I’ve railed against “stings” many times in these electronic pages. It’s lazy, inherently corrupt police work that puts the government on a slippery slope to tyranny (creating criminals to control the populace). In a previous post, we detailed an ATF “sting” that yielded “especially lethal” firearms christened “ghost guns.” To paraphrase Blue Peter‘s catchphrase, here’s some ATF entrapment they prepared earlier [via chicago.cbslocal.com] . . .
A Elwood gun dealer was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for selling nearly a dozen firearms to buyers who were not legally allowed to purchase the weapons.
Patrick S. Keiran, 41, pleaded guilty in April to one count of selling a firearm to a prohibited person. In addition to the four-year prison term, Kerian was imposed to three years supervised release, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sounds bad right? Lock Keiran up! And now the money shot . . .
Keiran, a federally licensed firearms dealer since April 2013, sold 11 weapons to an undercover officer who told Keiran he couldn’t pass the required background check and a convicted felon, according to the statement.
On May 29, 2014, Keiran sold three 9mm handguns for $960 to the undercover agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The following month, Keiran sold the undercover agent a .38-caliber revolver for $398.43, and two .22-caliber rifles for approximately $1,390, according to the statement.
On June 20, 2014, Keiran sold five 9mm handguns for $1,600 to the convicted felon, who was cooperating with law enforcement, according to the statement.
In both instances, Keiran doctored the bill of sale and the federal firearms paperwork by using the names of other customers. The sales were conducted in his Elwood home, according to the statement.
Question: did Keiran use entrapment as an affirmative defense (admitting to the crime and claiming entrapment)? According to Illinois law 720 ILCS 5/7-12. . .
A person is not guilty of an offense if his or her conduct is incited or induced by a public officer or employee, or agent of either, for the purpose of obtaining evidence for the prosecution of that person. However, this Section is inapplicable if the person was pre-disposed to commit the offense and the public officer or employee, or agent of either, merely affords to that person the opportunity or facility for committing an offense.
If Keiran had priors, good luck with that. If he didn’t . . . good luck with that. As we’ve advised readers regarding their rights in a defensive gun use, there’s the law, there’s enforcement of the law and there’s the judicial interpretation of the law. I reckon Mr. Keiran was convinced that an entrapment defense didn’t stand a chance in court, and plea bargained for a four year sentence.
One more thing: if you’re willing to give the ATF the benefit of the doubt regarding Mr. Keiran’s predisposition for selling firearms to prohibited persons, what about the ATF’s predisposition for manipulating innocent people to rack up collars?
I refer you to the Milwaukee “sting” where the ATF agents convinced a mentally disabled person to have a neck tattoo promoting their fake gun store. And encouraged underage visitors to drink and smoke pot on the premises. An agency that can do that has demonstrated its willingness to do anything to bolster its [entirely undeserved] reputation as squeaky clean crime fighters.