Man With 3-D-Printed Gun Had Hit List of Lawmakers, US Says (nytimes.com)

A Dallas man was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday after the authorities caught him with a partially 3-D-printed rifle and what federal prosecutors described as a hit list of lawmakers in his backpack. From a report: The man, Eric Gerard McGinnis, had been under a court order that prohibited him from possessing a firearm when he was discovered to have had the partially printed AR-15-style rifle in July 2017, according to a statement from the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas. Mr. McGinnis, 43, was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of ammunition by a prohibited person, prosecutors said. A jury later convicted him on both counts.

Prosecutors said in their statement that police officers had arrested Mr. McGinnis after hearing three shots he had apparently fired in a wooded area just outside of Dallas. They also discovered a list in his backpack labeled "9/11/2001 list of American Terrorists." The list included the office and home addresses of "several federal lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican," the statement said. Prosecutors did not reveal the names on Mr. McGinnis's list, but at the sentencing hearing on Wednesday they disclosed that a forensic analysis of his electronic devices suggested that Mr. McGinnis "had a strong interest" in James T. Hodgkinson, the man who the authorities say shot and wounded Representative Steve Scalise and several others at a congressional baseball practice in June 2017.

Comments

Re:Alleged?

[Shaitan]

"Which makes it even more interesting that there was no problem with releasing his name for everyone to know, but the list of politicians on the hitlist was not revealed."

If he is over 18 it is a matter of public record but accusations of crimes really shouldn't be. It allows for exactly what you see here trial in the court of public opinion and the destruction of careers over charges which are ultimately dismissed or for which parties are found not guilty.

Re: Unregistered Rifle?

[chiefcrash]

A short barreled rifle, as the name might suggest, is a rifle with a short barrel. To be more specific, it is a shoulder-fired, rifled firearm, made from a rifle, with a barrel length of less than 16 in (41 cm) or overall length of less than 26 in (66 cm), or a handgun fitted with a buttstock and a barrel of less than 16 inches length.

Much like sawed-off shotguns or machine guns, these sorts of firearms have extra regulations attached to their legal ownership: you must pay a $200 tax, pass an expanded background check, seek local law enforcement approval, etc...

As for why it matters enough to slap a bunch of extra restrictions on it.... your guess is as good as mine. Best theory is in the 1930s it was thought that rifles and shotguns were being sawed off by criminals for easy concealment for their use. Whether this was a response to real crime or just crime shown in the movies is open to argument. Oddly, the Supreme Court ruled that such short-barreled rifles weren't constitutionally protected due to them lacking a military usefulness.... (oddly, it is now the "military style" guns being targeted for extra restrictions...)

Re:Alleged?

[AmiMoJo]

Actually there is another post further down, which I also replied to, that also quotes TFA to make the same point and which was also modded "troll".

It really does appear to be the gun toting snowflakes, a very strange bunch to be sure. That and I've got a mod stalker who systematically mods everything I post as troll until they run out of points, even random jokes about Amazon and the like...