A Fort Campbell soldier was arrested after selling a machine gun and a land mine to an undercover federal agent.
A federal official said Spc. Eric David Waldman, 22, of Clarksville, Tenn., was charged with one count of possession of an unregistered machine gun.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives resident agent in charge Kevin Kelm said the charge stems from when Waldman sold a machine gun to an agent in January for $5,500.
Kelm said an agent set up another meeting with Waldman on Monday in Oak Grove, Ky., just outside the installation, and he sold the agent another machine gun and a Claymore land mine.
Waldman could face additional charges from the Monday sale, Kelm said.
According the criminal complaint, ATF was tipped off that Waldman was trying to sell a fully automatic machine gun to a licensed gun dealer.The complaint stated that during the first meeting in January, Waldman said he was an infantryman in the Army and he had a Claymore mine that was brought back from Afghanistan that he wanted to sell.
Kelm said the machine guns are not military weapons, but the agency is checking a lot number on the mine to determine its origins.
What's your opinion? Aren't these the kinds of weapons that a lot of gun owners would love to own? Don't many gun rights advocates consider restrictions on owning these weapons to be in violation of the 2nd Amendment? Would you place someone who obtained a fully automatic machine gun in the same category as the rest of the criminals? Isn't this an area that many gun owners would consider a gray area?
Please leave a comment.
"Don't many gun rights advocates consider restrictions on owning these weapons to be in violation of the 2nd Amendment?"
ReplyDeleteThe $200 tax on machine guns is a violation. How many other rights have a $200 tax on them?
Limiting people to machine guns built before 1986 is nothing more than a government-waged war of attrition, designed to create an artificial shortage and drastically inflated price for legal machine guns. Not really a violation of rights, but definitely insidious in it's purpose.
"Would you place someone who obtained a fully automatic machine gun in the same category as the rest of the criminals?"
It depends on how they obtained it. If it's stolen, then they are a criminal no different than any other thief.
If they obtained it in any other way (war trophy, attic treasure, fell out of the sky, etc), you are a criminal in the same way homosexuals were once criminals: only through the assbackwardsness of our laws.
In your last post, this soldier would be exempt from gun laws in Mass. that are so good for the rest of us. He is a higher class citizen after all.
ReplyDeleteLiving in Italy, you should be familiar with how US military weapons often fall into the hands of the civilian population. Operation Glaudio was designed so stashes of arms would be used by Italian citizens to fight a resistance against Soviet occupation. The weapons however were used by the Italian secret services and given to right wing groups during the strategy of tension era. This was an era when terrorist attacks were blamed on left wing militant groups, while in fact, the attacks were carried out by the right in co-operation with the government.
ReplyDeletemikeb: "Aren't these the kinds of weapons that a lot of gun owners would love to own?"
ReplyDeleteYes.
mikeb: "Don't many gun rights advocates consider restrictions on owning these weapons to be in violation of the 2nd Amendment?"
Yes.
But Heller said no.
Just as anti-gunowner advocates must live with Heller, so must gunowners.