Drizzt
Member
Music minister arrested in gun raid
By ROB JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Tip leads agents to find 15 machine guns in home
A Mt. Juliet music minister with a cache of vintage firearms was arrested yesterday on federal weapons possession charges after agents found 15 machine guns stashed in his home.
Acting on a tip, agents from U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms obtained a search warrant yesterday and entered Mark S. Lancaster's two-story brick house at 267 Page Drive. Their informant told the agents they would find automatic weapons in a room near Lancaster's big-screen TV, affidavits show.
The agents found 15 weapons, including a Thompson .45-caliber submachine gun; a M3 A1 .45-caliber machine gun; two Czech machine guns; two British Sten 9mm machine guns; and a German MG-34 8mm machine gun.
Court records show that the case began with worried members of Green Hill Church in Mt. Juliet, where Lancaster has worked as minister of music since 1998.
This month, agents were shown a church bus that had been peppered with bullet holes. The bus, agents were told, had been converted ''into a shooting range.''
Other informants told ATF agents that they had been out shooting with Lancaster when he was firing weapons that could squeeze off a burst of bullets with a single pull of the trigger and that he had been known to borrow the church's welding torch to work on his guns.
Agents, who had been told that Lancaster was ''a Nazi buff,'' according to court records, arrived at the house prepared for a confrontation. But ATF Special Agent in Charge James Cavanaugh said Lancaster was taken into custody easily.
''We did bring an ATF negotiator,'' he said. ''We dealt with it very low key. He was very cooperative.''
Agents think Lancaster reassembled many of the weapons from parts purchased through gun-parts suppliers, and they found blueprints indicating he might have been manufacturing machine guns.
They said they do not think he was in the business of selling them and have no information linking him to any hate group. He had a federal firearms license as a collector of relics and curios at an earlier address but didn't have registrations for National Firearms Act weapons, they said.
''Some of these items collectors may want because of the historical value,'' Cavanaugh said of the World War II-era weapons. ''Others are very cheaply made and are remanufactured.'' He added: ''We don't want these things around. They are illegally possessed.''
Lancaster is charged with having unregistered machine guns. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, according to U.S. Attorney James Vines. He was in U.S. marshals' custody pending a detention hearing later this month.
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/03/01/27474948.shtml?Element_ID=27474948
By ROB JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Tip leads agents to find 15 machine guns in home
A Mt. Juliet music minister with a cache of vintage firearms was arrested yesterday on federal weapons possession charges after agents found 15 machine guns stashed in his home.
Acting on a tip, agents from U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms obtained a search warrant yesterday and entered Mark S. Lancaster's two-story brick house at 267 Page Drive. Their informant told the agents they would find automatic weapons in a room near Lancaster's big-screen TV, affidavits show.
The agents found 15 weapons, including a Thompson .45-caliber submachine gun; a M3 A1 .45-caliber machine gun; two Czech machine guns; two British Sten 9mm machine guns; and a German MG-34 8mm machine gun.
Court records show that the case began with worried members of Green Hill Church in Mt. Juliet, where Lancaster has worked as minister of music since 1998.
This month, agents were shown a church bus that had been peppered with bullet holes. The bus, agents were told, had been converted ''into a shooting range.''
Other informants told ATF agents that they had been out shooting with Lancaster when he was firing weapons that could squeeze off a burst of bullets with a single pull of the trigger and that he had been known to borrow the church's welding torch to work on his guns.
Agents, who had been told that Lancaster was ''a Nazi buff,'' according to court records, arrived at the house prepared for a confrontation. But ATF Special Agent in Charge James Cavanaugh said Lancaster was taken into custody easily.
''We did bring an ATF negotiator,'' he said. ''We dealt with it very low key. He was very cooperative.''
Agents think Lancaster reassembled many of the weapons from parts purchased through gun-parts suppliers, and they found blueprints indicating he might have been manufacturing machine guns.
They said they do not think he was in the business of selling them and have no information linking him to any hate group. He had a federal firearms license as a collector of relics and curios at an earlier address but didn't have registrations for National Firearms Act weapons, they said.
''Some of these items collectors may want because of the historical value,'' Cavanaugh said of the World War II-era weapons. ''Others are very cheaply made and are remanufactured.'' He added: ''We don't want these things around. They are illegally possessed.''
Lancaster is charged with having unregistered machine guns. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, according to U.S. Attorney James Vines. He was in U.S. marshals' custody pending a detention hearing later this month.
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/03/01/27474948.shtml?Element_ID=27474948
