Michael Littlejohn holds the custom-made rifle in question.Posted on 07/29/2009 9:48:47 AM PDT by BGHater
Like America's first soldiers at the Battle of Brooklyn, Michael Littlejohn is fighting for his right to bear arms.
The Revolutionary War buff charges the Bloomberg administration with tyranny for trying to seize his handmade flintlock rifle - a dead ringer for the weapon once used against the redcoats.
"This is the last legal gun that you can have without registration in New York," Littlejohn said. "And yet Mayor Bloomberg is driven crazy by my flintlock gun - the one that won the American Revolution."
Littlejohn fired the first shot when he hired a Tennessee blacksmith to recreate the vintage rifle. It arrived at his Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, apartment in June - followed quickly by city cops.
Police claim it's illegal for Littlejohn to keep the flintlock without a gun license.
Littlejohn, 50, cites the earliest American patriots as his inspiration while refusing to surrender his firearm or apply for a license.
The social worker is also clinging to a little-known exemption in the city's strict gun laws.
The loophole allows license-free ownership of "antique firearms" - defined as rifles that require the bullet and gunpowder to be loaded separately.
Littlejohn's rifle appears to fit the bill.
Loading the weapon, he explains, is a multistep process that takes several pokes with a ramrod and up to a minute to complete.
To fire, the rifle relies on a sharpened piece of flint that produces a spark when the trigger is pulled. That point is moot, Littlejohn says: He doesn't own gunpowder or bullets.
That's not enough to make the NYPD retreat.
The cops visited Littlejohn's apartment and sat down this month with the Tennessee blacksmith who forged the rifle.
Michael Littlejohn holds the custom-made rifle in question.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
If I knew where this guy lived, I’d bring a six pack of beer to his door.
Once again proving the low IQ of most cops.
IF they make you register it, do us a favor and shove it up bloomberg’s arse instead.
Some loophole in the city code that faithful replicas of antiques do not count as antiques?
“This is the last legal gun that you can have without registration in New York,” Littlejohn said. “And yet Mayor Bloomberg is driven crazy by my flintlock gun - the one that won the American Revolution.”
The irony...still think you live in the “home of the free”? Pffft!
Is it me or does he look a little like DH?
Not the America I knew...
“Once again proving the low IQ of most cops.”
Unfair. the cops are just enforcing the stupid local law that the city council enacted.
NYC ping
What’s your opinion?
He looks like the illegitimate love child of Duncan Hunter and Tommy Thompson
It’s a relief to know that there is no more crime in Bloomberg’s New York. Obviously, the city cops have nothing much else left to do these days.
This is NYC you’re referring to - I’d say 97% of them are in on it.
LOL! That's terrible
Well BG, it seems the Feds too are after blackpowder firearms. There is a big BATF surcharge on all such weapons. It is invisible to most buyers who get their flintlocks and percussion weapons from retailers but I noted it on the Tennessee Valley Arms website when I considered ordering a Kentucky/Pennsylvania/Tennessee styled flintlock.
In NJ, if you inherit it you do not have to register it. However, if you buy it it must be registered.
He needs to get 60 patched balls and some FFFF and FF powder. The FF is used for the main charge and the FFFF is used for the flashpan to be ingnited by the flint. Smaller caliber rifles and pistols/revolvers need FFF for the main charge. Cannons use single F.
question: how did the cops find out about the gun? turns out this dude made a silly mistake and the cops found out about the gun.
my statement: the cops who are investigating this have no desire to go after it. they are being told to do it by their boss. and sure enough that is the case!
what a joke. cops do not make laws, legislators do. cops do not make decisions about their cases, their bosses do. and more often than not those bosses are sitting around in an office all day salivating at the chance to get a gun number so they can get a pat on the back from the big bosses/mayor.
geeez....leave the guy alone. Spend your time confiscating guns from you know...criminals?
Readon Fox News this mornign that NYC is buying one way plane tickets for homeless people/families to relocate and reduce some of the burden on the shelters...
If NYC PD thinks because they do not like a law, law abiding citizens can be harassed until submission is a dangerous prededence. Imagine in the future, a mayor and police chief thinks blacks voters cheat in elections and decide that blacks cannot vote despite the US Voters Right Law and use phalanxes of policemen near voting booths to do Homeland Security style searches for drugs, and weapons and detain blacks as they attempt to vote, challenging them to spend legal fees to undo the act.
Cops in this country are obligated by their position not to enforce illegal laws. Same thing as a military unlawful order.
I recently bought a black podwer gun in PA and there was absolutely no paperwork or background check required.
Like someone else has said, the cops must have all of the crime under control to harass this citizen.....and that’s what it is, harassment.
It’s like Keller didn’t happen. We need lawsuits under 18 USC 251 and 252 (violation of civil rights). If we had a fedgov that cared about its people’s rights, wed get prosecutions, too, but that’s not going to happen...
No offense, but that's just why I don't want to be a NYC cop. I know I could handle a firearm far better than the ones who only go to a range to requalify, but just the stigma of the city and PD... I don't want to be associated with it. I have an old friend who's a cop, as well as a cousin by marriage.
Nice neighborly thing for the Staples copy center to do, do you think the manager was a Dem?
Not the America I want to know....
There’s a Staples not too far from me, it was probably that one.
I guess they won’t be getting my business.
One more reason I love Texas, what a joke NY is and yet upstate NY is made up of good ol’ folks, they are NOT NYCers.
When we had moved to NM in the 50s, I would strap my Model 63A Windchester .22 to my Cruisaire motorscooter and go through town to my favorite rabbit hunting area in the neaby San Juan River valley, nary a peep from anyone including police who I knew, as a kid “knows” adults—by sight.
Never shot myself or anyone else but shot lots of rabbits for me and my Navajo friends. Today’s society is sick, we have no liberty like we used to...
The cops statement in the article about the direction for their actions coming from above indicates the source of this persecution is not the police.
Its the little pipsqueak of a pansey Mayor who thinks his ability to jump from one political party to another with equal facility and his millions of dollars qualifies him to be President of the U.S.
My guess is this came direct from Mayor Bloomberg’s playpen - excuse me, office.
According to the Federal Government, this “weapon” is not even a firearm as it does not fire fixed ammuniation and is loaded from the muzzle. But you can expect Holder and his puppeteer Obama to get right on solving that little omission.
It should be apparent to ANYONE who reads this episode taht the driving force behind gun control has little or NOTHING to do with public safety.
it's unfortunate, but if you want to carry a gun you might have to move.
i'm one heck of a shot though.
Are you going to tell them why you are not doing business with them any more?
Oh I’m definitely moving south. Far cheaper living in every aspect, as well as respect for peoples’ privacy and life.
when i retire in 14 years i’ll join you.
Perhaps I will need to dig a basement for my house.
After 20 or 25 years you retire with pension?
20 years. half pay. full benefits for me and my family as long as i am alive.
oh, plus the variable supplement which means i get a check for $12,000 every december in addition to my pension.
“The loophole allows license-free ownership of “antique firearms” - defined as rifles that require the bullet and gunpowder to be loaded separately.”
So the rifle can be brand new and an antique at the same time? Makes no sense which is the norm in NYC.
He plans on using it for crawl-by shootings, I guess.
Antique design.
You get a $12,000 check every year? Nice
Police claim it's illegal for Littlejohn to keep the flintlock without a gun license."
Meanwhile, out here in Northern Nevada, my county sheriff signs our machine gun permits with a grin on his face if you catch him in the hallway at the station.
look for a big increase in driveby musketings...
‘followed quickly by city cops.’
Arseholes in fancy blue costumes; there seem to be a great many of them in NY - and, alas, all around the US. In the 30’s and 40’s, these types wore black or brown.
They could simply ignore it and deal w/ real crime but instead.... I think we’re back to the IQ thing.
The actual statute is below. It seems pretty clear that a permit is not required.
Antiques and Replicas:
Antique rifles, shotguns and handguns, and replicas thereof, generally are exempt from the above restrictions and can be bought and possessed without a permit. (Persons who shoot muzzle loading handguns must be properly licensed.) Antique handguns must be unloaded and possessed without the materials to load same.
You should still be able to have cap-and-ball rifles, handguns, and shotguns, as long as they are only muzzle loadrers, per what they quoted as the “law”.
thats aside from the regular pension. it’s called a variable supplement. you pay into it your whole career and get an annual check in december when you retire. i figure it’ll be good for property taxes, buying a car, whatever. it is taxed federally, of course, but it’s a good deal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.