Farmer Jeffrey Scott Kirschenmann tried to register an AR-15 with the state per California’s latest “assault weapons” ban requirements and ended up having his home raided, firearms confiscated, and faces 12 felony counts.
Kirschermann was trying to comply with the June 30, 2018, deadline to register all “assault weapons” in the state and became snared by the flurry of laws instituted by CA Democrats over the past few years.
KGET reports that Kischermann tried to register a firearm online and that firearm allegedly turned out to be “illegally modified” in light of recent laws. As a result, his home in Northwest Bakersfield was raided and “a dozen guns, 230 rounds of ammunition and two silencers [were] seized.”
Kischermann was arraigned on 12 charges at the state level and released on $150,000 bond.
The NRA-ILA observes:
Many gun owners are already reluctant to comply with registration laws, as such schemes are quite accurately viewed as a means to facilitate firearms confiscation. Moreover, Kirschenmann isn’t alone in his alleged failure to conform to Sacramento’s mandates. As history shows, when faced with California’s increasingly onerous and byzantine gun laws, many decent folks have unwittingly broken the law, ignored new restrictions, or opted for civil disobedience.
KGET quoted Retired Kern County Sheriff’s Office commander Joe Pilkington saying, “Just in the last few years, there have been lots of changes in gun laws. Making an effort, a good faith effort to comply with these really complicated laws, should count for something.”
Pilkington noted that Kischermann’s experience is a reminder that state residents who have questions about registering their guns ought to go through an FFL instead of the California Department of Justice website.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.