Sammy Sasso arrested

[BruceyB]

2 hours ago, ionel said:

Pretty sure many/most states have laws about smoking the weed while driving or even driving high especially crossing state lines.  It's been a problem for states next door the recreational states.  There's prob a reason the officer asked about a med card.  

I'm just assuming you're arguing to argue at this point. My initial point was that "travelling with drugs" is a very broad spectrum that ranges from a THC vape pen to a significant volume of marijuana or other substances under the same statement. I was just clarifying that he wasn't pulled over with a trunk full of drugs. He was caught with his personal device. The guns should be the crux of this.. not a f'ing vape pen.

[AgaveMaria]

BruceyB wrote:  "The guns are a terrible look and seem hard to justify. Why was he travelling with a semiautomatic handgun in the drivers side door? Why did he have three other handguns in a duffel bag? That's peculiar."

------------------------------------

All the paranoia over firearms.

He had a carry permit - at least for where he was moving from.

The number of pistols? Nothing odd about it for many. Same if it had been rifles or shotguns. 

Some folks like shooting and have many different rifles, pistols and shotguns. Also ammunition for them. 

Others have firearms in the vehicles as a normal thing. We shoot coyotes, raccoons, skunks and whatnot and generally have a rifle or two in the vehicles. One by the barn has an /06 and the pickup by the grain shed has a good .223.  Jump in and go and you have the rifle with you. Wouldn't leave them in the vehicles if it were in town - at least not laying in the well & on the seat.

The drug stuff tho - Sounds as if Pennsylvania is hard on it - and it is still illegal on the Federal level. 

Expired registration - just stupidity. Does he have active car insurance? 

[headshuck]

I forget, how did this make the “news?”

[ionel]

15 minutes ago, headshuck said:

I forget, how did this make the “news?”

journalists  it looks like a nothingburger but ...

[fishbane]

2 hours ago, AgaveMaria said:

All the paranoia over firearms.

He had a carry permit - at least for where he was moving from.

The number of pistols? Nothing odd about it for many. Same if it had been rifles or shotguns. 

Some folks like shooting and have many different rifles, pistols and shotguns. Also ammunition for them. 

Others have firearms in the vehicles as a normal thing. We shoot coyotes, raccoons, skunks and whatnot and generally have a rifle or two in the vehicles. One by the barn has an /06 and the pickup by the grain shed has a good .223.  Jump in and go and you have the rifle with you. Wouldn't leave them in the vehicles if it were in town - at least not laying in the well & on the seat.

The drug stuff tho - Sounds as if Pennsylvania is hard on it - and it is still illegal on the Federal level. 

Expired registration - just stupidity. Does he have active car insurance? 

It's a fine line between some of what he didn't being totally legal or a felony.  Only medical marijuana has been decriminalized statewide.  Recreational marijuana use has been decriminalized in some counties/jurisdictions but not all.  Most of the largest cities have decriminalized it.  This happened in Nazareth.  If it had been in nearby Bethlehem or Allentown recreational quantities have been decriminalized in both of those cities.  Crossing a municipal or county boundary can make a big difference with this. 

In some places you will not get pulled over for an expired registration in PA.  Philadelphia police do not pull cars over for expired registration/inspections under their Driving Equality ordinance.  He'd have to be doing something else to get pulled over in Philly.

There is no requirement to register guns in PA and one can carry openly outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh without a permit.  Traveling with a gun in the car he'd either need a carry permit or it would have to be unloaded, separate from the ammo, and in a locked container/trunk.  Not sure if it's true that his Ohio permit is no good in PA.  There should be reciprocity...

[BruceyB]

6 hours ago, AgaveMaria said:

BruceyB wrote:  "The guns are a terrible look and seem hard to justify. Why was he travelling with a semiautomatic handgun in the drivers side door? Why did he have three other handguns in a duffel bag? That's peculiar."

------------------------------------

All the paranoia over firearms.

He had a carry permit - at least for where he was moving from.

The number of pistols? Nothing odd about it for many. Same if it had been rifles or shotguns. 

Some folks like shooting and have many different rifles, pistols and shotguns. Also ammunition for them. 

Others have firearms in the vehicles as a normal thing. We shoot coyotes, raccoons, skunks and whatnot and generally have a rifle or two in the vehicles. One by the barn has an /06 and the pickup by the grain shed has a good .223.  Jump in and go and you have the rifle with you. Wouldn't leave them in the vehicles if it were in town - at least not laying in the well & on the seat.

The drug stuff tho - Sounds as if Pennsylvania is hard on it - and it is still illegal on the Federal level. 

Expired registration - just stupidity. Does he have active car insurance? 

In Washington state you cannot be pulled over for expired tabs. That can only be a secondary offense and the maximum penalty is updating your tabs to the current year without extra expenses for unpaid years. 
Is having 4 handguns the same as shotguns/rifles? I'd assume that if you have a handful or shotguns/rifles that is probably for hunting purposes. Why do you need 4 different handguns?
Drug stuff.. irrelevant on the grand scheme of what Sammy was up to. I'm not worried about him puffing on a TCH-vape-pen. 
Expired Registration: I bought a car under my parents address when I was college age, and if my parents didn't tell me my tabs were about to expire and they got the mail, there is a good chance I would have unknowingly had expired tabs. Call me negligent, but I've never paid that close of attention.
Only the gun questions really raise my eyebrows in this pullover.

Edited 22 hours ago by BruceyB

[Pinnacle]

The answer to 1 firearm is likely self defense. The answer to 4 firearms might be that he was at a gun range where he might have used each of the firearms. 

[Antitroll2828]

8 hours ago, fishbane said:

It's a fine line between some of what he didn't being totally legal or a felony.  Only medical marijuana has been decriminalized statewide.  Recreational marijuana use has been decriminalized in some counties/jurisdictions but not all.  Most of the largest cities have decriminalized it.  This happened in Nazareth.  If it had been in nearby Bethlehem or Allentown recreational quantities have been decriminalized in both of those cities.  Crossing a municipal or county boundary can make a big difference with this. 

In some places you will not get pulled over for an expired registration in PA.  Philadelphia police do not pull cars over for expired registration/inspections under their Driving Equality ordinance.  He'd have to be doing something else to get pulled over in Philly.

There is no requirement to register guns in PA and one can carry openly outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh without a permit.  Traveling with a gun in the car he'd either need a carry permit or it would have to be unloaded, separate from the ammo, and in a locked container/trunk.  Not sure if it's true that his Ohio permit is no good in PA.  There should be reciprocity...

You only have reciprocity with the Ohio permit if you still have an Ohio address , Sammy recently had moved back to PA making his Ohio CC invalid and PA like a lot of states the second a controlled substance is found the CC permit becomes invalid  

[fishbane]

1 hour ago, Antitroll2828 said:

You only have reciprocity with the Ohio permit if you still have an Ohio address , Sammy recently had moved back to PA making his Ohio CC invalid and PA like a lot of states the second a controlled substance is found the CC permit becomes invalid  

Are you sure of the address?  He was only announced to have been hired at Lehigh on 6/30.  When was his start date?   He may have paid rent in Ohio for July.  If he owned a house there it likely has not been sold yet.

If not having an Ohio address is the thing that resulted in the gun charge he likely talked himself into that.  He still had Ohio plates on the car.  If he didn't get around to taking care of the car then he likely still had an OH DL too.  Only way to know the concealed carry might not be good is if he told the officer he moved or he handed over a PA DL, but even that doesn't mean he doesn't he would be unsuccessful arguing otherwise.

You're right that even if he can fix the carry permit problem the drugs would be an issue and result in a gun charge all the same.  If the gun was the basis for the search that discovered the vape pen and it turns out his permit is valid then it might be possible to suppress.

[Fletcher]

The car registration stuff is really just a way for cities/counties to make money off people's administrative slip-ups and shouldn't be criminal.

Gun laws are in place for public safety. I have no problem with strict enforcement.

[TylerDurden]

It sounds like the real lesson here, aside from not driving with expired tags whilst you have a combo of drugs/guns in your car, is that talking to the police without your attorney present is almost always a bad idea. 

 

 

[Mr. PeanutButter]

24 minutes ago, TylerDurden said:

It sounds like the real lesson here, aside from not driving with expired tags whilst you have a combo of drugs/guns in your car, is that talking to the police without your attorney present is almost always a bad idea. 

 

 

I thought I read that his fiance (?now wife?) is an attorney. If true, that makes this whole situation hilarious, in a sad way 

[jdalu75]

21 hours ago, wrestlingfan22 said:

Yeah, I am curious what led to him being stopped in the first place

He was stopped for out-of-state tags that were expired.  I was once stopped for expired tags but this was in-state in Virginia.  My car wasn't searched.  Maybe PA is tougher on this, or maybe it was the OOS thing that did it.

The best non-paywalled article I've found is here:  https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mma_ufc/nazareth-wrestling-legend-who-survived-shooting-now-faces-gun-thc-vape-charges/ar-AA1INzHj

Lehigh announced his hiring on June 30th and his name still appears on the list of coaches, but no photo yet.  A lot happened there in a short period of time and we're going to have to wait to see how it plays out.  Gun laws vary all over the country -- I heard a while ago that the only document you need to carry in Missouri is a driver's license -- but the loaded gun within reach of the driver sounds really bad to me.  That's how police are killed during routine traffic stops.

 

[neweruser69]

Lol are we still calling recreational pot/thc drugs in 2025? C'mon people.

[PortaJohn]

2 hours ago, fishbane said:

If not having an Ohio address is the thing that resulted in the gun charge he likely talked himself into that.  He still had Ohio plates on the car.  If he didn't get around to taking care of the car then he likely still had an OH DL too. 

Antitroll has the best theory so far.  PA and OH have reciprocity with certain conditions for PA

Pennsylvania's Perspective:

Pennsylvania has reciprocity agreements with Ohio, meaning a Pennsylvania resident with an Ohio license can carry in Pennsylvania. 

However, Pennsylvania requires its residents to have a Pennsylvania-issued license to carry concealed within the state, even if they have a valid license from another state with reciprocity, like Ohio. 

[npope]

4 hours ago, Pinnacle said:

The answer to 1 firearm is likely self defense. The answer to 4 firearms might be that he was at a gun range where he might have used each of the firearms. 

Geeezzz, hell's bells! Yes, and it is possible that he had been hired to move some gun shop's supply of handguns to a new location. The point isn't that there couldn't be some rational, albeit unlikely, explanation. Rather, the issue is that four handguns in a car is not normal, even though some on this forum seem to have an empathetic bent toward driving a car with multiple weapons available. The point is that it is NOT normal - but rather, it is abnormal - whether a poster does the same thing or not. If a poster also carries four weapons in the car then they too are behaving in an abnormal way - by definition. We don't even have to get into the rationale for doing so; four handguns in the car is not normal behavior. 

That's not to say that there couldn't be an explanation (as you supply as a possibility), but without such an actual explanation, that behavior is abnormal and deserving of scrutiny.

Edited 14 hours ago by npope

[ionel]

25 minutes ago, jdalu75 said:

  Gun laws vary all over the country -- 

 

Maybe but don't most know guns should be in a locked case when transporting across state lines not in a duffle bag accessible.  Or at least locked in the trunk away from ammo.  

[PortaJohn]

5 minutes ago, npope said:

Rather, the issue is that four handguns in a car is not normal, even though some on this forum seem to have an empathetic bent toward driving a car with multiple weapons available. The point is that it is NOT normal - but rather, it is abnormal - whether a poster does the same thing or not. If a poster also carries four weapons in the car then they too are behaving in an abnormal way - by definition. We don't even have to get into the rationale for doing so; four handguns in the car is not normal behavior. 

I work in certain locations in Philadelphia and will have two handguns in my vehicle with an extra loaded mag for each handgun.  I also have a permit.  If you were to ask me I would say it's foolish not to

[PortaJohn]

2 minutes ago, ionel said:

Maybe but don't most know guns should be in a locked case when transporting across state lines not in a duffle bag accessible.  Or at least locked in the trunk away from ammo.  

Depends if there is reciprocity between the states

[ionel]

Just now, PortaJohn said:

Depends if there is reciprocity between the states

I think you are talking about CC correct?  Different issue than transporting isn't it? 

[PortaJohn]

2 minutes ago, ionel said:

I think you are talking about CC correct?  Different issue than transporting isn't it? 

Correct.  My bad

[WrestleFan12]

23 minutes ago, neweruser69 said:

Lol are we still calling recreational pot/thc drugs in 2025? C'mon people.

I know. Hard to believe people are still getting busted for weed possession these days.

[ionel]

1 minute ago, WrestleFan12 said:

I know. Hard to believe people are still getting busted for weed possession these days.

Folks are still getting speeding tickets ... crazy!

[headshuck]

Rolling through a stop sign. $175.

[WrestleFan12]

1 hour ago, ionel said:

Folks are still getting speeding tickets ... crazy!

You’ve actually made the point that represents how a lot of people feel these days. At worst, simple weed possession should be treated like a standard speeding ticket. You pay a fine. It shouldn’t get you arrested, thrown in jail, and ruin employment options for you in the future.

Edited 12 hours ago by WrestleFan12