Looks like Angel will be O.K.

[Steam dragon]

This hit my In-box just after 4:00 EDT:

Gary Marbut/MSSA/TOS/BIT
<[email protected]>
More options 4:05 pm (1 hour ago)
Dear Friends of Angel,

Angel had his day in court today. His attorney and the prosecutors had worked out an agreement, which the judge accepted. Here are the results.

The judge overseeing the case ordered the police to give Angel's guns back, but he must register the handguns in compliance with Michigan law (euphemistically called a "safety inspection", but it is clearly registration, a law adopted in the 20s to keep guns out of the hands of Blacks). The only charges on the table were four misdemeanor counts of failure to present a handgun for a safety inspection. The theoried charge discussed in the media and on the Net about "menacing" and threats was not advanced by prosecutors, because there was no substance to the theoried charge. Police and prosecutors figured this out after looking at the facts and evidence.

Angel will be on non-reporting probation on the failure to register charges for a year and a half. Angel will have on his record forever four misdemeanor violations of failure to present his handguns for "safety inspection". Angel must perform three days of community service, which will hold him in Michigan for almost a month (because they are court-scheduled days).

I've been saying for too long now that the attorneys have insisted on silence from anyone having inside information about this situation, because release of such information could very well have torpedoed the deal Angel's attorney had worked out with the prosecutors. Frankly, the prosecutors were not anxious to go to trial on this case, and Angel is too clearly a clean and good guy to be able to spin him as some dangerous nut case.

Now is probably time for me to confess a bit of an ulterior motive in all of this. Angel plans to move to Montana where can live under what legal scholar Dave Kopel calls the freest gun laws in the World (see Dave's Foreword to my book, Gun Laws of Montana), where he can go Prairie Dog hunting with my son Ty and myself, and where he will undertake the needful task of recruiting scads of members for MSSA. According to the plan, recruiting membership for MSSA will be Angel's vocation for the indefinite future. I suspect you may be hearing a pitch from Angel (an MSSA Member since 2003) to join MSSA (hey, a lot of our members don't live in Montana).

So, stay tuned for more info about how this all happened to Angel. In the meantime, if you haven't donated to Angel's legal defense, but wish to do so, there is information about this at:

http://www.marbut.com/angel

There IS a deficit of about $10,000 to pay the legal expenses incurred so far.

Thanks loads to all of you for your tolerance of the imposed silence, for your now-justified faith in Angel, for your support letters, and for your donations to Angel's legal defense.

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

I know lots of folks will be pleased.
Some will be disappointed.

I fall in the former catagory.

 

[boofus]

I wonder if the m0rons in the news will print retractions for portraying Angel as a wifebeating redneck gun nut.

 

[Standing Wolf]

It's not registration. It's a mere safety inspection. See the difference?

 

[Maxwell]

Its a remnant of racism, but its ok because it might "save one life!" after its done screwing up dozens of others.

 

[Zedicus]

Pleased things are looking up for him.
Disappointed he isn't getting Better Results.

 

[JohnBT]

Thanks for the update.

Now, about "It's a mere safety inspection. See the difference?"

If it was really a safety inspection wouldn't they put an inspection sticker on the gun like do here on auto windshields? And like our auto inspections, wouldn't the gun inspections be a yearly thing to ensure the gun remained in good working order? I hope I don't give them any ideas.

John

 

[AZRickD]

Of note is the *initial* Probation requirements that the Probation bureaucrats cut and pasted together. It was written as if only the girlfriend's complaint was the source and that all of the false charges were still on the table.

The defense attorney read the list of requirments as steam blew from his ears. The defense attorney told the judge that if *any* of these requirements were on the agreement, the deal was off and they'd go to trial. One by one the offensive requirements were read and removed.

Neither the prosecutor nor the Probation Droids were present in court that day.

Newly annoyed over the off-base Probie report, his attorney wondered out loud to the judge to try to figure out why the lying girlfriend had not yet been indicted.

Angel still has some legal bills to pay, so if you were in doubt before, now is the time to write a check. The donations were burned up before he had his first court date.

Rick

 

[Brett Bellmore]

If it was a safety inspection, wouldn't they actually inspect the guns to see if they were safe?

 

[AZRickD]

And of the gun manufacturer lawsuits...

One would think that if they were inspected for safety, Glock et al could use Michigan records to say that "Every single Glock pistol inspected in Michigan's Safety Inspection process has passed."

Rick

 

[tellner]

So he has to do some community service for the law that he actually broke but doesn't ride the pipe for the stuff he didn't do. He even gets his guns back.

Sounds like as good a result as could reasonably be hoped for.

 

[Waitone]

If authorities are indeed performing safety inspection, maybe said authorities could provide the documentation as to details and procedures of the safety inspection. Since all firearms are safety inspected I would love to see the statistics. A thorough safety inspection program will generate valuable information for the gun purchasing public.

Why does the rain falling on my leg smell funny?

 

[MatthewVanitas]

Donation sent.

 

[Ryder]

If authorities are indeed performing safety inspection

They aren't inspecting them and I don't want those women who log the serial numbers putting their otherwise useless hands on my new guns. They have no respect for our property nor do they possess any gun handling skills. The risk of having a new gun dropped on the floor is very real The first time your new $1000 gun gets slammed onto the stone counter top because the serial number is on the other side of the gun and they had to flip it over you learn to present the firearm so that the number is visible.

I've registered guns which I bought as fixer uppers. Only an imbicile would shoot these guns in the condition they were presented. So don't give them any ideas. The situation would only be changed for the worse. We'd probably end up with some asinine "approved gun list" that changes on a daily basis.

 

[Waitone]

I don't for one minute think there is a safety inspection going on. Since the state insists then I want to see their work product. Merely a way to stick 'em and twist.

 

[tellner]

Of course the requirement is bogus. It's a gun registration law. But it's still the law, and Angel should have followed it if he wanted to stay out of trouble.

 

[cambeul41]

"Safety inspection" in Michigan

When I had my first pistol "safety inspected" in Michigan, the male Sherriff's department clerk really appeared to go through an inspection routine. I assumed at that time that what he did was the standard procedure. He did caution me that he was not expert enough to guarantee that it was safe and that I should have a gun smith do a through job if I had not done so already.

During subsequent inspections by female clerks there was no such routine. Perhaps the guy was just interested in guns and taking the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity or taking a sincere interest in his job.

 

[velodog]

If it was really a safety inspection...wouldn't the gun inspections be a yearly thing to ensure the gun remained in good working order?

Since all firearms are safety inspected I would love to see the statistics.

Hmm. Sounds Familiar.

Militia Act of 1792:

An ACT more effectually to provide for the National Defence, by establishing an Uniform Militia throughout the United States.
...
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled...That it shall be the duty of the brigade inspector, to attend the regimental and battalion meeting of the militia...to inspect their arms, ammunition and accoutrements;...to make returns to the adjutant general of the state at least once in every year,...reporting therein the actual situation of the arms, accoutrement, and ammunition...;[the] adjutant general shall make a return of all militia of the state, to the Commander in Chief of the said state, and a duplicate of the same to the president of the United States.

 

[Big Gay Al]

While I am greatly pleased that Angel is getting out of his trouble, I feel I have to point out, to those who may not know that the term "safety inspection" is just camoflage. The only thing they REALLY do is register the firearm.

At least Lansing PD is honest enough that the sign in their office says pistol registration, and not "safety inspection."

If you say "registration" to just about any other Michigan LEO, they will deny that handgun registration exists. But it does.