St Paul girl gets two B's vice A's; Dad points AK47 at her

[Fairportfan]

What is it about Minnesota? Cabin fever?

St. Paul man pointed AK-47 at daughter during argument over grades, charges say

A St. Paul man pointed an AK-47 rifle at his teenage daughter in a dispute over her getting two B's instead of straight A's, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday, Jan 25.

The Ramsey County attorney's office charged Kirill Bartashevitch, 51, of St. Paul with two counts of terroristic threats, one against the girl and the other against her mother. Bartashevitch is a Minneapolis Public Schools employee. The complaint gives this account:

Police were called to a school on Jan. 17 after a school social worker received a report from a parent who said she'd been monitoring her son's electronic communications and saw a message to her son. In the message, Bartashevitch's daughter said her father had pointed a rifle at her.

The social worker interviewed the girl. She said it happened Jan. 13 at the family's Hamline-Midway home in the 1700 block of Englewood Avenue, when she and Bartashevitch were arguing about her grades. The teen swore at her father and said she "hated" him, the complaint said.

Bartashevitch grabbed his new AK-47 -- he'd recently bought it because he feared such weapons would soon be banned -- and pointed it at the girl. The girl said her mother jumped between them while Bartashevitch was pointing the gun. Bartashevitch ordered the girl to go to her room, which she did.

The teen "said she wasn't scared because she didn't think that the gun was loaded," the complaint said. "She did say that she was afraid to go home." The officer made arrangements to place the girl in a shelter.

A Ramsey County child protection worker interviewed the teen's 52-year-old mother, who verified the girl's account. The mother added that Bartashevitch had also pushed the mother to the floor.

The child protection worker also talked to Bartashevitch, who said he'd been involved in a physical confrontation with his wife and daughter. He said the gun wasn't loaded and he'd checked the chamber before he pointed it at them.

Among Those Absent, a British thriller from 1948, mentions a man who is in Dartmoor Prison because he'd made his living visiting rural Post Offices staffed by elderly women, pointing a gun at them and galling them to give him all the money.

"When he was caught, it was explained to him that that was 'demanding money with menaces', and that it was no good saying the gun wasn't loaded."

Police executed a search warrant at Bartashevitch's home and found 9mm ammunition and two receipts documenting sale of two rifles. One receipt was for Bill's Gun Shop for Jan. 22, and police learned that Bartashevitch sold an AK-47-style rifle to the shop for $150. The other receipt was for Frontiersman Sport Inc. for Jan. 22, and police confirmed Bartashevitch sold a newer AK-47 clone rifle for $375.

Bartashevitch was in court Friday, and bail was set at $20,000.

Olga Samsonova, Bartashevitch's wife, said Friday: "I need to take care of myself and my daughter. My husband's problems are his problems. He made bad choices, so he has to take care of it." She declined to comment further.

Bartashevitch worked as an IT support assistant at Sheridan Arts Magnet School in Minneapolis, but has been placed on a leave of absence pending the outcome of a complaint unrelated to the school district, according to the district. He's worked for the district since 2000 and has no prior complaints on file there

Court records show Bartashevitch was convicted of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, in 2000 and put on probation for one year. Samsonova was listed as the victim.

{emphases added}

[jwhouk]

It has been cold as #### up here, and we just had snow drift through up thisaway too. Combine that with all the rhetoric coming from Washington and it'd get you a bit loopy, too.

Not that I'm condoning any of what this guy did, of course.

EDIT: I should point out that I am a bit further north than Saint Paul, but the weather between the TC and here in NC Wisconsin is negligible at times.

[bmonk]

On the other hand, people carrying guns openly sometimes get odd responses:

A fellow carrying a slung rifle in Charlottesville, VA was arrested and searched, although the law permits him to carry it openly.

A Florida man was also arrested for carrying a handgun legally.

[Fairportfan]

Meanwhile, two years ago, and "next door" from the nut with the AK47:

SF/fantasy author, gun rights advocate and firearms safety instructor Joel Rosenberg, whom i considered a friend i'd never met in person (we were both regulars on the rec.arts.sf-fandom Usenet group) was arrested in late 2010 as part of an effort to force court tests of certain parts of Minnesota's firearms laws - a local judge had issued an order that, he contended, was in violation of state law. (He was due to go to trial in August of 2011, but died in June of that year. I miss the future books he might have written, and i miss him.)

According to Wikipedia:

Second Amendment advocate

Outside of science fiction, Rosenberg was best known as a handgun instructor, Second Amendment advocate, and author of a manual for people wanting to get a handgun carry permit in Minnesota, Everything You Need to Know About (Legally) Carrying a Handgun in Minnesota, and a similar book for Missouri, Everything You Need to Know About (Legally) Carrying a Handgun in Missouri. His wife recounted that Rosenberg's experience with gun rights was inadvertent. In an interview following his death, she said a neo-Nazi threatened Rosenberg and his family via emails -- specifically enough to describe his home -- and Rosenberg decided to seek a permit to carry to protect himself.

Rosenberg once suspected that the threats might have something to do with his Metzada novels--"I do write about Jews in space with big guns." But to this day, he doesn't know anything about his stalker, except that he or she is violently anti-Semitic, and unlikely to win any spelling bees.

The legal back and forth between Rosenberg and the Minneapolis police department prompted him to push for a change in the law, from a "may issue" statute to a "shall issue" statute.

Arrest for carrying a handgun

In November 2010, Rosenberg openly wore a holstered handgun when coming into the Minneapolis city hall for a meeting with a representative of the city's police chief after providing prior notification as required by state law. After arrival, he was told that a court order prohibited people from carrying a gun anywhere in the building, which houses a small courtroom on one floor. He objected, citing the state gun laws, and avoided arrest when he agreed to carry his gun (which the police had confiscated, emptied of ammunition, and returned to him) back to his car. He subsequently filed a complaint against the police sergeant, and posted a YouTube video displaying how many weapons can be concealed on one's body.[6]

In December 2010, he was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon in a courthouse, a felony, and contempt of court, a misdemeanor; arrested; and jailed in lieu of $100,000 bond.[7][8] Rosenberg was scheduled to stand trial in August for the incident at Minneapolis City Hall.