Yunsong Zhao, non-US citizen arrested for firearm possession

| January 31, 2018

According to Collegiate Times, Yunsong Zhao, a Chinese national in the United States, more specifically, a Virginia Tech student, was arrested by Virginia State Police for possessing a scary-looking black rifle and a 30-round magazine. The magazine made the rifle an “assault rifle” under Virginia law, and therefore forbidden for possession by a non-citizen.

The law defines an assault firearm as a semi-automatic rifle or pistol with a magazine that can hold more than 20 rounds, designed to accommodate a silencer or with a folding stock.

According to the arrest warrant obtained by WSLS, Zhao had attempted to buy 5,000 rounds of ammunition as well. He also purchased a former police vehicle, a 2011 blue and silver Ford Crown Victoria, and modified it with a new bumper. Zhao has no known criminal history and has family in China.

The Roanoke Times reports that police searched the Crown Victoria, a 2003 Ford F-150 parked at Foxridge Apartment Homes and his room in Cochrane but took nothing.

On Jan. 15, Zhao had checked in an AR-15 assault rifle into the student gun locker. Police received a report that Zhao had bought the magazine on Jan. 22, and on Jan. 26, Zhao checked out a Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle.

A Blacksburg detective was informed after he checked out the weapon and observed Zhao shooting a .223 caliber weapon with a 30-round magazine at the Jefferson National Forest firing range on Craig Creek Road. The Virginia Tech Police Department’s (VTPD) daily crime log indicates that on Jan. 27, an arrest was made for a firearms violation at 5:10 p.m. at 182 Craig Creek Road.

The story is a little light on details like how a non-US citizen was able to buy a firearm. He didn’t get arrested until he tried to buy 5,000 rounds of ammunition according to CBS News. That’s kind of a lot. But the State Police say that they don’t think that he was up to anything nefarious, but VT booted him and he’s in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing on March 1st.

Category: Guns

52 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
CM

Rule of thumb: Never trust a man with a zit goatee.

1610desig

Looks a little like a hormonal version of Clint’s buddy in Gran Torino

1610desig

VT perhaps understandably twitchy about Asian dudes and guns

SaraSnipe

Yeah…let’s not go jumping to conclusions now…

CM

Well he’s right though given what happened and the impact that type of shit leaves.

SaraSnipe

Yeah, I was being ironical, but I agree.

SaraSnipe

Five thousand rounds? That might take a couple weeks to burn through. I wonder what he paid for that.

E4 Mafia For Life.

5 cases, about $1250 for budget – but not garbage – ammo.
I usually buy 2K-3K a month of pistol ammo.
But I live in The People’s Republik of Kalifornistaniraq so that’s part of why I buy in bulk.

A Proud Infidel®™

Shit like this goeas on and the libtard moonbats want to pass more laws against US Citizens, that’s like making car ownership harder for law abiding drivers because of drunks.

Atkron

So, who’s the dummy that sold a weapon to a foreign national?

Straw purchase? trunk of a car? Did some of the guns from Fast and Furious make their way back into the states?

Inquiring minds want to know.

UpNorth

Would this be a good time to also inquire about his immigration status?
I’m going to guess on your question, Atkron, and go with trunk of a car.

Tallywhagger

Wonder what his major or field of interest may be.

Could be some big rabbits in Virginia, never hurts to be prepared. Once those things go feral, there’s no turning back!

Hell, a swamp rabbit came after Jimmy Carter, one day. There he was, in a swamp, with nothing more to save himself than a canon paddle… or maybe some of his brother’s buddies.

Tallywhagger

Well, maybe it was a canoe paddle.

Wireman611

A canon paddle would have made it a sir mon.

2/17 Air Cav

AR-15–Check

Buy used police car and modify bumpers–Check

Buy bullet-proof vest–Check

Buy second rifle–Pending

Practice shooting at range–Check

Buy 5,000 rounds of ammo–Fail

Yeah, I’m sure that he had no harm in mind, just as I’m sure he’s really Irish.

Mr. Pete

Wait a minute, wait at minute . . . He’s not Irish!

Tallywhagger

Hey now! He might identify as Irish! Cut the lad some slack.

2/17 Air Cav

I hear he sings a mean Danny Boy.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Shake hands with your Uncle Mike me boy and your Cousin Kate, and here’s to the girls you used too swing down on the garden gate. (sung with a brogue)

Tallywhagger

Nicely done.

1610desig

No shit…..run his pimply ass out of the country on any charge possible…after serving time “servicing” an entire prison population…not thinking he will find a gang to protect his little yellow ass in prison, not in VA anyway…

dusty1

He could be one of those Chinese Uighar muslims, you know, from that religion of piss.
No ill intent…..sure, if you believe that shit I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell.

CM

Bullet proof vest pretty much says it all. You don’t buy one of those unless you are expecting action. People can buy guns for hunting and defense but the only reason to buy a vest is because you expect to be under fire as they have no secondary use. He was planning something.

Tallywhagger

As to purchasing 5,000 rounds, I used to go to gun shows and on the last day of the shows, I’d show up with hand truck and offer to buy in bulk, for a deal.

When a customer is standing in front of you with cash and a way to carry, bargains come around. That has been quite awhile back, in the 90s.

Suffice to say, 5,000 rounds is a LOT and it’s heavy. It has a good shelf life, I guess. After relocating to Massachusetts I dispossessed myself of the bulk stuff to a Texas relative.

In MA you have to have a permit to even purchase ammo, let alone own a firearm. So, I switched over to airguns. This hacienda is a squirrel free zone.

Before too long, it will also be a rat free zone. Goddamn socialist-liberal-democrat vermin are grain fed from all the local libs and their bird feeders.

Long, fat and slow. I love moving targets!

SaraSnipe

Does one need a permit for an air rifle there also? It seems like I remember something about that from back in the 70s.

Tallywhagger

If Massachusetts does not require a permit… but, seriously, there are couple of states that do not permit air guns, notably NJ and IL but there is at least one other. Check with Pyramyd Air, http://enews.pyramydair.com/q/0MY0WtX4msfOyux0MGEzLyudmAdZhYxUHa0QhF32sZKgyznQZNdeGMXyu

One of our guys discussed how useful a pellet pistol was during his recovery period that left him with some restrictions on perambulation.

Lots of fun, cheap and surprisingly accurate.

Squirrels fear me!

Ex-PH2

Squirrels. They’re everywhere. It’s especially bad when they show up at the bird station like politicians looking for votes, and all you wanted to do was bring in the cardinals.

Tallywhagger

That’s the thing. I don’t mind the squirrels but they take over everything. We are trying to feed some birds. Different birds like different food. Squirrels will eat anything, so long as they get everything.

For less than $150 I got a .22 pellet rifle that is a tack driver, albeit a single shot. It does at least 600 fpm and can be set up to do over 1,100 fps.

It does not make a lot of noise but it is definitely audible. So far, accurate out to at least 100 feet. There aren’t many opportunities for longer shots.

If Jonn sent you the video link of my place, you’ll see that the riding arena is a veritable squirrel haven.

Damned rodents are very destructive, I’ve had to replace numerous rafter tails and soffits because of them.

OTOH, go figure, horse feed, duck chow, bird feed, the camp followers will follow.

RGR 4-78

“It does at least 600 fpm”

Did you name it the “turtle”?
😉

Tallywhagger

Hehe, well yeah, that would be pretty slow!

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

I thought I bought large amounts of .09MM in the walmart 200 rd. packets. Was going to the range twice a week but since the Holiday’s, cold weather,my upper respitory/flu deal and my SIBO acting up, I missed a lot of range time. The flagil antibiotic I took a few years ago for the SIBO was worse than the SIBO, so I sit here typing and burping at the same time. I hope no one out there ever gets what I have.

Tallywhagger

What is SIBO? Sorry to not know, I am just an accountant.

I used to get 500 round cases delivered from Cheap’r than Dirt, back in Arkansas. Recollection is that 500 rounds ran about $115.

Snakes. My place was above a river. Rain started in November and the serpents headed for higher ground, until mating season.

There’s a whole back story but I ended up having fun killing water moccasins and ended up using a 9 mm to back up my boots.

Water Moccasins and ground rattlers, like copper heads, are kind of private and tend keep to their area(s).
I ran cattle and had two stock ponds. The snakes loved the ponds. So did the bovines.

None of my girls, or dogs, ever got bitten by a snake. There were years when I killed more than 500 of them.

One of the damned things took about nine rounds and still kept coming. It’s body was shredded, though I could still read the Pelosi for President writing on its wife beater shirt. I ended up doing a snake dance on it’s head.

Worst of all, it looked like Hillary and I never was sure if it really was dead. If only to have had a mirror, some way, to check and see if it had a reflection.

One thing I can say for sure, Hondo was not there. OTOH, my brother was and he shot two mocs, in copulation, with a Navy Beretta 9 mm.

That was before he made Senior Chief. After that, he’d just stare at them. God only knows what snakes will do when approached by a MCPO.

That shit does not work for Saturday Night SEALS.

Perverted as it may be, somewhere along the line I started to like hunting snakes. Given their status in life, they do pretty well.

A Proud Infidel®™

As for snakes, I know how to tell if one is poisonous or not. I’ll let black snakes, bull snakes and especially king snakes (Their main prey is other snakes) be, but cottonmouths, copperheads and rattlers get death by whatever caliber I’m carrying at the time.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

SIBO stands for small intestinal bacteria over growth.

David

How’s that .0036 caliber stuff (.09mm)
shoot?

Tallywagger, back about 30 years ago there was a popular sport in South Africa called “minisniping” – a 9mm case at 30 meters apparently looks about the same size as a human at 1000 yards. A fairly challenging course of fire could be set up in a very small area. A popular author named Peter Hathaway Capstick described it in detail.

2/17 Air Cav

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66: I got it. I’m about to hit the one-month mark with the phlegm, mucus, coughing, and waking every hour or so choking. Sucks. Big. Time. Let me know if you found anything that works. I haven’t.

rgr769

I thought foreign nationals weren’t allowed to purchase firearms. I guess that question about being a U.S. citizen on the ATF forms is irrelevant.

SaraSnipe

Non-citizens can purchase guns providing they have a hunting license for the state they reside in, and comply with all other applicable laws blah blah blah…

Tallywhagger

It works that way for American hunters in other countries. Do the compliance and get on with living.

Atkron

In Washington State a foreign national has to obtain a special license in order to possess a firearm.

http://www.dol.wa.gov/business/firearms/faalienreq.html

rgr769

According to reports I read he was here on a student visa, and in that status was not authorized to purchase or own firearms under federal law,

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Wow, Assault weapon. does the Bushmaster look like the STG 44 (Sturmgewehr 44).

Casey

One common definition of “assault weapon” is any rifle capable of select fire. I usually go with any rifle capable of automatic fire, myself.

The M-16 & M-4 don’t resemble the StG44, but they are arguably assault rifles.

What surprised me in this story was that the state was allowed to define “assault rifle” in a nonsensical way: “a semi-automatic rifle or pistol with a magazine that can hold more than 20 rounds, designed to accommodate a silencer or with a folding stock.”

By that logic a S&W M&P .22lr is an assault rifle since it carries 25 rounds in a “high capacity” magazine. {smh}

A Proud Infidel®™

Gee whiz, ain’t VT supposed to be a Gun-Free Zone, all happy-happy-joy-joy with Smurfette getting cornholed by unicorns and the Care Bears?

Tallywhagger

Not too sure, not being a Yank, and all of that. I have seen NH Yanks walking around, lawfully, with handsome firearms. As it were, there have been occasions for which handsome ladies have had their guns on display, as well.

Life is good.

A Proud Infidel®™

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for open carry like they have, I was just saying that VT is a Gun-Free Zone which contributed to it being the chosen target of that cowardly little shit a few years ago.

A Proud Infidel®™

And by VT I meant Virginia Tech.

26Limabeans

“That’s kind of a lot”

Maybe in VA, but not around here.

TF-BA

Color me slow to play any “burn the witch” cards. The kid kept his toy in the legally prescribed location for starters.

I am reminded that inside every communist is an American trying to get out.

QMC

Hey he’s just a role model Dreamer going to school.

OWB

Hmmm. Are we maybe missing something significant here? It doesn’t sound like he was hiding anything. Not quite sure what to do with it.

If foreign nationals are supposed to have all the rights and protections as the rest of us, shouldn’t the 2nd Amendment be theirs as well? If he was here legally (was his student visa valid and current?), then what is the big deal?

Strange. There may be something else going on that we may or may not need to know about.

Bill R.

The way I heard it on the ABC Evening News was that it was a high capacity clip.