I did not sleep much last night thanks to an adrenaline rush after finding this rifle while taking my dog out for her last chance to do her business before turning in. I called the police, who took the gun and a report. I do not have a trained eye, but it looks like a semi-automatic that I've heard referred to as an AK-47. Here's hoping that any evidence found on it leads to a quick arrest of the thugs who own it.01/19/2006, 10:15 a.m. Update: Blake Wylie, who has a much better knowledge of guns, writes in the comments that the rifle is an "SKS," that is, a Russian military semi-automatic.
The incidents where we have heard gunshots during the past year were few and far between until the past week. When we first moved here in 2004, we heard more gunshots more frequently than we do now. Before this week and besides the seeming tradition in this area of firing guns in the air and of shooting fire works on New Years, it had been months since I heard any gun-like explosions. This is the first gun that I have actually seen in almost 2 years here. My guess is that some teens got this semi-automatic recently and they've been going around the alleys shooting it for kicks. Now it is off the streets and the police are running ballistics on it to see if has been used for previous crimes. If don't we hear any more gunplay in the next few days and weeks, then my guess would seem to be correct. If we do hear more guns, then we may have a growing problem that police need to address. If you are not a member of our neighborhood watch e-mail contact list, please e-mail me and I'll tell you how to get on it.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of our concerns about the events of the past week, we are not going to be run out of our neighborhood by thugs and we believe that we made the right choice in moving here. If you look over the 600-some-odd posts on Enclave, you will see that there are more positives to living in Salemtown than negatives.
When it comes to crime, communication with other neighbors and reporting all suspicious activities to the police when they occur both through 911 (emergency) and 862-8600 (urgent, but not emergent) will help prevent criminal activities. The more reports the police get, the more patrols we will see, the more criminals will feel obliged to go somewhere else.
Let me correct my statement about calling the police: it should read "reporting all suspicious activities to the police when they occur either through 911 for emergencies (strictly) or 862-8600 for all other urgent matters ..." I did not mean to say that we should always call both numbers. We don't want to overwhelm 911 with non-emergency calls about suspicious activity unless it is an emergent situation.
ReplyDeleteYou betcha. Just like some people choose to live in suburban Franklin after a murder-suicide.
ReplyDeleteOh, and let's not forget the risk one takes when one gets lost in Franklin and pulls into the wrong driveway. Lead flies.
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