain't small. But then I also think that Rodent Park is a suburban cancer...

[UBFRAGD]

The thing that always struck me about this news story, was here were some people whose jobs very possibly involved firearms or at least dealing with fellow city workers who were armed and weapon-savvy. And for some reason, they had to take it a step further, possibly because they thought they would be immune from prosecution as they were part of the system, probably because they got bitten hard by "the bug".

Had someone casually mentioned calguns.net to them at the range beforehand, think how different their lives might be now........some people just don't get it I guess!!

Later.........

[SemiAutoSam]

Why does the title state Marin when they were actually in Sonoma county ?


SANTA ROSA
Officers face prison over illegal weapons

Chronicle staff report

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

A former Santa Rosa firefighter and a Rohnert Park public safety officer have pleaded no contest to charges that they conspired to destroy firearms they had allegedly imported illegally, Sonoma County prosecutors said Tuesday.

[wilit]

Old news.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=79865

[BLACKWATER]

A firefighter and a Public Safety Officer are not Peace Officers. Alot of cities have Public Safety Officers which are nothing more than security guards for government buildings.


What are you are referring to are CSO's or Community Service Officers. Those are the security guard types that are public employees. Public Safety Officers are Post certified and also certified for firefighting, so yes they are Peace Officers. Their academy is actually longer that regular police stuff due to firefighting aspect of it. Get your facts right before you start the name calling.:)

[socalguns]

The thing that always struck me about this news story, was here were some people whose jobs very possibly involved firearms or at least dealing with fellow city workers who were armed and weapon-savvy. And for some reason, they had to take it a step further, possibly because they thought they would be immune from prosecution as they were part of the system, probably because they got bitten hard by "the bug".

Had someone casually mentioned calguns.net to them at the range beforehand, think how different their lives might be now........some people just don't get it I guess!!

Later.........

You know, calguns is not magic.
Contacting the ATF or BOF would have been enough.