Feds charge Parole shop owner in machine gun case

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Bubbles

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Wonder how many transferrables they destroyed?

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2010/08/07-03/Feds-charge-Parole-shop-owner-in-machine-gun-case.html?ne=1

Feds charge Parole shop owner in machine gun case
Man 1 of 6 indicted with fraud in Arizona
By HEATHER RAWLYK, Staff Writer
Published 08/07/2010

The owner of a Parole gun shop is one of six men named in a 107-count indictment filed in federal court in Phoenix, Ariz., last week.

Hal Goldstein, owner of The Armory, at 24 Defense St., off West Street at Solomons Island Road, along with Randoph Benjamin Rodman, owner of Silver Spring-based R&S Arms, and four Arizona men were charged with conspiring to commit fraud to possess and transfer machine guns in violation of the National Firearms Act, according to the 39-page indictment filed July 27.

The indictment alleges the men "harvested" serial numbers from older machine guns and welded those numbers onto pricier machine guns they had specially made. In doing this, investigators said they ducked the 1986 federal machine gun ban. The ban prohibits the possession or transferring of machine guns made after May 1986.

The investigation dates to 2007, when special agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix, Ariz., began looking at George Clark, a licensed NFA manufacturer of Class III weapons, such as machine guns...

* * * * *

More info w/ link to indictment and all FFL/SOT's involved.

http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=20486

Blunderbusted
Two Maryland Men indicted in Arizona for illegal machine guns

By Van Smith | Posted 8/5/2010

First thing in the morning on Aug. 21, 2008, agents from the Phoenix, Ariz., office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives came to Maryland and raided homes and businesses in Annapolis, Pasadena, Glen Burnie, Bowie, and Silver Spring. As a result, court records show, they carted off more than 100 machine guns and numerous other firearms (including an Israeli rocket launcher), along with boxes of machine-gun parts; lathes, drills, and other machine tools; pallets of documents; cell phones; computers; and about $40,000 in cash.

Now it’s nearly two years later, and the Maryland targets of the Arizona-based investigation—federal firearms licensees Hal Paul Goldstein, proprietor of an Annapolis gun shop called the Armory, and Randolph Benjamin Rodman, who owns R&S Arms, which operates out of his Silver Spring business, the Auto Shoppe—have been named as defendants in a 107-count indictment filed in federal court in Phoenix on July 27. Their co-defendants are four Arizona residents who also hold firearms licenses: George Dibril Clark III, Lorren Marc Kalish, James Patrick Arnberger, and Idan C. Greenberg. All six are charged in a firearms conspiracy that alleges they committed fraud in order to possess and transfer machine guns in violation of the National Firearms Act...
 
I've been in Hal's shop many times when I lived down in MD. Bought several rifles from him, too, though (fortunately, I guess) nothing Title II.

He has (had) an amazing collection, including a MAG-58 which was retailing that year for $58,000.

I hope the allegations aren't true. I wish him the best in fighting it. What more can one say? :(
 
We've met. Last time I was there, he had a couple of Oleg's posters up, not for sale but as decoration. I didn't say anything.
 
Ironically, when I first moved to MD years back, Hal was the one who really explained the MD "regulated firearms" rules, how the high-cap mag ban works, and such. I remember him saying that he had a great relationship with the ATF and a pretty good one with MSP -- I've seen agents and officers in his shop, casually, just shopping or hanging out. He told me he had "too much at stake" to give folks false info about the law as it would always go worse for him.

Like I said, I hope the allegations are proved false. I don't assume they will be, but I hope they are.
 
Like I said, I hope the allegations are proved false. I don't assume they will be, but I hope they are.
Click to expand...

This has come up before, and the debates I've seen on it were contentious.

The idea is that ATF allows for "repairs" of NFA firearms but doesn't really say what that might mean.

So, some have had the idea that for example you have a completely shot out and ruined Mac 10 so you take one side piece of the receiver, the piece with the serial number, and you weld it onto another firearm to make a complete unit.

Is that a repair or did you make a new gun?

Honestly you could argue it either way.

Now, on the other end there have been people who take that same serial number plate from a Mac and weld it onto a BAR, clearly that's not "repairing" anything.

It's possible that he was doing one of the repairs that many believe is legit and ATF disagrees.

Depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.......to use a recent example.
 
Depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.......to use a recent example.
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Well the FOPA's machine gun ban IS unconstitutional and I really hope it gets fought in court and overturned.
There is so much gray area in those laws and regulations and people are hesitant to challenge them (understandably so considering the ATF has unlimited funds courtesy of the taxpayers).
 
Well the FOPA's machine gun ban IS unconstitutional and I really hope it gets fought in court and overturned.
Click to expand...
Maybe this will get that going? One could hope I guess.
 
Maybe this will get that going? One could hope I guess.
Click to expand...
Not even close, and I wouldn't want to chance it with this case. Too many bad apple dealers involved, six indicted, up to 20 more for conspiracy and fraud.

I feel sorry for anyone who was the last purchaser of one of these guns, as it will be confiscated by ATF and destroyed. Sure, he could sue the prior seller, who could sue the person who sold it to him, but this operation has been going on since 1993. Prior owners have moved, died, etc. since then, SOL's have long since passed, etc.
 
It's funny you mentioned the MAG-58. Thats why this whole thing is going down
Click to expand...
Hi, and welcome to THR.org!

Care to elaborate? I've not read all there is to read on the case, I'm sure. I didn't see specific guns mentioned.
 
I know this is an old thread, but I just spoke with Randy at R&S arms earlier today and found out about this for the first time.

I agree the FOPA is unconstitutional and the way the most egregious elements of it were added without notice at the 11th hour makes it even more suspect as to the legality of its passage.

This evening I read through the entire 114-page affidavit for the original search warrant and from what I understand the four men were allegedly transferring MAC 10's between themselves multiple times--each time making minute changes in the description of the firearms until the last transfer included a re-manufacturing into a completely different weapon such as a model 1919, Thompson .30 cal, etc.. This, if true, can in no way be construed as re-manufacturing or repairing. The affidavit alleges they cut off the serial numbers from the MAC 10's and welded them to the newly manufactured machine guns of different models worth much more than a MAC 10. I know a MAC 10 usually sells for $3000-$6000 and the affidavit says the re-manufactured guns were models that were being sold for up to $60,000. If true, these guys had to know full well it was illegal.

I have done a lot of business with Randy and Hal. I hope for their sake this is not true. We all know how creative and conniving the ATF can be in prosecuting NFA cases. They will lie and stretch, hammer and kick, and make up all sorts of accusations to justify their existence and incarcerate an innocent American. Anyone in the business of firearms, especially a class 3 SOT FFL should be extremely cautious in what they do. Even then you can get ensnared in an ATF nightmare. If these guys were really moving serial numbers from cheap transferable MAC-10's to other more expensive guns they are in deep doodoo.

I am just getting over my own nightmare in Maryland, I know how bad it can be here. We have a serious problem with overreaching police. I hope this is another one of those cases.
 
BATF officers have a hard time making arrests that really stop crime. They will try anything to make an arrest. With the BATF the blue line is very thin.
 
You do not want to challenge a laws constitutionality with a hand full of crooks trying to work a system from inside. To you good folks who know NFA is there fire where we are smelling smoke? Most folks go decades with no issues with government regulators. Nothing does more damage to our cause than greedy dealers milking the system and their action being used to punish us all.
 
After seeing this revived thread for the first time, I was curious as to the status of these individuals' criminal cases. Two of the six are still awaiting trial, another two plead guilty last summer but haven't been sentenced yet, and the last two had trials in December 2012 and were found guilty by a jury as to all counts.
 
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