Northern California Gunman Exploited ‘Honor System’ On Gun Ownership

By Tom Knighton

The gunman in last week’s shooting in Northern California proved that even California and its strict rules on gun ownership weren’t enough to prevent a maniac looking to kill people. In this case, it appears the killer exploited the state’s “honor system” regarding firearm ownership.

When [the killer] told a judge in February that he’d turned over his only firearm, authorities relied on the “honor system,” as they often do, in taking him at his word, a Tehama County sheriff’s official said.

In the statement he made in a Feb. 22 court filing in response to a civil harassment restraining order against him, Neal said that he had turned in a single pistol to a Red Bluff gun business and that he had no other guns, records show.

Last Tuesday, [he] took a semi-automatic rifle he assembled at home, a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun registered to his wife and a .45-caliber Glock pistol he purchased in North Carolina in 2009 and went on a shooting rampage across Rancho Tehama that left four people dead. Authorities later discovered that Neal had killed his wife the night before.

On Monday, investigators said they don’t yet have information about the rifle [the gunman] …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms