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State troopers charged with illegal full auto possession
From the Belleville News-Democrat: three Illinois state troops and a physican have been charged with possession of illegal full autos, and ten police chiefs have written to ask that charges be dropped.
[Update: Brady Campaign was asked for comments, and gave a diplomatic "If that's what happened, it's a lapse in judgment." (BTW, this latter news article has more factual and legal errors than I can easily count).
UPDATE: Here's the letter in support, with signatures.
UPDATE: yep, the second article linked has quite a few errors. The M-4 is described as a subgun. The article implies that ANY full auto can be owned with payment of a $200 tax (ignoring that it takes more than that, and post-bans are out). It says subguns "often" fire pistol ammo, when firing such is the very definition of a submachinegun. It implies that full-auto breaks down into two classes: tripod mounted MGs and subguns.
Strange part is that it says the M4 was registered, to the law enforcement agency. Sounds as if the charges against one trooper are purely that he took it home contrary to regulations, which is a pretty tenuous basis for an NFA charge. Of course, the reporter may have missed some other details, or got that wrong.
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This double standard is just another variation of the King’s Prerogative. The King’s Prerogative was abolished at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. “Under every monarchical establishment, it is necessary to distinguish the prince from his subjects, not only by the outward pomp and decorations of majesty, but also by ascribing to him certain qualities, as inherent in his royal capacity, distinct from and superior to those of any other individual in the nation. For, though a philosophical mind will consider the royal person merely as one man appointed by mutual consent to preside over many others, and will pay him that reverence and duty which the principles of society demand, yet the mass of mankind will be apt to grown insolent and refractory, if taught to consider their prince as a man of no greater perfection than themselves. The law therefore ascribes to the king, in his high political character, not only large powers and emoluments which form his prerogative and revenue, but likewise certain attributes of a great and transcendent nature; by which the people are led to consider him in the light of a superior being, and to pay him that awful respect, which may enable him with greater ease to carry on the business of government.”- St. George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries (1803).
I hope the double standard is not the beginning of an attempt to raise the Royal Standard.
This really gets my goat:
"I'm not saying they shouldn't get in trouble over this," he said, " (but) they shouldn't be made an example of because they are officers."
Like they wouldn't make an example out of me if I was caught doing the same thing? I think the US attorney should go forward with the prosecution as they would anyone else, but in my rather strange away of looking at it, I hope the jury acquits. I think the machine gun laws, as applied to persons with no criminal intent, are unjust.
Although I am as much a believer in prosecutorial discretion as I am jury nullification, I haven't heard that US attorneys are generally willing to go soft on NFA violations by ordinary citizens. Police shouldn't get any special treatment.
"I'm not saying they shouldn't get in trouble over this," he said, " (but) they shouldn't be made an example of because they are officers."
What planet is this dude from? They have already received kid glove treatment. If one of us "citizens" (subjects?) is suspected of violating this law, our home is burned down over our heads, and our family and pets are murdered by snipers. While I would like to know more of the facts of this case, my instinctive response is to hope that they rot in jail.
Special treatment, and the general attitude that the lawmakers/enforcers are above the law, is contrary to the ideas of the founders of this country, and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
The NFA law needs to be struck down and/or repealed. The whole things stinks, and our country has not benefited at all from it IMO.
Equal justice for all??? Yea Right.
I stopped reading that second article when it said that both semi-automatic and automatic weapons fired in full-auto mode.
How many other errors are in the article?
While there are numerous errors, I can't find any assertion that semi-autos fire in full-auto mode. It does say that both machine guns and submachine gun fire full-auto. In another section is mentions converting semi-autos to full-auto, but that seems to be it.
Sounds like a great case for a federal jury to vacate an unconstitutional and vapid law.
Can we get this list of Senators and Police Chiefs so that they may be solicited for letters supporting other citizens? Hell, this sounds like enough horsepower to start a movement!
Blast, I wasn't reading carefully enough!
At any rate, the paragraph about machine-guns is almost entirely unrelated to the paragraphs above and below it.
And that definition has little to do with M-16--I've always seen those weapons called "rifles", not "sub-machine guns." (You can nail me on that, too, if I'm wrong.)
Are you guys kidding?? We have just been hannded a Get Out of Jail Free card. You can posses anything that is "illegal" is now justified under this new rule of you "not intennding" to do anything illegal, and the fact that the jail cell space is needed for thugs, not someone like you. So we can now do anything and its OK!
Full auto for me, but not for thee, eh? Personally I would love to have one full auto in my collection. Maybe I could get some police chiefs to write me a letter and get me off if the BATFE finds I haven't got the paperwork in order/paid my tax stamp?