That’s a joke, of course. And so is this. A bad one.

California man busted on weapons, drug charges after homemade shotgun goes off in park: police
A California man was allegedly tinkering with a homemade shotgun in a public park on Tuesday when the weapon accidentally fired, leading police to find and arrest him.
[…]
Responding officers found a homemade shotgun near where the suspect was sitting, KSEE reported. A bomb team that examined the weapon determined it was fabricated and contained a spent shotgun shell.

Yes, all the usual observations that licensing, registration, background checks, waiting periods, yadda yadda, didn’t stop this guy from making a zip gun.

But when I see stories like this, I often do a quick check for the person previous criminal record. And this time… I got confused.

The notification allowed police to arrive at the scene of a shooting on Kern Street and Highway 99 within one minute of shots being fired. Officers investigating the reported shot fired were able to locate the person responsible for the shooting, area resident, Juan Romo-Bais.

While speaking with the 40-year old, police observed several zip guns within arm’s reach of Romo-Bais. They detained him and searched his property. The search uncovered six homemade zip guns, which are generally crude homemade firearms.

For a second there, I thought I’d stumbled upon a variant report of the same incident. Same city,same name, zip gun, accidentally fired. But no; this was different. Not just one field expedient shotgun, but six zip guns.

From a few months ago. Yes, our master gunsmith was busted for the same thing, and caught the same way– he negligently discharged his gun in public. And clearly he hasn’t taken any firearm safety classes in the interim.

He’s clearly a danger to the public, and likely to himself. So why was he still on the street?

But wait. It gets better worse. Look at the end of the more recent story.

Bais, who was already wanted by police on theft charges

They caught him with zip guns, at least one of which he fired on the street. And let him out to commit some sort of theft.

And they still let him out again, to again put together a zip gun and discharge it in public. Again.

But naturally they’re again calling for more laws for the honest gun owners. And letting the real dangers walk.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]