Man with 21 guns at airport: I'm law-abiding

Man with 21 guns at airport: I'm law-abiding

www.msnbc.msn.com

Dominguez, 47, of Orange, said he went to the Los Angeles airport to pick up a friend from Baltimore on Friday. They intended to go target shooting at an outdoor range in San Bernardino County.

As Dominguez entered the airport's ring road, his truck was pulled over for inspection. Dominguez says he knew police would want to look inside the locked cover of the truck bed so he got out, opened it and declared that he had firearms there.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The article states that he had the firearms locked up in individual cases in the covered bed of his truck, and that he was picking up his friend at the airport, to then go shooting at the range, when he was pulled over for inspection. I am not aware if the firearms and ammunition restrictions for checked baggage also apply to just having them on airport property, but if I am not mistaken, firearms and ammunition are acceptable as checked baggage at US airports. However, there are laws restricting how much and how they are packed.

Personally, after reading the article, it doesn't sound to me like he had any bad intentions. And I am all about the Second Amendment, but I guess property rights come in to play here, as he was on private property.

Undoubtedly, there will be people on both sides of this story. I am interested in hearing other people's opinion on this.

www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's simpler and more realistic to apply a blanket ban for situations like this. I doubt this guy had intentions of shooting up the airport, but any fool could get caught and say "Oh, I was just gonna... uh, go hunting! Yeah! That's the ticket! I was just going hunting!"

It also stated he has been since released and he has not his truck or guns. I wonder when are they going to release these things that are his back to him?

I am in full support for gun rights. Well it really doesnt matter what the intent was when you got 20 some odd guns and enough ammo for them packed away in the back of the truck driving onto airport property. Those guns could have been left at home while picking up the friend JMO.

Well lets see how this case develops!


Cheers!!!!

Have a feeling where this happened, Kalifornia, a known Socialist anti-gun empire, and with who is coming into power in Washington, Obama, a known Socialist anti-gun person, that this is going to be a benchmark case. This guy had all the firearms locked up in individual cases, and volunteered the fact he did have the firearms when checked by police. He did not have any firearms on his person when stopped, they were all locked in the bed of his truck. I have a suspicion that the anti-gun & anti-2nd Amendment people are going to spread false information about this guy to make it look like he was on his way to shoot up the airport.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Originally posted by evilod
I am not aware if the firearms and ammunition restrictions for checked baggage also apply to just having them on airport property, but if I am not mistaken, firearms and ammunition are acceptable as checked baggage at US airports. However, there are laws restricting how much and how they are packed.

I have wondered about that too. I never worried about visiting the airport and keeping firearms in the car. Though recently the new Georgia conceiled carry laws changed and this became an issue of debate. The new laws would have made it legal to have conceild weapons (with a regular ccw permit) in the airport (just not past security of course).

There was a big debate about it and then the airport managed to get "special status" to have them banned. But I don't think that applied to vehicles, because in Georgia your vehicle is like your home, you don't even need a permit to have a loaded gun in the car.

[edit on 11-1-2009 by Sonya610]

I may have missed this, but what law has he transgressed, exactly? I failed to see it in the article...

I only hope this man wins his case.

One of our presidents once said that everything you hear about in the news is there for a reason, that nothing is coincidence or even necessarily good journalism. TPTB are probably using this story to test public backlash for the things they're about to be doing, to see how much more time they need to start implementing and executing stricter gun laws.

reply to post by RFBurns


I typically have 6-10 firearms with me when I go to spend a day at the range and a couple thousand rounds of ammo.

Why not load up the car if the airport is on the way? I'm not going to drive halfway to the range, pick up a buddy, drive all the way back, load the truck, drive past the damn airport to get the range to satisfy some pointless legislation.

It's painfullt sad and somewhat disturbing when law stomps all over common sense.

Though I suppose common sense can be relatively seen in this situation as "guns at an airpport=bad, leave them home" but my relative common sense doesnt register guns as bad or evil things.

What if the dude was in a work truck and he had a couple chainsaws in the back?

He needs his property back and an apology from everyone involved in this harassment and, by confiscation of his arms, violation of civil and Constitutional rights.

Originally posted by Sonya610
in Georgia your vehicle is like your home, you don't even need a permit to have a loaded gun in the car.

[edit on 11-1-2009 by Sonya610]

That's good to know. Unfortunately in most states cops treat your car like its public property.

I know California has stricter gun control laws than most states, but honestly, what is this guy gonna do with 21 guns? All he needs is one if he wants to shoot some people up. And he had them all locked away individually, which in Florida at least counts as safe and responsible ownership. I would say if he had one locked and loaded up in the front they would have a case, but in this situation arresting him in the first place was wrong.

Originally posted by The Last Man on Earth
I may have missed this, but what law has he transgressed, exactly? I failed to see it in the article...

It's california, god only knows.

reply to post by evilod


We are talking California, so the 2nd amendment doesn't apply here.

reply to post by Xtrozero


2nd Amendment applied just fine when I moved to SoCal with my firearms. Thanks for that sweeping generalization.

The individual did everything correct in accordance with the law when you are stopped by authorities and are carrying weapons not in plain sight. The individual did not have charges brought against him. The weapons are being retained to make sure they are indeed legal and have not been used in a crime.

If you take a truck full of rifles to an airport in a post-9/11 world, what exactly are you expecting to happen?

There's a question not being asked....

I've been to LAX more times than I care to admit. I've seen folks pulled over for random stops before at the Sepulveda entrance... and it does appear to be totally random.

Was this really a random stop or was there something that tipped off the airport police to search this vehicle? Is there something the police are leaving out of the official reports? Mighty lucky a random stop revealed such a haul...

[edit on 11-1-2009 by cogburn]

And yet box cutters can still be bought at any hardware store...

It seems his vehicle had already been targeted prior to the airport visit, whether by local authorities or airport security (probably the former). This was just an excuse to run all the weapons and try to find something on this individual.

haha.. since one guy and his friend can fire 21 guns at the same time...
but iim sure that they dont realize that cause he had an "arsenal"


we do that all the time, load up 10-15 guns into a single car and go shooting, it looks terrifying but how many guns can you really shoot at once, unless you're Moe Syzlak..

img.photobucket.com...

[edit on 11-1-2009 by turbokid]

I would not have allowed myself to be arrested, and my things to be confiscated. I do not believe that they even told the guy on what charges they were arresting him.

Something more on the random scanning. My dad and i like fireworks, and we have purchased so many(he used his credit card) that he got an official warning from the government that we would be fined some $600,000 dollars if we ever purchased fireworks again. We have also made numerous interesting contraptions, including cannons, an ultra-lite, and he has his cwp, and federal firearms license. Were definetly being watched... but anyways, a couple months after we were faxed the warning, my mother, brother, and i flew up to washington to visit family.

It was a curious thing, then, that i was singled out for a "random" explosives scan (the full works, my shoes were even seperatly scanned)on both the going and returning flight. There is no way it is random.

Most of the cops, security or whatever don't even know what the law is to begin with. The same goes for most of the citizens of this country, they don't even know their rights. If this man had done all that he is supposed to do then what right did the security have to take his guns? If he had refused, then he would have been arrested wouldn't he? Then he would have a firearms record, wouldn't he? It's the governments intention to get the guns out of the hands of the people one way or the other. The thing is, the people that jump through all the BS hoops that they demand we jump through,are not the problem. How many crooks have you seen go out of their way to get a CWP?

Sad but he will never see these guns again. They are gone for good. Dumb mistake he will never forget.

Originally posted by cogburn

2nd Amendment applied just fine when I moved to SoCal with my firearms. Thanks for that sweeping generalization.

Walk up to a cop and tell him you have a 15 round mag in your 9mm, and see if the 2nd saves your ass....hehe