Posted on 11/27/2002 5:07:39 AM PST by chance33_98
Quotable
Unfortunately, there are many people like Mr. Kruse who feel that to get along in life, they need to hide behind the barrel of a gun.
- J.P. Stadtmueller , U.S. district judge
Abuser gets 22 months in prison for gun possession Man is first in district to be sentenced under U.S. law
By GINA BARTON gbarton@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Nov. 26, 2002
Although he's always been an avid hunter, Warren Kruse isn't heading for the woods this deer season. Instead, the 45-year-old Jackson man will be heading to prison.
Tuesday, Kruse became the first person in the Eastern District of Wisconsin to be sentenced under a federal law that prohibits gun possession by anyone convicted of a domestic violence offense - even if it was a misdemeanor, and even if there was no gun involved.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller sentenced Kruse to 22 months in prison, saying Kruse was "infatuated with the notion of having firepower present."
But Kruse's attorney, David Geraghty, likened his client's conviction to "the proverbial snowball turning into an avalanche."
Kruse's domestic violence conviction stems from a 1998 argument with his then-wife, Cynthia. Kruse had purchased two tickets to see the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl. When he wouldn't tell his wife who would be using the second ticket, she stopped payment on the check. Kruse threw his wife against the wall at least twice. When her adult daughter tried to break up the fight, Kruse grabbed the younger woman by the hair, according to a police report.
At first, Kruse pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of battery and was sentenced to a year of probation. But when his probation officer told him he was subject to the 1996 federal law that prevented him from ever owning a gun again, Kruse hired an attorney and withdrew his plea.
"He collected guns, and guns were important to him," Geraghty said Tuesday.
Kruse eventually was convicted of two misdemeanors and sentenced to 12 months in jail. The attorney who helped him withdraw his plea, Glen Kulkoski, advised Kruse that the federal law probably didn't apply to him but cautioned that, because it was so new, others might interpret it differently.
In the meantime, Kruse pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug possession and was sentenced to three years' probation.
During the probation, an Oak Creek police officer mistakenly called Kruse and told him to come and pick up one of his guns, a .50-caliber Desert Eagle handgun, which was confiscated during the drug arrest.
"You could drop a deer with one of these guns," said special assistant U.S. Attorney Joy Bertrand. "You wear that kind of gun to show off, to show how big you are."
Kruse said he needed the gun to protect his new girlfriend from her abusive ex-husband.
Stadtmueller discounted Kruse's argument that he relied on his attorney's advice in keeping the gun. For one thing, Kruse knew he was not allowed to have a gun during his state probation. In regard to the federal law, both a state court judge and the probation officer told him he should probably not possess firearms. Also, Kruse attempted to purchase a handgun and a rifle at a gun show in August 2000 but was turned down.
The situation came to a head outside Jojo's Tavern in Jackson in February. Kruse was wanted on a state probation violation after his probation officer went looking for him at Cynthia Kruse's Milwaukee home and found one of his guns in the garage. Police tracked him to Jojo's parking lot, where he was sitting in a pickup truck with his girlfriend.
"His girlfriend gets out of the truck and says Warren Kruse is in the truck and he has a gun," Bertrand said.
Police shut down Highway 60 near the bar as they talked for more than 20 minutes with Kruse via cell phone. When he finally got out of the truck, police found the loaded handgun and 51 rounds of ammunition, according to a Washington County criminal complaint. Kruse has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor as a result of the standoff and will be sentenced next week.
The federal gun possession conviction is Kruse's first felony.
Stadtmueller said the federal statute was designed for people exactly like Kruse.
"Unfortunately, there are many people like Mr. Kruse who feel that to get along in life, they need to hide behind the barrel of a gun," the judge said.
Kruse's sister, Roxanne Hoffmann, said violent offenders should get the stiff sentences, not people like her brother. Kruse already has done his time for the domestic battery and is trying to rebuild his life since his divorce, she said.
"How many times should a person be penalized for the same thing?" Hoffmann asked. "When you go to a lawyer . . . you rely on their profession, that they know what they're doing."
But the Brady bunch keeps telling us that anyone, including terrorists from around the world, can buy guns at gunshows!
I do not see an exception clause allowing a restraining order to invalidate your right or "reasonable" regulation authorization clause in the wording of the second amendment.
The second amendment says "... SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED."
Good!
Such as federal agents, jackbooted thugs, police officers, government officials, politicians, and other elite members of this formerly class-distinction-less society.
Another bill is in the works to make it a federal felony to possess guns if you've been served with a restraining order concerning anyone (not just a spouse as is currently the law).
Eventually, they'll make it so that anyone who has a traffic citation can't own a gun because "if they are reckless with cars, they shouldn't have guns".
And the bootlicking contigent will be loving every minute of it.
This seems to be a good place for me to say that I'm glad that this loser is off the streets and prohibited from owning firearms, and if it took this law to do it, so be it.
There's also no question this guy sounds like a real piece of work. You'll forgive me if I don't have a lot of compassion for his rights being infringed.
He's just the kind of lunatic poster boy the gun grabbers love.
Of course, to subliterate cretins like you, whats the harm when somebody snaps and kills a bunch of people?
After all, its about your interpretation of the principle of the matter.
You bozos thrive on death, blood and destruction, and you're no better than parasites.
I wonder what percentage of men have ever slammed their wives into a wall. I also wonder if a woman could achieve the same thing if her husband punched the refrigerator. It that is the case then technically I could also have to give up my guns, if my wife was a major league bitch, enemy at the gate, sleeping with the enemy type wench. Fortunately she is pretty much the woman in Proverbs 31.
There comes a point in the life of any normal man when it is time to spit on your hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats
From your profile page :) BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Are you aware that in many states you can be involuntarily committed, for a period of time, without ANY due process? All it takes is one judge. (This even happened to a US Army General in Mississippi in the 60s, I believe).
Of course, to subliterate cretins like you, whats the harm when somebody snaps and kills a bunch of people?
I'm not aware of any statistical correlation between people being involuntarily committed and acts of violence. That likely means that there isn't any, or the anti-gun nazis would have already mentioned it. Even if there was, it is still meaningless. In a Free society, people aren't punished because they "might" commit a crime.
Gun ownership is a Right, not a privelidge to be allocated by the government or "allowed" by bureaucrats. This bill has nothing to do preventing violence and everything to do with disarming more of the American people.
If they were serious about preventing violence, why not export the millions of illegals here, who have a much higher crime rate than Americans who have been involuntarily committed?
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