Man guilty of buying guns in Indiana, selling them from West Side porch

[SecularMotion]

An Indiana man who would make trips to Chicago with a gym bag full of guns and sell them from a porch on the West Side could be sentenced to five years in federal prison after being convicted of illegally selling the weapons to gang members and felons, officials said Thursday.

Willie Lee Biles Jr., 44, was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in Chicago on Wednesday of willfully dealing firearms without a license, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Biles faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, officials said. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis scheduled a sentencing hearing for Nov. 16.

Officials said that in fall 2013, Biles made several trips on a Megabus to Chicago from his Indianapolis home. As he traveled each time he had a gym bag holding handguns, officials said. Officials said Biles bought more than 30 guns from licensed dealers in Indiana and brought them to Chicago to sell.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-man-guilty-of-buying-guns-in-indiana-and-selling-them-from-west-side-porch-20160526-story.html

[gejohnston]

1. just five years?

any violation of the Gun Control Act can get you up to ten years for each count. How many did they prove?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

2. To KNOWINGLY transfer to a prohibited person can get you 10

To not care nor ask for ID at all and deal without a license gets you 5.

[gejohnston]

3. dealing without a license and interstate sale

without a license. But still, that would be each count.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. From what I read...

...they know what he did but they have the one witness/felon who bought from him and may be treating the 2 guns recovered as being one offense. Maybe he has a decent lawyer and/or he's (unofficially) cooperating further to get a deal in the single charge.

[Oneka]

5. Would any of the "common sense" gun control

Laws that are constantly being suggested, have impacted this situation at all?
Universal background checks? Nope.
Assault weapons ban? Nope.
Forced gun buybacks (Aussie model)? Not likely

Probibition in Illinois is doing what prohibition does everywhere else, creating a profit motive so high that folks will risk prison time for the money.

Way to go Chicago/ Illinois, you have created a nice little black market with your restrictive, prohibition policies.
I wonder how long it will be before you blame Indianna's lax gun laws for your illegal gun problems....oh wait.........

[beevul]

7. Clearly, you and I and everyone else need to be disarmed because of this.

[SQUEE]

6. Man broke law, gets sentenced to prison time.

Good, the system is working. Now LEO need to do more of these, and begin investigating and charging felons that attempt to buy a firearm.

[DonP]

8. Less law enforcement and more DAs need to stop plea bargaining on gun charges

In Chicago the rate of prosecution for gun crimes has fallen more than 40% in the last 5 years as gun charges are the first thing they offer to plead away for a lesser charge.

No FOID card, no charges.

No CCW permit, no charges

Felon in possession, no charges

etc.

Prosecute them and go for max sentencing and lets see what happens.

[SQUEE]

9. I agree, far to often the first thing plead away is a gun charge,

It's time we start enforcing and convicting for these charges, and have people doing the time for them, once that's done and if it doesn't work, then come talk to me about more new laws that seem to only hurt the lawful gun owners out there.

Felon in possession especially needs to be an automatic 10 year.

[DonP]

11. The same people that then complain; "We need to do something about gun violence"

Then start coming up with new restrictions on law abiding folks.

Yeah, that'll work.

[ileus]

10. This is good news, it could keep guns from getting abused by the wrong people.