Posted on 10/19/2018 12:07:06 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
A 70-year-old Texas man was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to buying an automatic rifle in the 1980s, CBS station KTVT reports. Alfred Pick of Plano purchased the M14 rifle at a gun show that was similar to the weapon he had as an Army lieutenant in the Vietnam War.
"This gun was very rare," Pick attorney Ryne Sandel told KTVT. "You see, at that time it was rare to see one, so he instantly, you know, had a connection to it."
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided Pick's house last year on a tip about the weapon, KTVT reports. Two weeks before the raid, his wife of 40 years had died of cancer, according to the station.
Pick and his wife had a gun collection of about 14 weapons, Sandel said. "Many of them were collector's items," he said
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Thank you for your service to our county. I'm sure in your military training you were told many times of the importance of following orders.
And, I'm sure you must have been trained to never follow an illegal order.
One thing we can agree upon: we are duty-bound to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
I just hope there is no one that can make a case that our government has a long train of abuses and usurpations.
I disagree. The man had the gun 38 years and nobody got hurt. He was also a veteran and 70 years old. He was a model citizen. Finally, notwithstanding bs arguments of gun grabbers and liberals, the 2nd Amendment says he has the right to “keep and bear” the weapon.
I predict this one may be a candidate for the trek all the way to the Supreme Court. And, with a Trump SCOTUS, he may win.
Since Eric Holder and Obama pedaled fully automatic guns and people died, I think a fair sentence for this man would have been about 7 minutes.
somebody squealed on him. a-holes.
It was”Hot” when he got
Involved with it,
Please don’t be fooled
that some how it cooled down.
Republican politicians don’t want to roll back gun control or ever effectively restrict abortion because they rely on those issues for turnout and fundraising.
You might want to go back and re-read my post, and then direct your post elsewhere. Or, if you think you can register a gun with the serial number obliterated, say that and we can continue the discussion over our area of disagreement.
The M-14 was available with selective fire.
The m14 was and is available ONLY as a select fire battle rifle. Units could disable the FA by removing the selector lever, which then removed the ability of the sear to be released by the oprod.
I know. It really rips me.
We need equal justice and not someone scoring points by making an example of a hero who didn’t jump through all of the hoops and hurt no one.
Like I said, If he presented himself, not crazy, nothing bad in 20 years, a history of bravery with an honorable discharge, I would have took the gun and sent him home. The guy is 70 yo with no wife. Punishing a guy like this because he broke a law doesn’t make sense. We have illegals murdering women that are free to go. I was in the Army at the same time he was and fell in love with an M14 also. I got out and bought an M1A. Even today it’s my favorite weapon, and yes, I own an AR15. I love a .308. I guess I can see myself doing the same thing if I got the chance so I’m a little soft on law an order for a guy with a silver star. If he had a silver star and was panhandling to get money for dope, that would make a difference. My father had a Distinguished Flying Cross with 4 Oak leaf Clusters and he could be trusted with anything all the way to his death. He had many “Unlicensed” items during his life. My brother was a Navy vet and had full auto weapons on his yacht to go around Mexico and Cuba. He had no license. It’s a problem showing anyone your “stash”. Even family members will puke on you at some point. I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth since Ruby Ridge and Waco for the BATF. Seems like a few of these boys could sit on a corner in Chicago and look for real criminals. This M14 would probably never leave the safe if not for this. I just grew up in a different time when guns were just part of life. I bought my first rifle(7.62 Russian Mouser) from Sears for $12 and took it home through the middle of town on my Stingray bike at 12 yo. I already had a 12ga and a .22 as Christmas gifts. I know how to make several of my guns today full auto, but I can’t afford to feed one. When SHTF, however,.......I hope law enforcement has other things to keep them busy.
Civilians can’t own M-14s without a Federal stamp. They are all capable of full auto. The M-14s we trained with in basic in 1967 were full auto, but the selector switch was removed so they could only fire semi-auto so lots of guys think they are not capable of full auto.
Just turned up something interesting. He apparently lived in a ‘fly in’ subdivision. Developers have been trying to get ahold of that property for years - you can put a lot of zero lot line townhouses on the space taken up by the runway and hangers.
To do that, they have to get their hands on the few houses in the subdivision....
Or, it could be the hospital employees he threatened, or the judge that he threatened to kill by flying a plane filled with explosives to blow her up, or the daughter that accused him of molestation, or ....
Sounds like the libertarians on this thread have themselves a real poster boy.
He was in possession of an unregistered serial-defaced automatic weapon without a Class 3 Federal Firearms License.
The fact that he was an Army veteran only aggravates the matter. He knew better.
The fact that he sought it and purchased it despite the consequences for unlawful possession of it only aggravates the issue.
The fact that he had it for 38 years without any attempt to surrender it aggravates the issue.
The fact that he could have died and the rifle unlawfully transferred to another person willing to break the law without public knowledge aggravates the issue.
If his wife had been in knowledge of it made her an accessory, which apparently did not trouble him, that is an aggravating factor.
The Second Amendment does not provide such an excuse for upholding a criminal act, as it is applied at this time.
This matter will never see the daylight of another courtroom.
You can’t read. YOU should read my post again.
I said nothing about “registering a gun with the serial number obliterated.”
We don’t need to continue.
PS You can’t own or possess a gun that has an “obliterated” serial number. Try that, and suffer the consequences.
Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U.S. 425 (1886)
While acts of a de facto incumbent of an office lawfully created by law and existing are often held to be binding from reasons of public policy, the acts of a person assuming to fill and perform the duties of an office which does not exist de jure can have no validity whatever in law.
An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation as inoperative as though it had never been passed.
Marbury v. Madison 1803, vol 5, pg 137
It is also not entirely unworthy of observation that, in declaring what shall be the supreme law of the land, the Constitution itself is first mentioned, and not the laws of the United States generally, but those only which shall be made in pursuance of the Constitution, have that rank.
Thus, the particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written Constitutions, that
a law repugnant to the Constitution is void,
and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.
A worthwhile argument perhaps, although I have never come across the "BATF" in my reading of the Constitution
The issue is what is pragmatic, not what is theory. There’s no “Department of Motor Vehicles” (DMV) in my State Constitution, either. The citizen deliberately broke the law.
Both of which are obvious violations of the plain language of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.
The real criminals here are the congressthings and presidents who violated their oaths of office.
Yes, you just went out in left field with your random rant rather than engage in discussion.
I comment to someone else about the ability to register a gun with the serial number obliterated. (Post 95)
You jump in with a rant about the constitutionality of gun registration, an issue unaddressed in my post. (98)
I invite you to either post to someone dealing with Constitutional issues, or engage me on the practical issues (106)
You then suggest that I'm the one with reading comprehension because I pointed out you weren't engaging with my post rather than following your rabbit trail. (114).
Perhaps you intended to engage with one of the several posts raising the constitutional issues, and mis-hit. Maybe you're a little out of it this evening.
And finally, to your post 115 - Your are just flat out wrong. Of course a person can own or possess a firearm that has the number obliterated. If one is caught, one should expect to end up in prison because it is highly illegal, but as the original article indicates, in some cases a person can do so for years.
If an army veteran drives 65 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour school zone, that is against the law. Arguably it is very dangerous.
If an army veteran has a shotgun locked in his safe with a barrel length 17 and 15/16th inches long that is against the law. Unless he has a federal $200 tax stamp. Arguably any barrel on a shotgun less than 18 inches is very dangerous without a tax stamp.
One of the above violations can result in a felony conviction, 10 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. Do you know which one?
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