In St. Paul, Kirill Bartashevitch, 52, was up in arms over President Obama’s possible gun control laws. To protect himself from such laws, Bartashevitch went out and bought an Ak-47 rifle. Soon thereafter, he was arrested for pointing the weapon at his high school daughter after she got two B’s instead of straight A’s.

There was a reported rush to by Ak-47 and other assault-style weapons after the massacre of children in Connecticut after gun advocates predicted a ban would pass on the weapons. Bartashevitch appears to have been part of that mad rush and, if the charges are true, then found a child to try it out on.

During the argument, the girl reportedly told Bartashevitch that she hated him. He allegedly concluded that pointing an AK-47 at her might change her feelings. When the mother intervened, he allegedly pushed her to the ground and pointed the weapon at them both. A friend later received a text message from the girl and passed it along to a social worker.

Bartashevitch reportedly admitted to pointing the gun at his wife and daughter but insisted that it was unloaded. That does not change the charges of two counts of terroristic threats. The charges could bring a five-year sentence each.

Here is the law:

609.713 TERRORISTIC THREATS.

Subdivision 1.Threaten violence; intent to terrorize. Whoever threatens, directly or indirectly, to commit any crime of violence with purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, vehicle or facility of public transportation or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in a reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both. As used in this subdivision, “crime of violence” has the meaning given “violent crime” in section 609.1095, subdivision 1, paragraph (d).

Subd. 2.Communicates to terrorize. Whoever communicates to another with purpose to terrorize another or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror, that explosives or an explosive device or any incendiary device is present at a named place or location, whether or not the same is in fact present, may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than three years or to payment of a fine of not more than $3,000, or both.

Subd. 3.Display replica of firearm. (a) Whoever displays, exhibits, brandishes, or otherwise employs a replica firearm or a BB gun in a threatening manner, may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year and one day or to payment of a fine of not more than $3,000, or both, if, in doing so, the person either:

(1) causes or attempts to cause terror in another person; or

(2) acts in reckless disregard of the risk of causing terror in another person.

(b) For purposes of this subdivision:

(1) “BB gun” means a device that fires or ejects a shot measuring .18 of an inch or less in diameter; and

(2) “replica firearm” means a device or object that is not defined as a dangerous weapon, and that is a facsimile or toy version of, and reasonably appears to be a pistol, revolver, shotgun, sawed-off shotgun, rifle, machine gun, rocket launcher, or any other firearm. The term replica firearm includes, but is not limited to, devices or objects that are designed to fire only blanks.

History: 1971 c 845 s 19; 1988 c 712 s 15; 1990 c 461 s 3; 1993 c 326 art 4 s 34; 1994 c 636 art 2 s 45; art 3 s 23; 1995 c 244 s 24,25; 1998 c 367 art 6 s 15

Source: Star Tribune

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