(Orson Scott Card’s “Empire” gives a fictional but intriguing account of the potential of the U.S. urban/rural conflict to spin out of control.)

This is, I think, the same urban/rural debate that John Dean mentioned once. To someone in the country, gun control means you want to take away my rifles, to an urban dweller it means, we don’t want AK’s on the street.

On a more serious note, the article (which I do understand you are not the author of) doesn’t appear to specify where the apartment was located or what the local laws may or may not have prohibited. Bows and arrows and machetes, for example, are sold over the counter in many states. This suggests that the weapons were mentioned not because they were illegal, but to elicit fear in the reader.

You wrote, “That some could have such weapons and not be racist thugs of course doesn’t mean a Minutemen member isn’t.” Let us not forget (as the media does far too often) that the reverse of what you said is also true: That some could have such weapons and be racist thugs doesn’t mean the vast majority are. It’s too easy to fall into rural/urban sterotypes, which only serves to promote extremism on both sides (which the Minutemen are doing quite well already).

That some could have such weapons and not be racist thugs of course doesn’t mean a Minutemen member isn’t.

And since it happened on federal land, these are federal charges. That’s why FBI is involved.

I find it interesting (and a bit disturbing) that these items are considered indicative of criminal intent. In my state, everything on the list except the grenade is perfectly legal, unless used in an unlawful manner. An SKS rifle (which, incidentally, is classified as a “curio or relic” by ATF) comes with a grenade launcher attached to the muzzle that is difficult to remove; the grenades, of course, are classified somewhat differently and are not available to the typical gun owner and the launcher serves no purpose without them.

In a democratic society, we don’t get to punish people until they actually commit a crime. The man assaulted your friend and has been arrested and should be punished. Throwing in the “large arsenal” (Compared to what?) sounds dramatic, but it confuses one issue (the crime of assault) with another (the gun rights issue). They have little if anything to do with each other; while some racists and some criminals are also gun enthusiasts, not all gun enthusiasts are racists and/or criminals. Some of my liberal friends here in Utah (yes, there are a handful of liberals here) have substantial “arsenals”– but not for criminal or racist reasons.