A man in Richmond, California, was arrested last month with a cache of 248 illegally owned guns and 1 million rounds of ammo in his home, the state attorney general said on Thursday.
California authorities found a man illegally owning 248 guns and 1 million rounds of ammo. The state attorney general said he also had 3,000 magazines and several grenades in his home. The guns included 11 machine guns, 133 handguns, and 60 assault rifles, authorities said.
The man, who was not named, is “alleged to be legally barred from owning weapons,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.
Bureau of Firearms agents searching the man’s home on January 31 found 11 military-style machine guns, 133 handguns, 37 rifles, 60 assault rifles, 7 shotguns, and 3,000 large-capacity magazines, Bonta said.
Authorities also found 1 million rounds of “miscellaneous caliber ammunition” and dozens of rifle receivers and pistol frames, said the attorney general.
Several grenades were also discovered, but they were determined inert by local bomb squads, per the statement.
The man’s home also contained 20 silencers and four flare guns, it said.
“In our efforts to retrieve guns from a prohibited individual, we found hundreds of allegedly illegal weapons and approximately one million rounds of ammunition,” Bonta said.
The authorities did not publicize the exact location of the man’s home.
A video released by the attorney general’s office showed part of the interior of what appears to be a small armory, replete with mounted, belt-fed machine guns, long-range caliber rifles, and dozens of ammunition crates.
Possessing a machine gun is generally illegal in California, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US.
Bonta highlighted the state’s Armed and Prohibited Persons System, which tracks people who lawfully bought and owned firearms but were later barred from possessing them.