BURN THE WITCH! Guns for "Uncle Billy" (who killed firefighters on Christmas Eve)

[IdaBriggs]

Two and a half years ago, a young woman decided to help a convicted felon (who spent 17 years in prison after killing grandma with a hammer) buy guns. She now faces charges after he used them to kill and wound people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/dawn-nguyen-henrietta-firefighter-shooting_n_2438724.html

Dawn Nguyen, Who Purchased Guns Used In Deadly Henrietta Firefighter Shooting, Denies Related Charges

HENRIETTA, N.Y. -- A woman who bought two guns used by a former neighbor in a deadly Christmas Eve ambush of firefighters has pleaded not guilty to a state charge of filing a falsified business record.

(snip)

Nguyen, 24, of the Rochester suburb of Greece, is accused of lying on a form when she bought guns later used by ex-convict William Spengler Jr. to kill two firefighters and wound three other first responders in Webster.

(snip)

Prosecutors said Nguyen indicated on a form that a 12-gauge shotgun and AR-15 semiautomatic rifle she bought at a Gander Mountain store in Henrietta in 2010 were for her, but they were really for Spengler, an ex-convict who wasn't allowed to have them. Spengler accompanied Nguyen to the store and picked out the weapons.

(snip)

Nguyen's family for a time lived next door to Spengler, and she knew him as "Uncle Billy," the lawyer said.

(more at link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/dawn-nguyen-henrietta-firefighter-shooting_n_2438724.html)

She obviously made some BAD DECISIONS. My educated guess is that she was given money for "helping Uncle Billy", although it is possible she was just too naive to understand she was helping someone BREAK THE LAW.

There are laws on the books about this already; her attorney thinks her involvement is "tangential" to the crime.

Personally, I would like to see her charged with negligent homicide (or whatever it is called) for her "dirty hands" in this whole deal.

Also, I would like to know why *his* identification wasn't checked by Gander Mountain at the time of the sale? This seems like a pretty blatant "skirting" of the law's intent to me.

I would also like annual reviews verifying ownership and possession of multiple classes of weapons (I am not going to argue which ones), as well as verification that CONVICTED FELONS AND OTHER PERSONS WHO SHOULDN'T HAVE ACCESS TO GUNS DON'T LIVE IN THE SAME PROPERTY. (This would be to prevent the drug dealer's girlfriend from buying weapons for her convict boyfriend, for example, and also to prevent situations like this one.)

What are your thoughts on this situation? Forgive/forget, slap her hand, harsh penalty, or other?

[rustydog]

1. If she is in violation of a law, arrest her, charge her, try her

If found not guilty, set her free. if found guilty, sentence her.
pretty cut and dried.

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. She doesn't completely fit accessory before the fact

Noun 1. accessory before the fact - a person who procures or advises or commands the commission of a felony but who is not present at its perpetration
accessory, accessory - someone who helps another person commit a crime

But she should. She knowingly violated the law that aided another person to murder.

All guns, (long and short and any other designation) should require a license for each gun in a person's possession. You need ten guns, you should have to get a license for each gun. Like a drivers license, it should require being renewed at regular intervals.

[Eleanors38]

3. The law is there. Enforce it.

[mwrguy]

4. Give her the maximum allowable sentence

She provided guns to a murderer.

[IdaBriggs]

7. Any sympathy for her youth and bad judgment?

He was, after all, "Uncle Billy" and she was young.

[mwrguy]

23. None

Not a bit.

[HappyMe]

8. I will have to agree.

[Politicalboi]

5. Since he went with her

They should make a law that if you can't have a gun, you CANNOT enter a gun shop or gun show. Like the Marijuana shops, if you don't have a prescription, you can't go in. Make the gun shops keep track of who enters their shops just like the MMJ shops have too. Have potential gun buyers go through a mental, and safety tests and proof of insurance to get their prescription card for their "medication". It takes a lot to own a bag of weed, why not a gun.

[IdaBriggs]

6. Oooh - that is BRILLIANT.

I support this 100% !!!

[Fumesucker]

9. Someone can't go to Walmart if they can't buy a gun? n/t

[uponit7771]

11. sounds fair...

[Fumesucker]

12. Excellent way to keep people from seeking mental care

Mission accomplished, more untreated mentally ill people running around.

[IdaBriggs]

16. I do not understand your post.

If Wal-mart wants to be a gun store, then only qualified people should be allowed in to their store.

What does this have to do with untreated mentally ill people running around?

[Fumesucker]

19. If you are going to stop people shopping because they have a mental disorder

Then they are going to avoid treatment and labeling.

The rumor mill will make anything along those lines appear far worse than it is and you'll have droves of people who should be getting mental health treatment avoiding as if it were Ebola.

In a significant part of the country Walmart is the only effective shopping there is, they have destroyed local economies all over America.

ETA: Just getting people to admit they have a problem and seek treatment is hard enough now with the current biases against people with mental illness, make it so they can't even shop and you'll set mental health back thirty years in one stroke.

[IdaBriggs]

20. Felons would also be included in this category.

My guess is that Walmart would block off a "gun people only" section with some sub-leasing.

How else do you suggest we enforce background checks?

[Fumesucker]

21. I'm just pointing out absolutely predictable human reactions

I have no idea how to do it but I can see major problems and unintended consequences of what everyone else thinks is a great idea.

[uponit7771]

10. +1

[kestrel91316]

13. ^^^ This.

[HappyMe]

18. So then the person that isn't supposed to have

the gun waits outside.

[Erose999]

14. My cousin (felon) threatened me and some other family with a gun given to him for deer hunting. The

cousin who gave him the gun was not reprimanded at all. They even gave him the gun back after the trial... after he admitted to giving it to a felon.

[IdaBriggs]

15. That is crazy. Why didn't he "lose it" after having been so irresponsible with it?

They take cars away from people who let drunk people drive them, don't they?

[Erose999]

22. Good ole boy system. Knowing the right people in the right places.

[HappyMe]

17. That makes no damn sense.