Marine is first to be prosecuted for SAFE Act violations
MCPO Ret. – TN sends us a link to the story of Benjamin M. Wassell, a Buffalo resident and former Marine and Iraq War veteran who will be the first person prosecuted under New York’s Legacy Governor Cuomo’s SAFE Act. He tried to sell weapons to a state police undercover fellow, one weapon had multiple modifications that made it illegal under the old scary-looking weapon ban, but the second weapon only had a pistol grip which is a single feature which makes it illegal under the new law. To make matters worse, the undercover cop told Wassell that he was a felon.
“My son served two terms in Iraq and was wounded twice. He was a sergeant in the Marines. He’s a good man. He’ll do anything for anybody. What they’re doing to him is very unfair,” Dianne Wassell said.
Patrick Hurley, his father-in-law, said that it is hard for Wassell to accept that he is now on the other side of the law.
“This is tearing him up. He’s very patriotic. He has no criminal record,” Hurley said.
I really wish I could summon some sympathy for Wassell, but, unless he was doing this to get arrested and punished to challenge the law in court, he was completely wrong. Especially because he thought the guy he was selling the guns to was a felon which goes against everything I believe in. Yes, the SAFE Act is bullshit regulations that won’t do what it’s name implies, and it’s a liberal knee-jerk emotional response to tragic events and simply the Left emoting in their pants, but selling a weapon to a convicted felon is never OK. Never.
Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists
Yeah, having a hard time getting worked up over this. Even before the SAFE Act, knowingly selling guns to a convicted felon was a no-no, and I’ve got no problem with enforcing THAT law–it’s there for a reason.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
The moment the police officer said he was a felon and Wassell tried to sell him the rifle anyway he became part of the problem IMO.
This is a example of stepping on one’s manhood while wearing golf shoes. Repeatedly.
I have zero sympathy. The guy violated state law 2 or 3 different ways, and Federal law as well (attempted sale to felon). Unless he’s literally a moron or worse under the old clinical definition, he absolutely deserves to get hammered.
I’m actually interested in the events beforehand, like how they met and decided on the parking lot as a good place for a gun deal…just seems shady from the start so my curiosity is going nuts.
Guilty … next!
“No criminal record”, until now….
This really is stupid on every level. Selling a weapon to a felon? Really?
“My son served two terms in Iraq and was wounded twice. — What they’re doing to him is very unfair,” — Honorable service rendered immaterial in a heartbeat by committing a dishonorable felony, nothing unfair at all unless there is more to this than is currently indicated…the only thing this fellow has done now is add to the idea that vets can’t be trusted to honor the law when it comes to firearms.
Perhaps his TBI impaired his ability to use proper judgment, but man this just stinks….
Geezo pete. Whatever happened to plain old common sense?
I disagree with the AWB and other aspects of the SAFE Act, but you cannot knowingly sell weapons to someone who just told you they are a convicted felon. This case was a gift for Cuomo…Idiot.
I want to hear an unedited recording of the undercover po-po saying that he was a felon before the gun sale went thru. Otherwise I call “entrapment”. Don’t trust po-po, especially New Yawk po-po.
I agree with B woodman. Reports often are skewed and misinterpreted to promote a political agenda. Let the recording speak for itself.
“but selling a weapon to a convicted felon is never OK. Never.”
Unless he’s a democrat…
@b Woodman, DITTO! He’s been accused, now he’ll get his trial, I just wonder how solid of a case the Prosecutors think they have?
@11, Taco,…YEP!
Ex-PH2: common sense is no longer common. If it ever was.
Contact with an undercover cop doesn’t just happen. The police had to have prior knowledge of this guy and thus aware of him wishing to sell “illegal firearm(s).”
He was on their radar, he acted, they acted and he caught one up his butt.
B Woodman, Proud Infidel: y’all did catch that the sales were two different transactions 30 days apart, right? The sale to an alleged felon was the 2nd one.
I’m guessing they have exactly that for the second transaction – e.g., an intelligible recording. I’m betting that the undercover cop that day wore a wire, or that the room/car where the transaction took place was bugged.
I would be very careful about attempting to sell any firearm now. Out-of-the-trunk-of-the-car sales, parking-lot sales, would be the last way I’d do it now. Precisely because these are the types of sales the police will target.
@14 I would agree with you that the cops had prior knowledge, but it may have been as innocent as a newspaper or on-line ad. Once the cops’ wind is up, they’re like vacuum cleaners looking for dirt.
It doesn’t look good for Wassell because what everyone–including his attorney–is offering is called mitigation. No one is speaking to the not guilty plea, banging the table, and yelling, “Dammit! He’s not guilty.” Instead, they are speaking to his military service, his previously clean arrest record, his family, his job–all of which counts at the sentencing phase of a trial and not before. The State wants the conviction. That’s why the local prosecutor isn’t handling the case. The Big Dogs from Albany are on it. He’s sunk.
Ban Marines. They sell pistol grip rifles to felons!
He altered those weapons to get more money out of them. That itself is stupid, because he has a job and a disability income from the VA.
If he really wanted to just sell those guns, he should have taken them to a gun shop. Unless you actually are dumb enough to think that you can get away with selling things like this out of the back end of your car in a parking lot, you ought to know better, too. Setup or not, he got caught with his pants down. He knowingly sold a weapon to someone who said “I’m a felon.” He should know better.
Which is why I asked the hell happened to common sense? Common sense tells you not to do things this way in the first place. How hard is that to understand?
Do I feel sorry for him? No, I don’t.
If Wassell did what he is alleged to have done, what else has he done? Generally someone commits crime in clusters.
REPEATEDLY told he was selling to a felon? This guy DESERVES to be punished. PERIOD.
something to consider… How easy is it to be a convicted felon?
You’d be surpised.