That sounds a lot like justifying bad behavior with other bad behavior, which is the weakest of sauce to justify things, in my humble opinion.
I hope a kooky hoarder (if he turns out to be what it sounds) wasn't sending weapons to drug kingpins ..and I wouldn't feel any better if poor storage and handling of firearms in a residential neighborhood ended by supplying half the L.A. gang scene with a flood of new weapons. It sounds like it really would have just taken a burglar getting curious about the hoarder house (by those descriptions, it would look bad through windows), to find it wasn't all junk in there.
I think that is what gets me most on a personal level. Having the means to take a life with a finger's twitch DOES come with responsibility, in my view. Consideration for not creating a situation that is inherently dangerous, like reckless storage of a full arsenal worth of firepower w/ ammo is a good example.
As a not entirely unrelated thought, and where I also think of it a bit different in residential neighborhoods vs. having your own land to do what you want on? What would have happened if the neighbors house caught fire (not even his, to start it, necessarily) and it jumped to that one? That would be one hot day for the fire department, until they figured out it was pallets worth of ammo cooking off..and I'd be thrilled to live on his street (not really), as that just made it worse. It wouldn't just be sound effects if he had cans of powder for reloading as well, and not just factory ammo. Especially in a cluttered mess of a house, as described. (shudder)..
The point is, we don't know if there is bad behavior on the part of the home owning 1200 gun "arsenal" creator. Where as we already know the government is much worse violating their own law then withholding documents pertaining to it. You have taken the position the man is a criminal as you did with the cop from hands up don't shoot before the investigation is done. Isn't there something in a journalism class somewhere that says "just the facts"? But before we brand this guy a criminal and burn him in effigy let's at least find out what the investigation produces.
I will admit it has a odor to it and generally your sniffer is pretty good, but on a trust level at this point the guy is innocent until proven guilty.
No.. You're right. We don't know for sure that someone with 1,200 firearms the police didn't know would be there (not recorded..as legally required) was up to anything else bad. The fact they were not registered with Sacramento is...in that state... a criminal act, all by itself. You know that from living there....so outside of excepted weapons (we get into collectors stuff and that class), then running his name (had to..to get his address...huh?) should have popped a supplemental page to the display showing a long scroll of firearms registered to the man, and cross referenced to the address.
That didn't happen....and two articles across two days now show, that did not happen. Hence..by the laws of that state, the lack of record and reference (to now need to run ownership checks 1,200 times to be sure) is, on the face of it, a criminal act. It isn't under FEDERAL law. It isn't as a law across our nation...but in the People's Republic of California? You register every weapon you own...or you take a State paid vacation at a nice destination like the Chino work farm. They are good about finding ways to help people think about their mistakes...
Obviously..this was not enough for them to get worked up about, since it is a procedural thing if other crimes aren't being committed...but a procedural thing good for time in a California State Prison, sure as anything else you'd get arrested for, if you're alive when they find it.
I'm not sure what the big debate here is.... I concede we do not know what else he has been doing (if anything) or what else, if anything is wrong. The status of the weapons existing, at all, without registration is what is, on the sheer face of it and by the literal definition of circumstances here...against California law.
I guess there is a debate somewhere...but if we're really debating the law on registration for this case, I'll drop the helpful state pamphlets covering this in public relations terms and dig out the specific penal code and state regulations regarding details of handling, reporting and registering weapons there. It isn't guessing or supposition on my part. I had to go through this with a collection of nearly 50 firearms when my father died, recently enough for laws to be the same ..if not worse..but absolutely not more lenient.