Drizzt
Member
Meadville-area militia leader admits having illegal guns
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Meadville-area militia leader and gunsmith who advocated armed revolt against the federal government pleaded guilty yesterday in Erie to possession of illegal machine guns.
Darrell W. Sivik, 57, of West Mead, Crawford County, who operated a low-power FM station called "Braveheart Radio" in a shack behind his gun shop, was the last in a group of men convicted in an investigation of homemade machine guns in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Sivik admitted selling a gun to an undercover agent for $300 and another to Charles Bilunka, 60, of Atlantic, Crawford County. Bilunka is head of Christian American Patriot Survivalists, a militia outfit that agents said was training members to kill police officers in preparation for the end of the world.
Bilunka pleaded guilty in August to possession of unregistered firearms, land mines, a machine gun and a modified SKS rifle.
Agents said he was stockpiling weapons for the second coming of Jesus Christ, which he predicts will happen in 2009, and Armageddon, slated for 2012.
Agents said Sivik, who refers to himself as a "patriotic Christian American," ran another group called the Braveheart Militia, which was stockpiling weapons at a Forest County hunting camp for its own showdown with the government.
He was well-known in the Meadville area for his anti-government protests, one of which featured the burning of the U.N. flag and display of U.N. helmets with bullet holes. Among his many views, Sivik held that the United Nations was out to strip the United States of its sovereignty and take away Americans' rights.
He also has spoken out against everything from the Patriot Act to the tax system and often complained about threats to the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, which he said secures all other civil liberties in America.
Sivik was released from jail for heart bypass surgery in the summer and was on house arrest pending trial in federal court in Erie.
The case against him and Bilunka started Jan. 12, 2004, when an undercover officer wearing a wire met with Bilunka at his house in Atlantic. At the time, Bilunka said he had a machine gun in his basement that he had bought from Sivik.
Bilunka told the officer that he bought the weapon, a "burp" gun of the type first developed in World War II, from Sivik so he wouldn't have to register it with the government.
When the undercover officer asked Bilunka if Sivik needed an existing gun to make a machine gun, Bilunka said: "No, I think he might even have a few."
On Feb. 20, the officer and Bilunka went to Sivik's shop. Out of earshot of other customers, Sivik talked with Bilunka, and then all three went outside to discuss the sale of the machine gun for $300.
Others charged in the case were Terrance Willaman of Cochranton, Crawford County, who was convicted last fall of possession of an unregistered machine gun; and Chester E. Morrell and Daniel F. Morrell, both of Conneaut Lake, Crawford County, who pleaded guilty in the fall to possession of a belt-fed machine gun.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05032/450807.stm
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Meadville-area militia leader and gunsmith who advocated armed revolt against the federal government pleaded guilty yesterday in Erie to possession of illegal machine guns.
Darrell W. Sivik, 57, of West Mead, Crawford County, who operated a low-power FM station called "Braveheart Radio" in a shack behind his gun shop, was the last in a group of men convicted in an investigation of homemade machine guns in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Sivik admitted selling a gun to an undercover agent for $300 and another to Charles Bilunka, 60, of Atlantic, Crawford County. Bilunka is head of Christian American Patriot Survivalists, a militia outfit that agents said was training members to kill police officers in preparation for the end of the world.
Bilunka pleaded guilty in August to possession of unregistered firearms, land mines, a machine gun and a modified SKS rifle.
Agents said he was stockpiling weapons for the second coming of Jesus Christ, which he predicts will happen in 2009, and Armageddon, slated for 2012.
Agents said Sivik, who refers to himself as a "patriotic Christian American," ran another group called the Braveheart Militia, which was stockpiling weapons at a Forest County hunting camp for its own showdown with the government.
He was well-known in the Meadville area for his anti-government protests, one of which featured the burning of the U.N. flag and display of U.N. helmets with bullet holes. Among his many views, Sivik held that the United Nations was out to strip the United States of its sovereignty and take away Americans' rights.
He also has spoken out against everything from the Patriot Act to the tax system and often complained about threats to the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, which he said secures all other civil liberties in America.
Sivik was released from jail for heart bypass surgery in the summer and was on house arrest pending trial in federal court in Erie.
The case against him and Bilunka started Jan. 12, 2004, when an undercover officer wearing a wire met with Bilunka at his house in Atlantic. At the time, Bilunka said he had a machine gun in his basement that he had bought from Sivik.
Bilunka told the officer that he bought the weapon, a "burp" gun of the type first developed in World War II, from Sivik so he wouldn't have to register it with the government.
When the undercover officer asked Bilunka if Sivik needed an existing gun to make a machine gun, Bilunka said: "No, I think he might even have a few."
On Feb. 20, the officer and Bilunka went to Sivik's shop. Out of earshot of other customers, Sivik talked with Bilunka, and then all three went outside to discuss the sale of the machine gun for $300.
Others charged in the case were Terrance Willaman of Cochranton, Crawford County, who was convicted last fall of possession of an unregistered machine gun; and Chester E. Morrell and Daniel F. Morrell, both of Conneaut Lake, Crawford County, who pleaded guilty in the fall to possession of a belt-fed machine gun.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05032/450807.stm
I wonder what would have happend if he only had possessed them and didn't sell any, if this would be like the stewart case in the 9th 
As nuts as they say the guy was, I don't see any crime commited with the contraband items, where is the harm? Oh yeah possession of an item invariably means you will one day use it in a crime
