Rep. Mary Peltola, eager to try to persuade moderate voters in Alaska, wants the world to know she has 176 long guns in her house. She has said so repeatedly to shore up her credentials with the pro-Second Amendment voters.
She just doesn’t say which house — the one she owns on the Anchorage hillside or the one in Bethel. She probably doesn’t have them in her D.C. house, because guns are difficult to own in the nation’s capital.
Whichever house it is, she has just advertised to the world that her homes, usually unoccupied, have enough long guns in them to open up a gun shop. She’s sent a signal she may have not wanted to send, and if these guns are stolen, how will she catalog them for State Troopers?
But more to the point, where did Mary Peltola get all these long guns? The mainstream media and groups like Moms Demand Action are not asking the questions that come naturally to Alaskans.
They support Democrats and understand, with a wink, that Peltola, who has come out in favor of federal universal background checks, waiting periods for gun purchases, and mandatory gun safes for gun owners, is trying to appeal to a Republican state, and must appear to be pro-Second Amendment.
“Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are the gun industry’s dream ticket,” says the anti-Second Amendment group Everytown for Gun Safety. “They have made it clear that they would rather protect the gun industry than our freedom to be safe from gun violence.”
The group and others like it have been dead silent on Rep. Peltola’s arsenal and whether they are all legally traded weapons.
To put it in perspective, Peltola claims to have so many guns that to ensure the guns are not stolen, she would have to also have at least 10 of the largest gun safes made. These safes weigh about 750 pounds each and cost over $1,500 apiece. They would occupy an entire room of a house, but could cave the floor in or cause it to sag or settle, if not on a concrete surface. That’s about 8,000 pounds — the weight of two average cars — when you include the shotguns and rifles. It’s unlikely she had gun safes shipped to Bethel, as the shipping would cost more than the safes themselves.
If each of the long guns has an average street value of about $500, Peltola is sitting on $88,000 worth of guns, not counting any handguns she may or may not have.
And she’s not even known to be a hunter; Peltola fashions herself a fisherwoman. She is on the record saying that she supports the Second Amendment because Alaskans need to protect themselves and their food from wild animals.
When asked about Mary Peltola’s 176 guns, Robert Shem, the State of Alaska’s first forensic firearm examiner, now retired, said it “sounds like the arsenal of an insurrectionist.”
It becomes clear that it was her late husband Gene Peltola who was actually the gun collector who arguably amassed one of the largest private collections of guns in the 49th state. He was a hunter. He traded in guns.
Known as “Buzzy” to his friends, he was a federal employee in rural Alaska for most of his career. He worked for U.S. Fish and Wildlife for 34 years, and was state director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. With his plane, he traveled all over rural Alaska and knew people in all of the villages. He knew where the guns were.
The important thing to know about rural Alaska is that it’s largely a non-cash economy. The currency? Drugs. Booze. Guns. Short on rent? You might offer your landlord a rifle or shotgun. Need repairs on your snow machine? You might offer a rifle scope as payment. Serial numbers are not tracked in rural Alaska and background checks are rarely performed in these arrangements.
In villages surrounding Bethel, a bottle of booze that goes for $15 in Anchorage and $70 in Bethel could sell for $150. People can snow machine into Bethel, load up, and double their money in the “dry” villages. The same goes for drugs and guns.
How Buzzy came to be in possession of 176 long guns should be of interest to state and federal officials. While there is no evidence that he was trading guns while clocked in on the job in rural Alaska, sources have said that he was known as a gun dealer, but not with cash.
How many of these guns have receipts and how many of them might be on the Alaska State Troopers’ list of known stolen guns?
These are questions people in rural Alaska are asking. While Buzzy always had well-paying jobs, he also had jobs that put him in authority over people in rural Alaska, where he would know if someone was a felon with a gun. Did he use his authority to confiscate guns?
People in rural Alaska say this is not unlikely. As an employee of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for decades, he was the federal subsistence management program leader, and, importantly, he was the zone supervisor for Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge law enforcement.
He also served as refuge manager. Buzzy, in his own plane or in a USFW plane, could fly over the refuge and spot people with guns. He would know who was allowed to have them and who wasn’t on federal land, who had proper hunting permits and who didn’t, and it may be that situations occurred in which hunters not following the extensive regulations may have given up their guns to Buzzy Peltola in exchange for not being cited and having to show up in Bethel court.
Buzzy Peltola died last September in a plane crash while hauling moose meat out of a hunting lodge in rural Alaska. He’s not around to answer the questions, but Rep. Peltola, having raised the matter by herself about her mighty arsenal, has opened up the conversation about these guns she has possession of and the manner in which Buzzy obtained them.
If you are a person in rural Alaska and you’ve ever had a gun confiscated by an employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and wondered if it was ever tagged into federal property, Must Read Alaska would like to hear from you. Leave a comment below with your contact information, which we will delete before posting the comment.
176? I don’t have a problem with this. Don’t care how and when she got them. Don’t care where she stores them. Not our business. Her support of the second amendment has yet to be seen. I’m holding the envelope to my head and predicting she will crumble the moment she is pressured by her democrat, leftists, socialist, communist, progressive friends. I’d like to be wrong on this.
I’m with you Rollo. Its none of our business about her guns. Her stupid mistake was broadcasting how many she claims she has. Most my gun buddies don’t advertise what they have. In light of our present government, it’s not wise to show your hand.
2nd. It’s the idiot w/ the H&K sticker in the back window that advertises to crooks that he’s got a quick $500 in the cab that you can harvest as soon as that vehicle is unoccupied.
This is America.
We have the 2nd Amendment – there is NO limit to how many guns you can own and it isn’t anyone’s damn business – especially the governments.
Peltola is dumb to advertise that fact – that’s on her.
To suggest that she is somehow an insurrectionist – is way off base.
The ONLY reason we have the 2nd Amendment is to crush tyranny from the government if it raises it’s ugly head.
One man’s insurrectionist, is another man’s revolutionary, is another man’s Patriot.
Sic Semper Tyrannis!
I agree with all the above, no one’s business how many or what type of guns people own. But having guns in your home(s) doesn’t make you a gun person, they are in her possession not of her own accord, and she will try to play off them, as a supporter of 2A, which she is not. The woman doesn’t even know how to use a spinning rod correctly, so I’m guessing she’d be a disaster with firearms.
I’m a huge supporter of the 2nd Amendment and agree with you on most of your points with one exception described in this article. If Buzzy was illegally using his authority as a LEO to confiscate and take ownership of those guns, it is our business to ensure that government employees are not abusing their authority. We already have enough abuse coming from D.C., we don’t need it in the State too.
I am in the same boat as you regarding the number of firearms being insignificant as it pertains to the 2A. But, in order for us to know the status of these firearms and the manner in which they were acquired, that would involve someone making a valid complaint who may have had their weapon confiscated unlawfully and law enforcement completing a subsequent investigation. What I don’t want is someone making that same accusation of me or anyone else and unnecessarily shining the light on someone just to force them to account for what they have. This whole concept has a red flag flavor to it. Also, since Alaska has no firearms registration database apart from the federal firearms transaction database, many departments employ their own policy on the return of firearms when ownership cannot be verified, making returning weapons to the “possessor” tricky. Do I think Peltola put her foot in it? Absolutely, but without cause, let even that Blue Dog lay.
She has been married how many times?
Besides, it is a grave mistake to broadcast nowadays the size of a collection, but 176? That is the start of a decent collection.
The question isn’t about how many she has…it is how many she has LEGALLY. Did her husband, in his official capacity (or otherwise), confiscate those guns and instead of turning them over to the state as he was supposed to, keep them for himself instead? THAT is the question! As Buzzy’s wife, she would be expected to be reasonably aware of HOW her husband came by these guns. If they were illegally confiscated then she is equally culpable.
Perhaps Mary is planning a Communist Revolution ???
“Fools carry their daggers in their open mouths” Josh Billings
When is the Federal Bureau of incompetence going to swat her?
She needs to be investigated for having so many guns.
I bet you have an H&K sticker in your back window, doncha?
Nope
I don’t know “Robert Shem, the State of Alaska’s first forensic firearm examiner, now retired” but I would hope that his comment, “sounds like the arsenal of an insurrectionist.”, was tongue in cheek and a mockery of the average leftist loony snowflake’s typical reaction to learning that someone owns a few firearms. There are, I suspect, a considerable number of Alaskans whose firearms ownership would exceed the norms of L48 firearm owners..calling them arsenals of insurrectionists would be laughable and definitely untrue.
I would also hope that Suzanne Downing sends this article to NRA, you know, the organization that supports 2A but also endorsed Anti-2A Peltola 🤦♂️…Someone apparently needs to wake Aoibheann Cline up to what’s REALLY going on up here in the Last Frontier with the average Alaskan’s collections of firearms and I shudder to think that Peltola would be considered the average firearm owner..she can’t even hold a fishing pole properly when she’s posing for that political Kodak Moment…
The question isn’t about how many she has…it is how many she has LEGALLY. Did her husband, in his official capacity (or otherwise), confiscate those guns and instead of turning them over to the state as he was supposed to, keep them for himself instead? THAT is the question! As Buzzy’s wife, she would be expected to be reasonably aware of HOW her husband came by these guns. If they were illegally confiscated then she is equally culpable.
Interestingly she had 176 long guns 2 years ago. She goes from collecting all these guns to not buying a new one in 2 years?
These were never her guns. It’s all just marketing to lie to Alaskans about who she is.
Could be the sum of the gun collections from her former husbands?
“Robert Shem, the State of Alaska’s first forensic firearm examiner, now retired, said it “sounds like the arsenal of an insurrectionist.”
My thoughts almost exactly. I was thinking of all those “prepper or sovereign citizen” stories you see in TV shows, the first time I of heard this. I wonder if there are any AR “assault rifles” among them??
It also seems too specific a number for her to just have made it up. For the record, she can keep as many guns as she likes as long as she is upholding the same 2A privilege for every other American, which it appears she is not. Therefore it would be legitimate to ask her for what exact purpose she supposedly has amassed this many guns (she is working with Rep. “I want civil war” Raskins after all).
Let me see if I have this straight.
A leftist is distorting reality in order to appeal for votes from a certain demographic.
.
Why is this news?
Mary is a Democrat, nothing will happen to her. Hunter Biden lied on a federal firearms application and nothing has happened. Media darling Alec Baldwin shot a woman dead, he still walks free.
Good for her.. I have quite a few myself.
The question isn’t about how many she has…it is how many she has LEGALLY. Did her husband, in his official capacity (or otherwise), confiscate those guns and instead of turning them over to the state as he was supposed to, keep them for himself instead? THAT is the question! As Buzzy’s wife, she would be expected to be reasonably aware of HOW her husband came by these guns. If they were illegally confiscated then she is equally culpable.
The Moms Demand crowd (which usually has a registered lobbyist in Juneau during the session BTW) went crazy over Senator Vance’s story about his grandmother having loaded handguns hidden around her house in Ohio, but everyone here is correct that the liberals know Mary has to do what she had to do, and say whatever she has to say, to keep the Alaska seat in their hands. We Alaska conservatives are stupid (they think) and won’t see through the fictions.
MustRead’s arithmetic is correct. It would take that many safes of that size to store 176 long guns, not to mention the handguns anyone would have if they had that many rifles and shotguns. And it’s true that most people don’t advertise how many guns they have.
BATF is now sometimes arriving at the homes, with SWAT teams, of people who buy and/or sell as few as 5 firearms a month. The consequences can actually be deadly to the homeowners.
Most citizens don’t advertise how many firearms they have. In fact, a lot don’t really have an accurate count.
It would not surprise me to find out this number defies reality and Capt. Mary pulled it out of her, um, barrel to garner some support.
Remember, democrats lie!
She never said SHE shouldn’t have them. That WE shouldn’t have them.
Wow. She’s cooler than I thought she was. She has my vote.
As an otter she already had your vote.
I have 177 long guns. Would you now vote for me, Genius?
The question isn’t about how many she has…it is how many she has LEGALLY. Did her husband, in his official capacity (or otherwise), confiscate those guns and instead of turning them over to the state as he was supposed to, keep them for himself instead? THAT is the question! As Buzzy’s wife, she would be expected to be reasonably aware of HOW her husband came by these guns. If they were illegally confiscated then she is equally culpable.
In rural Alaska, the entitled and empowered “elite” may look and act a bit different from their Nantucket, Georgetown and Upper East Side counterparts, but they are certainly present. And don’t cross them.
This piece aroused my curiosity: how many do I have? Turns out it’s only 18. Most of them I didn’t pay for. Gifts, inheritances, and trades make up the bulk of them. And that’s the net result of the non-cash transactions; I’ve gifted, donated, and traded away a few myself.
The question isn’t about how many she has…it is how many she has LEGALLY. Did her husband, in his official capacity (or otherwise), confiscate those guns and instead of turning them over to the state as he was supposed to, keep them for himself instead? THAT is the question! As Buzzy’s wife, she would be expected to be reasonably aware of HOW her husband came by these guns. If they were illegally confiscated then she is equally culpable.
Good point. Thanks. Did Buzzy legally obtain them? I guess we’ll never know, which makes the point of this article moot.
However, if she’s trumpeting this as a political maneuver, then I also agree with many of the other points made here: we see through your BS, Mary. These were Buzzy’s guns, regardless of how they were collected, and have no bearing on whether we should vote for you or not.
Down here in Ketchikan last week, Nancy Dahlstrom said she would rather be in Hawaii right now. Maybe time to see if she is even in state.
Did she head to Hawaii for a break? She looked tired, worn out and defeated.
176 guns she says. So where is the proof. Where are the pics or videos of her with her 176 guns? I’m a doubter. This smells of bs pandering for votes.
How Buzzy came to be in possession of 176 long guns should be of interest to state and federal officials? Why. how many guns can she pretend to legally own? Probably a satirical statement anyway. Even a lib like petola deserves the forth amendment.
Very possibly from or thru her late husband?
How many has she put in the grave is a more accurate question.
She also had 4 husbands.
She’s a collector!
Haha! Burn ’em and turn ’em!
Would love to hear some backstory from Kapsner
She is a Democrat not a Republican… facts people FACTS
I HAD 176 long guns. That was before the boating accident…..
Still not voting for her.
Meh…
Probably 176 pieces of rusted junk. Doubt she has anything of value.
“……..If you are a person in rural Alaska and you’ve ever had a gun confiscated by an employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and wondered if it was ever tagged into federal property, Must Read Alaska would like to hear from you………”
Now, that right there is the kind of investigative journalism I can really get to like…………
Exactly.
Maybe she can help us with Biden’s attack on AR pistols. You know the ones that for 30 years have been classified as pistols but Biden has declared them to be short barrel rifles (and thus illegal).
What say you Mary? Do you stand for the rights of trans guns or what?
Now that’s a good Democrat, always preparing for the next failed right wing snowflake Insurrection.
The article suggests that her late husband was involved in questionable activities. Since the deceased cannot defend themselves, it’s particularly unjust to imply that a law-abiding, hardworking community member was engaged in illegal trades, such as trading guns for drugs. Regardless of one’s political views, making such assertions about someone who is no longer here to refute them is profoundly unfair.
Not if they were engaged in nefarious activities it’s not. Even the IRS can’t leave you alone when you’re dead. Public servants, particularly law enforcement personnel, are always fair game for closer personal scrutiny than the public. Always.
Before I had my operation, I had 176 “long guns”. Why not call them rifles, which is what adults call them?
Likely many are shotguns. – sd
An old Army saying,
“This my rifle, and this is my gun. This ones for shooting, and this one’s for fun.”
I do have a problem with Peltola trying to restrict our gun use. But, to question someone about the amount of guns they have is not okay. None of anyone’s business.
What raises the question is Peltola’s and Democrats’ hypocrisy.
Dealers in rural AK always wind up w/ lots of Native artwork & guns.
Just sayin.
Yee not me. As a democrat, she shouldn’t have any guns, and thats the real problem here.
The villages are full of guns, always have been. There are gun dealer types with pipelines to the villages for a lot of reasons, death, estates, cash etc. Buzzy had a foot in both worlds so no doubt acquired a lot of them over the years. Guiding will get you tips in guns etc. Mary just ended up with them and where they go from here is anyone’s guess. Typically they would be mostly rifles so not likely to be found in the anchorage crime scenes.
These political types will say one thing in their districts to ge elected, another once seated in DC. Peltola is no different, her Team (new buzz word for it wasn’t me) decided she needed to appeal to a demographic so hey threw that out. If it becomes an issue, “they were Buzzy’s and 3 prior hubbys”
And sadly, someone votes for these people.
Peltola is a known liar. What she says is suspect. We all need to work together to make sure her Congressional career is over and she can fish more and fondle her ‘long guns’.
In that collection, are there any dreaded “assault weapons”? Jay Rockefeller, when a Congressman in D.C., approved of gun control…even as he stated he had an AR-15 in his house in D.C. Tres illegal but he was a Dem. Remember the TV commentator on the Sunday network program bringing a verbotten “high capacity” magazine to the show and visibly flashing it. No problem. The real issue would be whether the collection was assembled under duress… but that is a dead issue… Laws for thee…not for me…
It wouldn’t take much for some amateur detective to investigate this. USFWS sure won’t. FIOA his contact lists, find those who avoided fines or jail time by submitting to civil forfeiture of their firearms and ill-gotten game and then match the serial numbers up. Either that or simply ask the people who “voluntarily” gave up their firearm to avoid prosecution and see where the guns wound up. Not accusing or casting doubt on his character, but you never know…. This is an easy one to figure out. Super easy. And it happens.
I knew both Gene Senior and Junior when serving Alaska in the Parnell Administration. They were both avid gun collectors at that time and the number of guns does not surprise me, particularly if Rep Peltola inherited both collections. Both Gene Peltolas were honest people and admirable to work with. It would truly surprise me if there were any illicit gain by Gene Junior. Just sayin’.
So we’re now making baseless accusations about dead people? Any evidence whatsoever to back them up?
We know Peltola is a hypocrite on firearms and gun rights, but the numbers in the collection are utterly unremarkable in Alaska for people who have been collecting for a long time, and “safe-shaming” is just handing the anti-gun Left ammunition for their “safe storage” BS laws.
And this comment? “Serial numbers are not tracked in rural Alaska and background checks are rarely performed in these arrangements.” Tell me you know absolutely nothing about state and Federal firearms regulations and normal private party firearms practices in free states without just stating it.
Serial numbers are not “tracked” anywhere in Alaska, and no background checks are required for personal gun trades and sales. It is generally unlawful to possess or seek to acquire a firearm as a legally prohibited person, and it is absolutely illegal to knowingly provide a weapon to a person not permitted by law to possess one. That’s it.
This is the worst kind of “just asking questions” nonsense “journalism” so beloved by attention-seeking podcasters of all political bents, and the entire left-liberal media industry.
This article raises some interesting questions.
It’s unlikely that any of the tight-lipped rural folks around Bethel would rat on Gene Peltola for taking their gun to avoid being cited for USFWS or othe violations – especially to MRAK.
They would risk being ostracized by the community and added to a federal enforcement hit list (possibly for whatever crime they may have given up their gun to avoid).
Maybe a friendly gal with a secret body cam at the bar in Bethel would be able to get some answers;)
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