Image via CA AG.

California arrested a man last month for the high crime of owning about 250 firearms, a million rounds of ammunition and a few cans. In most states that would make the man a great neighbor. In Texas it would make him a very eligible bachelor to the ladies.  Unfortunately, the statists in California don’t have a lot of love for the little people owning effective defensive firearms.

Rob Bonta, the California Attorney General, shared some photos of the unnamed Richmond, California, man’s collection. Most of his stuff looked pretty nice.

Image via CA AG.
Image via CA AG.

A million rounds of ammo though?  I know a guy who has a whole wall of .50 caliber ammo cans stacked six deep, probably 120 at least, along with a couple of dozen .30 caliber cans and another couple of dozen other larger ammo cans up to 20mm (?).  He says he has less than 150 thousand rounds of center-fire ammo.  Maybe the man in California had a lot of rimfire ammo.

While the sheer number of guns causes the average nongun owning Californian to piddle themselves, for gun owners it’s impressive but not incontinence provoking. Think about it:  3,000 magazines sounds impressive until you consider how he had a couple of hundred magazine-fed guns. All a sudden, fifteen mags per gun doesn’t sound so impressive.  I mean, who hasn’t ordered one or two of those 100-magazine cases of PMags from Magpul anyway?  To say nothing of Magpul’s awesome Glock-compatible pistol mags.

As for 250 guns? If the man had bought a gun every month for twenty years, that’s 240 guns.  If you have the spare cash to do that, there are worse investments one could make (such as crypto at times).

Here’s the story from Yahoo.

A man in Richmond, California, was arrested last month after authorities found an illegal cache of 248 guns and 1 million rounds of ammo in his home, the state attorney general said on Thursday.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement that the man, who was not named, was legally prohibited from owning guns in California.

Law-enforcement officials who searched the man’s home on January 31 found 11 military-style machine guns, 133 handguns, 37 rifles, 60 assault rifles, seven shotguns, and 3,000 large-capacity magazines, Bonta said.

California’s likely going to try to crucify this guy. However, given a number of U.S. Supreme Court cases pending, if this man hires a good attorney, California might not be able to make those charges stick. If the guy could afford 250 pretty nice guns and a million rounds of ammo, he can probably afford the best legal defense money can buy.

73 COMMENTS

  1. Most California residents would probably think the guy was planning to use all of it to attack the local YMCA.

    • Only the “gaze” and the “moslems” are going to attack a Young Men’s Christian Association with guns. They have a long history of doing so.

  2. Still trying to figure out what he did wrong. He was a collector. No indication he was dealing or selling firearms. I would like to be on that jury!

    • The linked statement from AG Bonta shows that this man was “allegedly” (Bonta’s own word) in illegal possession of the guns after falling into “prohibited status”. Bonta said CADOJ used the APPS system, established in 2006, to track gun ownership of people who legally purchased, but later fell into prohibited status for whatever reason(s). CADOJ then goes after people retroactively, and this situation appears to be such a case.

      In other words, this man appears to have legally acquired the majority of his collection, then later did something (or CA moved the goalposts) to make him into a “prohibited person”. Bonta has publicly boasted of his conquests of people using the APPS system.

      CA craves power, and doesn’t want anyone to have any guns. See Newsom, Becerra, Bonta, Pelosi, and of course the famous statement by our former Senatress Dianne Feinstein. The Dems hate us.

      • The man has dementia and his son just got guardianship of him making him a prohibited person in the process. Everything he had was legal and either on the NFA registry or California’s registry.

        • That’s what I was wondering. is this some old grandpa man, former vet with a lifetime collection? Very common here in Texas but even my father and grandfather out in California were collectors / hoarders.

        • @Office Bill,

          Well, if this is the case, then it’s rather cruel for Bonta to be making a public display of this man’s hard-earned and previously legal collection in the false light of “stopping crime”.

        • “Everything he had was legal and either on the NFA registry or California’s registry.”

          How is that possible? The only privately-owned NFA ‘toys’ in California are in movie prop houses…

        • @Geoff,

          Actually, corporations have ownership of NFA items here. I’ve fired suppressed guns that are legally set up in CA.

      • Seems like someone should have GTFO’d from CA before giving pop’s million dollar collection to the state

  3. I see the War on Guns is going about as well as the War on Drugs.

    What does it say about a .gov when it is always declaring war on its citizens?

  4. a million rounds of ammo? That’s all? That’s nothing, I’ve got a lot more than that stored away in each of my several storage areas.

  5. It said he was excluded from owning guns in Calif but it didn’t say why. Im kind of curious. Im also envious of his collection. If my neighbor had that i’d feel honored to be his neighbor, sure wouldn’t go squealin to the Man about it

    • I’d like to see what caused him to be banned from owning guns in the state of California. And I don’t believe the press is reporting the truth. Because the press does not support the Bill of Rights.

      They just want the first amendment to be applied to them only.

      • He has dementia and is now conserved. Son should have moved the guns out with the proper transfers and all. Hopefully he lives out of state since neither the machine guns, mufflers, nor the “assault weapons” can be transferred in state.

  6. “If the guy could afford 250 pretty nice guns and a million rounds of ammo”

    Some one else posted more information on this elsewhere saying, basically, wasn’t his stuff actually but rather that of a relative (who was not any sort of prohibited person) with medical issues he was caring for and he just happens to have been living there to do that care. I need to look into this more though, haven’t had time to dig into it.

    As for 250 guns …. Damn it! Now I need to play catch up… my collection currently has 187 but I got some buys planned soon and maybe a few sells.

  7. Watch it come out later this guy had a FFL/SOT that he forgot to renew after being hospitalized with COVID.

  8. Hey, at least he’s still alive. Is his dog okay?

    legally prohibited from owning guns in California

    I wonder why he’s prohibited.

    • I’d “think” someone would know they are “prohibited” in Commiefornia. But that’s just me. Yeah this was breathlessly reported nationally.

      • I showed the pictured “cache” to my wife whom had asked me if I wanted anything for my birthday, which is at the end of the week. She had the same strange look on her face as she silently walked away… just like she did 43 years ago when I proposed to her.

  9. This is from another forum that I got from a different forum. So take it with a grain of.

    There’s always the (news)…. And then there was what really happened … This was took from a california gun fourm …………………My friend is a local FFL that does contract work for the Police Department and Sheriff’s Department where this happened and he gave me some background to this case a few days ago. The man who this stuff belonged to is in his 90s and a relative of his had to obtain legal guardianship over the man because he is suffering from advanced dementia which is why he is no longer legally allowed to possess firearms. The man has not lived in the house where his collection was stored for the better part of 6 years because he’s living in a nursing home. The majority of the firearms have been owned for more than 40 years well before they were ever regulated in California and the man has possessed a special federal firearms license called a Curios and Relic license for the better part of 60 years that allowed him under California law to possess machine guns. The actual machine guns that were in the man’s possession are ones that are legally owned and are registered with the NFA and the tax has been paid on them. The authorities have been well aware of what was in his possession because he registered them with the state when they required it. They’re simply pretending like this man is a criminal once they found out he was no longer mentally fit to possess the firearms and gleefully seized his collection.

    • Wow. That’s criminal. Old dude probably has at least a half million dollars there that is now illegally seized and will probably be destroyed. History that will be destroyed…

      • That’s why you should work with a GOOD nfa lawyer and have a trust or at least an LLC with passable transfers to others.

    • They needed to move the collection. Im in the process of doing that following new proclamations from the overlords.
      I’ll be following them at some point. For those of you feeling defiant better think again. An old piece of paper and a few people in black robes won’t protect you.

      All we can do is hope someplace is left to move to.

  10. No worries; it’s all good. The man was allegedly prohibited and only had alleged illegal weapons:

    SAN FRANCISCO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced the arrest of a suspect in Richmond with a large cache of illegal firearms, including assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and approximately one million rounds of ammunition. The suspect is alleged to be legally barred from owning weapons.

    “This arrest demonstrates exactly why the Armed and Prohibited Persons System is vital for the safety of our communities,” said Attorney General Bonta. “In our efforts to retrieve guns from a prohibited individual, we found hundreds of allegedly illegal weapons and approximately one million rounds of ammunition. I am grateful for our Bureau of Firearms agents’ and local law enforcement partners’ work in getting these illegal weapons out of the hands of this prohibited individual.” (from the link in the article)

    • They arrested a 90 year old guy living in a nursing home and Bonta says this? What an asshole. But we knew that already.

    • SAF Gun Rights Policy Conference 9/27-29 being held in San Diego, CA this year. Not going, as when I cross the CA state line, I’d become a felon-in-waiting. What is the SAF thinking?? Looking for suckers to be test cases???

  11. Exactly, and that’s why as a Minnesota subject, I haven’t talked with any of my neighbors about my two guns and 46 rounds of ammo.

  12. Meanwhile it’s business as usual for real criminals. The owner should have moved himself and/or his collection to a Free State.

  13. Wanna bet this guy is a flaming liberal and never believed “it” would happen to him. He never believed his fellow leftists would come for him.

  14. In 2006, California became the first state in the nation to establish a system for tracking firearm owners who fall into a prohibited status. The APPS database works to identify individuals who lawfully procured firearms and later became prohibited from owning or possessing them. In general, prohibited persons in APPS include individuals who were convicted of a felony or a violent misdemeanor, were placed under a domestic violence or other restraining order, or suffer from serious mental illness.

    And I might add there were no sporting guns in the arsenal, every one of them were weapons of mass destruction.

    • Lol didn’t realize you had a roster of all 250 firearms. Also wasn’t aware the pump shotgun in the photo was a WMD.

    • I was first on scene at a major traffic incident a few days ago. The first cop that showed up was a motorcycle cop that had a wmd racked on his bike.

      Why do cops need wmd’s to patrol in civilian cities?

    • Ah Dacian – trotting out that weapons of mass destruction misnomer. So he had actual WOMDs: nukes, or bio-weapons? Or was part of the fascist Dem media (the real WOMD)? He was a registered collector who was moved to a nursing home. Big time criminal, right? You leftists never change.

      The Left: a neurotic clown collective arrogantly spouting toxic imbecility. (I copied this from someone else.)

    • Dacian the only weapon of mass destruction around here are you and all of your Liberal weirdo friends who belong in dirt nap land. Keep it up and soon you’ll end up there with them

      • He’s using the Iraq war definition of “weapons of mass destruction,” where it is whatever it needs to be to invade someone’s land and kill them.

    • How do you know???

      Some look like Chinese made ak’s which were imported as SPORTING RIFLES, until your MARXIST allies changed the definition of SPORTING!!!!

    • DUNDERHEAD, this is an invasion of privacy. Just because I own a gun does not make me any more prone to violence than your buds in ANTIFA or BLM (your Leftist stormtroopers).

  15. The REAL Problem is:
    Is the ‘People’s Republic of Kalifornia’ definition of ‘Prohibited Person’ the same as the Federal definition??

  16. why in the hell would anyone want to live in homofornia? a collection like that doesn’t belong in any communist state, let alone there, that’s just asking for trouble

  17. Super nice collection. My question: If the owner of the weapons actually been diagnosed with dementia and therefore cannot now own firearms due to mental issues, he does not have the mental capacity to commit the crime of possession of the weapons. Then why was he arrested?

  18. The Fudds at Bearing Arms (i.e. Tom Knighton) are throwing this guy under the bus calling him criminal and “wondering what he was going to do next.”

    We are our own worst enemies in this community. Thanks for a more freedom-loving take.

  19. After reading the “Bearing Arms” take on this, there are more questions than straight answers.

    Who was arrested? The man who owned the gun collection or his relative who was the conservator?

    How is it that Knighton at Bearing Arms is convinced that the man obtained the weapons illegally?

    Is a Curios and Relic License (per Flyboy’s remark above) issued by CA still valid?

    This whole thing doesn’t make much sense, unless we go with the explanation that CA has decided to use this man’s arrest as a way to exercise their power illicitly.

  20. @Nikita Tesla: I didn’t see Tom throwing him under the bus.

    He noted that almost all of that stuff is illegal in CA. He obtained quite a few items.

    Is that inaccurate?

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