Police seize home arsenal

[Husky]

Published in the Asbury Park Press 12/03/02

Fire alerts authorities to nearly 500 weapons

By MICHAEL CLANCY
STAFF WRITER
FAIR HAVEN -- Three dump trucks removed an arsenal of live ammunition and almost 500 weapons -- all of them apparently held legally -- which police found in a home after the fire department responded to a chimney fire and the homeowner threatened the fire chief with a rifle, authorities said yesterday.

About half of the seized arsenal occupies a holding cell at the Fair Haven Police Department.
The "tens of thousands" of rounds of live ammunition could have had a catastrophic effect if Sunday's fire had grown worse, a police official said.

When Fire Chief John Feeny ordered Arthur L. Arford to leave his smoky home in a residential area of Colonial Court about 4 p.m. to make way for firefighters, Arford told Feeny the department had no right to force him off his property, said Detective Joseph McGovern.

Arford, a 59-year-old budget analyst at Fort Monmouth, then grabbed an unloaded M-1 rifle that was leaning against his bookshelf and attempted to point it at the chief, McGovern said.

Robert Frank, a volunteer firefighter and off-duty police officer from Little Silver, grabbed Arford and the rifle before he could raise the weapon, McGovern said.

Arford, a civilian Army employee, was arrested by Patrolman John Lehnert and charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, police said. Arford was being held yesterday at the Monmouth County Jail on $10,000 bail.

Police soon discovered rifles, shotguns, handguns, machetes, samurai swords and spears among weapons from different eras and parts of the world scattered through every room in the home except the kitchen and bath, McGovern said.

The live ammunition also littered the home, McGovern said.

"The ammo could have exploded and shot all over," McGovern said. "If it got hot enough and the gunpowder ignited, the rounds would have become projectiles shooting out of the home."

The State Police Bomb Unit was called to ensure that hand grenades found on the property were not live, which they were not, said McGovern. He said experts from the state police examined the cache of weapons -- bayonets, double-barrel shotguns, pump shotguns with pistol grips -- and did not find any that were illegal.

As far as could be determined, Arford's permits for the weapons appeared to be in order and the guns were purchased legally, McGovern said.

Police estimated that Arford had 220 rifles and shotguns from Russia, Spain, China and other parts of the world, 150 handguns, and an assortment of 100 knives that ranged from buck knifes to umbrellas concealing knives.

"Guns were just about everywhere you could imagine," McGovern said. "They were just scattered across the house."

About 25 percent of the handguns were loaded and a lesser proportion of the rifles and shotguns contained ammunition, said McGovern. And though the M-1 Garand rifle that Arford grabbed in front of Feeny was not loaded, he had ammunition for it at arm's length, McGovern said.

Police removed eight cases of ammunition and 18 five-gallon buckets filled with bullets, McGovern said. And though they worked all day to catalog the arsenal, Patrolmen John Koetzner and John Waltz worked through only half, and that half now fills a holding cell at the Fair Haven Police Department.

McGovern said authorities will keep the weapons until the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office determines what to do with them. If convicted of a felony, Arford could potentially lose the right to keep the weapons, police said.

The chimney fire was extinguished without further incident. The matter remains under investigation, said McGovern.

Michael Clancy: (732) 643-4076 or [email protected]

[TheLastBoyScout]

Fire alerts authorities to nearly 500 weapons

Say what you want, but I think this is the first time media talk of an 'arsenal' wasn't an exaggeration

[Husky]

Three dump trucks worth of arsenal??

The homeowner was an idiot trying to point a weapon at the FD.

[Jim V]

Well, the homeowner was an idiot for strying to point a rifle at the fire chief but the detective who said the bullets would have been flying all over the house if the cartridges exploded is a flipping moron too.

The bullets from loose ammo that "cooks off" in a fire will not go very far and with little force, the primes will go farther and they will be stopped by turnout gear. What they have to watch for is the ammo that is chambered.

[geegee]

When Fire Chief John Feeny ordered Arthur L. Arford to leave his smoky home in a residential area of Colonial Court about 4 p.m. to make way for firefighters, Arford told Feeny the department had no right to force him off his property, said Detective Joseph McGovern.

I'm not sure I understand what "a smoky home" and "chimney fire" mean. I have a fire going in my fireplace right now, creating a fire in my chimney. Luckily, there's no smoke filling the house, however.

That been said, what was this nitwit thinking? If the fire department came to my home because it was on fire (or appeared to be on fire), and I had several (never mind 500) weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition, I think my response would be "Hey Chief, here's a "heads up": there's a lot of live ammo in the house...tell your guys to be careful." Then let the Chief deal with it. Why pick up a rifle to threaten him?

On top of that, all these weapons were apparently legal, i.e. no full auto's, etc. There may be more in his house than the average TFL'er owns (though there are some here I'm sure who may have him beat ), but so what? Talk about asking for trouble for no reason...good grief. geegee

[Tamara]

Police soon discovered rifles, shotguns, handguns, machetes, samurai swords and spears among weapons from different eras and parts of the world scattered through every room in the home except the kitchen and bath, McGovern said.

The live ammunition also littered the home, McGovern said.

Sounds like my place.

Why point a gun at the firefighters, though? They're trying to save your gun collection.

[Jeff Thomas]

Sounds like the cumulative IQ of everyone in the house that day might have reached 100 ...

[Low Budget Shooter]

Alright, I'll be a little honest here. Is this guy's reaction the logical result of the siege/ WTSHTF/ doomsday mentality that we all have to some degree? Here's what happens to me occasionally:

I read about some of the bone-headed mess-ups various SWAT teams have made, then I read about the latest computer survelliance Admiral Poindexter is cooking up, then I read another instance of the new school superindentent sending truant officers in police cars to check on homeschoolers, then etc., etc., etc. . . So I clean the gun and think of what I would do the day they really cross the line.

I am NOT almost nutty, so I don't dwell on this, and I don't become engrossed in it, but there are PLENTY of people, like this guy, who ARE almost nutty, and can easily let this kind of "what if" stuff run rampant in their thinking. This is obviously what happened to this guy, and because he had thought so many times, "If they ever try to take me away, I'll . . ." when someone finally did order him out of his house (albeit to save his life and property for him) he just did what he had always pictured himself doing.

This story made me really wonder. How close have I ever come to this level of paranoia? How can I be prepared to react with accurate fire to real criminal break-ins and still keep myself from going too far down the road this guy went down?

[DaleA]

At the risk of being inappropriate here-
(threatening the fire folk with a weapon is VERY wrong)
- the guy DID get his gun collection inventoried....

but on the third hand he might not get it back...

[Scott Conklin]

There's some obvious points the article doesn't address.

WAS it a chimney fire? Or just one of those occasional things where the soot blows out in a nice fat fireball. Probably dangerous but not that uncommon and not needing the full force of a pumper and 10 guys.

WHO called the FD? The homeowner or someone else? If someone else does the FD have any legal right to come in to your home, ask you to leave or even fight a fire(assuming there's not obvious and immediate danger to other homes)?

Did the guy tell THEM to leave? Did they identify themselves(seriously, was it day or nite, was the guy asleep at the time)?

Obviously he could just be a nutball but the fact he had all the right paperwork and such a varied collection indicates to me there's a lot more here than the article reveals.

[Edward429451]

This story made me really wonder. How close have I ever come to this level of paranoia? How can I be prepared to react with accurate fire to real criminal break-ins and still keep myself from going too far down the road this guy went down?

They say there's a fine line between genius and madness. Probly applies to timing also. Don't jump the gun, but don't be late!

Do hope he gets his guns back...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS. Chimney fires come from not having your soot brushed from your chimney. The creosote or soot builds up and will catch fire giving you a mini-volcano type fire at your chimney spewing hot embers all over your house and trees. Pretty dangerous depending on the severity of the fire and the amount of buildup. Using CSL logs to treat the chimney do not negate having to actually have the chimney "swept" occasionally, but do help some.

It is not OK for your chimney to spew the occasional fireball! Who said that? Hope your insured. Fireballs mean to call the chimney sweep guy TODAY. Jeesh.

[Coronach]

WHO called the FD? The homeowner or someone else? If someone else does the FD have any legal right to come in to your home, ask you to leave or even fight a fire(assuming there's not obvious and immediate danger to other homes)?

I would think this would vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. I think in general the courts would side with the firefighters who were making a good-faith effort to put out the fire. Its not like they are equipped to verify, in the heat of the moment (as it were) that the nutjob asking them to cease, desist and leave is in fact the registered owner of the property in question...it would kinda suck to find out that the arsonist that just burned down your barn is also the guy who turned the fire department away when they rolled up to put out the blaze.

Obviously he could just be a nutball but the fact he had all the right paperwork and such a varied collection indicates to me there's a lot more here than the article reveals.

Well, that is DEFINATELY true.

Mike

[pre-B '75]

Considering this is the PR of NJ, doesn't it seem at least a little bit probable that some of the more salient and damning details of this incident might have been "cooked," tinfoil beanie or otherwise?


If one out of every four guns had ammo in it, why pick up the EMPTY Garand?

It's possible that this A) never happened or B) the guy was attempting to salvage the weapon, etc. and the hoplophobic minions interpreted this as the actions of a madman.


Making someone a criminal is any easy way to ensure enforced conformity to an unpalatable agenda. Devotees of Ayn Rand (as many here seem to be) should remember as much from "Atlas Shrugged."

[Coronach]

Now, I'll be the FIRST to say that every detail of a news story isn't gospel, but c'mon. Now the firemen are in on the Great Anti-Gun Conspiracy?

I think we need to take up a tinfoil fund for those less fortunate.

Mike

[0007]

Sounds like the guy was a serious collector of weapons, some of which were firearms all legally his. The question for the day is how much of his collection will he ever see again, regardless of the outcome of any trial. And how do you threaten anyone with an unloaded gun - unless you plan to use it as a club. I know, the threatened person had no way of knowing it wasn't loaded, but this whole story reaks of tipical meadia bias.

[tyme]

Robert Frank, a volunteer firefighter and off-duty police officer from Little Silver, grabbed Arford and the rifle before he could raise the weapon, McGovern said.

Given 150 mostly loaded handguns, why go for an unloaded garand? And he "attempted to point" the rifle at the fire chief, yet the cop grabbed the weapon before it was raised? It sounds like the reporter has no idea what happened.

If the guy wants to stay inside while the firepeople put out a flue fire, what's the big deal?

[Hkmp5sd]

He said experts from the state police examined the cache of weapons -- bayonets, double-barrel shotguns, pump shotguns with pistol grips -- and did not find any that were illegal.

Good thing they called an expert. Wouldn't want any confusion over the legality of bayonets or 870's with pistol grips.

[45King]

geegee, a chimney fire is when the creosote buildup inside a chimney catches fire. It's nothing to mess with; temps can easily reach 1200 degrees F. They can be easily avoided by having your chimney cleaned regularaly.

[tc556guy]

Second Amendment Posted:

WHO called the FD? The homeowner or someone else? If someone else does the FD have any legal right to come in to your home, ask you to leave or even fight a fire(assuming there's not obvious and immediate danger to other homes)?

Did the guy tell THEM to leave? Did they identify themselves(seriously, was it day or nite, was the guy asleep at the time)?

I can't speak for NJ law, but here in NY, until the fire chief turns over the house, the FD owns the scene; no one can be in or out without their consent. I'll have to ask some of my local fire guys how they'd handle a false alarm, but given that there was smoke and what the article identifies as a chimney fire, then I would say that if NJ law is anything like NY law, the FD had every right to be there and remove the homeowner.

ID themselves? You're kidding, right? It's not like fire guys show up at a scene driving a Yugo and dressed in their underwear.

[clifford]

nobody can seriously qustion the right for fd to enter a smokey house. you can't say "it's their duty to protect us and to save lives, but the have to ask first."

as for the gun owner, sounded like a collector to me. but when i read the guns were loaded

don't tell me he is unloading hundreds of guns and locking them up in a safe before he leaves his home to work.

burglars could have equipped armies with that stuff.

[Hkmp5sd]

but when i read the guns were loaded

I'm a gun collector and over half of my current collection is loaded while stored in my safes. Nothing unique or dangerous about that.

[Tamara]

I think we need to take up a tinfoil fund for those less fortunate.

A couple of salient points:

1) This guy owned ten times as many guns as I do. Legally. In the PRNJ. No small feat, that, considering the hoops one has to jump through just to buy a friggin' BB gun in that pesthole.

2) The firemen, unless they drove to the fire from Scranton or Yonkers, are New Jerseyites, too. Even if twenty firemen showed up in that benighted realm, odds are fairly good that there was not a single gun owner amongst them.

3) To twenty good, solid, COPS-watching, Democrat-voting, blue-collar New Jerseyites, ANY action, including breathing, taken by someone who owns 500 firearms is going to appear threatening.

I can hear the guns clattering onto the floor of that holding cell now, to the soft accompaniment of a voice saying "Hey? Didja getta loada how many guns dat joik had?! Whaddaya need dat many guns fer? Ya don't, dat's what; not unless yer upta sumthin'. Betcha he was prob'ly woikin' fer dat Osama guy. Betcha we getta medal outta dis."

[MarineTech]

One big problem that I see for this guy now is that everyone now knows he's got a large number of guns. Tell me that a criminal looking to make bucks isn't going to try to break in while the guys not home and get his hands on them.

Could the newspaper or reporter be prosecuted or sued for complicity in such a crime?

[Tamara]

Tell me that a criminal looking to make bucks isn't going to try to break in while the guys not home and get his hands on them.

This is the main reason that the cops took the guns, more than likely...

[Bogie]

You gotta wonder what the whole story is... Did the FD folks freak out when they came in, and then tell the guy they were confiscating stuff? Did he attempt to bug out with the M1? If he's actually twisted enough to threaten the FD folks without provocation, no prob. But...