Range arrest

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ESI Agent

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As some of you may know from my past post I am a lisenced armed security person. Two weeks ago I went to my state mandated weapons of mass distruction training course. That trains us to be more aware of terrorism and pre incident indicators. Now for my weekly range visit which was done today.While shooting I noticed two persons walk up to the line away from the rest of the other shooters. I noticed what appeared to be silencers on their weapons and they acting very strange that caused me to watch them closer. They seem to have at least four self made silencers. The range master went to notify some SWAT officers tranining at another part of the range,when he arrvied back to the area with a SWAT officer I called a line brake and took the guns from the two suspect while they were putting their targets out, so when they came bact to their gear their were no guns and a SWAT officer. After a conversation the officer advised the range to call the local sheriff because he had no way of transporting the suspects and left me with the two suspect who were uncuffed. While waiting for the sheriff I ask who the guns belonged to and they gave me a deer in the headlight stare. Finially one said they are unregistered firearms and they bought them from some gun on the street he did'ent know. L.A. County sheriff duputies arrived and ran a make on the guns and found one reported from a buglary a few years ago. One suspect was arrested and I believe the other was kicked. My question is this how many of you feel I should have just minded my own business? One of the persons did not speak english and was from Mexico the other said he was from El Salvador which makes no differnce but they may not have been here legally? I did'ent ask.
 
You did the only thing a proper American could have done. Quit second guessing yourself and have a Honey Brown Ale. Honest. Too few have the courage to get involved. You did and it paid off. Ever heard of MS-13, MS-18, the Mexican Mafia? Who's to say they weren't affiliated? Good job.
 
I think the fact that they weren't Americans is a big difference. If they were Americans I'd say that they were exercising their constitutional right to keep and bear arms and you should have stayed out of their business and let them be unless they were threatening someone or being dangerous. Their status as likely illegals is reason enough (to me) to warrant extra scrutiny and intervention.

I hope that you don't let your position as a security guard go to your head, it kind of sounds like you take yourself entirely too seriously.
 
Sounds like you did fine. I don't like or agree with the laws you guys have out there, but if I chose to live there I would follow the laws of my chosen home and would expect others to as well.
 
One of the persons did not speak english and was from Mexico the other said he was from El Salvador which makes no differnce but they may not have been here legally?

Thats enough right there to tell me you did the right thing. As someone else said, they could have been involved in a gang or some other shady organization that had bad intentions. And that whole "deer in the headlights" thing and the "no spicka english" thing are usually always an act. Good work sir.
 
Good work

Thank for your vigilance . Anyone handling a silencer should know better so regardless of the race issue. The proper thing was done, let someone who is empowered to make the decision do the guess work. GOOD job.
ESI Lifeforce all the way!!
 
Those morons deserve to be arrested, heck they practically begged for it, taking illegal silencers to a range. Morons. Our society is far too tolerant of thugs, and I for one am thrilled that you had the guts to do the right thing.

And on top of that the audacity of foreigners in this country really grinds my gears. I cannot imagine myself going as a civilian to some other country and blatantly breaking their laws as these jokers did and expecting to get away with it.
 
From what you say, I assume you are NOT a sworn LE officer; if you are, you had no choice but to act on a possible felony committed in your presence. If not, I think you acted properly in notifying the police. Had the persons been innocent and had been in possession of a legal, registered suppressor, there should have been no problem in proving it.

Of course, the ACLU will demand that you and the officers involved be prosecuted for harassing an illegal alien gang member (a crime in the ACLU's book) and you will be imprisoned for life by a bribed judge. That is if you are lucky and the rest of the gang doesn't just torture and kill you and your family, which will also meet with the approval of the ACLU.

Jim
 
Nicely done. You managed to remove their weapons without a confrontation and let the LEOs handle the actual investigation. If they had been legal, they would have been able to prove it.

The key here, for those of you in free states, is that silencers are strictly controlled in California for civilians. That's clue number 1. That the silencers looked "home made" is clue #2. The "acting strangely" is another clue. Add them together and you were justified in being suspicious.
 
So, I go to the range with my cans, go to set targets, and when I get back, some schmuck has taken my stuff, and called the cops on me?

In this case, you were lucky and things panned out OK. Next time, you might get yourself called out and whupped for stealing somebody's stuff.



Just saw Bill's statement, works if ESI is in CA. Doesn't if he's in TX.
 
^^Its pretty easy to tell the difference between a legit suppressor and a garage hack job one. Better safe than sorry seems to apply here, I would say.
 
I've seen some real sketchy guys at the range...

Always investigate "hinkeyness". Calling the cops was a good move.

Taking their guns was impolite, but probably was justified in terms of officer safety. I'd be pretty pissed if I saw some guy out of uniform who flashed a badge and said he was an off-duty cop tried to take my guns at the range.
 
The biggest concern I have is why did the SWAT officer leave. I wouldn't want to be standing "guard" over two guys, especially since I'm not LE. I think it was bad mojo for the SWAT guy to leave you there by yourself. If these guys would have tried to leave how could you have legally stopped them. Plus imagine the shootout if these guys would have jumped you and got a gun. Bad scene IMO.

As far as everything up to the above point its reasonable.
 
You did fine.

I think the fact that they weren't Americans is a big difference. If they were Americans I'd say that they were exercising their constitutional right to keep and bear arms and you should have stayed out of their business and let them be unless they were threatening someone or being dangerous. Their status as likely illegals is reason enough (to me) to warrant extra scrutiny and intervention.

Well gee, how would he know if they were Americans or not when he saw them behind the firing line? The only way he might have guessed they were illegals would be by skin color and that would be a poor assumption. So how could he have made the assessment otherwise? Also, the Constitution applies to folks in our country, not just American citizens.
 
Yeah, yeah, yeah... good job... but on to what we all really want to know... how well did the home-brewed cans work? :D

I'm curious what type of pistols they were, too...
 
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