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Police in the US State of South Carolina have seized thousands of guns hoarded by a man at his property in a small town in Chesterfield County.
Sheriff’s investigators in the town of Pageland searched through Brent Nicholson’s property only to find stacks of rifles and shotguns everywhere; in the living room, halls and bedrooms.
Outside, when they rolled up the door on a metal garage, more arms spilled out at their feet, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Officials are cataloging the weapons, many of which were stolen, and the final tally is expected to be close to 5,000.
“I don’t know if there’s ever been (a seizure) this big anywhere before,” Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks said.
The question of how one man amassed such a stockpile of guns arises just as there is renewed American soul-searching over the widespread availability of firearms in the wake of recent string of mass shootings in the US.
Even in a country where more people own more guns than anywhere else in the world, Nicholson’s cache is extraordinary, the report added.
Nicholson’s motive for amassing such an arsenal remains a mystery.
“Investigators are trying to determine whether he was simply a gun-obsessed hoarder or a supply valve in the “Iron Pipeline” of illegal firearms flowing from the south to New Jersey, New York and other northern states.
Nicholson, jailed on multiple charges of possessing stolen property, has not entered a plea or retained an attorney, court records show.
His wife, Sharon Nicholson, facing similar charges and free on bond, declined to discuss specifics of the case but stressed in a brief interview that her husband buys his guns legally.
The case raises issues that are fueling an increasingly heated national dialogue on the modern-day implications of Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms, which puts no limits on the number of weapons citizens can own.— PressTv.
Online Reporter