{"id":7259,"date":"2013-01-30T07:02:11","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T12:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=7259"},"modified":"2013-01-30T07:02:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T12:02:12","slug":"watertown-mans-arrest-fuels-questions-about-gun-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/01\/30\/watertown-mans-arrest-fuels-questions-about-gun-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Watertown man’s arrest fuels questions about gun control"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Nathan Haddad in an undated photograph from the Fort Drum Mountaineer<\/p><\/div>\n

At the meeting between gun owners and state police yesterday in Lake Placid, one of the people in the crowd demanded more information about the case of a man arrested in Jefferson County for allegedly carrying high-capacity 30-round magazines in the trunk of his car.<\/p>\n

I hadn’t heard of the case in the Watertown area, so I googled it.<\/p>\n

According to the Watertown Daily Times<\/a>, Nathan Haddad, a 32-year-old veteran and former Fort Drum soldier, was allegedly found with five 30-round clips for an AR-15 assault rifle.<\/p>\n

New York state currently has a ban on magazines that carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and the new gun control law approved earlier this month gradually reduces the size of an allowed clip to 7 rounds.<\/p>\n

The newspaper reports that Haddad faces five felony counts for violating state law.<\/p>\n

I also found that Haddad’s case has sort of gone viral in a minor way in the gun rights community.<\/p>\n

The story was linked to on the “Legal Insurrection”<\/a> website, where the arrest was described as an example of the way new gun laws are “applied to the little people.”<\/p>\n

On the Survivalist boards<\/a> site, one commenter called Haddad’s arrest “a load of crap” and argued that “New York is seriously moving in the wrong direction, and so damned quickly.”<\/p>\n

At the NYfirearms website<\/a>, a commenter questions whether Haddad’s clips were empty or full when he was arrested.<\/p>\n

Haddad served multiple tours overseas before being injured while training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 2005<\/a>.\u00a0 Another gun-advocate website described his arrest as pitting a “military wounded veteran vs the Commies of Albany.”<\/p>\n

One reason this case seems to resonate — if I read the mood accurately at yesterday’s meeting in Lake Placid — is that a significant number of gun owners may not comply with these new, tighter restrictions.<\/p>\n

A number of gun-owners said point-blank that they wouldn’t register their assault rifles, or modify their high capacity magazines.\u00a0 Others demanded to know if police would make efforts to find and confiscate newly illegal weapons or clips.<\/p>\n

So what do you think?<\/p>\n

Are arrests like Haddad’s likely to be more common in the future, as more gun owners in New York possess hardware banned under the tighter restrictions approved this month?<\/p>\n

Do you see those who hold onto banned weapons as criminals, or as people committing acts of civil disobedience?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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