DC judge; Witaschek guilty of “attempted possession” of bullets
You may remember that Mark Witaschek was arrested in DC almost two years ago for possession of a misfired shotgun shell and some bullets for his replica muzzleloader after a raid by Metro police on a tip from an angry ex-wife that he had firearms in his house.
Well, Emily Miller at the Washington Times reports that he was sentenced today for “attempted possession” of the bullets. For the uninitiated, muzzle loading bullets are just that – they are only the lead portion, there is no gun powder charge behind them. They are inert lumps of lead in the shape of a bullet or ball. The only thing that distinguishes it from any other inert lump of lead is whether you call it a bullet or not.
Judge Robert Morin sentenced Mr. Witaschek to time served, a $50 fine and required him to enroll with the Metropolitan Police Department’s firearm offenders’ registry within 48 hours.
Outside the courtroom, I asked Mr. Witaschek how he felt about the verdict. “I’m completely outraged by it,” he said. “This is just a continuation of the nightmare. Just to sit there. I could not believe it.”
Shaking his head, he added, “None of these people know anything about gun issues, including the judge.”
His wife Bonnie Witaschek was crying. “It’s just so scary,” she said. “You never think you’ll end up in a situation like this, but here we are.”
Yeah, I don’t even know what “attempted possession” might mean. Unless they’re a-skeered that he could actually load them into a rifle, but if he’d had powder to put behind them, you know the police would have found that, too. Or he could have thrown them, I guess.
In the afternoon on Wednesday, Judge Morin shook the plastic shell and tried to listen to something inside. He said he could not hear any gunpowder. He then asked the lawyers to open the shell to see if there was powder inside.
What, did he expect the gunpowder to shout out “Hey, stop shaking! There’s gun powder in here, ya know!”
Assistant Attorney General Peter Saba said that the government wanted to open the shell but that, “It is dangerous to do outside a lab.”
Geez, I wish I had known that when I was cutting them open when I was 12 years old with my pocket knife. Clearly, the judge and the prosecutor were out of their element on this case.
The prosecutors and police officers left the courtroom to try to find a lab that was open in the afternoon to bring the judge to cut the plastic off the section that holds the pellets. When that proved not possible in the same day, the judge decided to just rule on the bullets.
What a f**king clown show. But you should read the rest and the debate over whether or not the bullets are legal to possess in the District. I thought the Second Amendment applied only to muzzleloaders.
Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists
Where the heck was this guy’s lawyer? Didn’t he have an expert witness that could talk about guns? Or maybe even a diagram of how a shell or cartridge works that he printed of the internet?
What happened to “trial by JURY”???
I have a brilliant idea. I vote that I become the chairman of the nuclear physics department at MIT. When my certificate arrives, I am going to rewrite some of these laws that I don’t like. Relativity and Quantum Mechanics don’t make any sense (velocity and mass are NOT related, Heisenberg was a poser, and electrons are particles dammit!) so we are going back to good old Newtonian physics so that I can calculate all the important stuff with my slide rule.
Do you see that the democratic process is the only correct way to establish facts — like physics and how a shotgun shell works? In junior high, I had an English teacher who told me that was called “irony”.
And Jonn, I have cut open dozens of shotgun shells and reloaded thousands of the damn things. I submit that the judge/prosecutor couldn’t get it open because that would require a knife (cut just above the brass base) and nobody there had one they should have asked one of the security guys who, not being subject to the same rules, most likely had a knife.
“Attempted possession of bullets”? What moron wrote a law like that? If possession of round ball and minnie balls is against the law then it had better be against the law to possess ball bearings and gravel.
His wife Bonnie was crying? Is this the same witch who turned him in?
I gather Bonnie is his current wife, was the ex who made the complaint.
Does that mean that a school might be placed on lockdown if a child brings a marble in his backpack?
“attempted possession of bullets?”
What a clown. Yeah those minie balls are dangerous,,,, If Sandy Koufax decides to chuck one at your gobber…
Prosecutor and judge should be immediately disbarred and the state should be sued.
How fucking ridiculous.
WTF America.
And yet another reason why I won’t travel into DC unless on official business. Wonder how many Civil War collectors are now smuggling their minie ball collections out of DC lest they be charged? SMH
Lets face it they convicted him then figured on what charge. Hopefully he has support to appeal to a higher court.
Sounds like Red Queen “logic”, “Sentence first, trial after.” OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!
There you go … I guess I can’t drive through DC with me fishing tackle box now becuase I could possibly be in possession of what could possible and potentially be something that merely might if modified in some way be a bullet.
So there … Now I am paranoid and you ruined my spring fishing trip!
Dickweeds!
1 shotgun shell and some lead?
Have they even heard of 2a in DC?
When I was a kid I was cutting open some shotgun shells, I needed the powder for another reason.
As I cut them open I was dumping the powder in my dads ash tray. He came home early and I shoved the gutted shells under the couch and tried to get the ashtray but he wouldn’t let me. Well he flicked his cigarette into the ashtray and the powder flashed, took the hair off his hand and arm.
It didn’t end well for me.
Dang Enigma, that very thing happened to me. After my wife bandaged my hand I beat the hell out of all three of my kids (figuratively,) and made them show me where the shotgun shell was.
Dang Enigma, that very thing happened to me. After my wife bandaged my hand I beat the hell out of my kids (figuratively,) and made them show me what happened to the shells.
I pulled a similar stunt while in the AF. It was the start of a practical joke war that didn’t end until things really got serious. The NCOIC put an end to it.
It has been said that stupid should hurt. I agree, but recommend the following caveat: the hurt should be limited to those who actually exhibit stupidity, in this case the judge, DA, and the “highly-trained professionals” of DCPD.
Our government in action. This kind of situation is why they came up with tar and feathering.
Judge and prosecutor should be beaten with a law book
I vote death by a thousand paper cuts with a copy of the Constitution.
Of course satire … Any very fuuny as well!
Keep it pithy!
I like it!
That tears it. DC has gone completely mad. I hope the appeals court tears the judge a new asshole. Any judge out here that gave such a demonstration of stupid would have to leave town and change their name. How deep into the law books did they have to dig to come up with that charge.
At this very instant I have 100 .44 mag hulls in the case cleaner. Later tonight I will be in possession of 100 newly loaded .44 magnum cartridges. Come and get um. Pointy end first.
I watched something along the same lines happen in DC at the annual Memorial Day Parade. There were a bunch of guys in colonial uniforms, complete with muskets, forming up for the parade. Some brilliant Park Police cop came ridding up on his bike and told them that they were going to confiscate the muskets because DC has a strict no firearms law. When pressed, the cop asked if the muskets could shot something. The guys with the muskets explained that, if they had a ball, powder, wadding, and a flint they could, but no one had any of the materials. Good enough for the cop, who called his sargent and lieutenant, who then rolled up in cruisers and took l the muskets with them. Apparently, the sabers that some of the guys were also carrying weren’t a problem, though.
Any cops that stupid are beyond help. They need to be stripped of their badges tarred and feathered and rode out of town on a rail.
If the Second Amendment only covers muskets, than that is a Constitutional Violation.
Do they sell lead fishing sinkers in DC?
DC Cops are notorious for pushing beyond the letter of the law when it comes to firearms. They will try to make a case even if you are legally transporting a weapon across DC (which is not illegal). And yet there is an extremely high rate of firearm violence in the district, especially in Anacostia which we jokingly called the free fire zone. There is a reason I lived in Virginia during my assignment there. It is also why I now live out West in fly over country.
This is how the system–the state– beats a good person into submission and puts the rest of us on notice that we had damn better get in line. If Witaschek is too tired to pursue an appeal or cannot meet the burden of funding an appeal, it’s over. Judge Moron (or is it Morin?) is a piece of work and clearly wholly ignorant of firearms and ammo. There is no published decision, of course, since this was a trial court. So, I would love to know how the ignorant judge came to the conclusion he did regarding the hunks of metal. No mention is made of expert witnesses (e.g., armorers) and this is clearly not a matter about which a judge can take judicial notice as one could, say, that Christmas is celebrated on December 25th or that Tuesday falls between Monday and Wednesday each week. I am very sorry for Witaschek.
If, as gun owners, we ever believed that the law would protect us when we haven’t broken the law, I think we can disabuse ourselves of that fantasy at this point.
Add one more reason not to go to DC, and another reason I’m glad my ex is 3000 miles away.
Have to echo Frosty – where the hell was his lawyer? Either he was incompetent or (hopefully) the judge ran roughshod over him to try and make a point. Either way, unless someone can point to exactly which statute was violated, it would seem an appeal would almost 100% be guaranteed successful.