Category: Guns

  • Cosmo DiNardo; suspected serial killer

    Cosmo DiNardo; suspected serial killer

    Four men went missing last week and Cosmo DiNardo is their suspected killer according to the Tribunist. The missing men are Jimi Tar Patrick, 19, Dean Finocchiaro, 19, Mark Sturgis, 22, and Tom Meo, 21. They were last seen on July 7th. DiNardo became a suspect when he tried to sell a car belonging to one of his victims for $500.

    Finocchiaro’s body was discovered on DiNardo’s parents’ property buried in a hole twelve feet deep.

    DiNardo has been diagnosed with schizophrenia which prevents him from purchasing weapons, however, he is well known throughout his community as someone that can get you whatever gun you need. In fact, he was arrested on weapons charges in February, but the local magistrate dismissed those charges late last month…for some reason – just weeks before his four victims disappeared.

    From Philly.com;

    Eric Beitz, 20, of Bensalem, said Wednesday that he and his friends had hung out often in recent weeks with Cosmo DiNardo, and said DiNardo came off as agreeable on the surface but routinely sold firearms, spoke about killing people, and seemed to have “ulterior motives.”

    “I can tell you on multiple different occasions, on multiple different accounts, from multiple different people, including myself – Cosmo has spoken about weird things like killing people and having people killed,” Beitz said. “Everybody you talk to about this guy, you hear he’s mentally unstable.”

    Yet a local magistrate dismissed weapons charges against him. DiNardo would pop hot on a NICS check but he was buying and selling guns illegally without a background check. They missed their chance to lock his ass up last month, but I guess they felt sorry for him and let him loose.

    Beitz recalled DiNardo’s offering to sell another friend a shotgun at their first meeting. He said that DiNardo had bragged about having someone killed because of a dispute over $800, and that DiNardo said he only gave his phone number out to “people who kill people.”

    He sold “rifles, shotguns, handguns… assault rifles. Whatever he could get his hands on. He would kind of brag about it, too,” Beitz said. He said DiNardo routinely sent them photos of himself posing with guns.

    According to another Philly.com link DiNardo was arrested earlier this week on the charge that was dropped last month;

    DiNardo was originally arrested for allegedly possessing a shotgun and ammunition he was not permitted to have because he had a “mental illness” and had been involuntarily committed to an inpatient treatment facility, according to a criminal complaint filed in February.

    Yeah, the government will protect us if we all give up our guns.

    UPDATES: Inside Edition reports that DiNardo confessed to the murders in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. His lawyer says that DiNardo “feels deep remorse” for the murders. Other remains were found late yesterday in his 12-foot pit.

    Fox News reports that a second “person of interest” is in custody.

    The Washington Post says Sean M. Kratz was charged with three counts of homicide in the case, as DiNardo’s accomplice.

  • Bryan Moles, former Navy Corpsman, arrested in DC

    Bryan Moles, former Navy Corpsman, arrested in DC

    Chief Tango sent us a link of a story about Bryan Moles, a Pennsylvania man who took a scary black rifle and a scary black Glock handgun to DC. Someone tipped off the Secret Service that he might have those weapons in his vehicle and sure enough, he did. They found the guns in plain view in his SUV while it was parked in a hotel parking garage.

    In the linked article, Colbert I. King seems upset that Moles is getting all of the attention and the other guns confiscated by police in the District since then get no press. Mr King, should recognize that almost two thousand guns get confiscated by the police in DC every year – every year since guns were effectively banned in DC in 1974, according to police statistics.

    But, back to Moles. WTOP reports that these guns were taken from his home in Pennsylvania (the SKS makes an appearance again this week);

    In another Washington Post link, Moles told police that he was in DC to talk to President Trump. He seems to be a Trump supporter.

    Bryan Moles, 43, must report to the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center by 4 p.m. Monday after he told police that he had traveled to the District — with an AR-15 rifle, a handgun and more than 90 rounds of ammunition in his 2017 black BMW — to meet with President Trump.

    In charging papers, prosecutors said Moles said he came to Washington to “bring down big medicine business and big pharmacy” and did not plan to leave 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. until he saw the president.

    Moles is a licensed physician and former Navy corpsman. He told police, charging documents state, that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, had refused medication and was treating himself with marijuana, to which he was formerly addicted.

    According to the same Washington Post article, Moles served as a hospital corpsman from 1992 – 1996 at a hospital at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and that he was self-medicating his PTSD with weed.

    Whatever is going on, he’s sitting in jail after he left a court-ordered stay at a Georgia VA facility for an evaluation.

    A friend of Moles’s for 25 years — Lisa Della Ratta, 44, a nurse in Gulf Breeze, Fla. — has described him as a hardcore Trump supporter who grew up with weapons and might have been unaware of the District’s strict gun laws.

    Moles said little in court Friday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather assigned him a federal defender and set his next hearing for June 21. Moles told the court he was suspended from his hospital job….

    If you’re confused, don’t feel alone. I don’t know what happened at Camp Lejeune 1992-1996 that might have made Moles suffer PTSD, I guess PTSD is just the go-to excuse for smoking weed these days.

    In other articles, Moles claims that he was taking the gun to a gunsmith to be reworked, but that doesn’t explain why he would need 90 rounds of ammunition or the handgun. Whatever he was up to, I’m glad he’s not up to it now.

  • Tyrone James’ wrist slap

    In 2015, James Morales broke into the Lincoln Stoddard United States Army Reserve Center in Worcester, Massachusetts and stole six M-4 carbines and ten M-11 semi-automatic handguns from the weapons vault. He then took his haul home and asked his room mates, Tyrone James and Ashley Bigsbee to help him sell the weapons. They did and they were both arrested. Bigsbee was sentenced to 21 months in prison for her part. James was sentenced yesterday, according to Reuters to 57months in jail and 3 years of supervised release.

    Tyrone James, 29…was one of two men who admitted to receiving guns stolen from an Army Reserve facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (70 km) west of Boston, in November 2015.

    Federal prosecutors have charged James Morales with carrying out that heist, alleging he broke into the building through a kitchen window a few days after he noticed a cache of weapons while visiting the facility to pick up copies of his discharge papers.

    From the Washington Times, James wasn’t a first-time offender;

    “During an interview on Nov. 20, 2015, James repeatedly lied to federal agents concerning his knowledge of the sale of the firearms. Further, at the time of this offense, James had been previously convicted of three counts of armed robbery and one count of armed assault in a dwelling making him a felon in possession of those weapons,” the statement said.

    James was ultimately charged with conspiracy to possess, store and sell stolen firearms, possession and sale of stolen firearms and lying to federal agents, and pleaded guilty to all counts in December 2016.

    Massachusetts is pretty strict with legal gun owners, but I guess not so much with criminals. Bigsbee and James weren’t making arrangements to sell those fully-automatic weapons to legal gun owners – the guns probably would have appeared at crime scenes across the state if they had got away with their crimes.

  • American Legion supports Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act

    Newsweek reports that The American Legion opposes the Veterans’ Affairs policy which requires their employees to report veterans who have difficulty managing their financial affairs to the FBI so that the veterans are placed on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) which negates the veteran’s ability to purchase a firearm.

    The American Legion opposes this policy and seeks to rectify this injustice through passage of the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act which would prohibit VA officials from stripping veterans of their rights to own firearms while preserving the authority of magistrates and other judicial officials to protect the public.

    Under the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act, if a judge fairly rules that a particular veteran represents a danger to society based on exhibited mental or criminal behavior, they are free to rule to restrict that veteran from owning firearms. It is clear that this decision should be made by the courts, not VA employees.

    In another article in Newsweek, titled Guns in America: Bill Seeks to Allow Gun Sales to Mentally Ill Vets, they quote some of the opposition to the bill;

    Representative Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.) said the bill was rushed to consideration on the House floor, and argued it would make it easier for veterans in crisis to purchase guns.

    […]

    Representative Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) said he was “disgusted” by the legislation. He added: “I support veterans’ rights to defend themselves. But I don’t support crazy people having guns, whether they’re veterans or not. And it’s just that simple.”

    Funny that an impeached judge would think he has a valid opinion about “crazy…veterans”, isn’t it? I wonder how Democrats would react if some government functionary could relieve them of their first amendment protections if they demonstrated crazy tendencies.

    But, yeah, both the American Legion and the VFW are lobbying on our behalf in this instance, that’s why we need to support these organizations – even if you don’t like the local posts, the national organizations fight for us. We can’t depend on our former commanders to help us;

    Earlier this week, 14 retired admirals and generals from all branches of the military sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to oppose the bill. Veterans, they argued, are at a higher risk of suicide compared to the U.S. civilian population: According to the Department of Defense’s 2014 Suicide Event Report, which was published last year, an average of 20 veterans commit suicide each day, two-thirds of whom do so by using a firearm. Among the retired officers signing the letter were General David Petraeus, a former CIA director, Admiral Thad Allen and Generals Michael Hayden and Stanley McChrystal.

    The same people who sent troops into a war zone without weapons or ammo to be murdered by their allies are begging the government to take our guns away from us.

    Thanks to TSO for the link.

  • Ashley Bigsbee sentenced for stealing weapons

    Ashley Bigsbee sentenced for stealing weapons

    Bill sends us a link to the news that Ashley Bigsbee, a 27-year-old was sentenced to less than two years for her part in the theft of weapons from an Army Reserve Center in 2015;

    Bigsbee, of Dorchester, pleaded guilty in December to charges including conspiracy to possess and sell stolen weapons and aiding and abetting the sale of stolen firearms.

    Authorities say Bigsbee and another person helped sell some of the six assault rifles and 10 handguns stolen from the Lincoln W. Stoddard U.S. Army Reserve Center in November 2015.

    Now if these sentences are supposed to deter crime, I don’t think it worked in this instance. It seems to me that prosecutors wouldn’t want to trade away charges and sentences for gun crimes in the current environment.

  • Felon arrested with a handgun in Baltimore

    Felon arrested with a handgun in Baltimore

    Bobo sends a link to the Baltimore police Facebook page which carried the above picture with the following narrative;

    Eastern District

    Officers arrest man with a loaded handgun during traffic stop

    On March 1, 2017, officers from the Eastern District Operations Unit pulled over a car in the 700 block of N. Rose Street. During the traffic stop, officers recovered a loaded handgun and drugs from inside the vehicle.

    36-year old Keith Gladden was arrested at the scene. He was transported to the Central Booking and Intake Facility. Gladden is a repeat offender and is prohibited from possessing a firearm.

    The comments under the picture are hilarious;

  • Anthony Gambino Pleads Guilty to Stolen Valor Charge

    Anthony Gambino Pleads Guilty to Stolen Valor Charge

    Jonn sends us a reminder why we do not take cases down.    Jonn last posted about this clown HERE.  Gambino had started a “Security” company and liked to make videos and publish pictures of himself with lots of scary black guns.

    That is a particularly stupid thing to do when you are a convicted felon and still wanted on other charges.

    Gambino — formerly known as Anthony Lee Martinez — was charged on May 12 in federal court on the firearms charge and with violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2013 by falsely claiming a decoration or medal to obtain money, property or other tangible benefits, according to the criminal complaint.

    When Jonn originally posted about Gambino last year, he showed up in the comment section of that post running his mouth.  Some guy that posts around here regularly told him to piss off.

    He did manage to followup with this letter:

    This is a letter to inform you that I will be obtaining your information and sueing for Libel. We have already took pictures of your artical ,comments, etc. One must reseach things before printing damaging and false information. KRQE is in the same situation. Gambino Security Corporation was not a fraud and media cost millions of damage. Thank you for your time and i hope in your future your organization is more careful as libel is a crime. Sincerely, Anthony Gambino

    Gambino’s lawyer babbled on about this all being some kind of misunderstanding.  He claimed that all of this was a result of the Governments right hand not talking to its left hand.  We had no idea what that meant then and still don’t now.  What we did know was that Gambino got thrown out of the Marine Corps because of a fraudulent enlistment and he had made claims of military awards that he was using to promote himself and his business.

    An article published yesterday by the Daily Times reports that Gambino pleaded guilty to charges of violating the Stolen Valor Act.  I guess he figured the long arm of justice would prevail.  Just a friendly reminder to all the Sock Puppets, Raving Loons and Babbling Barristers why we do not take down cases.

    There is another great article concerning Gambino and his antics over at The Burn Pit.  A well written celebration of  our Bambino being held accountable.  It is also evidence that not everyone who studies jurisprudence becomes a Babbling Barrister.

  • Sig P320 selected as Army’s new handgun

    The initial contract of $580 million has been awarded to Sig Sauer.  The P320 was selected over the Glock 17 and 19 models submitted for the XM17 MHS competition.

    A key feature of the pistol is its modular design. The main module of the P320 is an internal stainless steel frame fire control unit, which consists of the integrated fire control group (triggerhammer and all necessary linkage and springs), ambidextrous slide release (one on each side of the pistol), ejector and four slide rails. This steel receiver unit is used in every P320 grip module, top end, and chambering combination and is inserted into the grip frame module and held in place by the axis pin of the disassembly lever.

    Although the Marine Corps and other services are not due to upgrade their handguns until after 2020, recent comments by Secretary Mattis may be a sign that it could be sooner than later.

    The Army’s program to replace the Beretta USA M9 came under fire during his confirmation hearings last Thursday.  I will say that the timing of the Army’s announcement seems oddly coincidental.