Licensed gun show dealer sentenced for selling unregistered machine gun conversion parts to felon

[jpak]

http://www.wpbf.com/r/26918091/detail.html

An Okeechobee man was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison Thursday for selling firearms and parts to a convicted felon.

Edward Basile, 47, pleaded guilty in December to federal firearms law violations and transfer of unregistered machine guns.
Basile worked for Gun Smoke Enterprises, a federally licensed firearms dealer based in Okeechobee that sells firearms at southern Florida gun shows and over the Internet.

Prosecutors said Basile met on multiple occasions with a cooperating witness, who was a convicted felon, and sold the informant firearms and parts to construct fully automatic rifles.

Fully automatic weapons are defined in federal law as those firearms that will repeatedly fire more than one shot when the trigger is pulled only once.

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[TheCowsCameHome]

1. But, but, but......

[msongs]

2. an obvious violation of his 2nd amendment rights to own any weapon he wants nt

[NewMoonTherian]

21. Well, the arrest wasn't a violation.

The violation is the Hughes amendment.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jpak]

4. Another "law abiding" gun show dealer sells to felons

"law abiding"

not

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[guitar man]

10. Geez

If arrested, plead guilty and sentenced = "law abiding" to you, I know exactly how much credibility to give to anything you have to say. :eyes:

[Euromutt]

15. And there are licensed drivers who break traffic laws and drive under the influence

Does that mean all licensed drivers do this? Not by a long shot. "Some" ≠ "all."

[rl6214]

19. No he's not law abiding.

We've got people to enforce the law, do it.

What's your point.

[texshelters]

5. Serious question, if

a gun dealer illegally sells firearms to felons, can he later be found culpable for the crime committed with that weapons. As far as I know, yes, but it's a tough case to make.

Remember, if you ban guns from criminals, only criminals will have guns.

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[jpak]

6. Who's banning guns?

:shrug:

[Brilliantrocket]

8. Well automatic weapons are effectively banned.

Who has automatic weapons?

Extremely wealthy people
Gangs
Bank Robbers
Other criminals

[oneshooter]

9. I guess that in your book anybody with a full auto is a criminal? n/t

[Brilliantrocket]

13. Au Contraire, I support civilian ownership of full autos.

I'm hoping to get some if I ever move to a state that allows them. Open the nfa ! I was trying to make the point that we banned them and the only effect has been reduction in ownership by law abiding citizens.

[texshelters]

17. Don't tell me I actually have to

put the sarcasm emoticon on that one?

I guess people are so ridiculous that people can't see jokes any more.

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[GreenStormCloud]

11. Guilt by association?

He is trying to use this event to paint all FFL dealers as guilty.

[Atypical Liberal]

12. Dumb.

Everyone knows touching fully-automatic parts without a Class III license is inviting a stay at club fed.

[rl6214]

20. Actually you can own full auto parts legally w/o class 3

as long as you have no weapons that those parts can go into.

[Euromutt]

14. Hold it, nowhere does it say the suspect is a Federal Firearms Licensee

Basile worked for Gun Smoke Enterprises, a federally licensed firearms dealer based in Okeechobee <...>

"Worked for"; this isn't gun dealer we're talking about, it's a gun shop employee.

[one-eyed fat man]

16. Not the only "spin doctor" in the bunch

No big surprise but the ATF spins the same tale. The "convicted felon" and the "straw buyer" were both working for the ATF. They got a gun shop employee to break the law, not the licensee. Wifredo A. Ferrer, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida issued this press release


Okeechobee Gun Dealer Indicted for Machine Gun Sales

According to the in-court statements, Basile instructed and assisted the cooperating witness in preparing false federal firearms transaction forms, using someone Basile thought was a third person, or "straw buyer," to pretend to be the actual buyer of the firearms. The person portraying the straw buyer was, in fact, an undercover ATF agent. In addition, Basile on multiple occasions delivered to the informant parts designed to convert an otherwise lawful, semi-automatic rifle, such as the AR-15, into a fully automatic machine gun, such as the military’s M-16 rifle. Federal law requires such parts to be registered, as well as the law restricts their creation, possession and transfer. Basile delivered parts that were not numbered or registered.

[rl6214]

18. Good bust

I don't see a problem here so why are you posting this. The law was enforced the way you want it. Don't create new laws, enforce the ones on the books.

[spin]

22. The future on gun control should focus on criminals and fools like this ...

The laws exist. In most cases we just need to enforce them.

Of course we can pass more "feel good" laws which are merely words on paper. It's cheap to create such laws. Actually enforcing laws is expensive.

But then you get what you pay for.

[krispos42]

23. Good. n/t