I don’t know about Maine but in Minnesota the answer is “no”. Landlords have no right to forbid tenants from owning guns or even having guests with guns. As for the use of firearms, that falls under the general laws covering property damage, assault, self-defense, etc.
It would be criminally irresponsible to fire a high-penetrating round in an apartment building with thin walls. The article only identifies the gun used as a 7mm revolver so I don’t know the specifics, but that’s roughly equivalent to a .32 caliber- not exactly a cannon.
You don’t really believe anyone not on active duty is competent to own a firearm, do you?
He was a police officer 49 years ago, who violated his lease agreement, discharged his gun dangerously in an apartment building, and broke state law. If that’s any indication of how much he retained of his police training, I wouldn’t put much stock in his firearms expertise.
Gun owners are so quick to proclaim their responsibility with guns as justification for having them, yet that flies out the window with this guy. That’s the disconnect I don’t get.
Lembo shot the intruder after he “bolted”, in his own words. That is not self-defence. For very good reason, the law makes a distinction between vengeance and justice. You, as a lawyer IIRC, should know that. Lembo didn’t make that distinction and now he’s being investigated for possible charges, rightfully according to state law.
I read somewhere yesterday that a state-run housing complex can’t impose gun restrictions, but a private landlord, as the one in this case is, is allowed to. As a WAG, liability insurance rates might have some influence on their decision.
How do you discharge a gun safely in an apartment building? And if you say “you can’t”, then does that mean that a narcotics task force executing a no-knock warrant wouldn’t perforate the walls, floor and ceiling if they thought they saw me reach for a gun?
The fact that he chose a small-caliber revolver seems to me to indicate he was aware of the need to avoid over-penetration
You probably can’t discharge a gun safely in an apartment. I imagine it’s possible for a .22 calibre bullet to go through a wall. The landlord’s policy was no guns, not “.32 calibre and under allowed”. As for the police, of course they should be held accountable if they needlessly endanger other lives. So what?
Neither you nor anyone else has commented on the lack of wisdom in not securing his door better. His place was broken into four times and he didn’t do anything about the door.:smack: What better way to prevent threats to your property and yourself than by keeping burglars out, rather than resorting to a gun once they’re inside.
I’ve read all the linked articles. I didn’t see anything addressing how his door was secured. Where are you getting your information such that you feel confident criticizing his door security?
There is no 7mm Russian revolver of which I am aware. One presumes the reporter(s) meant this antique. They can be found for around $100. I have a specimen in my own collection. The [cartridge](http:// 7.62×38mmR - Wikipedia) is anemic and any kind of dramatic overpenetration is unlikely. The fact that he hit the burglar is, in fact, a testament to the old boy’s shooting skills. There is no recoil to speak of, but Nagants are incredibly unergonomic. The grip is skinny and poorly shaped. The sights are difficult to pick up in dim light. Most importantly, Nagants are famous for insanely heavy DA trigger pulls which are due, in part, to all that is going on mechanically in these curious old guns.
Securing his door better, I said. To repeat from post #5850:
So, after multiple burglaries, his door still didn’t have a bolt lock, just the lock on the doorknob (there was a close-up of it in one of the news videos). I’ve opened a locked door like that myself with a credit card a couple of times when I locked myself out of the house. It’s easy, quick and quiet, a burglar’s dream. It looks like Harvey Lembo was an easy target not because he’s in a wheelchair, but because his apartment was so easy to break into. Go ahead and explain how that justifies getting a gun.
You can quibble all you want about the size of Lembo’s gun and the ammo, but shooting inside an apartment building is just plain dangerous, period, no matter what gun it is. If you really cared about responsible gun use, you’d condemn idiocy like that instead of twisting yourself into a pretzel to justify it.
No doubt, the NRA will praise Harvey Lembo for his courage in not having the brains to put better locks on his door, and will add his story to their statistics on defensive gun use. And gun owners across the country will applaud him without thinking twice about it, just like you did. Right?
You didn’t look closely enough. All of the above applies to you, too.
You are assuming that his reference to bolting himself in means he has no bolt. That is an unwarranted assumption on your part that you aretreating as a fact.
Here’s a fact: I posted all that stuff about the revolver mostly because I know technical and historical information about guns tends to give a certain subset of people redass. They know little to nothing about firearms as mechanical objects, though they are prone to imagine things and make WAGs, and they just HATE being reminded that they hold really strong opinions on something they don’t actually understand.
I repeat my question about the no-knock narcotics raid: why are ten men prepared to fire full-auto M4s in my apartment if it’s unacceptably dangerous to the other tenants?
Let’s get this tedium over with in one post. Because police have more authority by necessity but that doesn’t mean they can abuse that authority recklessly, etc. etc. Now you say police are a hired warrior class with excessive power, then I say that’s an unfair characterization, then you say no it isn’t cuz guns yada yada yada. There, that was quicker and just as productive.
Got anything to say about Lembo not having a bolt lock on his door, or not using it if he had one?
TBCF, he lived in an apartment: landlords/managers typically have double-keyed locks so that they can enter any apartment at will with a master key or open the door if the tenant has bugged out and left it locked. Because of that, they tend to be a bit restrictive wrt how you can modify your locks.
What if the burglar junkies had themselves been armed with something packing a bit more punch than a small caliber revolver? What if they panicked at the sight of Oldfart McSlowdraw’s gun and shot him dead before he could react?
Why would anyone encourage people to try and defend themselves with underpowered, unergonomic, small caliber revolvers with dodgy sights and a heavy trigger pull? (Thanks for the information Scumpup! Truly appreciate an opportunity to learn, always.)
I wouldn’t encourage anyone to pick a Nagant revolver for self-defense. I seldom fire mine even for fun. Why the old guy had one is anybody’s guess. IMO, he probably had one because they can be purchased cheaply. Typically, they sell for around $100 and come with a mil-surp flap holster and a cleaning rod. It might have seemed like an affordable option to him and he did use it successfully.
FWIW, my low opinion of the Nagant is not universally held. A very good friend of mine was a cop in Kursk and was issued a Nagant revolver. He preferred it over the Makarov, Tokarev, and Stechkin pistols that he encountered while in the military. He likes shooting my Nagant when he accompanies me to the range. Shoots it well too. He’s a stonemason now, though, and has Godzilla-level grip strength.
So in other words, if Lembo had shot through a wall and killed that 3-year old watching t.v., he would be a murderer, a criminally irresponsible yahoo, etc. etc. But if the narcotics task force had opened fire because Lembo was reaching for his glasses in the dark, then the dead 3-year old would just be a tragic accident incident to the War On Drugs. You were saying that it’s impossible to safely and responsibly fire a gun in an apartment building; so just what do the police think they’re going to do with those guns? Are they there for show as a bluff? Or are the task force members all descendants of Annie Oakley and can be trusted to fire with superhuman accuracy, unlike your typical troglodyte gun owner?
He is in a wheelchair; also I don’t know if he meant a simple sliding bolt or if by “bolt myself in” he meant something more elaborate like barring the door.
Ah yes, the old “if we arm ourselves the criminals will just escalate” argument. AKA, blaming the victim for forcing those poor criminals to have to resort to desperate measures. The answer, posted multiple times before, is that fortunately not too many people will resort to first-degree murder just to commit a robbery; and if they do, they need to be hunted down like mad dogs and shot dead, hopefully by their next would-be victim.
This, of course, is a great argument for sitting there and just letting them take your stuff, which I’d pretty much agree with.
The real question is how many people would resort to first degree murder to avoid getting shot to death? Because that’s the calculus once the homeowner pulls a gun.