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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

He owns a gun! Must be guilty!

I can’t comment on whether or how guilty or dangerous the alleged terrorist ring is, but some statements, such as the following from Fox News just make me laugh:

Hochul said other evidence found at al-Bakri’s home in Lackawanna included a rifle, a telescopic sight, and a cassette tape that “asks Allah to give Jews and their enablers (U.S.) a black day.”

Now please tell me why finding a rifle and a sight in a house in Pennsylvania is unusual? I grew up in a small town in Western PA, and it would have been closer to news if they entered a random house and didn’t find an entire cabinet full of rifles, shotguns, ammunition and assorted sights and accessories.

It just makes you cringe to read this kind of idiocy.

Erratum: Lackawanna is across the border in New York state, not in Pennsylvania.

9 comments to He owns a gun! Must be guilty!

  • I agree with almost everything you said here other than referring to Lackawanna being in Pennsylvania. The Lackawanna that was reffered to in the Fox News article is in Western New York, just south of Buffalo.

  • I agree with almost everything you said here other than referring to Lackawanna being in Pennsylvania. The Lackawanna that was reffered to in the Fox News article is in Western New York, just south of Buffalo.

  • Would it have impressed you more if the tape had been one by racist Nazis asking God to give blacks a bad day?

  • Dale Amon

    My mistake. I only remember the name of the place as part of the name “Erie-Lackawanna Railroad”. I was into model railroading when I was a child growing up in the Ohio Valley past Pittsburgh.

  • Dale Amon

    I’m not sure what your point is Alice. They included common firearms instead of just saying:

    “Hochul said other evidence found at al-Bakri’s home in Lackawanna included a cassette tape that “asks Allah to give Jews and their enablers (U.S.) a black day.”

    What on earth did rifle ownership have to do with anything? That whole swath of the country is deer hunting country, probably the highest per capita rifle ownership in the USA.

  • PCism running rampantly amok, again, yet, still!

  • PCism running rampantly amok, again, yet, still!

  • Lou Gots

    I agree that a hunting rifle, STANDING ALONE, is not evidence of evil intent. It is quite true that in most the U.S. possession of even military-style rifles is perfectly legal, and in some areas, common. Taken together with the hate literature, and the other facts of the case, however, it certainly is “evidence” of means and abliity.

  • Lou Gots

    I agree that a hunting rifle, STANDING ALONE, is not evidence of evil intent. It is quite true that in most the U.S. possession of even military-style rifles is perfectly legal, and in some areas, common. Taken together with the hate literature, and the other facts of the case, however, it certainly is “evidence” of means and abliity.