Gun store owner arrested with Crack firearms seized Store Closed

[Master Blaster]

This is a local store that has been around for quite a while and has always been Honest AFIK.

Gun-store owner released, to undergo drug treatment
By SEAN O’SULLIVAN, The News Journal

Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 at 11:22 am
WILMINGTON -- The owner of an Ogletown gun store was ordered released today by a federal judge pending completion of a 30-day drug treatment program.

James L. Cheeseman, 50, the operator of X-Ring Supply in the 2200 block of Ogletown Road, had been charged with possession of a firearm while knowingly using crack cocaine and possession with intent to distribute crack.

He was arrested Aug. 5 outside a closed drug store in Bear where his girlfriend was caught urinating in public. A search of the woman, and then Cheeseman, led to the recovery of two crack pipes and more than 14 grams of crack, according to police.

Last week, because of the arrest, federal agents seized more than 700 firearms from X-Ring Supply, effectively closing the business. Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Rosen said in court that the moment a person uses illegal drugs, it becomes illegal for them to own or possess a firearm.

Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge told Cheeseman today she was very concerned that, because of his apparent addiction, that he might trade guns for crack. But she said she would give him a chance to "build trust with the court" through the month-long program.

She told Cheeseman if he his successful, she will release him to the custody of his sister with a long list of conditions including home detention and no access to firearms. At the same time, Thynge told Cheeseman if he failed that he would remain in prison pending trial.

If convicted, Cheeseman faces a mandatory minimum five years in prison and $1,000 fine and a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $1 million fine.

Cheeseman’s attorney, Joe Hurley, had no comment outside court.

Contact Sean O’Sullivan at 324-2777 or

 

[Hypnogator]

Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge told Cheeseman today she was very concerned that, because of his apparent addiction, that he might trade guns for crack.

I would be, too. I don't have a bit of a problem with banning him from possessing firearms.

Would like to see his inventory auctioned off and the proceeds given to his family/business partners, if any. A sad situation.

 

[milo z]

Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Rosen said in court that the moment a person uses illegal drugs, it becomes illegal for them to own or possess a firearm.

O RLY?

So smoking marijuana - a misdemeanor in every jurisdiction I can think of - forfeits one's rights?

 

[ConfuseUs]

The form 4473 does ask you to affirm that you are not addicted to narcotics, alcohol, or marijuana.

 

[milo z]

But if I've ever had a drink, does that make me addicted to booze (or more importantly, would any court affirm that one drink makes me an alkie)?

 

[Neo-Luddite]

Yes Milo, it does in many places. For example, here in IL if you were EVER caught with pot you may never be employed as a schoolteacher---a lifelong ban for a joint back in college.

At any rate--another story of how guns and drugs don't mix.

And no, I don't personally agree with the way we 'treat' our drug problems as a society--but there is the way things are and how they ought to be.

 

[Cosmoline]

It's hard to cut through the BS with US attorneys, but I suspect we're seeing the effect of the so-called "guncrime" laws. Even having illegal drugs while you have a firearm will elevate the crime several notches and give rise to mandatory minimums. Intent to distribute kicks it up even further.

This is what you get. Kiddie rapists slapped on the wrist while some guy who has cocaine on him while he's carrying gets his life destroyed completely by the federal government.

BTW, I'm not saying that about kiddie rapists just off the cuff. I know of several cases where fathers who have admitted to serious sexual abuse have gotten off with a year or less in state jail. The feds could care less about any of it. But if you happen to have a firearm and illegal drugs in a car or house together, you do hard time in federal prison. I'll be damned if I can see the justice in it. The folks who wrote these laws, and those who enforce them, have a special seat in hell waiting for them.

 

[MrPeter]

It's funny, the parts of this article that strike me the most were:

1) The accused's unfortunate last name

2) Caught his girlfriend urinating in public outside a drugstore?! Could you be any more trashy or shady? Way to ruin your life because you didn't want to go inside where they have TP.

3) I'm glad they shut this guy down. Crack is serious stuff.

Thank you and have a nice day

 

[CWL]

I dunno about this one, he was arrested with 1/2 ounce of crack. Either it was for distribution, or this guy has a serious crack addiction. Either way is not good. This guy runs a business and his girlfriend is busted for public urination?

I'm definitely pro-gun, but I don't want to be grouped-in with this guy by any antis. In his case, he has to be judged for his actions as an individual, not as a gun-dealer/gun-owner.

 

[RoadkingLarry]

I'll wait till after the trial verdict to pass judgement on this guy. I've heard rumors that some law enforcement organizations and personnel are not above creating evidence to fit certain agendas. Now before you acuse me of bashing LEO types in general tell me its never happened.

 

[TEDDY]

????????

your right roadking:the local papers have story on police beating suspects and corruption.I believe I'v read about 10 in this state recently.look at connely of FBI in Boston.there are a lot of good cops but the bad make a mockery of judicial system.
the stop for urinating does that constitute grounds to search? If you say no does that mean you might in future.700 gunes good add to count means their doing something about crime. I think!maybe!

 

[waterhouse]

So smoking marijuana - a misdemeanor in every jurisdiction I can think of - forfeits one's rights?

Milo, the actual wording on the 4473 says

11.e Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana, or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?

I'm sure there are all sorts of legalities involving the definition of "are." I don't know what the answer is if you "used to be" an unlawful user of marijuana. But if you "are" an unlawful user of marijuana (which might be a misdemeanor) you cannot honestly answer "No" to question 11.e.

 

[Zoogster]

Actualy it helps to illustrate no tolerance policies. A man running a successful honest business who commits the crime of using or possessing any non government sanctioned drugs (plenty of drugs with similar effects are perfectly okay with presriptions) on thier free time while not in the possessing of any firearms whatsoever still commited a gun crime. He is now a felon, his girlfriend is now a felon however because crack is a felony in every location I know of, and his gf was exposing herself in public if she got caught urinating, so she is a sexual criminal by law (yes pulling over and urinating behind a bush, like most of us have on a long road trip is a sex crime, because the side of all public highways is public property, and one would have to expose themselves technicaly in public to relieve themselves.)

Now we got "the war on terrorism" and the "war on drugs" as backdoors to deny people rights.

My lifestyle is currently sanctioned as okay by government, but it amazes me how quick gun owners are willing to help divide and conquer the public. The more people who are ineligable to possess a firearm in society the less support for gun rights there is. In many locations people ineligable to own a firearm are still eligable to vote. Nobody banned from firearm possession is going to support others legaly owning firearms.

But if I've ever had a drink, does that make me addicted to booze (or more importantly, would any court affirm that one drink makes me an alkie)?

Yes. Many alcoholics lead normal lives, are successfuly employed, and one only learns of thier problem if they are close in thier personal lives. I have had a room mate that stored what I thought was the same bottle of vodka in the freezer. Turns out it was a new bottle every day or so, and they drank all the time and did not seem impaired. Many people in our country have similar "legal" addictions to prescription drugs which they pop throughout the day. So one does not need to be a problem in society to be an addict or have the stereotypical problems we associate with such people.
Since the legal precedent is that anyone ever caught using an illegal drug is an addict, and must undergo treatment which usualy starts with one admiting they are an addict to progress and successfuly complete the court ordered program, it logicly is implied that anyone ever arrested impaired or charged with a drug/alcohol offense is an addict. So drinking any alcohol, doing any drugs, is a history of addiction if documented by law enforcement or other history and could be used to deny gun rights. So what we would consider an addict, and what is an addict by law are very different things. However in this case since the drug is a felony crime itself, being labeled an addict has nothing to do with legal firearm ownership.

2) Caught his girlfriend urinating in public outside a drugstore?! Could you be any more trashy or shady? Way to ruin your life because you didn't want to go inside where they have TP.

For all you know she tried to go inside, they gave her the usual "employee only" response to a bathroom inquiry, or a "customers only", both of which I have been given trying to stop and use the bathroom at a bar, a gas station, a restaurant etc. Outside of it could be across the street or behind a bush located somewhere out of the way and the store is the closest thing. Going to the bathroom outdoors is illegal, it does not matter if it is on the side of the highway 100 miles out in the middle of the desert with no other place around, or in the middle of main street in a busy city, both are legaly the same offense.

Lets make an assumption, she went in asked to use the restroom, they told her employees only or customers only and said she had to buy something and she told them off. They called the cops as she left. She went outside someplace private nearby and urinated, and on her way to the car is approached by officers responding to the call. After talking with her they learn she urinated in a public place, a criminal offense. This is thier justification to detain and search the vehicle at which point they discover the felony drug possession.

 

[ArmedBear]

On the one hand, I'd like to drop the bans on recreational drugs, while holding users 100% responsible for their actions while intoxicated (e.g., guy attacks cops while on PCP, guy gets gunned down on the spot, is fine with me).

On the other hand, unlike pot, I really doubt that many people think that crack use is a casual social activity. Assuming he is found guilty, the guy should have known better than to do crack. The laws against it, as well as the personal consequences of use, are rather well known to anyone with a room-temperature IQ.

 

[Scorpiusdeus]

Actualy it helps to illustrate no tolerance policies. A man running a successful honest business who commits the crime of using or possessing any non government sanctioned drugs (plenty of drugs with similar effects are perfectly okay with presriptions) on thier free time while not in the possessing of any firearms whatsoever still commited a gun crime.

He didn't commit a gun crime, he committed a crime that screams "I'm too stupid to own and have guns".

If you can't control an impulse to take a drug that controls your life, ruins families, and is just bad for you, why in the hell would I want to trust you with a firearm?

 

[Scorpiusdeus]

Actualy it helps to illustrate no tolerance policies. A man running a successful honest business who commits the crime of using or possessing any non government sanctioned drugs (plenty of drugs with similar effects are perfectly okay with presriptions) on thier free time while not in the possessing of any firearms whatsoever still commited a gun crime.

A guy one town away from me recently hacked up a 6 year old boy with a meat cleaver while on meth. The police caught him and he'll face justice, but is that REALLY o.k. with you?

This guy is described by friends, family and teachers as a really good guy, a great father, but then drugs come in to play and look what happens.

You can hold him responsible all day long and it won't breath life back into that little boy.

 

[romma]

He didn't commit a gun crime, he committed a crime that screams "I'm too stupid to own and have guns".

Um, addiction has nothing to do with stupidity. IMO

Addiction overrides rational thought processess and mimics stupidity.

 

[Scorpiusdeus]

Addiction overrides rational thought processess and mimics stupidity.

When he did that first line of coke was he an addict or just stupid?

 

[Cosmoline]

You can hold him responsible all day long and it won't breath life back into that little boy.

So meth killed the boy? Nonsense. Meth doesn't make anyone cut people up with a meat cleaver. There are millions of people taking meth every day, including air force pilots and commercial truck drivers, who don't go around chopping people up.

 

[JohnBT]

"Addiction overrides rational thought processess and mimics stupidity."

Yep, using makes you stupid. That's why they call it dope.

Here's something on alcohol, but there are similar papers available on drugs.

"The research, undertaken at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and the University of California in San Francisco, found that people who drank more than 100 alcohol units a month suffered from brain damage which led to memory loss, impaired mental function and lowered intelligence."

John

 

[Scorpiusdeus]

So meth killed the boy? Nonsense. Meth doesn't make anyone cut people up with a meat cleaver. There are millions of people taking meth every day, including air force pilots and commercial truck drivers, who don't go around chopping people up.

Air Force pilots are using uncontrolled doses of Crystal meth outside doctors care? Care to name names?

And no, I said a guy on meth did. Do you think he would have done it if he wasn't on meth? I doubt it.

You can try and make excuses for drug use all day long and the fact remains that it's illegal. This guy knew it was illegal and being a gun store owner he also should have known the consequences of his actions. He chose to break the law and use drugs anyway. He's stupid.

 

[romma]

When he did that first line of coke was he an addict or just stupid?

It may not have been smart, but it hardly made him stupid.

Many so-called smart people, doctors, scientists and economists and so-forth are addicts...

I am an addict that has been clean for many years, and I am not stupid thank you!

 

[Zoogster]

A guy one town away from me recently hacked up a 6 year old boy with a meat cleaver while on meth. The police caught him and he'll face justice, but is that REALLY o.k. with you?

A guy recently walked into a university with a firearm and proceeded to kill numerous people. You support gun ownership, so those actions are okay with you?
Your logic fails.

This guy is described by friends, family and teachers as a really good guy, a great father, but then drugs come in to play and look what happens.

I don't like drugs, and usualy don't even take something for headaches. However if we look in our history, the substances with the most serious penalties were widely used with societal problems not much different than those currently seen with alcohol. Opium was widely used by Americans in the form of Laudanum for hundreds of years. Ben Franklin was a heavy user of opium for much of his life, and is often considered one of the wisest of the founding fathers. Laudanum was heavily used for just about everything, from minor aches and pains, to serious conditions, it was the standard non prescription pain killer of the working class, cheaper than a bottle of alcohol. It was even commonly given to infants to quie them down.
Morphine was and is highly regarded for use in serious pain and was so commonly used on the battlefield that addicts formed after most major wars. Heroine is simply a form of morphine, much like crack is a form of cocaine. Cocaine was widely used in America and most affluent women used it legaly in the late 19th century. Coca Cola was in fact a tonic of cocaine.

Both were banned and severely criminalized after enjoying decades of widespread legal use. Alcohol went through the same process, but was later legalized after prohibition was shown to be such a failure. Unlike other drugs, alcohol is actualy necessary and widespread in industry, and extremely simple to produce, so they gave up and figured they could benefit from the taxes its sales produce.
Both alcohol and opiates have been in human use as far back as we can go in recorded history. In fact in much of human history alcoholic beverages were safer to drink than water due to parasites and disease spread by untreated water. In much of American history hard cider (which used to be the working class drink prior to beer) and beer was consumed even by children in frontier conditions as it was safer than water.

Methamphetamine is common in society now because prior drugs were made illegal and easily synthesized drugs became cheaper and more prevelent to compensate for the difficulty of smuggling and growing.

So while some drugs obviously effect a person's reasoning and logic, and can cause trouble in society, I am not inclined to believe a person commiting gruesome murder is any less personaly responsible because they were using meth. If they had it in them on the drug, they had it in them off the drug. Blaming the drug and saying he was a perfectly fine individual is no different than blaming the gun because a perfect saint was forced to commit multiple murders when a firearm entered the equation.

People should be held accountable for the actions they commit that infringe on the rights of others. Not for potential actions that might be commited and therefore warrant restrictions in freedom or liberty as a preventative measure. That logic eventualy progresses into chains from birth. I value real freedom over imagined utopia. That is only possible when everyone is judged for the actions they actualy do which infringe on others, not actions that could possible lead to infringement of others at some point.
So I am against these extreme drug laws even though I would rather the drugs did not exist. It is not my place to decide what another man can legaly put into his body unless he chooses to infringe on the rights of others. If you believe otherwise you have a different opinion of freedom and liberty than I do.

 

[Scorpiusdeus]

WOW! The last place I'd expect to find a bunch of junkie apologists was a gun forum. I guess it just goes to show hoe diverse we are. Wonderful.

Zoog, has picking up a gun ever altered reality for you? Drugs do. Ever become highly paranoid or started seeing things when you pick up a gun? Drugs can do that to you too. Guns don't alter your frame of mind or affect your decision making abilities, drugs do. Your argument is not even relevant.

Of course you already know that.

Romma, congratulations on your rehabilitation and being clean for however long it's been. I'm sure it wasn't easy. I'm genuinely happy for you. Fact remains, you were stupid to try drugs. Do you disagree?

I can see this debate will go south soon with neither side willing to yield. Some believe drug use should not preclude firearms ownership and maybe even be legal and I disagree. fair enough?

I wish you the best of luck.

 

[romma]

you were stupid to try drugs. Do you disagree?

I disagree... I grew up with peer pressure, older brother, I believe I was an addict in the making before I picked up.

Again, I have made bad decisions, not so smart choices, but I am anything but stupid.