LiquidTension
Member
We had a guest speaker today in my Judicial Process class. He is a defense attorney that used to be a prosecutor. Now he mostly does drug cases, and he had several good stories to tell.
Part I
One of his cases involved an AK47. General summary:
Let's call the bad guy Tito. ATF finds out that Tito has an AK47, "with banana clips hangin' off of it." [Those were the attorney's words. He was very animated and tried to make things entertaining. But I digress.] ATF searches his home and doesn't find the weapon. They look everywhere they can think of, but the rifle is nowhere to be found. While searching the house, they discover 5 grams of cocaine. The attorney is trying to get the drug charge dropped (duh, that's his job). While talking to the ATF, he gets the impression that the agent mainly wants the weapon off the streets and out of this guy's hands before he can "take out a city block." [Again, his exact words.] Attorney says, "If I can get you the gun, will you drop the drug charge?" Agent thinks about it and agrees. Somewhere in there, the lawyer said that Tito paid $1000 for the weapon, "which was probably worth three or four thousand". This confuses me, but was explained later.
Tito shows up at the attorney's office with a large gun case. In it is the AK47 and several loaded magazines. Lawyer takes it to ATF agent, drug charges are dropped.
At this point I voice my questions:
"Was it a full auto?"
"Yes, it was." [Realization dawns on me about the price, but this answer begs the next question...]
"Why did he want to get the drug charges dropped in favor of a 10 year sentence for having an unregistered NFA weapon? Did they not charge him with the weapon violation?"
"No, they didn't. They just wanted the weapon off the streets, so I got it for them in exchange for dropping the charges."
Lawyer goes on to say that the ATF agent "did more things with that rifle in a few minutes than anyone here could do in months. He was clickin' stuff and takin' it apart and everything. He was a pretty good guy."
I didn't feel the need to express my belief that I probably would surprise him with my abilities with an AK.
Anybody that's read my posts before knows that I have no moral problems with people owning unregistered full autos. I do have a problem with a coke head having one. And if the ATF thought he was such a danger to the community, I find it reprehensible that they let him go with NO charges filed.
As I stated earlier, this is Part I. Part II actually took place before Part I, but this part was on my mind first, so I posted it first. If anybody cares about some other things he said about the ATF (some funny, some astounding), I'll post them tomorrow. Err, later today. After I sleep, I mean. Then it'll be tomorrow instead of today. Grr, you know what I mean.
Part I
One of his cases involved an AK47. General summary:
Let's call the bad guy Tito. ATF finds out that Tito has an AK47, "with banana clips hangin' off of it." [Those were the attorney's words. He was very animated and tried to make things entertaining. But I digress.] ATF searches his home and doesn't find the weapon. They look everywhere they can think of, but the rifle is nowhere to be found. While searching the house, they discover 5 grams of cocaine. The attorney is trying to get the drug charge dropped (duh, that's his job). While talking to the ATF, he gets the impression that the agent mainly wants the weapon off the streets and out of this guy's hands before he can "take out a city block." [Again, his exact words.] Attorney says, "If I can get you the gun, will you drop the drug charge?" Agent thinks about it and agrees. Somewhere in there, the lawyer said that Tito paid $1000 for the weapon, "which was probably worth three or four thousand". This confuses me, but was explained later.
Tito shows up at the attorney's office with a large gun case. In it is the AK47 and several loaded magazines. Lawyer takes it to ATF agent, drug charges are dropped.
At this point I voice my questions:
"Was it a full auto?"
"Yes, it was." [Realization dawns on me about the price, but this answer begs the next question...]
"Why did he want to get the drug charges dropped in favor of a 10 year sentence for having an unregistered NFA weapon? Did they not charge him with the weapon violation?"
"No, they didn't. They just wanted the weapon off the streets, so I got it for them in exchange for dropping the charges."
Lawyer goes on to say that the ATF agent "did more things with that rifle in a few minutes than anyone here could do in months. He was clickin' stuff and takin' it apart and everything. He was a pretty good guy."
I didn't feel the need to express my belief that I probably would surprise him with my abilities with an AK.
Anybody that's read my posts before knows that I have no moral problems with people owning unregistered full autos. I do have a problem with a coke head having one. And if the ATF thought he was such a danger to the community, I find it reprehensible that they let him go with NO charges filed.
As I stated earlier, this is Part I. Part II actually took place before Part I, but this part was on my mind first, so I posted it first. If anybody cares about some other things he said about the ATF (some funny, some astounding), I'll post them tomorrow. Err, later today. After I sleep, I mean. Then it'll be tomorrow instead of today. Grr, you know what I mean.