Posted on 10/25/2011 10:06:48 AM PDT by DCBryan1
Golden Valley man accused in machine gun conspiracy
GOLDEN VALLEY - A local gunsmith is among six men facing a 106-count federal indictment alleging a conspiracy to illegally manufacture and distribute machine guns.
According to the July 2010 indictment, George Dibril Clark III of Golden Valley and Gold Canyon and five other men - three from Arizona and two from Maryland - "harvested" serial numbers from pre-1986 machine guns, thereby destroying them. They would then allegedly weld the serial number, or the entire receiver side plate, onto a newly manufactured gun, file the required forms with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, then sell the weapons.
Clark, who operated a business, Universal Test Receiver, in Golden Valley, allegedly did most of the manufacturing and is charged in 80 of the 106 counts, which include conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, money laundering and false entry on an application or record.
He and the five co-defendants, Randolph Benjamin Rodman and Hal Paul Goldstein of Maryland, and Lorren Marc Kalish, James Patrick Arneberger and Idan C. Greenberg of Arizona, all face additional charges of illegal possession of a machine gun, even though all are federal firearms licensees and allowed to sell legitimate machine guns and submachine guns.
The National Firearms Act revision of 1986 made it illegal for civilians to transfer or possess machine guns manufactured after May 19, 1986. The indictment lists 32 instances in which the serial number of a pre-1986 weapon such as a MAC10A1A, with a 5.75-inch barrel and an overall length of 11 inches, would allegedly be transferred onto a fully-automatic replica of an Auto Ordnance Thompson machine gun ("Tommy" gun) or even a belt-fed "1919" machine gun similar to those used in world wars.
According to an affidavit filed in conjunction with the Maryland investigation into the case, ATF Special Agent Patrick Sean Sander had investigated the case, focusing on Clark, since 2007. Sander states in his report that he believes Clark had been doing serial number swaps since 1993.
Sander also states that Clark "admitted that he had done this for years and that he believed the serial number to be the actual gun."
Nonetheless, according to Sander, Clark and the co-defendants had transferred the guns among themselves, "making slight and subtle changes to ATF Form 3 or Form 4 that would slowly change the description of the machinegun so as not to raise any red flags with ATF."
No parties involved in the case have at this time returned repeated calls asking for comment.
The case is scheduled for trial before Judge Roslyn O. Silver beginning on Jan. 17, 2012, in Federal District Court in Phoenix.
Not only is this FRAUD (similar to using stolen VINs), it conspires against the NFA Act of 1934 and Gun Control Act of 1968 regulating FFL holders.
Basically, these idiots (ON PAPER) were taking this gun, worth $200.00 in 1986, $3,000.00+ today) :
and turning them into much more valuable.....
Thompson Submachineguns that sell for $11,000 to 50,000.00
...and belt fed....
M1919 that sell for $15,000-40,000.00
Boys will be boys.
Are you anti 2nd amendment or do you just automatically side with the state against anyone they claim is a criminal?
Oh, wait! He did do that in one of the FFA states!
Will Arizona defend him from the Feds?
I don’t have a problem with it.
Tho’ why anyone would pay that much for a Thompson is beyond me.
All these laws should be considered UN Constitutional. Our masters have made automatic firearms the toy for the rich. A poor man can only dream about exercising his right to keep and bear arms.
All these laws should be considered UN Constitutional. Our masters have made automatic firearms the toy for the rich. A poor man can only dream about exercising his right to keep and bear arms.
The point the OP is making is that these "idiots" are defrauding honest gun purchasers to the tune of $10,000-$50,000 each.
Seems like they don't have the authority. And the 2nd just underlines that.
/johnny
I don’t see any evidence that any of their customers felt defrauded. These honorable gentlemen sought to wade through the blatantly unconstitutional morass of gun control laws, and create some valuable firearms that collectors can use and enjoy.
Let me repeat: They were CREATING VALUE.
And the fedgov prefers its government monopoly on machine guns, so it ruins these men who have never committed a real crime against others in their lives.
I know people who have (legally) taken an old HK that was licensed as a machine gun, and taken the legal key element and installed it on a rare belt-fed HK parts kit. Lots of work, but it added $20,000 of value, and the buyer was delighted.
You seem overly affectionate with the worst of gun control laws.
Big Thompson =
Little Johnson
The point the OP is making is that these “idiots” are defrauding honest gun purchasers to the tune of $10,000-$50,000 each.
The OP sounds like a jackboot-licker with his “conspiring against” gun control laws BS language.
You are in violation of your own tag line “You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”
The reality is that individual citizens do not choose what laws to obey and which ones to declare unconstitutional.
The Body Politic does; through the Courts. The Courts have held the FFA to be constitutional, and neither your opinion, nor mine has force of law.
Sorry, you may not like it, but reality can be a bitch.
NFA revisions need to be repealed. The citizenry needs to be as well armed as the military in order to maintain the balance required by a Republic
We should NB that the 1986 legislation was the handiwork of supposed “conservative” William J. Bennett, pundit, gasbag, gambler and all round two-faced meddler in American politics.
I understand that.
I can CREATE VALUE by rolling back the odometer of my '99 Ford and selling a fraudulant product.
You are confusing reality with political expedience. The constitution says what it says and it doesn’t matter how many lawyers in black robed claim otherwise. People can do anything they wish as long as they are will to face the consequences of their actions, that includes either obeying unconstitutional laws or obeying them. The political class can do the same thing and pass all the unconstitutional laws they want. The reality is that one day the political class is going to face the reality of a public that is fed up. In the meantime the reality is that there are a lot of people right now that are completely fed up and wouldn’t in a million years sit on a jury and vote to convict these men.
That's just an argument for superiority of the state, period. People routinely violate the law, and as far as I'm concerned, the law merits all the disrespect it gets. When it comes to the 2nd amendment, judges are dishonest lying hacks, and I put Scalia right in there with the bulk of them.
But you are right, that the state will use all the force violence at its disposal, in order to obtain conformity, and to exact revenge. Get caught in violation of the GFSZA, or NFA, etc., and you are screwed.
“There is a legal case to be made that the serial number of the gun is the part of the gun being licensed and should, therefore, be transferable.”
As a vehicle has a serial number (VIN) adn that refers to that specific vehicle, might I inquire as to how welding that bit of material with the number onto an entirely different gun is different than putting the VIN of a Mercedes onto a Pinto and calling the Pinto a Mercedes?
Aside from the Second Amendment issues, does not such switching become fraud?
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