ATF raid in Illinois

[mrwood]

Story in the Chicago Tribune:
Dozens of illegal guns seized in raid on commodities trader's home in Lake Forest - Homeowner's gun permit had been revoked, source says, and he is now charged with multiple felony counts of possessing firearms
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lake-forest-raid-09-bothmay09,0,5140786.story
(you may need to be a member to view article)

Excerpt:
Federal agents and Illinois State Police raided the multimillion-dollar Lake Forest home of a commodities trader Thursday morning to seize at least 85 illegal guns, law enforcement sources said.

The homeowner, Benjamin Stevens, 49, was arrested and charged with multiple felony counts of possessing a firearm with a revoked Firearm Owner's Identification card, Lake County prosecutors said.

Stevens' card was revoked in 2002 after a domestic battery arrest, a law enforcement source said.

Authorities will test two .50-caliber machine guns seized in the raid to determine whether they were capable of firing in fully automatic mode, which would lead to more serious federal charges, said ATF Special Agent Donald Sorrano.

Police and agents also recovered more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition from the home, Sorrano said. If the ammunition turns out to be armor-piercing, that too would be a federal crime, he said.

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I am not sure what lead to the raid.
Was this follow-up to the loss of the FOID?
Or did someone tell ATF that he still has guns...

 

[xjchief]

Interesting, so the domestic battery arrest six years ago, not conviction, revoked his privilege to have a gun. Is it his fault for not simply getting another permit or was he barred by his arrest from having firearms?

f the ammunition turns out to be armor-piercing, that too would be a federal crime, he said.

Is that true?

 

[Picard]

I'm writing those editors an email. Those guns were not illegal, only the ownership of them was since he did not have a valid FOID card. This guy had a gun collection, nothing more.

 

[ServiceSoon]

I like how they called the guns

two .50-caliber machine guns

and then they go on to say

determine whether they were capable of firing in fully automatic mode

. Haha.

 

[coat4gun]

if the ammunition turns out to be armor-piercing, that too would be a federal crime, he said.

Is that true?

NO, possessing AP ammo is not a Federal crime. I know little of IL law though so it may be a State crime?

 

[mrwood]

>Those guns were not illegal, only the ownership of them was since he did not have a valid FOID card. This guy had a gun collection, nothing more
>two .50-caliber machine guns

Yep - I picked up on these two items as well.

This story started yesterday. The initial internet articles were worse (e.g, bigger assumptions).
Still don't know what lead to the raid. I am guessing someone (e.g., wife) made a phone call...

 

[EricTheBarbarian]

someone explain this to me. The problem was his Illinois FOID had been revoked. Does the ATF, a federal agency, enforce state law?

Or is this somehow related to the lautenberg amendment with domestic violence cases?

 

[Jeff White]

Until the affidavit for the warrant is released we won't know what they were told and thought might have been in the house. If it's like others in the thread on this in General Discussion have surmised that the estranged wife turned him in she could have said there were machine guns present. Then it would be appropriate to invite the feds.

Jeff