Apparently he was a prohibited person:
Adrian J. Gilliam Jr., 33, of LaVergne, Tenn., was arrested Friday morning by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and faces a “felon in possession” charge, a source familiar with the case told ESPN.com’s Paul Kuharsky.
A criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Nashville says that Gilliam — who was convicted of second-degree murder and attempted armed robbery in 1993 in Florida — admitted he sold the gun to the woman who later shot McNair.
So she basically bought it from a criminal. Where Gilliam got it from, it doesn’t say, but the last legal sale of the gun was in 2002. Could have been stolen and ended up on the black market. Either way, the guy wasn’t allowed to own a gun at all, so it can be considered a black market transaction.
So does Bryan Miller and the Brady Campaign want to apologize for maligning honest gun owners over this yet?
While I’m not upset that a felon, a real felon not one of the types who have the wrong orchids or collected an undersized shellfish, has been arrested, I am a bit concerned about the jackboots involvement. Why didn’t that local boys pick him up? Why did the ATFU swoop in? If the feds are going to be in the biz of “law enforcement” for even minor crimes do away with the local boys and save money.
“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance…
“For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states”
ATF swooped in because the charges are federal, so they can assert jurisdiction. Local police could have picked him up on a federal warrant too.
Now whether Congress has any authority under the commerce clause to regulate possession of firearms by felons is a legitimate question, but that’s the issue the feds claim jurisdiction under, and so far the courts let them get away with it.
Another article I found earlier indicated he may have bought it after a break-in at his home in a private sale from the person who bought it from the pawn shop. My guess is that the original owner had no idea the guy was a felon or potential trouble. (Which, if you note, he didn’t do anything violent. That other article mentioned that the Gilliam met the nutcase mistress while she was trying to sell her car. She mentioned wanting to buy a gun, and he happened to be trying to sell. He didn’t know she was carrying on an affair with a guy and wanted to kill him and herself.)
Obviously the solution for us honest gun owners is to act in concert with the Brady Campaign to close the “parking lot” loophole, oh and make the Federal 21 year old purchase age an age of possession overriding the states while we’re at it.
Those are the kind of reasonable restrictions we should all get behind, after all, If it saves just one life of the children…
LOL Matthew
Let’s close the ex-con selling to the crazy mistress loophole. Glenn Close can film some commercials promoting the new legislation.
“So does Bryan Miller and the Brady Campaign want to apologize for maligning honest gun owners over this yet?”
I doubt it. I think they would prefer he get slapped on the wrist and thrown back into the pond, where he may continue to provide an excuse for the maligning of we law-abiding gun owners.