You may remember that Stag Arms ran into some regulatory trouble with our friends at the ATF last year at this time. They seemed to have had difficulty accounting for all of their firearms in an industry that’s about as highly regulated as any other. The ATF doesn’t have much of a sense of humor when it comes to missing (or miscounted) firearms. Especially hundreds of them. Some of them machine guns. Now, as abcnews.go.com reports, “The former owner of a company that makes military-style rifles has been sentenced to probation and the company fined $500,000 for violating federal firearms laws” . . .
Mark Malkowski was sentenced to two years of probation and personally fined $100,000 during the sentencing hearing Tuesday in federal court in Hartford. Malkowski and the company, New Britain-based Stag Arms, had pleaded guilty to charges including possession of a machine gun not registered to the company and failure to maintain proper firearms records.
Connecticut-based Stag now soldiers on under new management.
Deirdre Daly, Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney, said sloppy record-keeping and a failure to comply with regulations left the company unable to account for hundreds of weapons, including fully automatic guns.
As a result of the mess, Malkowski will no longer work in the gun business.
As part of his plea agreement with the government, Malkowski sold the company in February and has agreed never again to hold an ownership or management position in a firearms business.