Feds Say Possession of “Large Amounts” of Weapons May Indicate Terrorist Activity

October 16, 2013 in Featured

An example photo of a “weapons cache” included in a Department of Homeland Security and FBI bulletin to law enforcement. Photo via Maine State Police.

Public Intelligence

A joint bulletin issued in early August by the Department of Homeland Security and FBI warns state and local law enforcement agencies to look out for people in possession of “large amounts” of weapons and ammunition, describing the discovery of “unusual amounts” of weapons as a potential indicator of criminal or terrorist activity.

Citing the example of Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who reportedly “stockpiled approximately 12,000 pounds of precursors, weapons, and armor and hid them underground in remote, wooded locations,” the bulletin instructs law enforcement to look for “large amounts of weapons, ammunition, explosives, accelerants, or explosive precursor chemicals” that “could indicate pre-operational terrorist attack planning or criminal activity.” Weapons do not have to be “cached” in remote locations to meet the standard for suspicious activity. According to the bulletin, weapons could be stored in an “individual’s home, storage facility, or vehicle” and may include common firearms such as “rifles, shotguns, pistols” as well as “military grade weapons.” The illegal possession of large amounts of ammunition is also listed as a potential indicator of “criminal weapons possession related to terrorism.” While the bulletin never clarifies what constitutes a “large” or “unusual” quantity of weapons or ammunition, it does say that such a quantity would “arouse suspicion in a reasonable person.”

The joint DHS-FBI Roll Call Release distributed to police, first responders and private security throughout the U.S. is part of a series of bulletins describing activities “reasonably indicative of criminal activity associated with terrorism.” The suspicious activities described in the bulletins are derived from criteria in the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) Functional Standard for Suspicious Activity Reporting signed in 2009. The ISE Functional Standard governs the collection of information for the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI), an interagency program to collect suspicious activity reports from law enforcement agencies around the country. Other bulletins in the series focus on everything from surveillance and theft to photography and even “eliciting information,” an activity described as “questioning individuals at a level beyond mere curiosity.”

Like other bulletins in the DHS-FBI series on suspicious activity reporting, the document notes that “constitutional activities should not be reported” unless the circumstances “support the source agency’s suspicion that the behavior observed is not innocent, but rather reasonably indicative of criminal activity associated with terrorism, including evidence of pre-operational planning related to terrorism.” However, no guidance is provided on potential legal issues related to the reporting of constitutionally-protected activities.

Oh crap...

oh my

Oh my crap!

I don't think the 100 rounds of 30.06 and .44 for my deer rifles qualifies.

I always miss the boat!

My C&R FFL prolly qualifies me for a spot on their list. 😣

It all starts with a trial balloon.

Seems like a guideline of sorts for information gathering. Stop stop and talk is legal.

Merely having a large cache of weapons- in and of itself- does not make one a terrorist in any way at all. On the other hand, some terrorists do have large caches of weapons.

The real issue is information gathering to determine whether there is reasonable suspicion of illegal activity sufficient to rise to the level of probable cause.

Scary for gun owners who do not intend to break the law and for Preppers. They need to keep their caches secret and keep there mouths shut or they may attract attention.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Yasser Arafat

He was a very smart man.

And now the discussion will take off on a tangent far from the intent of the O.P.

Paging HD. HD are you out there?

Our gov't likes precedent instead of established law these days

Nope. The French killed Arafat.

What do you mean?

Stretch what you can get away with. No push back?

We're good.

Consequence of the stretch is either new law approving the conduct or suppression of the evidence disapproving the conduct and carving out more clarification of citizen rights. All of it is after the fact, which has been the legal precedent. Judges, ideally, are the initial gatekeepers based on whether they issue warrants and dismiss for improperly obtained evidence. Best we got to offer in our ever changing society.

Oh, Shiite - I'll tell people to stop calling me "the gangster of love". . .

He means,

Law schools don't teach Constitutional Law, just Case Law, flawed as it may be,,



wheel,

False.
Got to know were you originally come from to realy understand where you are at...

Does this mean

I am in Heaven ??

Not to point out the obvious hypocrisy, but isn't this the same group saying we should profile Muslims because being Muslim may indicate someone's a terrorist?

Always got to ruin things, huh?
LOL