44 AMP said:
"Firearm" means any sawed-off shotgun, machine gun, rifle, shotgun, pistol, revolver or other weapon, whether loaded or unloaded from which a shot may be discharged;
OK, yes, I see your point here. Now go look for the "rest of the story". Does the law also say something like "or the frame or receiver of such a firearm"?? many do have language like that.
There is no "rest of the story." I quoted the entirety of the definition from statute.
Just another reminder that we have fifty sovereign states, and what the law says in any one (or two, or more) of them is not automatically the law in all of them.
44 AMP said:
I can see Transit Police doing their job, but I see no reason to crow about it. I do disagree with the blub about it "being very dangerous in the wrong hands". Dangerous as a club yes. Very dangerous? I don't think so.
I don't dispute that the TA cops were doing their job. I do disagree with whoever decided to make A BIG DEAL out of the fact that they took this "dangerous weapon" off the streets. It points to another foible of laws in general. In my state, as in most if not all states, we can purchase black powder handguns with no permit, no FOID, and no background check. However, we canNOT purchase (legally) non-firing replicas of handguns (or maybe of any firearms, I don't remember specifically). It's in the statutes. Dealing with some of the big Internet vendors of non-firing replicas, I've found that some simply won't sell to customers in my state. Some don't care. And one, from whom I have purchased, has a policy of selling non-firing replicas only to police and certified instructors. I wanted a non-firing Beretta 92 for a prop in my NRA Basic Pistol classes, so I e-mailed that company a scan of my NRA instructor credentials and they allowed me to buy the "gun." Technically they perhaps shouldn't have -- yet there are gun shops all over the state that are selling non-firing replicas and blank guns, and nobody seems to care that it's not legal to do so.
Oh, yeah -- my point. The object in the photo might (or might not) be a firearm under my state's laws, and that determination would affect how (or if) it might be sold. But a real percussion cap revolver? Walk into Cabela's and walk out with the gun, the powder, the lead balls, and the primers. No background check required. Does it make sense? Not to me.