It begins. First man arrested in CT for not registering his rifle.

It all began, apparently, with a shot at a squirrel.

MILFORD >> A 65-year-old man faces an array of charges after shooting a squirrel in his yard Monday morning, police said in a press release.

James Toigo, 258 Housatonic Dr., was charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, cruelty to an animal, first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree breach of peace, failure to register an assault rifle and three counts of possessing large-capacity magazines, according to a police press release from Officer Jeffrey Nielsen.

Police officers were directing traffic in the area of Housatonic Drive when they heard a gunshot nearby, according to the release.

Upon investigation, Toigo was taken into custody after police said he shot the squirrel.

Police said they also found an unregistered assault rifle, as well as three large-capacity magazines, in Toigo’s home. Both the firearms and the magazines were taken, the release said.

Nielsen said the assault riffle was not the gun Toigo shot the squirrel with.

“As the investigation progressed the officers seized several firearms from the home for safe keeping,” Nielsen said. “That included the assault rifle and the three high capacity magazine he did not have registered.”

Nielsen said he believes the majority of the seized firearms were registered. Those weapons will remain in police custody until Toigo’s case is heard, Nielsen said. Depending on the outcome, Toigo will need to petition the police department to have his guns returned.

Toigo was released on a promise to appear May 13 in court.

Now I don't know where he lives. Maybe he was too close to neighboring houses to shoot a squirrel and maybe he was not. But the piling on of charges--including cruelty to an animal, presumably over the shot squirrel--and just about everything else they could throw at him in addition to the felony charge for possessing an "unregistered" weapon that was not required to be registered when he purchased it and which they only discovered during the investigation of the squirrel murder that was allegedly committed with a different firearm entirely, suggests that local authorities there plan to make an example of Mr. Toigo to show the rest of Connecticut's serfs what will happen to them if they continue to defy their elected overlords.

The question to be asked here, independent of Mr. Toigo's guilt or innocence or his judgement in shooting the squirrel in his yard in the firs place, is if they get away with this prosecution, how long until some other power-mad "public servant" tries to pass and enforce a similar law in your state or mine?