In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Nazi Guns an Investment,
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Nazi Guns an Investment,
Jury Told
By ELIZABETH HAYS
Daily News Staff Writer
lanked by photos of his infant daughter clutching a rifle and clothed in Nazi regalia, a former Yeshiva student told a jury yesterday the guns were an investment in her education.
Michael Kneitel, 40, is on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court on charges of hoarding a stash of illegal weapons.
He took the stand for the first time yesterday and said he is a dedicated family man and history buff who began collecting Nazi memorabilia and weapons when he realized they were worth thousands of dollars.
"This was intended to be a college fund for my daughter," testified Kneitel, sitting directly in front of the photos of his baby daughter, now almost 2, and other exhibits posted in the courtroom by the prosecution. "I found that they're worth a lot of money."
The prosecution's photos also included three black-and-white photos of Kneitel in a Nazi uniform and two enlarged photocopies of his mother-in-law with crosshairs drawn over her face - which prosecutors allege he was using for target practice when he was arrested last spring.
Kneitel - who is Jewish, lives in Borough Park and graduated from Flatbush Yeshiva - was arrested in Gateway National Recreation Area in late February 2001 after an off-duty cop who was jogging in the area heard gunshots and confronted Kneitel.
Prosecutors charge Kneitel pointed a .380-caliber pistol at the cop, Detective Michael Danchuk, and refused to surrender the weapon.
Police searched Kneitel's car, home and a Bath Beach storage facility rented in his name and seized the photos, 20 illegal weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and several pieces of Nazi memorabilia.
Kneitel, who faces 40 criminal charges, is accused of criminal possession of a weapon, illegal possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a child (for pictures of his daughter posing with a gun), menacing and reckless endangerment. If convicted of all charges, he faces a maximum of 15 years.
The defense disputes the charges. During his testimony yesterday, Kneitel said that all of the guns in his possession were purchased legally when he lived in Florida.
He said he tried to obtain permits for them when he moved to New York shortly before his arrest, but he said he was unable because of an outstanding driving charge.
http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-06-07/News_and_Views/Crime_File/a-153434.asp
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Jury Told
By ELIZABETH HAYS
Daily News Staff Writer
lanked by photos of his infant daughter clutching a rifle and clothed in Nazi regalia, a former Yeshiva student told a jury yesterday the guns were an investment in her education.
Michael Kneitel, 40, is on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court on charges of hoarding a stash of illegal weapons.
He took the stand for the first time yesterday and said he is a dedicated family man and history buff who began collecting Nazi memorabilia and weapons when he realized they were worth thousands of dollars.
"This was intended to be a college fund for my daughter," testified Kneitel, sitting directly in front of the photos of his baby daughter, now almost 2, and other exhibits posted in the courtroom by the prosecution. "I found that they're worth a lot of money."
The prosecution's photos also included three black-and-white photos of Kneitel in a Nazi uniform and two enlarged photocopies of his mother-in-law with crosshairs drawn over her face - which prosecutors allege he was using for target practice when he was arrested last spring.
Kneitel - who is Jewish, lives in Borough Park and graduated from Flatbush Yeshiva - was arrested in Gateway National Recreation Area in late February 2001 after an off-duty cop who was jogging in the area heard gunshots and confronted Kneitel.
Prosecutors charge Kneitel pointed a .380-caliber pistol at the cop, Detective Michael Danchuk, and refused to surrender the weapon.
Police searched Kneitel's car, home and a Bath Beach storage facility rented in his name and seized the photos, 20 illegal weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and several pieces of Nazi memorabilia.
Kneitel, who faces 40 criminal charges, is accused of criminal possession of a weapon, illegal possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a child (for pictures of his daughter posing with a gun), menacing and reckless endangerment. If convicted of all charges, he faces a maximum of 15 years.
The defense disputes the charges. During his testimony yesterday, Kneitel said that all of the guns in his possession were purchased legally when he lived in Florida.
He said he tried to obtain permits for them when he moved to New York shortly before his arrest, but he said he was unable because of an outstanding driving charge.
http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-06-07/News_and_Views/Crime_File/a-153434.asp
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878