Some people collect and sell antique cars, others collect guns.

That was the point Mark Albin, 49, tried to make this week after he was charged with possession of 16 assault weapons, 76 unregistered high-capacity magazines, and six silencers.

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Albin also faces one count of manufacturing an explosive device in his Tackora Trail home and one count of disorderly conduct.

“Most of the guns I bought when I was younger,” Albin said Monday. “Just like an antique car, they go up in value.”

Albin, a mechanic who works at the Limestone Service Station on Danbury Road, said he built some of the guns and silencers.

Of the assault weapons included in a photo released by the Ridgefield Police Department, Albin said between five to seven were guns he assembled at home from parts he ordered online.

“They’re legally made, homemade guns,” he said. “That’s what blew a gasket with the Ridgefield police.”

“They’re not 3D-printed ghost guns,” he added.

Albin said he also assembled the six silencers from parts he bought off of Amazon.

The devices are made to look like “solvent traps,” he said.

“Maybe I should have registered the high-capacity [magazines], but they never left my house,” he said, noting that he has 10-round magazines — the legal limit in Connecticut — that he brings to the shooting range.

According to Albin, the assault weapons made at home were not registered because home-built guns do not have a serial number.

Albin said all of his guns were stored in a safe.

“I’m a mechanic, not a gunsmith,” Albin said. “I like building stuff from scratch, that’s all. And there’s plenty of documentation on the internet that’s readily available to anybody who wants to build guns from scratch.”

First Selectman Rudy Marconi said the issue was not about whether the guns were stored correctly, but that they were unregistered and therefore illegal.

“The worry is what happens when a cache like this one gets into the wrong hands?” said Marconi. “All it takes is the wrong person to get their hands on these types of weapons.”

Last Thursday, police responded to a disturbance call at Albin’s residence after his son called police during an argument between Albin and his wife.

“We were having a loud argument and my kid got scared and called 911,” he said. “Nothing physical happened. She didn’t want me to leave the house is all, and I didn’t want to stay.”

An officer who responded to the scene told Albin they would have to hold his guns.

“He said ‘because you’re a registered handgun owner, I need to collect your handguns,’” Albin said. “I gave him access to everything.”

According to a press release from Ridgefield police, officers “discovered illegal firearms, high capacity magazines, and an explosive device.”

https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Ridgefield-man-with-weapons-cache-a-mechanic-13738917.php?fbclid=IwAR1GNsVCm-XeHHX2xbxZQs97fB1v8hNIH8zS7ZNtA6PykEwfawToxCJKbkw

Registration is evil. And the path to tyranny.

If they stop letting illegals and criminals in the country....well then.

I'm with you.

A small but nice collection.