Larry Vickers Full Story

[lakelandman]

The Gun Influencer Who Used Small-Town Cops to Import Machine Guns

James Sawyer, the police chief and only officer in Ray, N.D., spent his days waiting to catch the occasional driver going over the 25 mph speed limit where the highway hits this farm town of 700 residents. Outside of helping nearby deputies with a rare car chase or the sporadic break-in, there was little for him to do, town officials recall.

Until one day several years ago, when Sawyer got a strange request, according to court documents. A man named Larry Vickers, who held popular firearms-tactics training sessions for law enforcement, needed a favor: Could Sawyer help him import a machine gun into the country? All he had to do was write a letter that would be submitted to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives saying his one-man department was interested in buying the highly restricted weapon.

Vickers was no ordinary instructor. He was a Delta Force veteran, revered by military veterans and cops, whose gun videos got millions of views on YouTube. Sawyer agreed to help. The chief went on to write letters saying his department was possibly interested in buying 73 different firearms, including machine guns and short-barreled rifles, prosecutors allege. He never saw the guns. The letters allowed Vickers and his associates to keep or sell them.


Federal prosecutors in Maryland last October announced that a grand jury indicted Sawyer, Vickers, and several others for conspiracy to illegally acquire machine guns. Prosecutors allege that dealers and police officials from around the country worked together to illegally import numerous heavily regulated weapons into the U.S. The sprawling gunrunning operation has entangled a former Homeland Security analyst and the former sheriff of the most populous county in New Mexico.

Most of the defendants have yet to enter pleas, but Vickers shocked his fans, many of whom believe he was unfairly targeted, by pleading guilty in October to participating in the gun-import operation as well as other charges. He faces at least five years in prison.

“I own my actions and understand the consequences—big-boy rules as many of us, myself included, have said in the past,” Vickers said, according to a post on his Facebook account.

Sawyer, who resigned from his post months before he was charged, also faces five years in prison if convicted. Neither Sawyer nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment.


According to court documents, Sean Reidpath Sullivan helped export two Swiss rifles in 2019. In a text exchange, Larry Vickers expressed interest in the lower rifle, prosecutors say.
The federal government first imposed tight restrictions on machine guns—which fire continuously with one pull of the trigger—and short-barreled rifles in 1934 to crack down on their use by gangsters and bootleggers. Anyone wanting to buy one had to register it with the federal government and pay a special tax.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed a law that banned the manufacturing of new machine guns for sale to civilians. Legal machine guns—those made before 1986—have since soared in value because of their limited number. A fully automatic M16 is worth between $40,000 and $60,000, according to industry experts. Their owners are usually wealthy gun collectors.

There was an exception. Dealers could still get new machine guns to show off to police departments that were interested in buying them for their SWAT teams. All the dealer had to do was get a letter from the police department and submit it to the ATF, a division of the Justice Department. If police officials liked what they saw, they could make the purchase.

But some dealers began using the process to bring guns into the country without any intention of selling them to police agencies, prosecutors and industry experts say.

“People started abusing it,” said a gun-industry consultant. “Now you’ve got guys bringing in hundreds of machine guns a year.”

In recent years, authorities have begun to crack down. A Maryland sheriff was indicted last year for writing letters to help get machine guns that a local shooting-range owner allegedly rented out to his customers. The sheriff has pleaded not guilty. Deputies from a small Pennsylvania sheriff’s department and a gun dealer were sentenced to prison time in 2017 and 2018 for illegally importing machine guns and selling the parts.

Federal and local law-enforcement officials are making changes to their policies. One sheriff’s department ensnared in the case has stopped issuing such letters. The ATF increased scrutiny of such transactions.

“When we see indications of noncompliance or unlawful activity, we appropriately respond,” an agency spokeswoman said. “We have enhanced review of these transfers.”

She declined to comment on the Vickers case.

The government hasn’t presented any evidence in the Vickers case that the guns ended up being used in violent crime. But federal prosecutors say their effort to reduce gun violence includes cracking down on illegal gun trafficking and possession.
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/the-gun-inf ... mail_share

[George W]

You get the outcome you incentivize. They were busted breaking laws that never should have existed in the first place. The NFA is a farce.