Florence man fined $10,000 for machine gun possession

The Tuscaloosa News ^ | rkba, bang, 2a, | AP

[TERMINATTOR]

A federal judge fined a Florence man $10,000 and ordered him to spend nine months in home detention for possessing a World War II-era machine gun.

U.S. District Judge Karen O. Bowdre also put Paul David Connolly, 49, on five year's probation and ordered him to perform 150 hours of community service.

Connolly, who had faced a possible 10-year sentence, had been indicted in April for possessing a Sten machine assembled from a kit. He later pleaded guilty.

Connolly's attorney, Jim Sturdivant, said Connolly possessed the weapon for recreational purposes only and he hoped the sentence imposed by the judge Wednesday will not be appealed.

U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said the sentence would be reviewed and that federal law "clearly prohibits the private possession of a machine gun."

[TERMINATTOR]

Federal law clearly prohibits infringements of the peoples RKBA!

"A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." -- Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

[Redcoat LI]

"U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said the sentence would be reviewed and that federal law "clearly prohibits the private possession of a machine gun."

U.S. Attorney Alice Martin should check her facts.

[.38sw]

So, I'm wondering. In most kits that I'm familiar with, the receiver is chopped so that it can't be reassembled into a working machine gun. The BATFE has regulations for how the receiver must be cut. Is that the case here, and the BATFE decided that the man could just use some zip ties on the receiver and get it working again? They have referred to some of the kits as "machine guns", even though the receivers have been chopped, and all you have are a couple of the pieces, with the center piece missing. Scrap metal. But it's a "machine gun". I'm just wondering what the rest of the story is here.

[supercat]

In most kits that I'm familiar with, the receiver is chopped so that it can't be reassembled into a working machine gun. The BATFE has regulations for how the receiver must be cut. Is that the case here, and the BATFE decided that the man could just use some zip ties on the receiver and get it working again?

Per the BATF's logic, anything which could conceivably be made into a machine gun is a machine gun. If the BATF buys 500 'deactivated' [cut into pieces] machinegun receivers and manages to find two which it can manage to successfully weld together, then under BATF logic all 500 of the cut-in-half receivers are machineguns.

[Ravenstar]

They don't care about the Federal Government obeying the law, they just want you to blindly go along with whatever "rules" the BATF comes up with. Remember Randy Weaver's wife was murdered because the stock on a shotgun he sold was 3/8" to short for Randy Weaver having not paid a $5 tax!. If he had paid the tax the Feds would not have had a case!

Ravenstar

[glock rocks]

stock on a shotgun he sold was 3/8" to short

you mean barrel? shotguns don't require a stock, do they?

[Ravenstar]

If you are a specially licensed dealer and pay a $200 dollar tax for each time you sell a machine gun you can own and fire a fully functional machine gun. This man didn't obtain the license and probably didn't pay the $200 dollar tax so they fine him $10,000 dollars!

Ravenstar

[rightwingcrazy]

A federal judge fined a Florence man $10,000 and ordered him to spend nine months in home detention for possessing a World War II-era machine gun. U.S. District Judge Karen O. Bowdre also put Paul David Connolly, 49, on five year's probation and ordered him to perform 150 hours of community service.

But does he get to keep it?

[tacticalogic]

Remember Randy Weaver's wife was murdered because the stock on a shotgun he sold was 3/8" to short for Randy Weaver having not paid a $5 tax!. If he had paid the tax the Feds would not have had a case!

If the feds had really wanted the $5 they could have collected it with a lot less time an effort than they spend killing his wife.

[tacticalogic]

Remember Randy Weaver's wife was murdered because the stock on a shotgun he sold was 3/8" to short for Randy Weaver having not paid a $5 tax!. If he had paid the tax the Feds would not have had a case!

If the feds had really wanted the $5 they could have collected it with a lot less time an effort than they spend killing his wife.

[B4Ranch]

My understanding with Randy Weaver's case is that the barrel was 1/8 of an inch too short. Is there an overall length that must be followed also? 28 inches or something like that?

[45Auto]

Per the BATF's logic, anything which could conceivably be made into a machine gun is a machine gun

Yes. If you happen to possess an M-16 part, be it a trigger, bolt carrier, or disconnecter, you technically are in possession of a "machine gun." And you cannot simply install one of these pieces in your legal Ar15 because you happen to have it in your parts box. One part makes the whole gun a "machine gun" according to BATF.

[.38sw]

InterOrdinance is in deep doodoo right now for selling parts kits with the receivers supposedly improperly demilled. Buyers of those kits received a letter from the BATFE informing them that they were in possession of a machine gun subject to confiscation and seizure. So, yes, by their logic, even a couple of pieces of scrap metal can be called a "machine gun".

[45Auto]

Its not just a matter of paying the tax; you must have a Class III Federal license to possess full auto or suppressed weapons - and you can't get one that applies to new guns, because under Reagan, the BATF license issuing unit was de-funded by an act of Congress.

[glock rocks]

I think I found it.

18USC 924(c)(1)(B)(i), the statute defines a "short-barreled shotgun" as:

a shotgun having one or more barrels less than eighteen inches in length and any weapon made from a shotgun (whether by alteration, modification or otherwise) if such a weapon as modified has an overall length of less than twenty-six inches.

[Warlord David]

They threw the bill of right into a paper shreader along time ago with the help of craft lawyers and politicians.

Now anyone with a gun is an enemy of the state according to this smoking crackpot US Attorney Alice Martin. That really great. Its bad enough that, "we the people" may have to fight Islamist terrorist here on our land in the near future. But we may be crimminal for trying to protect this country as well as our selves. Because of looney US Attorneys like this one.

[thackney]

BANG

[TheExperiment_Is_Over]

Actually this isn't too bad.

Ten years ago Renos Raiders would have just gassed the entire "compound".

[ol' hoghead]

I have a Winchester 1300 Ranger with a 18" barrel. IIRC the minimun length is 18".

[tacticalogic]

Now anyone with a gun is an enemy of the state according to this smoking crackpot US Attorney Alice Martin. That really great. Its bad enough that, "we the people" may have to fight Islamist terrorist here on our land in the near future. But we may be crimminal for trying to protect this country as well as our selves. Because of looney US Attorneys like this one.

Good thing she doesn't work for John Ashcroft. I hear he's very pro-2A.