Ex-Tri-State police chief due in court for guilty plea in ‘machine gun scheme".

[SEIndSAM]

West Cincy, OH

MSN

 

[MrSmitty]

I guess he won't be owning guns in the future...........Not much of a retirement package either....

 

[Bigtanker]

I guess I don't exactly understand what he and the dealers did. Were they trying to pass post 86 full autos for pre 86?

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Huh. I wonder how common this sort of thing is?

 

[BJones]

A big mistake on his part. He should have known the law!!

 

[Kurr]

Indiana gun dealers illegally get 200 or more fully automatic weapons will appear in federal court Monday.

Was that the 200 off them warehouses in another post?

According to LaCourse’s indictment, he signed multiple letters and other official documents as the police chief falsely claiming to the ATF and others that the Addyston Police Department was interested in purchasing or receiving demonstrations of machine guns.

Federal officials say he sold some at a profit to Marcum and Petty from October 2015 until May 2019, receiving 11 checks for more than $11,500.

Sounds like he was requesting samples, then sold them to dealers?

The weapons included smaller submachine guns, automatic assault rifles and belt-fed machine guns for military use.

One was an M2 .50 caliber belt-fed heavy machine gun that, according to LaCourse’s indictment, is vehicle-or ship-mounted and effective against lightly armored vehicles and low-flying aircraft.

Yikes!!! How many police depts have or need a Ma Deuce???

 

[KokomoDave]

All of them.

 

[BGDave]

These commonly called "love letters" allow dealers to obtain post 86 machine guns so they can demo them to interested Police departments.
The upside is the dealers can retain these as long as they keep their class 3 license.
It's a thing.

 

[Robert Richardson]

Only received $11.5K in checks? Hope he got a lot more in cash.
Just proves that you can't fix stupid.

 

[xwing]

These commonly called "love letters" allow dealers to obtain post 86 machine guns so they can demo them to interested Police departments.
The upside is the dealers can retain these as long as they keep their class 3 license.
It's a thing.

Yes, it's a fairly common practice, and usually legal. I'm not sure exactly what Marcum did illegally. It sounds like he might have charged money for the "letters", so that must be it... I suspect the ATF, which is a very anti-gun political animal nowadays, is trying to ruin his life to make a point and to further appease anti-gun groups who donate to Biden.

 

[AndreusMaximus]

Only received $11.5K in checks? Hope he got a lot more in cash.
Just proves that you can't fix stupid.

Article says he helped them obtain over 200 full auto weapons; $11.5K comes out to less than $60 a piece.

Some people look at that small number and call it evidence of a criminal's stupidity. I look at that small amount and say it's evidence that there was no giant criminal scheme going on, like the government would have you believe.

Look, I don't know anything for a fact, but I'd say there's a reasonable chance he never meant to make a bunch of money, much less do anything illegal here. He may very well have thought he was just helping a buddy out with getting through a bunch of ridiculous government paperwork, and if he made $60 off of each gun, that probably seemed like a fair compensation for his time and effort. What sort of false statements did he supposedly make? Again, we're short on facts here, but I just don't see this being the sort of "crime" our government should be going after right now. All these stupid regulations concerning machine guns are infringements against the 2nd amendment anyways, and with all the violent criminals who walk our streets freely, I wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep if this guy was let off scot free.

Maybe there's more to the story I'm missing, but that's my two cents for now.

 

[BGDave]

Article says he helped them obtain over 200 full auto weapons; $11.5K comes out to less than $60 a piece.

Some people look at that small number and call it evidence of a criminal's stupidity. I look at that small amount and say it's evidence that there was no giant criminal scheme going on, like the government would have you believe.

Look, I don't know anything for a fact, but I'd say there's a reasonable chance he never meant to make a bunch of money, much less do anything illegal here. He may very well have thought he was just helping a buddy out with getting through a bunch of ridiculous government paperwork, and if he made $60 off of each gun, that probably seemed like a fair compensation for his time and effort. What sort of false statements did he supposedly make? Again, we're short on facts here, but I just don't see this being the sort of "crime" our government should be going after right now. All these stupid regulations concerning machine guns are infringements against the 2nd amendment anyways, and with all the violent criminals who walk our streets freely, I wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep if this guy was let off scot free.

Maybe there's more to the story I'm missing, but that's my two cents for now.

Without getting all wordy. He signed letters stating his intent was to have a "Demonstration". 200 Demos. Let that sink in. He lied, he took money to lie and he plead guilty immediately. I have no sympathy for him.

 

[AndreusMaximus]

Without getting all wordy. He signed letters stating his intent was to have a "Demonstration". 200 Demos. Let that sink in. He lied, he took money to lie and he plead guilty immediately. I have no sympathy for him.

But this is my whole point; what does a "demonstration" mean? I'd love to have a demonstration of 200 machine guns, especially if it meant my buddy got to keep them.

I mean, I guess I'm not really trying to defend what he did (though I guess you probably couldn't guess that from my post, lol.) But he's going to jail for lying to the ATF in order to bypass their stupid unconstitutional rules, so I think I can spare at least a little sympathy for him.

 

[Cameramonkey]

And how could you even justify 200? 20? sure. Though I wonder if it started out as 2... or 20. And then more and more friends got wind of it and he just lost track?

Kinda like somebody that embezzles. Sure, $20 here and there is easy enough to hide/write off. But eventually it adds up over time and next thing you know its 5 years and $20,000 later. Oops.

Once again, not justifying, just explaining a possible "how".

 

[AndreusMaximus]

And how could you even justify 200? 20? sure. Though I wonder if it started out as 2... or 20. And then more and more friends got wind of it and he just lost track?

Kinda like somebody that embezzles. Sure, $20 here and there is easy enough to hide/write off. But eventually it adds up over time and next thing you know its 5 years and $20,000 later. Oops.

Once again, not justifying, just explaining a possible "how".

Exactly the way it appears to me; he wasn't some criminal mastermind who started out with a scheme to get hundreds of machine guns for his buddies, nor was he a stupid crook who thought "Yeah, I'll risk going to jail for a few grand." More likely it was "hey, yeah, we could get my gunshop buddy a machine gun or two if he says he'll demo them for our department, nobody will notice or care." And then, like you said, a few years and a couple hundred machine guns later...

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Well, poop. I was totally gonna get a belt fed uzi from these guys. You know, to complement my belt fed G18.....

 

[BigRed]

Sounds like a candidate for director of atf

 

[cbhausen]

More reasons to abolish ATF… as free citizens we should be able to have anything we want and pay dearly if we misuse it.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Sounds like a candidate for director of atf

Or Congress. See Leland Yee.

 

[Ingomike]

A search and read of several local articles still does not have anymore details…