One bad apple could...

[Bringer]

[URL="http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr/4473267/9270571/Firearms_conviction_brings_10-month_term"][url]http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr/4473267/9270571/Firearms_conviction_brings_10-month_term[/URL][/URL]


Oct. 20A Luling man has been sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for selling firearms without a license.

Alfred Dwight Watkins, 58, will also have to pay a fine of $11,232 and be on supervised release for three years after his term is served, according to the sentence handed down Friday by United States District Judge Sam Sparks.

Watkins pleaded guilty in August, admitting that he continued to sell at area gun shows after his federal firearms license had expired in 2003.

"An investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents confirmed that Watkins was buying and selling firearms at Austin and San Antonio gun shows from January to March of 2009," said Daryl Fields, public information officer for the U. S. Attorney's Office.

"According to court documents, Watkins deliberately misinformed customers, telling them that no paperwork was required for transactions in an effort to 'flip' more firearms. Watkins also admitted that during a gun show in February 2009, he sold a firearm for $600 to a person who is lawfully prohibited from possessing a firearm," Fields said.

The ATF agents were also able to link Watkins to a firearm recovered from the Los Zetas drug cartel by Mexican authorities in November 2008.
Fields said agents executed a search warrant at Watkin's residence in March and seized 65 firearms, "including a dozen assault rifles, plus approximately 59,000 rounds of ammunition."

As part of Watkin's guilty plea, he forfeited the guns and ammunition to federal authorities.

 

[DCortez]

Glad the guy was caught. People like him ruin it for everyone.

 

[MadMo44Mag]

Only 10 months????
That's !!!!
10 years is what he should have got in a maximum security facility!

 

[sharky47]

"Glad the guy was caught. People like him ruin it for everyone."

Really?

On a pro-gun board you are championing putting people in a cage for the act of selling guns without bureaucrat's permission.


This slave-on-slave violence mentality is sickening and you should be ashamed of yourself.

Sick.....

 

[MadMo44Mag]

The law is what it is!
I may not agree with it but it is the law!
When people break these types of laws as related to guns it gives the anti gun folks way to much ammo so in this case the punishment should be stiff.
I agree it's BS as the Constitution clearly gives us the right to keep and bare arms but there again - the law is the law!

 

[sharky47]

It used to be lawful to own people. Doesn't make it right. At one time in Germany it was unlawful to hide a Jew. Doesn't make it right.

If you are not comfortable breaking bad laws - at least turn a blind eye - appeasing the thugs in DC is not going to get any liberty back. You don't have to help this guy break the law, but advocating that he be put in a cage by men with guns is just fukcing SICK!

The punishment should be stiff? Really? Do you actually hear the words that are coming out of your mouth? Would you say the same thing if they made it a hanging offense to own a military style weapon like in Kenya? Would you still say "it's the law, gotta abide, don't want to give the anti-gun people any more ammo"?

It amazes me that some of the most pro-statism, anti-gun people I come across are firearms enthusiasts.......

 

[DCortez]

"Glad the guy was caught. People like him ruin it for everyone."

Really?

On a pro-gun board you are championing putting people in a cage for the act of selling guns without bureaucrat's permission.


This slave-on-slave violence mentality is sickening and you should be ashamed of yourself.

Sick.....

Call it what you want. Breaking the law is breaking the law.

 

[sharky47]

Will you continue to celebrate "lawbreakers" going to jail when the law is one you cannot stand to abide?

Reminds me of this passage written by pastor Martin Niemöller:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

 

[Texas42]

Sharky, I think you are putting this out of perspective here.

This guy sold a lot of guns for profit. Its the rules, ya do that much business, ya gotta go through an FFL.

Going through an FFL doesn't infring upon your rights (at least not in Texas). It makes it annoying, costs time and probably adds a few dollars to the price of the gun. No big deal, in the grand scheme of things. I wanna buy a rifle or handgun, I pick it out, pay for it, fill out a form (that isn't registration. . . kinda) and take my gun to its new home.

The guy, knowingly (at least according to the article) sold to a person prohibited from owning a handgun. (I think it would be stupid for telling the police something like that, who knows if it is actually true.)

Thing is, he was flipping guns to make a profit. He wasn't being a robbin hood, and he wasn't being a political martyr. He got caught breaking the law. He knew the rules, and he broke them.

 

[Texas1911]

I'm not big on the whole FFL thing personally, but outright selling a firearm to someone you know shouldn't have one ... yeah, that's not good for anyone.

 

[sharky47]

"Going through an FFL doesn't infring upon your rights"

100% Grade-A bullshit right there, if you believe that - I have some ocean front property in Oklahoma to sell you......

The GCA of 1968 is when the idea that a man needed permission to sell guns came to be law. It was later discovered that senator Dodd had basically had nazi gun law translated into english - that became the backbone for the GCA '68, almost word for word.


"Thing is, he was flipping guns to make a profit."

Why exactly is this evil? Why the outrage from people who like guns? Who is the victim? I really want to know what was so heinous of an act that this guy engaged in to warrant putting him in a cage and stealing his life away from him.

Again, it's this slave on slave violence that is just so incredibly sickening - I just don't get it. I can't wrap my head around the idea that there are so many anti-liberty/anti-gun people calling themselves firearm enthusiasts. I mean, with friends like these, who the hell needs enemies?!


"but outright selling a firearm to someone you know shouldn't have one"

The same people that put this guy in a cage for "selling guns to people who shouldn't have one" swore an oath to defend the constitution - I can't seem to find the part in there that prevents ANYONE from owning arms, seem to recall something about "shall not be infringed". Seems highly hypocritical to hear someone in the gun crowd to bitch and moan about the 2am being under attack - and in the same breath completely undermine it!

Again, you don't have to help the guy break the law - but to cheer on his demise is antithetical to the very idea of liberty that most of us here want to enjoy. You need to think long and hard about this, before too long you are going to be faced with a choice of whether to break the law to engage in an activity that is only illegal because someone said so. Even the law abiding prudes are going to get uncomfortable soon if things keep going the way their going - what then? You going to cheer on the jackboots when they haul your neighbor away for possessing the wrong kind of gun or ammunition?


What is illegal is not always bad

What is legal is not always good

 

[Texas1911]

"but outright selling a firearm to someone you know shouldn't have one"

The same people that put this guy in a cage for "selling guns to people who shouldn't have one" swore an oath to defend the constitution - I can't seem to find the part in there that prevents ANYONE from owning arms, seem to recall something about "shall not be infringed". Seems highly hypocritical to hear someone in the gun crowd to bitch and moan about the 2am being under attack - and in the same breath completely undermine it!

Some things are a question of morality, that extend beyond the scope of the Constitution. I will not support giving a gun to child molesters, or people that have otherwise proven to society that they will use that to infringe on the freedom of others via violent means.

Smoked a little pot and got caught? Who cares. Stuffed a .45 in some one's face while you raped her, you've given up your rights as a human being and as an American citizen. **** their rights, they've cashed them in.

With any right, the 1st, 2nd, or any ... there is an inherit responsibility to be upheld.

Would you support Adolf Hitler? Would you support his 1st Amendment right to wholesale the Final Solution? Would you stand there and do nothing? Will you defend his ability to free speech if he slaughtered 1, 2, 6, 20 million people? Can you honestly say you would?

 

[Texas42]

Relax dude. Your going to give yourself a stroke.

 

[DCortez]

Relax dude. Your going to give yourself a stroke.

To me, it's like a driver's license. If you've ever had one and then decide to drive without one, well, you're an idiot.


Do I like paying for one? Nope.

 

[navyguy]

wow, only 8 posts before Godwin's Law was invoked.

It's already been articulated, but I'll add that the law is the law, and those such as this asshat that completely ignore such laws, cause other more restrictive laws to be made. Although I don't agree with many of the restrictions the government has put on firearms ownership, I abide by those laws, and will support those that attempt to change them through the democratic process.

All that, said some of the gun restrictions make sense to me. Those that are happy to find someone like this seller, who will sell to anyone, are probably those that shouldn't have a firearm.

 

[SC-Texas]

The ATF has been cracking down on this type of activity for several years.

They usually give the gyu lots of warning i.e. a personal visit at your home by ATF agents and a Cease & Desist letter.

If you are stupid enough to ignore several warnings AND are selling to people who are not allowed to own firearms after several warnings from the BATFE . . . . . . . you really are pushing the theory of darwinism.

I don't agree with teh FFL laws, but if you ignore them and ignore the warnings, you have to accept the consequences of your acts.

 

[SC-Texas]

For those who don't know:

Godwin's law

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Mike Godwin, formulator of the "law".


Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies)[1] is a humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1990 which has become an Internet adage. It states: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."[2][3] The term Godwin's law can also refer to the tradition that whoever makes such a comparison is said to "lose" the debate.
Godwin's Law is often cited in online discussions as a deterrent against the use of arguments in the widespread reductio ad Hitlerum form. The rule does not make any statement about whether any particular reference or comparison to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that the likelihood of such a reference or comparison arising increases as the discussion progresses. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued,[4] that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact.
Although in one of its early forms Godwin's Law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions,[5] the law is now applied to any threaded online discussion: electronic mailing lists, message boards, chat rooms, and more recently blog comment threads, wiki talk pages, and Twitter.