$100? Hell, that’s less than a $200 tax stamp!
Smuggle and AK from Iraq, get off light:
A Marine sergeant from El Paso, Texas, accused of bringing an AK-47 assault rifle home from Iraq as a war trophy accepted a plea deal Monday that will keep him out of federal prison.
Sgt. Leonardo San Juan agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of possession of an unregistered firearm and pay a $100 fine, said his attorney, Joseph Low.
San Juan accepted the deal shortly before jury selection was set to begin. A judge still must approve the deal.
San Juan was accused of bringing the AK-47 back with him more than two years ago from Iraq, according to a grand jury indictment filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
“If you believe the allegation, all it is is a war trophy,” Low said. “It’s not like he went out and committed a crime, shot it or had ammo in it.”
San Juan, 31, had faced up to three years in prison and a discharge from the Marine Corps. It is unclear whether the plea deal will effect his career.
Actually, possession of a machine gun that is not registered per NFA is a tax crime that could land you ten years in club fed and a cool quarter million in fines.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:45 am
First, it’s sad that journalists don’t even understand the difference between “effect” and “affect”. Second, it amazes me that a guy smuggling an automatic weapon in from another country gets no actual jail time apparently, yet the guy in Wisconsin gets sentenced to 30 months for a malfunctioning gun.
I’d also like to know how that statement is probable cause of a crime. Is there actually no form of AK pattern rifle that is legal in that state now?
June 4th, 2008 at 10:23 am
who fucking snitched??
June 4th, 2008 at 10:32 am
He didn’t get off light enough. Who was the victim here? The Feds? The Army? The public? San Juan? Nobody?
June 4th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Evidently Sgt. San Juan didn’t get the memo: “we” are exporting freedom — not importing it.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:44 am
I think
firearmsweapons may be my only purely libertarian position. The right to own weapons is the right to be free. I am always tickled pink when somebody gets away with being armed without the government’s permission.June 4th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Some guy at a pistol range. The Sgt’s wife inadvertently blabbed to him about her husband having an AK, so the guy snitched him off to the Feds.
From the art:
June 4th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
oops, more:
June 4th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I don’t get why am RO at a range would be so interested in someone having AKs that they would call the cops. Something doesn’t wash.
I say the only issue should been whether to ask the guy to pay the 200 bucks, or whether to give him an exemption for his military service.
As it is, he’s hit with a felony. Does that mean he can’t legally have firearms for the rest of his life?
June 4th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
AKs only come in full auto? wrinkled fudd RO might try paying attention more often.
The waiver prevents PSH?
June 4th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Lyle: He can’t “pay the 200 bucks” or “get an exemption”, since the NFA provides for no “exemptions” for military service, and the hated amendment to the 1986 gun bill means that post-86/import machineguns cannot be registered with the NFA by individuals.
I mean, in a better world with better laws, sure. But not in this one, with the laws as they stand now.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
If we’re complaining about the journalists’s confusion wrt effect & affect, how about the poster’s confusion wrt and & an?
June 5th, 2008 at 8:16 am
hehe you said journalists’s
I mean, since we’re nitpicking and all.