Here's a local gun rights case that YOU should care about.
Back in June, we reported about a young patriotic, law-abiding man named Matt Walker Anderson, who was being prosecuted by an aggressive county attorney for two felony count gun charges. The county attorney argued that he owned firearms lacking serial numbers on them. The case was brought to the attorneys office because a sheriff's deputy encountered Walker, while legally targeted shooting in the country, and asked to see his firearms. When Walker's self-assembled firearms lacked what the deputy believed to be a "serial number," Walker's journey against a crazy and anti-gun loophole began.
The loophole is interesting. According to federal law and the ATF, there is no federal law requiring an arbitrary serial number on a self-assembled firearm. Many shooters enjoy putting together firearm parts so they can assemble their own unique sporting rifles. And that practice is totally legal. However, anti-gun government officials interpret a state law (609.667) in a way where it is illegal to possess a self-assembled firearm unless it has a "serial" number on it; there's no clear definition of what a serial number is in this case.
Walker's firearms had numbers on them and the court argues they are parts numbers and don't qualify. If Walker painted a white number "1" on the firearm, would that have qualified as a serial number?
This gets to the heart of the matter. What crime to humanity is being committed here? Walker isn't a gang banger in the lawless streets of Minneapolis, recklessly shooting firearms in densely populated areas. He's one of us. A law-abiding, patriotic Minnesotan who is at the beginning of his career as a mechanic. We need young men working the trades, helping our economy grow. But anti-gun officials are trying to make him a felon and put him behind bars.
Who is the victim of this alleged crime? That's what makes this case such a terrible injustice and should have been thrown out months ago. Instead, the anti-gun prosecution team pushes on, willing to destroy this young man's life and put his mom and family in a constant state of stress. We had his mother, Sara Fogues, on the Truth Hurts Show last June and I keep in touch with her regularly.
There's a GiveSendGo set up for Walker to help pay legal bills. I'm going to make a donation to it right now. We can't stand for this injustice!
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FacebookIt seems fairly evident that there is no criminal intent, nor even a prior intent to challenge the law in question; rather, it is an oversight on the part of the accused. In a more moral era, the most that would have happened is that the prosecutor or judge would have given a warning, handed back the firearm in question and made an appointment the following week with the instruction, “If you show me the serial number then, I’ll take back my trigger lock, and that will be the end of the matter.” That is a fair and just way to uphold a law that was written with an entirely different purpose in mind than its abusive application here.
It seems fairly evident that there is no criminal intent, nor even a prior intent to challenge the law in question; rather, it is an oversight on the part of the accused. In a more moral era, the most that would have happened is that the prosecutor or judge would have given a warning, handed back the firearm in question and made an appointment the following week with the instruction, “If you show me the serial number then, I’ll take back my trigger lock, and that will be the end of the matter.” That is a fair and just way to uphold a law that was written with an entirely different purpose in mind than its abusive application here.