NYC puppet technician charged in 3-D gun making
You can’t make a 3-D gun in a New York theater, even in a prop room.
A New York City puppet technician and prop maker on the set of “The Lion King” has been arrested on accusations of working on a different kind of project behind the scenes: printing a 3-D gun, The Washington Post reported.
Ilya Vett, 47, has been charged with attempted criminal possession of a weapon after allegedly using a 3-D printer to make a plastic gun in a room at a Broadway theater, New York police Sgt. Jessica McRorie told The Washington Post.
Security officers at the Minskoff Theatre, where Disney’s “The Lion King” musical is playing, were first to find the 3-D printer in September as it was producing the plastic handgun in the property room, police said.
Vett told police he brought the 3-D printer to the theater himself “because my workshop is too dusty,” according to a criminal complaint. He said that he found the computer code needed to print the gun on the Internet and downloaded it to a memory card, which feeds into the 3-D printer. The gun was supposed to be a gift for his brother, he said.
The brother has a New York handgun license, but the prop maker does not.
He was charged under New York State law and is expect to go to trial in November.
Massachusetts tops in liberal lawmakers
What’s the most liberal state?
Apparently not New York, nor California, nor even New Jersey.
According to the Boston Herald, citing an American Conservative Union Foundation report, Massachusetts tops, or perhaps bottoms, the list of state legislatures based on the group’s survey of state legislators based on how they voted on a list of fiscal and social considerations.
Gun control was apparently not one of the issues measured, but law-abiding Bay State gun owners still feel harassed by their state house.
George Will column supports full ban on “assault weapons”
Some so-called conservative pundits tend to take a different stand when the issue of gun control legislation is discussed.
A prime example can be found in the Oct. 1 syndicated newspaper column of George Will, who castigated the Republican Party for its closeness to pro-gun organizations.
In his commentary which suggests support for Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic challenger for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s Texas seat in the US Senate in the November mid-term elections.
Will makes it clear that he would prefer the Democrat to win because he would support new gun control proposals, including a ban on modern sporting rifles like the AR-15. Will castigates Cruz as being “bought and paid for” by the gun lobby.
He suggests that it would be a better world without opposition to gun control, citing the 1930s era.
“The National Firearms Act of 1934, which imposed stringent regulations of on the sale of machine guns, automatic weapons and sawed off shotguns and rifles, was so uncontroversial that it was passed by voice vote in both the House and the Senate,” he wrote. “The NRA, which in those days was concerned primarily with supporting improved marksmanship, even supported the legislation.”
Then he concludes by saying: “A federal assault weapons ban would be even more beneficial if, unlike the 1994 legislation, it were not riddled with loopholes and if, as in Australia, it included a provision forcing existing gun owners to turn in their assault rifles.”
Democrat Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein couldn’t have stated their case more clearly.
Scalise says shooting boosted gun support views
In case you missed it: back in June when House members resumed their annual baseball game, Associated Press interviewed House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was severely wounded by a gun-wielding assailant at the 2017 Capitol Hill game.
Scalise said that shooting “deepened my appreciation for the Second Amendment because it was people with guns who saved my life and every other member out there.”
If Capitol Hill Police offers David Bailey and Crystal Griner had not been there with guns to counter the shooter, “then there would have been nobody to take him (the shooter) down and he would have just been able to come and pick us apart,” Scalise told The AP in a brief interview.
His views were supported by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), a doctor who helped save Scalise’s life last year.
“If not for a gun—two guns really—being used on our side by two Capitol Police officers, “you might have seen 20 dear people,” Wenstrup said.
Vermont bump stock turn-in underwhelming
The Vermont Legislature and the state’s population of gunowners appear to have different views regarding bump stocks—or else a tiny number of the trigger devises were ever sold in the Green Mountain State.
The Vermont State Police have received two bump stocks voluntarily turned in ahead of the Oct. 1 date when possession of the rapid fire devices became illegal in the state, The Associated Press and various newspapers reported.
Before the implementation date, owners of the devices were able to anonymously drop them off for disposal at 10 state police barracks.
Bump stocks are devices that are attached to firearms that enable them to mimic fully automatic fire.
State Police Spokesman Adam Silverman said that as of Oct. 2 only two of the devices had been turned in across the state.
The bump stocks will be taken to state police headquarters in Waterbury pending destruction.
The Vermont State Legislature passed gun restrictions earlier this year that included universal background checks, increasing the age to buy firearms from 18 to 21 and banning high-capacity magazines and bump stocks.
