Month: September 2022
A wealthy New Jersey businessman had his firearms seized after he used an AR-15 to chase car thieves away from his property last year, according to a new report from the New York Post.
Newly released footage shows Evan Wexler, naked, in front of his Fort Lee mansion firing several shots at another man who was trying to steal his Mercedes G-Wagon. According to the Post, it was the 18th time thieves had attempted to steal one of Wexler’s exotic cars, and the police had done little to stop them.
“I keep calling the police and showing them videos to prove I’m not crying wolf,” Wexler said. “I’m begging them to deter these guys, but they’re not doing s–t. The cops show up too late or go on high-speed chases but they never catch anyone.”
So, the wealthy butcher-turned-high-end hamburger and steak supermarket wholesaler decided to take matters into his own hands.
In the video, the would-be thief can be seen opening the door of Wexler’s Mercedes, which he admits he sometimes left unlocked. According to the Post, car thieves often looked in Wexler’s daily drivers to find keys to his more exotic cars.
In one incident last August, they stole Wexler’s $500,000 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Coupe. It was found a week later with $80,000 worth of damage.
Moments after the thief starts the Mercedes, Wexler can be seen on his home security camera running onto his porch. He isn’t wearing any clothes, and he’s holding what appears to be an AR-style rifle. He keeps the gun trained on the thief as the man runs away and fires what the Post describes as “warning shots” from his porch.
The move succeeded in deterring that particular thief, but police were none too thrilled. They slapped Wexler with aggravated assault and possession of weapons for unlawful purposes, which the meat mogul pled down to possession of a deadly weapon.
“An incident happens where a guy gets my car started, I came out of the house with a rifle, the guy puts the car into drive, drives forward, and my gun discharges,” Wexler described the incident to the Post. “At that point, Fort Lee police show up, there’s no victim of a shooting, but they come and turn the tables on me.”
Wexler was forced to sell his guns and was sentenced to two years of probation.
“Assault firearms” are illegal in New Jersey, and Wexler’s rifle appears to meet the state’s definition of that term. But the Post reports that the charge Wexler pleaded guilty to was leveled when police found another weapon on his property that violated the state’s standard-capacity magazine ban.
United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- When Letitia James is celebrating, Second Amendment supporters need to check and see if our rights have become more threatened. Earlier this week, one of her celebratory press releases is a warning that financial deplatforming has become that much easier.
Just before the Labor Day weekend, James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta demanded that Visa, Mastercard, and Discover create a specific merchant category code for sales of guns and ammunition. A week later, she celebrated the International Standard Organization’s requirement for the new code.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. While New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen in conjunction with the Heller and Caetano decisions should block any government bans on firearms, it is powerless against private businesses who make ostensibly “business” decisions.
Given her past track record which includes targeting firearms manufacturers, companies that produced 80% receivers, and her election-interfering effort to dissolve the National Rifle Association, this news is presumptively bad news. It has now become easier to single out firearms purchases, and while James and Bonta are only demanding this specific category… how long will they just be demanding only the category?
The probable next step will be to demand separate categories for firearms and ammunition, so as to start telling whether people are buying guns, ammo, or both. Then they will demand to segregate out the modern multi-purpose semi-automatics into yet another category.
Once that is done, it becomes easy to demand they block the purchases. That demand will be backed up with the threat of civil litigation egged on by anti-Second Amendment extremists groups, whether the Brady Campaign, Giffords, or Everytown. The purpose of the litigation will be to drum up bad publicity and force a settlement that will force the companies to cut off purchases.
Then, of course, there is the fact that generating a lit of possible gun owners just got outsourced to the financial industry – where such data can be subpoenaed by a state AG who is channeling Lavrentiy Beria. Think that won’t happen? Do we need to go over the track record of Letitia James again?
The most dangerous part about this is that this decision is going to be much harder to address via grassroots action. The credit card companies are private businesses and have pretty much the same First Amendment rights we do. They can also run their business as they see fit, and in the cases of Visa, Mastercard, and Discover, we don’t exactly have competition we can turn to.
We’re not helpless, though. Those in states that respect the Second Amendment can urge their elected officials to promulgate regulations to mitigate the potential harm that the recent actions of the International Standard Organization. The other step is to work to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists like Letitia James via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
Authorities in Detroit, Michigan are currently searching for a band of thieves that stole almost 100 guns in two days.
Surveillance footage shows the suspects entering the stores by plowing a vehicle right through the front entrance.
Once inside, the masked bandits smash and grab as many guns as they possibly can. They’re out within minutes.
Police believe there are at least 8 perps involved in the heists that targeted gun shops in Westland and Dearborn Heights, over the weekend.
Spencer Wong, who owns the gun shop in Westland, spoke to ABC 7 Detroit about the robbery.
“We even have a barricade back here because we didn’t think anyone would be willing to drive through the front,” he said, about the security measures he already had in place at his store, Armed in Michigan.
Wong said they made off handguns and long guns worth thousands of dollars.
“They’ve sure been here because they got the good stuff. They got the expensive stuff,” he said.
The thieves also hit CC Coins, Jewelry and Loan in Dearborn Heights using the same tactics.
Altogether they snatched about 100 guns, approximately 50 from each shop.
SEE ALSO: Everytown Celebrates New Banking Codes to Track Gun Purchases, Monitor Gun Owners
“They don’t care. They’ll just come. It’s kind of savage. They’ll do whatever they want. They don’t care,” Wong said.
Wong’s right. They don’t care. They will do whatever they want. Yet, some politicians are convinced that if we just pass more draconian gun control that it will somehow stop these savages.
Maybe it’s worth asking specifically: Would universal background checks have stopped these thieves? What about waiting periods or expanded red flag laws or new banking codes to track gun purchases? Would they have made a difference?
No chance. Someone willing to drive an automobile through a storefront doesn’t give a rip about what gun laws are on the books. This is a point that is clear as day to everyone — well, everyone except those who want to destroy the 2A.
ATF is now offering a $20,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of those involved. Call 888-ATF-TIPS if you know something.
Categories
M1917 Rifle from Forge to Finish
Categories