I am a researcher for my father’s lawfirm in Moline. He has a case in which an individual whom did NOT have a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card was caught with a Sten Gun, which is a WWII era british machine gun. The gun had no magazine. Part of the law stipulates that he was in possession of a firearm if it was fireable or COULD BE READILY MADE FIREABLE. So, as an experiment, I (who, by the way DO NOT have a FOID card either) have been ordering Sten Gun magazines with our business credit card from online gun dealers all over the US. Not once have I been asked for my FOID # or a copy/fax of it. Is this legal? Or can I buy magazines for machine guns all day long without a FOID CARD and have them shipped to my house in Illinois. You can see how this is important as we are trying to prove that this defendant COULD NOT have easily just ordered one off the internet, but so far I have successfully ordered TWO of them. Help? Info? Knowledge? There has to be an officer or lawyer out there somewhere who can help me.. Thx, johndeporter@yahoo.com
Mr Thicke I would email you all of the details of the case (that I’m allowed to), if you accepted email or IM, you don’t
I would find out if the Sten could be fired without the magazine inserted EX- put a magazine in the gun, rack one in the chamber and remove the magazine. Some guns can still fire without the magazine if one is in the chamber. This only matters if he was charged with a felony though.
Was the magazine readily assessable? Where was he when he got caught with it? Is the gun capable of still firing full auto?
As far as I know, you can still be charged with UUW even without a magazine. (I have done it before) You will be charged with Aggravated UUW if it is loaded. No FOID card is only a class C misd. anyway. What was he charged with?
The only part that makes this type of gun a real gun is a working receiver.
I have gotten plenty of good convictions for UUW when the offender only possessed a working receiver, no magazine, no stock, no barrel.
You do not need a magazine to make a Sten or any other auto or semi auto firearm that has a working receiver into a weapon that is fireable.
All the prosecutor has to do is bring in a firearms expert from the state lab. He will show that placing a round (for which you need and FOID to possess) in the reciever correctly will let this gun fire the round. I’ve even had judges in Cook County accept me as an expert to testify in the operation of this type of weapon.
< or can I buy magazines for machine guns all day long without a FOID CARD and have them shipped to my house in Illinois>
Say it with me, YES YOU CAN. magazine does not equal weapon, big gun can go bang without magazine.
You cannot order any working weapon or receiver from anyone and receive it in the mail, UPS or whoever unless you have a Federal Firearms License (FFL). You cannot own, posses or receive in any way a fully automatic weapon (a Sten is full auto unless modified for civilian use) without the proper Federal license for fully auto.
I’ll repeat, a magazine is not a weapon. You can buy a perfect copy or even a real Sten gun that has been permanently made inoperable without anything in any state (some cities do ban replicas). They are not weapons since they do not have a working receiver.
The need for an Illinois FOIC applies to ammunition and weapons, not magazines or inoperable parts or replica.
Stop spending the clients money, stip and take any decent offer.