"You wait here. I'll tell the warden you're demanding your rifle back."
Posted on 05/22/2004 4:54:17 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Federal agents working undercover at gun shows in Nevada the past year have arrested 14 suspects on a variety of firearms charges that include illegally possessing machine guns and explosives, agents said Friday.
The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local law enforcement agencies joined to apprehend the 13 men and one woman in five Western states - Nevada, California, Utah, Idaho and Washington - as part of "Operation Over the Line."
Nine of the suspects were arrested after search warrants were served Friday, and five others already were in custody as part of the investigation, said Daniel Bogden, U.S. attorney for Nevada.
They've been indicted by federal grand juries in Nevada and Idaho. The indictments, some dating to February, were unsealed Friday.
"Undercover ATF agents purchased nearly 40 firearms using different Reno gun shows as the hub of activity," said John Torres, ATF special agent in charge of the San Francisco office.
"We also seized explosives at one residence in Reno today," including 20 blasting caps and 20 feet of detonating cord, he said.
The agents purchased guns over the past year at about 10 gun shows, one in Las Vegas and the rest in Reno, including large events held at the Reno Hilton hotel-casino and the Reno-Sparks convention center, authorities said. The weapons include eight machine guns, 10 hand guns and 15 long guns, Torres said.
Items seized include a bulletproof vest, assault rifles and semiautomatic pistols - specifically a Korean-made AK47 machine gun, a .45-caliber submachine gun, an AK47 semiautomatic assault pistol, a Glock 9 mm pistol, a Glock .40-caliber pistol and a Baretta semiautomatic pistol.
"We want to show that you can't use gun shows as a vehicle to conduct illegal firearm sales," Torres said.
The operation was "part of a nationwide commitment to reduce the number of illegal guns in possession out there," Bogden said.
Assistant Washoe County Sheriff Jim Lopey said the operation was a huge success.
"We got a lot of weapons off the street," he said.
Torres and Bogden said each of the suspects appeared to have been acting independently and none is known to be involved in terrorism or belong to a gang.
"But we want to be sure they do not get into the hands of gang members," he said.
The indictments show undercover buys were made at the "Las Vegas Gun Show" on Jan. 17 and at various sessions of the "Big Reno Gun Show" on April 23 and last year on Aug. 16 and Nov. 15.
"We are not targeting gun shows. We're targeting people who use gun shows as a conduit to traffic illegally in firearms," Torres said.
A message left at the number for the Big Reno Gun Show was not immediately returned. Another listed contact, Donald Shiffer of Carson City, was out of town and not immediately available for comment, said a woman who answered the telephone and identified herself as his daughter.
Nina Delgadillo, senior special agent and spokeswoman for the ATF field office in Sacramento, emphasized that most gun show dealers follow the law.
"This is a minority of people who are using gun shows to conduct illegal activities," she said.
"Unfortunately you have this other kind of people mixed in here," added Thomas Cannon, ATF special agent in charge of the Reno office.
Several of the people charged were felons or were covered by domestic violence restraining orders and were prohibited from possessing firearms, Bogden said.
Only licensed dealers can sell firearms at gun shows and they can sell directly to people only from within the same state. Sales to out-of-state buyers must include a licensed dealer from their home state.
Most of the charges in the indictments are punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, although several carry maximum sentences of 10 years in prison, including possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a felon, Bogden said.
Here is an example --- you once committed some kind of felony crime --- maybe embezzled money from your boss but you served your time and you're out --- your ex-husband or ex-boyfriend is dangerous and threatening to murder you if you try to leave him --- you cannot get a gun for your own protection. That's why I think this kind of thing is bad.
Rights come with responsibilities. If one proves one's inability to act responsibly with a right, one loses the right. Whether one has to lose ALL rights is another question entirely.
Just which arms are illegal under the second amendment? There is not a single gun law in this country which is not un-Constitutional.
When you see someone arrested for a non-violent "gun crime", i.e. merely possesion of a "prohibited weapon", what you are seeing is a crime being commited by an out of control illegitimate government.
A chronic drunk can ride a bus or bicycle --- what type of transportion you can have isn't a right in the Consitution --- a computer isn't either --- a computer isn't going to save your life --- it's not part of that right to protect your life or your family's.
Bingo, and amen!
Sigh.
They speak the same language as in china. Illegal this, illegal that.
America is a land of laws meant to balance the law of the lawless.
There may be illegal aliens, illegal individuals, but illegal weapons? Technology? Whatever.
When idiotic morons who don't know the law and who do not know the technology claim successfuly they can backseat drive airline pilots and what not, the nation is on a path to decadence.
I just do not understand how people do not understand this. WTF is wrong with these people with thier "reasonable gun laws"--and on a supposedly conservative board, at that.
They're targeting gun shows.
Would you be so kind as to say a prayer for me the next time you have prostrated yourself before the state-god from whom all privileges flow?
The laws that prevent felons from possessing guns. The laws that outlaw the use of guns in a crime. The laws that allow property owners to decide whether guns are allowed on their property.
They're targeting gun shows.
Nice to see that there are folks around who can translate government-speak into plain English.
Obviously you lose your rights while in prison --- but if you are considered not a threat to society and can be set free then you should have your rights. A lot of crimes fall under the label "felony". If you're going to murder, you can obtain the means to do it --- but if that's the case, you should stay locked up.
It's not a joke. There are people who hold extreme views who try to claim that prisoners have an unalienable right to possess handguns and shotguns while in prison.
If someone is such a threat to society that they cannot be trusted with thier civil liberties, then they should remain confined, or just be executed if they have commited any sort of violent crime.
The laws that outlaw the use of guns in a crime.
Well, robbery is already illegal, what difference does it make wether a gun , a knife or a baseball bat is used to facillitate the commision of a crime?
The laws that allow property owners to decide whether guns are allowed on their property.
I'll give you that one, as I am all for the rights of property owners.
While I am certainly not stupid enough to think that rightly confined prisoners be should be armed, I think there should be no restrictions of the keeping and bearing of all manner of arms by those who are not justly incarcerated.
The deprivation of the rights of the innocent due to the activities of the criminal is a crime.
It makes little sense to engage in a battle of wits with the unarmed.
I do not think CJ is witless.
I think that he is perhaps a bit too deeply entrenched in some thought patterns with which I will forever disagree.
There may well come a day when those opposed to a wider liberty in this country will come to thier senses and realize the error of thier ways, and become our willing allies in the battle for freedom. I have seen it happen before.
Backed into ex-wife's car accidentally on her property.
Over $500. worth of damage.
In Texas, if that was done on purpose, it's wilful destruction of private property and is classed as a felony.
Ex-wife claims it was on purpose.
Convicted of a felony, but probated sentence.
Should I EVER have a Concealed Carry Permit?
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