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View Full Version : This is CRAP and close to home also....



jlpskydive
04-26-2007, 12:59 PM
www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770425154

Grenade launcher boast leads to student’s arrest
by Adam Behsudi, ABEHSUDI@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
published April 26, 2007 12:15 am

CANDLER — Investigators used information gleaned from a MySpace Web page to track down a 20-year-old gun enthusiast who boasted a collection that included a grenade launcher.

The Buncombe County Anti-Crime Task Force charged Robert Edwards with possessing a weapon of mass destruction.

Edwards, an Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College student studying criminal justice, said he bought the weapon at a gun show at the Asheville Civic Center.

Investigators used a tip about the MySpace page to find Edwards’ house, Buncombe County Sheriff’s Capt. Wayne Welch said.

On the Web page, Edwards wrote that he had an “M-15 Mid size Bushnell awesome scope too much to name with lazer, 37mm Cobray IMP granade Launcher attached gonna AWESOME yeah i got it!!!!”

The launcher was attached to a semi-automatic assault rifle, which investigators confiscated. They also took the rest of his collection of 11 rifles and shotguns, all of them legal.

Edwards was released on a promise to appear in court and to stay away from guns.

The felony charge of possessing a weapon of mass destruction includes grenade launchers, sawed-off shotguns, automatic weapons and any explosive.

“That sounds horrible, but it’s nothing like that,” Edwards said. “I just kind of got it because it was neat.”

Investigators said had it not been for the Virginia Tech shootings, the tip probably would not have come in.

Edwards said he had no ammunition for the launcher and he never threatened to harm anyone.


I think he needs to call the NRA and get a good lawyer.

rustypirate
04-26-2007, 01:04 PM
You bet, the 37mm units are not deemed destructive devices by the alphabet bunch. (let alone Weapons of Mass Destruction)

This sounds like some over-zealous police chief wanting to make a name for himself.

Unless semi-automatics and 37mm launchers are banned in Buncombe County (wherever THAT is)

jlpskydive
04-26-2007, 01:18 PM
Technically it's a flare launcher. That kid should know his rights and sue.

okie shooter
04-26-2007, 01:19 PM
I wonder if the guy boasted it was a granade launcher, thus giving them some cause, I know and most of us know that a 37mm flare launcher is not the same as a granade launcher but seems like the guy didn't make that clear that the cobray launcher is not for granades. When you own things that maybe legal but raise the ire of the leo, make sure you are clear what you own and have. Don't brag, or you might have some explaining to do.

97th Signalman
04-26-2007, 01:29 PM
Does that mean that my Yugo SKS 59/66 is a weapon of mass destruction? What a bunch of nonsense!!!
:bull:

jlpskydive
04-26-2007, 01:30 PM
He was braging, but I have grenade launcher on my SKS just like almost every other member here on the board. It's not braging and competly leagal to own, fire (with tennis balls) and sell. LEO screwed up on this and have perminatly daminged his name as the charge no matter the outcome dropped or not will live on FOREVER on the FBI data base. :mad: :century:

hunter_la5
04-26-2007, 01:30 PM
freaking rediculous, if its just a 37mm flare launcher, then he hasnt done anything wrong and the LEO's there should be reprimanded for not doing their homework first. this is stupidity

SteelCore
04-26-2007, 02:24 PM
1) Itz lawyer time!
2) "Investigators used a tip about the MySpace page to find Edwards’ house" Watch what you say on teh internets.:whip:
3) Media=irritainment

hunter_la5
04-26-2007, 02:31 PM
and the guy is apparently too dumb to defend himself. on the forum of the paper from which teh article is taken, a guy claiming to be the man in the news story still seems to think that it is in fact a grenade launcher, and that it was "mislabeled" flare launcher, which is why he got in trouble. he doesnt even realize that he hasnt done anything wrong. all he has to do is explain that what he owns is not in fact a grenade launcher and is too small in diameter to accept real grenades and this whole thing would go away

MID
04-26-2007, 05:48 PM
UMMM i got a questionable pic on myspace. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/midwestrider/ninja/DSC01841-1.jpg

jlpskydive
04-26-2007, 05:50 PM
But no grenade launcher so your cool.........

Rampager
04-26-2007, 06:34 PM
It's clear he didn't do anything wrong and was stalked by overzealous uninformed "lawmen" (and I use the term loosely). I would not only be looking to be exonerated, but also be looking for a monitory damages being that this false "crime" was listed in the newspaper. I'd sue for false arrest and slander for a start. He needs a good greedy lawyer to make an example out of these thugs.:taser: