Posted on 07/27/2002 4:02:37 AM PDT by CFW
By Stephen Gurr
sgurr@onlineathens.com
An Elberton man faces charges that he illegally stockpiled 600 hand grenades and more than 30 rifles and handguns in the basement of his Stoney Creek Drive home.
Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Elbert County sheriff's deputies carried out a search warrant at the two-story home of 42-year-old Greg Giannoni Thursday afternoon following a six-month investigation, Elbert County Sheriff Barry Haston said.
Giannoni, who worked in the granite business up until about five years ago, was licensed to sell ammunition, Haston said. He was under indictment for four years on a charge of pointing a gun at another before the charge was dismissed two weeks ago because of lack of evidence, Haston said. He has no criminal record.
The weapons seized included .22-caliber rifles, a Ruger Mini 14 semiautomatic rifle, a .50-caliber rifle, 9mm and .40-caliber handguns.
Giannoni faces federal charges of possessing unregistered weapons and is being held without bond at the Elbert County jail pending a Monday appearance before a federal magistrate in Athens. Charges regarding the grenades are expected to be brought next week.
Haston said authorities were unsure where Giannoni got the military-green grenades, 400 of which were of the ''pineapple'' variety and 200 of which were ''baseball'' style. They were found in 100 cardboard boxes in Giannoni's basement, Haston said.
It was not known if Giannoni was dealing arms from the home he shared with his wife and 21-year-old son.
At least six of the firearms were purchased illegally while Giannoni was under indictment, Haston said.
Authorities also seized a number of as-yet unidentified pills.
........Uhhhhh they were paper weights officer .....honest. BTW who sold such to this guy if it's a crime to possess, then it's a crime to sell. These "sting" type ops of FLEA/LEO's setting up dumbassed wannabes is IMHO just as criminal......
Stay Safe !
I'd have given it two thumbs up.
Hehehe - had one other person been arrested in the house, it would have been upgraded to a militia compound. But one person, then they're just a gun nut...
then it's a crime to sell. These "sting" type ops of FLEA/LEO's setting up dumbassed wannabes is IMHO just as criminal......
Government 'sting' operations should come under the 'attractive nuisance' clause. But, ya really can't feel too damned sorry for people this stupid.
I knew of a troop that took over 300 Zuni rocket bodies once to use as fence post's on his property....
He did a right nice job of stringing that wire fence only to find out the rocket motors were still "live". When we went to recover and render safe the "ordnance" one of my better free thinking EOD troops suggested we just hook up a set of jumper cables to the wire or wait for a lightning storm and watch the show.......
Thank Goodness for Senior NCO's worried about their retirement pay :o)
Stay Safe !
Stay well - stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
If they really want to stretch, they can call lawnmower gas and bottles and rags Molotov Cocktail components.
It's just a lot easier for them when you have 600 "grenades".
In NE Georgia, my guess would be: "fishin'"
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
Bingo. I'm focussing on intent, you're focussing on instrumentality. If my neighbor wants to get me, all he has to do is put cyanide in a free beer. Hell, all he has to do is grind up some common shrub leaves found in most yards around here and spike my beer with it. Garottes, guns, knives, poisons, radionucliides, explosives, microwave rays, whatever. It's not a weapon until someone uses it as one. Everything leading up to the real crime is just a thought crime.
Your extrapolation may not be particularly threatening to me, because in either direction it's just as absurd. The notion that government interventions and prior restraints can protect us from evil people has to be balanced against the evil that is created when government attempts or succeeds in acquiring a monopoly on the coercive use of force. More people have died at the hands of their own "protective" totalitarian governments than at the hands of basement biologists and bombers.
Bond set in Elbert grenade case
In the Courts
A federal judge has set a $50,000 bond for an Elbert County man charged with manufacturing hand grenades without a license.
However, Judge Claude Hicks ordered house arrest with electronic surveillance and travel restrictions for Greg Giannoni, 42, of Stoney Creek Drive in Elberton. Giannoni, accused of manufacturing hand grenades without a license, can leave his home only to visit his lawyer or physician or to go to court, said his lawyer, Ed Tolley of Athens.
Hicks also ordered a mental health evaluation for the Elberton man, and treatment if needed.
Tolley said bond would likely be arranged today for Giannoni to be released from the Jones County Jail in Gray. In a hearing last week, government lawyers argued that Giannoni would be a threat to his community if released.
Giannoni was charged with possessing unregistered weapons after federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raided his home with Elbert County sheriff's deputies July 25.
Authorities said they seized 600 hand grenades and more than 30 rifles and handguns when they searched Giannoni's home.
According to Tolley, Giannoni had no intent to break the law.
Giannoni hoped to sell ''survival kits'' containing the grenades to the military, he said. -- Lee Shearer
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