Neb. man jailed for unregistered machine guns

[proud2BlibKansan]

Officials say a 24-year-old Nebraska man who was found with two unregistered, homemade machine guns has been sentenced to 8 1/2 months in prison.

According to a U.S. Attorney's Office press release, prosecutors said a Nebraska State Patrol trooper pulled Aaron Lawless over for speeding in November last year and discovered the two weapons during an inspection of his car. It says Lawless was sentenced last week at a federal court in Lincoln.

The statement says the guns had no serial numbers and were not registered to Lawless or his passenger. It says he admitted he had fired off the machine guns earlier that day, and told officials he knew the weapons were homemade.

http://www.kansascity.com/437/story/1634249.html

[virginia mountainman]

1. Yep, submachine guns are very simple devices...

They can be made by anyone with basic mechanical skills.

[aliendroid]

85. that's why all out bans won't stop gun violence

or mass shootings.

[eqfan592]

2. The guy's last name gave me a chuckle. :)

Interesting story.

[proteus_lives]

10. You're right, that's chuckle-worthy.

How on the nose!

[iverglas]

18. reminds me of viewing mug books

A friend and I had to look at a bunch of them a few years ago after witnessing a neighbour's house being burgled of a VCR. (Might not have been necessary if, before realizing what we were witnessing, I hadn't yelled at one of them to pick up that empty wine bottle he had just deposited on another neighbour's porch ... that undoubtedly had some fine fingerprints on it.) It was dark and I had the wrong glasses on, so all I could really say was that one of them looked like Cato Kaylin (or Kato Caylin; anybody remember him?)

Anyhow, we came out of our separate mug book-viewing rooms, and she looked at me and said: What other career choice did these people have?? When yer that ugly and mashed up looking, not a lot.

[beevul]

3. Yeah, I heard this one on the news today.

Both the news and the piece quoted in the OP offered little detail, and leave me wondering a few things...

I wonder if he consented to a search of the vehicle?

Being home made, how does the "commerce clause" apply?

Stewart:

http://lawschool.mikeshecket.com/constitutionallaw/unitedstatesvstewart.htm

And later:

On November 13, 2003, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion vacating Stewart's conviction for violating 18 U.S.C. § 922o, but affirmed his convictions for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Using the Morrison test, the Ninth Circuit ruled 18 U.S.C. § 922o did not have a substantial effect on interstate commerce and was unconstitutional as applied. In its opinion the circuit court wrote:

"...a homemade machine gun may be part of a gun collection or may be crafted as a hobby. Or it may be used for illegal purposes. Whatever its intended use, without some evidence that it will be sold or transferred—and there is none here—its relationship to interstate commerce is greatly attenuated."
"...section 922(o) contains no jurisdictional element anchoring the prohibited activity to interstate commerce."
"...there is no evidence that section 922(o) was enacted to regulate commercial aspects of the machine gun business. More likely, section 922(o) was intended to keep machine guns out of the hands of criminals—an admirable goal, but not a commercial one."
Supreme Court
After the Ninth Circuit's ruling, the United States Department of Justice then requested and received a stay while it appealed the case to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Citing the results of the Gonzales v. Raich case (June 5, 2005), the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case but rather to vacate the ruling below and remand it to court of appeals "in light of" Raich. The Ninth Circuit was thereby directed to reconsider Stewart and be guided in that reconsideration by Raich. Raich holds that Congress can use the Commerce Clause to ban homegrown marijuana due to its potential to affect the supply and demand in the interstate market.

(one would think, that the "interstate commerce" referred to in the ICC would be the legal kind, no?)

Circuit Court Reversal
The The Ninth Circuit reconsidered the case as directed and on June 30, 2006, reversed its decision and found in favor of the United States. In its opinion, the court wrote:

"We therefore hold that Congress had a rational basis for concluding that in the aggregate, possession of homemade machineguns could substantially affect interstate commerce in machineguns."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Stewart_(2003)

Being that the supply of "civilian legal to own" machine guns is so miniscule, it would seem, at least to these eyes, that there is very little interstate commerce to effect, in the first place.


Thoughts?

[SteveM]

54. Raich "re-expanded" the commerce clause that U.S. v. Lopez had restricted.

"The Ninth Circuit was thereby directed to reconsider Stewart and be guided in that reconsideration by Raich. Raich holds that Congress can use the Commerce Clause to ban homegrown marijuana due to its potential to affect the supply and demand in the interstate market.

"(one would think, that the "interstate commerce" referred to in the ICC would be the legal kind, no?)"


Kinda of a stretch, or perhaps the court was thinking they shouldn't upset the unlawful, but quite extant and lucrative free-market in illegal drugs? Perhaps some hocus-pocus social engineering the Court decided was necessary to "keep things as they are."

Jack Carter, who argued the Lopez case in 1995 (and won), is a good buddy of mine. Old Pennsylvania blue-collar liberal. He visits Austin from S.A. now and again, and helps sell T-shirts at "Eeyore's Birthday," held annually on the last Saturday in April. Eeyore's is the oldest on-going celebration of counter culture in the U.S. (since 1963).

[Tejas]

4. Sentenced to 8.5 months, or years?

KEARNEY - A former Kearney man will be in federal prison for the next 81/2 years for possessing a homemade machine gun.

http://lexch.com/articles/2009/12/15/news/regional/doc4b27fb7aa0e98030069025.txt



Interesting:

Lawless' passenger, Richard Canfield, 32, of Overland Park, Kan, owned the guns, but neither gun had a serial number or was registered to Lawless or Canfield with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

-------------------------------------------



whut?

[Katya Mullethov]

5. 4 purple hearts ,2 bronze stars w V-devices and 1 Silver Star

That would be V for Valor for any resident milquetoasts . This is in regards to Lawless . I have no idea about his cohort , yet .

[eqfan592]

7. Wow....

...that's pretty amazing.

[Katya Mullethov]

8. Google

His name and "naked RDX"

[PavePusher]

6. He should have known better...

than to get caught. I have no problem with unregulated machine guns.

[iverglas]

19. ah

The voice of the law-abiding gun owner is heard in the land.

[PavePusher]

23. You have just implied, through your favorite tactic of innuendo...

that I am a criminal. Prove it.

[aliendroid]

86. law abiding means

non violent crime offender or thief.

isn't sodomy still illegal? Is that an artificial crime. Actually you commit about 1-3 felonies per day, which is the average for people in the USA. So when someone says law abiding they mean non-violent offending, non-thief because all the laws about scratching you right butt cheek with your left hand on thursday are artificial.

If you are busted with weed but you do not steal or commit violent crime, I still consider someone law abiding. It has to be made into a relative term or else everyone is a criminal.

[AtheistCrusader]

35. Not all civil disobediance is created equal.

This one carries 10 years in federal pen, per count.

Dude was lucky he had that military service to lean on, or this would be the last we heard of him for a very long time.

Edit: Side thought, he basically has standing now, to challenge the Constitutionality of the Hughes Amendment. Which seems to be on as shaky ground as a poll tax.

[jeepnstein]

51. He's not the perfect subject for a test case...

The guy lied about his service record, had some home made stuff that ran afoul of NFA '34, and I don't see where he got busted for trying to trying to put his guns on the registry. I just don't see the SCOTUS being very sympathetic to his plight.

It's perfectly legal to make your own firearms. The way the law stands today, it is not legal to roll your own full-auto.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

53. Technically, there is no "ban" on post '86 machineguns.

The wording is such that registration of post '86 automatics merely demands "government approval/permission".
Basically, without government permission, the BATFE decides not to process NFA paperwork for new machineguns.

There have been post '86 machine guns approved to individuals - notably politicians and former officials.
It is exceedingly rare and you pretty much have to "be somebody" to have this done.
The BATFE does not deny this and evidently the number of transferable F/A guns has increased over the years.

This is basically how CCW in "may-issue" states works. Unless you've got connections, it's an effective ban.

[jeepnstein]

56. That's not a small issue.

If we get incorporation and someone manages to prove that the BATFE is not uniformly approving new entries to the registry then it could get very interesting.

As far as mere mortals such as you and I are concerned, it's a ban. For those who are more equal than us, it's an inconvenience.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

69. There is proof already. It's a double standard.

There have been political campaigns in the past (antigun ironically) that purchased $1500 NEW machineguns and then submitted paperwork to register the machineguns as transferrable on form 4. The candidates then sold them for something like $18000 on the transferrable market to fund their campaign. I think they were Hk MP5 or similar, iirc.

There have been also other cases where officials or ex-heads of beareaus get a pass as well.

Also, the number of registered transferrable MGs the ATF reports has actually GROWN over the years.
If "the spigot" (:eyes:) was shut off, shouldn't the number of transferrable MG's stay constant or even decrease? hmmm...

[jeepnstein]

70. I couldn't agree more.

If the law is not being applied consistently, well, then as a Democrat I have a real problem with that. I'd like to see the Hughes Amendment go away but I don't really have a concern about the NFA as long as the tax is not prohibitive. If they would pin the tax at ten or fifteen percent of the purchase price it would make more sense. I would definitely be looking at a DIAS when Hughes goes away.

I do think the public has an interest in having increased oversight of the sale and possession of full auto because it is not something that is really as accurate or controllable as a semi-auto. That goes for police departments as well. I just don't see full-auto as something that is generally useful to the average lawful citizen in the event of a "call to arms". That doesn't mean I think it should not be available to citizens at all. I think NFA can provide that balance as long as it does not turn into a prohibitive tax.

[TheWraith]

9. Well, that's a special kind of stupid.

Looks like he wasn't the primary moron here, but still, messing around with homemade NFA items is bad juju. They take that shit seriously.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

11. Dammit... this ruined my day.

I knew Lawless, well more or less... we consorted over the internet going back back a few years.
Great guy - sacrificed alot for his country. This really upsets me. :-(
Anyone who is interested should look into why he got some of the medals and distinctions he did.

I believe at least one (possibly both) of the firearms were AKs.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

12. Aaron Lawless's medals (old article)

Aaron Lawless joined the military the day after his 17th birthday. April 17th 2002. Ever since then he has been in the military.

He is currently stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C.. There he is recovering from wounds recieved on July 12 2006. During his time in the military he has recieved four purple hearts, Two Bronze Stars with V-devices, and one Silver Star. He has served in both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army.

He recieved his first two Purple hearts in Fallujah and Ramadi. One for a piece of shrapnel in his right leg and small debris peppered up his right side from an RPG. During the same incedent he was awarded a Bronze Star with a V-device for being part of a fireteam that flanked and dispatched the enemy while a medivac was being performed on victims of an IED.

His second Purple Heart came from a machine gun blast when running across a street. He waited for the machine gunner to reload before he returned fire and ran across the street. Well as it turns out the machine gunner did not reload.
He was just taking a break to let the gun cool. When Aaron finally ran across the street the machine gunner caught him with the last couple rounds of a belt of ammo. One passed right through his ass and a second is lodged in his left thigh ust under the skin.

His third Purple Heart and Silver Star came at the same time. On November 19th of 2005 he was lead gunner on a patrol in Bayji Iraq. His patrol was driving down Smugglers Road outside of town. As they were going down this road another column of humvees approached them from the north. This happened to be Bravo Company from the same base as Aaron's. As they neared the two
gunners stood up to let each other know who they were. As they got about 25 yards from one another a bomb exploded. Instantly killing all but one man in the opposite humvee. Aaron was struck in the face and head by a tire and a piece of shrapnel. He flew out of the turret and landed off to the side of the road. His humvee landed next to a secondary IED that also detonated and
ended up killing the remaining men inside. After the explosion Aaron woke up on the ground to the sound of gunifre. He then got up and ran to the safest place he could reach, and that was the crater of the first IED that had went off.

Over 1000 pounds of naked RDX High-Explosive, three 155 milimeter artillery shells, and one anti-tank mine, had blown a hole nearly 12 feet wide and 8 feet deep in the ground. Once he reached the hole he looked for his weapon but it was no where near him. He then found an M4 with the butt stock blown off, although the operating tube was still intact, the weapon still fired. He then
returned fire and got out of the crater to search for survivors. The men he found were for the most part unrecognizable. He then heard what sounded like a faint screaming. He feared the worst and withdrew his combat knife so he could sneak up on what he thought was the enemy. When he got closer to the noise he realized it was a an American voice saying oh god, please help me .

At that time he realized that the sound was coming from almost directly to his right side. There under a piece of metal from the top of the Humvee lay a person he would later find to be PFC Adam Millett. He happened to be the Medic from the other vehicle and was not doing very well. He had broken both legs,and both arms top and bottom, numerous broken ribs and was nearly
missing an ear. Aaron then proceeded to fix Adam the best he could and run him back to the humvees. Once at the humvees he ordered private who was gunning to get out and give him his helmet. He then gunned all the way back to base and was hit by another IED, breaking his nose. Aaron recieved the Purple Heart and Silver Star that day for being hit in the head with a piece of shrapnel and still managing to perform first care on the survivor and run him back to the trucks to safety.

On 21 February 2006 Aaron led a sniper team of six men into Bayji Iraq under the cover of darkness. Their mission was to gather intel on a certain street that was notorious for insugrents setting up IED�s and hasty ambushes on convoys headed to the Kurdish compound.

At around 0500 the radio started recieving a message. Our informant had given us intel that the number 1 and number 2 wanted men in our sector would be near our position. The number one man Qader Mquhl (KAY-der mi-COOL) and his brother Azheem Mquhl (OZ-heem mi-COOL) were supposed to be meeting in a cafe across the street. It was approximately one hundred yards from the teams position. That afternoon one of the men in the team made a positive ID on Qader Mquhl ,and moments later the fight had erupted. More than an hour and a half later, the fight was over.The whole team had escaped unscathed. However over 23 enemy combatants had been killed. Including the two Targets. Aaron was awarded a Bronze Star with a V-device leading his team in a fight against a far superior enemy force and completing the objective with zero casualties.

His fourth and last purple heart came on July 12 2006. Aaron was gunning on a humvee on a routine combat patrol in Bajyi Iraq. As the vehicle pulled off the side of the road a bomb went off that knocked out Aaron instantly. After the fighting stopped the medic thought that Aaron was dead. He was loaded onto the helicopter as life saving procedures were started.. The crew chief tried for a long time but eventually gave up. Aaron was thought to be dead.... Seconds after they covered him up with a blanket his hand started moving and he groaned a bit. He was immeadiately started on life support and was flown to Balad military hospital in Baghdad. There emergency surgery was performed to remove the shrapnel from his brainstem and to repair his damaged vertebrae. When docotors performed a CT scan to see if they had retrieved all the shrapnel they made a startling discovery. He had a tumor growing in the top of his head that was ths size of a tangerine. After that discovery he was flown to Germany and then to the United States to Walter Reed Army Medical Cetnter where he is still stationed today.

[iverglas]

20. so

He joined the military at 17. Yup, the US has the distinction of being one of two countries in the UN that hasn't ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the other being Somalia, which can't ratify anything because it doesn't have a government) -- among other things, because:

Article 38

... 3. States Parties shall refrain from recruiting any person who has not attained the age of fifteen years into their armed forces. In recruiting among those persons who have attained the age of fifteen years but who have not attained the age of eighteen years, States Parties shall endeavour to give priority to those who are oldest.

I would find it hard to fault a 17-yr-old for signing on to fight a war of atrocities and participate in an illegal invasion and occupation. He was in the military for four years. Is it not possible to get out after less time?

Why would anyone praise someone who took part in the atrocity that is the USAmerican action against Iraq?

(Just to head off the anticipated nonsense: I hold no brief for the insurgents, let alone for Saddam Hussein. Two or three wrongs don't make a right.)

People get hurt doing all sorts of things, some of them much less disgraceful, and nobody waxes laudatory about them. He's an unfortunate person. Some of his misfortune lies at his own doorstep.

Playing with home-made machine guns also makes him sound a bit of a moron.

[PavePusher]

24. Please continue your verbal masturbation elsewhere.

I offer you, and your vile, filthy innuendo and insinuation, an invitation to the world.

[tburnsten]

26. Well your own citation proves you absolutely wrong

He clearly was not a "child soldier", despite your attempt to villify the United States.



"He joined the military at 17. Yup, the US has the distinction of being one of two countries in the UN that hasn't ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the other being Somalia, which can't ratify anything because it doesn't have a government) -- among other things, because:

Article 38

... 3. States Parties shall refrain from recruiting any person who has not attained the age of fifteen years into their armed forces. In recruiting among those persons who have attained the age of fifteen years but who have not attained the age of eighteen years, States Parties shall endeavour to give priority to those who are oldest."

In case you "forget" what you posted.

[Katya Mullethov]

32. Another immediately disconcerting

and upsetting habit (as observed by the lanolin drenched masses) is the custom of showing that same respect to the recipient of similar medals from other countries , no matter which country they are(were) from .

[GreenStormCloud]

37. No, you can't "get out" in less time than you enlist for.

At least, one can not "get out" honorably. One would have to desert, or qualify for a hardship discharge, or something like that. Service in the military is not the type of job that one is able resign with two weeks notice, or to simply walk off the job.

[Tejas]

21. Wow, all of that before he was old enough to drink.

There are some f'd-up laws in this country. Wonder what the Feds and the Judge in this case did from 17-21?

[tburnsten]

27. Seriously

Bet they were fucking off in school, as opposed to sacrificing their safety, health, and potentially lives trying to bring some semblance of security and freedom to a nation that has had a brutal dictator for decades.

[tburnsten]

25. Damn, this guy has had an awful run so far

But he's done some great things in the meantime. I really hope this situation gets resolved in his favor.

[bayji_gunner81]

90. Aaron Lawless is a Liar

I was in Bayji, Iraq at FOB Summerall when most of this happened. Bravo Company did lose 4 guys that day and 1/33 Cav lost 1 guy as well. Two days earlier Abu company lost 2 Soldiers as well. That day the 1 Soldier fro, 1/33 was killed early on in the day. Then later in the day the 4 men from Bravo were killed near Laqlaq. There was no news of any other humvees being hit, especially of 3-4 IEDs going off or a firefight. As for the incident on 21 February 2006, that never happened. There was never such a big firefight in Bayji while I was there. 1/33 Cav did light up some insurgents during a sand storm. A group of insurgents decided to shoot at an IP check point on Tampa. They didn't count on a patrol with a bradley in it to be traveling north. The bradley opened up as well as a gunner with a MK-19. We were traveling south and arrived right when it had ended. Two insurgents lay dead in a car and I believe at least 3 more in another vehicle which was burning. I know a sniper team did go into Bayji at night, well a scout team, and their position was compromised and they lost a few rifles. As for the July 12, 2006 incident I can't comment on that seeing as how I was on leave. Although on the 17 we lost another Soldier from the 1/187 to a anti-tank grenade. Sucks that someone is using these incidents to falsify information especially when so many Soldiers were killed. In Bayji we did get a lot of IEDs. However at the time, firefights didn't occur afterwards for the most part, it was really rare. I doubt so many IEDs would hit 1 guy out of all the Soldiers patrolling that area.

[Hoopla Phil]

91. Yes he is. He received a Glock that he should not have for that false bio and

the silencer talk gun forum really tore him up when the info came out (the link to that is somewhere in this posting) someone even got his data sheet through the freedom of information act and he did NONE of those things - wasn't even a sergeant.

Welcome to D.U. btw!

[wired]

46. I thought I knew him too

Turns out that probably all of Aarons medals and Purple Hearts were not real. He fabricated the whole thing or at least the getting decorated for valor and combat injury bit. He claims he was a patient at Walter Reed and if so he may have been involved in some sort of accident in Iraq but given that he lied about everything else I don't even know if I believe that. Do a search for silver star recipients. There is no Aaron lawless for Bronze, Silver , Valor devices, Purple hearts etc. None of it. In Vietnam they'd screw peoples records up sometimes but these days its pretty clear. Maybe they even miss one detail but when his own lawyer would not use his military record at his trial when the supposed decorations might have saved his client then its pretty damning. The prosecutor even called him a liar about his military record when people who he had conned online had sent in statements praising Mr Lawless.

[SteveM]

13. Too bad. The law would allow for possession, but he didn't follow it.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

14. Update: The news story is slightly misleading...

It appears that decorated war veteran Lawless was not convicted on any illegal machine gun manufacture, illegal silencer possession, or any machine gun possession charges. The illegal NFA items evidently belonged to the passenger travelling with him... evidently, all items Lawless owned were papered. Lawless' exemplary military record was taken into consideration and he pleaded guilty to possession of an unserialized firearm (not machinegun) and sentanced with time already served (he has spent nearly the last year in custody).

This makes me feel much better as he will not be serving anymore time in Club Fed and can be with his wife and daughter.

[PavePusher]

15. Jail time for not having an ID number....

for a Constitutional Right.

If that was in place for books, people would be frothing at the mouth.

I hate double standards....

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

16. It was a plea bargain:

Plead guilty to felony possession of an unmarked firearm with time already served (unfortunately still loses 2A rights)
-or-
Go to trial facing 6 felony firearm/drug charges (60+yrs) that historically have a phenomenally high conviction rate.

IMO, he made the right choice as well as the judge giving a lenient sentence (strong consideration of Lawless' service)
I agree though, and if I recell correctly, homemade firearms may not need to be serialized.

[Tejas]

22. "homemade firearms may not need to be serialized"

Last I heard, ATF "recommended" that they be serialed but their Federal regs do not require it.


Of course, if the individual sells it, that's a whole other story.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Katya Mullethov]

31. CavArms

Day 660 .

[tburnsten]

33. Wait Cavalry Arms is STILL going on?

I thought they would have been back in business long ago, and had their property plus the property of their customers returned by now.

The BATFE is one of the most wildly out of control government organizations we have..

[Katya Mullethov]

39. They leased more equipment and never stopped

Their OEM business is booming for some odd reason , and so it wasnt enough to knock them down .
You could buy a tee shirt or somethin' ... http://www.cavalryarms.com/apparel.html
I did , same thing as when Ronnie Barrett fired California , it was the least I could do .

[virginia mountainman]

17. Yea, he got lucky,

The law, considers everyone in a vehicle, or a room, to be in possession of a gun... (unless it is ON someone)

They could have easily sent him up the river for practically the rest of his life.

[tburnsten]

28. An entire year in prison waiting for sentencing?

Wow. Pretty sure it is not illegal to manufacture your own firearm so long as it does not get sold or moved across state lines.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

30. He was member of an online community that discusses firearms.

We all know them... hell, we all probably belong to half-a-dozen of 'em. Well the person in question mentioned the incident on a particular forum that discusses firearms and NFA stuff and called the cop some names - nothing acute or menacing, just the time honored tradition of calling people cocksuckers on the interwebs. Anyways, officer douchebag catches wind of getting called names on the internet and develops a severe case of bruised ego. He petitions to the judge that the suspect is recruiting HITMEN on the internet to kill him (LOL WTF?) and requests that the suspect be improsoned while waiting for trial. The judge agrees (stating that the only kind of people that need silencers/nfa are hitmen) and put him in jail.

The entire logic behind the petition is silly... if a Marine with 4 purple hearts, 2 bronze stars (with V-devices), and a silver star wants you dead I'd like to think he doesn't need to recruit hitmen on public forums. More likely the officer was butthurt decided to retaliate by taking a man away from his wife and children for a victimless crime. Bullshit.

[tburnsten]

34. The more I learn about this case

The worse I feel about it. This is a miserable way to treat a self-sacrificing hero.

[chandler2]

36. Agree. Only bust people for harming or threatening harm, not

for merely possessing something that could be used to inflict harm or back up a threat. With the logic used to bust this
guy, one day anyone could get busted for possession of a large SUV of a box of kitchen matches.

[wired]

41. None of his commendations were real

Do a search of Bronze and Silver star recipients. You'll find no record of Aaron Lawless. It was brought up in his trial that none of his claimed commendations were recorded on his DD 214. His military commendations seem to have been a figment of his imagination used to build himself into a online super warrior. One omission on a DD 214 but 4 puple hearts, A silver Star and multiple bronze stars with valor? All missing? The man is a liar and a disgrace to his uniform.

[Hoopla Phil]

42. Have charges been filed for his false claims? I understand that the military takes

such a thing very seriously.

[wired]

43. Not yet...

There is a "stolen valor" law that he can be prosecuted under. Ironically he was one of the loudmouths on the gun boards calling for prosecution of several individuals who had been called out on on false military awards . Lawless had everyone fooled and now he is a pariah. If you listen to the audio transcripts of his court proceeding it is quite disturbing. The man is/was a pathological liar. He did probably spend time at Walter Reed but it was likely a self inflicted injury or a common accident. No records have been found of any combat wounds or of an decorations for valor. He even went as far as getting Glock to award him a promotional pistol last year for super soldier or something along those lines. Just shows you how far you can go with an active imagination. If he hadnt gotten popped with illegal machineguns he'd probably still be pulling the scam.

[Tejas]

47. Links to any proof of your allegations?

I've searched Google with "Aaron Lawless" + valor, medals, etc but can not find anything backing up what you've claimed here, only reports of his arrest and sentencing.

[wired]

48. OK... Heres a start

Try doing a search for silver and bronze medal winners for the GWOT

Heres a start

http://www.homeofheroes.com/valor/08_WOT/ss_GWOT/01_main.html

No mention of Aaron Lawless.

He is 24 years old. He claimed he joined the marines on the day he turned 17 on 4-17-02. The Marine enlistment period is 4 years. That means after 4 years he was discharged and joined the Army as an Army Ranger. Ive been in the Army and that is simply not possible for one thing. He claims that he was blown up 7/14/06 which means he would have had to join, go to Ranger school and out to Battalion in 3 months. Not possible. In fact he claims his ranger school date as 09/04 which is supposedly 2 years after he joined the Marines. There is nothing in anything official that I or anyone else can find that supports his allegations that he has been awarded any combat citations in any branch of the military or has received any purple hearts. A silver star is big news. He claims Donald Rumsfeld himself pinned a medal on him. Thats the sort of thing that they plaster all over the Army news and Stars and Stripes etc yet there is no reference to Aaron Lawless in any of the Army publications or in ANY official Army publications or Marine publications. He claims valor decorations for all his medals yet again there is nothing other than a few press releases from non official companies that would have taken his word for it to write their stories. Fact is there is NOTHING available to validate his claims to having been awarded medals in service. Its a crying shame but there is nothing.

"as a matter of fact im currently on leave from my duty station in the united states army. right now im in nebraska now im stationed at walter reed army medical center. i was hit in iraq by an ied that took half of my brainstem off. yes thats right my brainstem ,should...not...be...here. i have permanetly lost use of my all my toes and part of my leg, and also my pinky doesnt work anymore. ive done two tours in iraq once was in 2004 with the marine corps which i was injured two times and once with the army with which i have also been wounded twice. i have been awarded 4 purple hearts one by donald rumsfeld himself. 2 arcoms 3 bronze stars all with a v device and i have been put in for a silver star. if anyone questions this ill give you the phone number of the man that i personally pulled out of a humvee and gave first care to after everyone in his truck was killed and he took a ride on a 1000 pound bomb. the whole popint of this little rant is that online we never know who were talking to and unless someone else instigates it then there is no reason to go crazy callin names and shit. and everytime i post something you say that me and anyone else who answers my post is an idiot. so just keep it cool on here were all here for something whether it be information someone to talk to or just something to do. and we can at least all get along. so thank you for all who help me and jej no hard feelings please. Sgt Aaron Lawless 101st airborne 1st battalon 187th infantry regiment alpha compnay second platoon alpha team leader 3rd squad."


Here is a list of combat casualties from July 2006. No IED casualties on the date claims to have been blown up.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties_jul06.htm


The audio record of his trial has been circulating on one of the gun boards and has been heard by quite a few of the people he had conned. If I can get a copy I'll post a copy on my server. Its huge. The contents of his DD-214 came out during his sentencing hearing. The records indicate that he only received a non-combat casualty report and a Combat Infantry Award. Nothing else. He doesn't have paperwork for his claimed purple heart awards, yet he had paperwork for a purple heart belonging to another soldier in his home when it was searched. The Prosecuting attorney went so far as calling Lawless a liar when supporting letters were brought up attesting to Lawless's character that reference his medlas that he had bragged about online. There was nothing brought up in the trial concerning medals of valor or purple hearts.

Look all you want. You will find NOTHING official concerning Aaron Lawless and medals of valor. Dude had me fooled too and I spent a lot of time conversing with him. Now I just feel conned and pissed.




Lawless claimed to have received his silver star according to the Glock press release article for actions on November 19th 2005.


"His third Purple Heart and Silver Star came at the same time. On November 19th of 2005 he was lead gunner on a patrol in Bayji Iraq. His patrol was driving down Smugglers Road outside of town. As they were going down this road another column of humvees approached them from the north. This happened to be Bravo Company from the same base as Aaron's. As they neared the two
gunners stood up to let each other know who they were. As they got about 25 yards from one another a bomb exploded. Instantly killing all but one man in the opposite humvee. Aaron was struck in the face and head by a tire and a piece of shrapnel. He flew out of the turret and landed off to the side of the road. His humvee landed next to a secondary IED that also detonated and
ended up killing the remaining men inside. After the explosion Aaron woke up on the ground to the sound of gunifre. He then got up and ran to the safest place he could reach, and that was the crater of the first IED that had went off."

Here is a link to the military times article listing recipients of the silver star on Nov. 19th 2005 and the actual silver star recipients for that days actions.

Anthony Yost
Michael Barrera , Jr.
Joshua Joseph
Peter Lara

http://www.militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/search.php?term=&conflict=&medal=5&service=&page=21

Once again scan all the pages for silver star recipients and you will find no mention of Mr Lawless.

[Tejas]

49. Thanks for your efforts, but keep in

mind that even the NFA registry can't be verified by the BATFE.

Trust but verify.

[Hoopla Phil]

55. Damn! You wouldn't happen to have

a link (or name) of the gun board that was discussing the audio of the trial would you? I'm a member of several gun boards and have not seen that subject. The only board I have in common with lawless is Silencertalk and he and I exchanged several PMs in wich he made a couple of threats against me. He seems to be a very reactionary individual that is quick to sit in judgement of others that disagree with his openion. I for one am glad that he has lost his rights to own firearms but am saddened that he did not serve more time other than waiting for his day in court.

[wired]

58. sure.....

It is silencertalk


http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41819&highlight=

[Hoopla Phil]

60. Thank you, and welcome to D.U.

[wired]

75. More has come out.

One of the forum members placed a call to the US Army Ranger School. They have no record of Aaron Lawless ever having attended Ranger School between 2003 and 2009. He is laying low since his trial and has dropped the act for now.

[Hoopla Phil]

81. Finally finished that whole thread. Lots to read there.

I haven't been to that forum in a while. I remember that thread being started about why he hadn't been around but missed all the recent stuff about Stolen Valor. He received an engraved Glock based on his (apparently fraudulent) service record. That Glock, it would seem, should have gone to someone else. I hope he is prosecuted for Stolen Valor.

[Hoopla Phil]

82. Any more info? This would appear to be a Stolen Valor issue.

I'm very curious if "Aaron Lawless" is further prosecuted.

[truthbesaid]

83. Aaron Lawless a total fraud

Knowing who Aaron Lawless is, the reason no awards can be found on him receiving them is that he never earned any Silver/Bronze Stars, Purple Hearts etc etc. He served a couple of months in the Marines, was discharged before completing basic training. He joined the Army and did a short stint in Iraq with the 101st ABN Div. He had an already existing brain tumor that caused him to pass out while in Iraq, he was taken to Walter Reed where he stayed for the remainder of his enlistment. He was never a Sgt. nor was he promotable to one(self promoted). During his time at Walter Reed he was surrounded by many truly brave men who were involved in the heroics he claims as his own. He robbed them of their dignity, honor and bravery and adopted theirs as his own. He sold his entire family, friends back home on it and returned home in Nebraska as a brave war hero and treated as one, no one ever questioned him. He spent enough time in Walter Reed that he was able to sell to the doctors that he was involved in numerous IED and RPG attacks and that he had PTSD. He was released with a full medical disability with retirement paid benefits for life. What a country.

During his arrest and prosecution of machine gun possession charges, it should be noted that there were apparently several illegal firearms in his possession (just because he pleas to one charge in a plea deal, doesn't mean there weren't more crimes committed) Authorities during the search of his residence uncovered a marijuana grow operation and evidence of drug use by Lawless. Authorities apparently also found documents in his residence of awards for Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts, however they were in the names of other soldiers. A local Veterans organization in Kearney, Ne. received a copy of Lawless's DD214 which also shows no such awards or campaign medals. During his sentencing hearing, apparently it was brought up that he was not a war hero and never received any such awards after he made statements to federal officers of the court that he had received numerous injuries by IED's and RPG's, No evidence by defense or Lawless to confirm or prove any suck injuries or awards. Defense did sell the judge on Lawless having PTSD and was given time served for the 8 months he was locked up pending sentencing instead of the 3-4 years he was to be sentenced according to federal guidelines. This was after it was brought up about his perjury statements and false claims to the court. By the way, he was detained in jail due to threats he made to friends on the internet that harm would come to the State Trooper who stopped him during the arrest. Lawless was free to leave the courtroom to continue receiving a full military retirement for life and laughing at the court.

It is believed that the military has conducted further inquiry to see if further prosecution is warranted for the false claims made by Lawless. If you go the web site Professional Soldiers and search Sgt. Aaron Lawless, you will find the complete self version of his heroics. Don't be fooled by the third person narrative, later in comments, Lawless himself rejoices in the praise given to him and fails to deny any of the story was false, it was all false other than "being in the Army" "taken to Walter Reed". Truly amazing story.

Don't be fooled any longer by Lawless, He is not a true warrior, he is a parasite that has dishonored the lives and bravery of truly great warriors in this nation. He wasn't done wrongfully by authorities, in fact no full justice was served in this case involving the moral spineless actions of Lawless who has no shred of honor, integrity or conscience.

To those of you who have served your country honorably, I commend and gratefully honor your sacrifice and God be with you. Take care.

[truthbesaid]

84. Sgt. Aaron Lawless A Total Fraud!!!

Wanted to make sure it gets properly googled, take care.

[Hoopla Phil]

88. Aaron Lawless true military record here.

[Ter]

38. He made them with legal materials

He did nothing wrong.

[wired]

40. Actually he did

I am a member of one of the weapons sites that Mr lawless frequented and spent quite a bit of time conversing with him over the last few years. Its starting to flesh out since his trial that his awards and war record were largely fabrications. There is no record in the army databases of his receiving the silver star or any of the bronze stars or purple hearts he claimed. None of it. He apparently did receive a non combat related injury but the claims of combat valor have not been corroborated by any official sources other than those claimed by Mr. Lawless. It was brought out in his trial that the only records of valor or purple hearts found during a search of his home were from another individual that Mr. Lawless was in possession of. His DD 214 was brought up in the trial and showed no commendations of valor.

[RealityInSeattle]

44. So did Timothy McVeigh

Fertilizer and fuel.

[rrneck]

45. You want to ban that too? nt

[rd_kent]

50. And your point? Should we ban those items too? Or was this just another hit and run by you?

[GreenStormCloud]

52. Thank you for helping to prove our point.

It is people that are dangerous, not things. People misuse things. By themselves, things just sit there.

If you have a normal household, you very likely have the ingredients to make explosives, or poison gas, in your home.

With a quick trip to a hardware store, and only a few dollars, I could get the materials needed to make (In only a few minutes) a serviceable shotgun, or smoothbore musket.

[Name removed]

57. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[wired]

59. Not sure we can agree on that

I live in your city. Or you live in mine. Maybe even right down the street. Whatever. I own what YOU would call "assault weapons" "assault shotguns" and a whole bunch of .22's and more silencers than you have probably ever seen in your life which means more than one. Do I worship them? No . I'm an atheist so technically I don't worship anything. Do I enjoy them and shoot them often? Sure. Do I talk about them with like minded individuals on the internet? Yes, I do. Do I cause trouble with them or do I actually know anyone who ever has. Nope. I do other things too and have other hobbies but I enjoy the age old American hobby of gun collecting and shooting. Deal with it.

Oh, If you see me I'll be carrying a handgun like about 300,000 of your fellow Washingtonians. Good Day.

[Name removed]

71. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[X_Digger]

72. If you take that as a threat, you have "issues"

Paranoid, much? Goes a long way to explain your twisted underwear attitude.

[Hoopla Phil]

73. LMFAO!!! That was funny!

[wired]

74. I threatened you?

I didnt threaten you. I just stated that I am carrying a gun if I am not in my home like about 5% of the rest of the people in your state do. If you feel threatened by that then perhaps you should seek counseling. It sounds like you need it.


Heres a nice shotgun I bought today....

[GreenStormCloud]

76. My wife wants one of those.

[wired]

77. AK Shotguns

Ive had one of the .410 models for 10 years or so and its been dead nuts reliable. The 12 gauge is a monster. Theres 20 and 30 round drums available for it and 12 round stick mags. Its funny. They banned that piece of shit streetsweeper back in the 89 ban and it was a total piece of crap. These Saiga 12 gauges will dump 12 rounds of 12 gauge magnum loads in less than 3 seconds and are 100% reliable.

[GreenStormCloud]

78. She wants the .410 model.

There is a .410 shell made that holds 5 balls of buckshot. So two fast shots from that is the short range equivelent of a 10 round burst from a sub-machinegun, with lots more ammo in the magazine. It should make a very good home defense gun. After we get her gun, I may get a 12 gs. for me.

But some dental work has to come first.

[wired]

79. Saiga .410's

Neat gun. Theres 15 round mags available for the .410.

[Euromutt]

80. Try to let your prejudices not influence your comprehension quite so much

Wired's statement was the exact opposite of a threat. His point was that on an average day there in King County, you might encounter dozens, even hundreds, of people who are licensed to carry a concealed handgun and might in fact be carrying one, and yet, the chance of any of them using that weapon to (attempt to) unlawfully harm you is exceedingly small; the chance of more than one doing so is practically zero. The point being that these people are not a threat to you, except perhaps in your own fevered and rather paranoid imagination.

[Taitertots]

61. Enforce the current laws

Lock him up and throw away the key.

There is no excuse for illegally making automatic weapons.

[wired]

62. He didnt make them

He was with someone who did but he did not build them himself.

[Taitertots]

63. They still have plenty to keep him off the street for good

Enforce the laws he broke and make sure he rots in prison.

[wired]

64. what laws did he break?

Smoking pot? Are the streets going to be safer having a dangerous pot smoker off the streets? He claimed to have medals he does not have. Does taking him off the streets make anyone safer? He went target shooting with someone else who had some illegal guns. No one was harmed. Victimless crime. He's a douchebag but he's not a criminal.

[Taitertots]

65. The ones prohibiting unregistered Machine guns

[wired]

66. They werent his

He lives in a machinegun friendly state as far as the National Firearms Act is concerned. He went target shooting with someone else who had illegal machineguns. How was he supposed to know they were not legal? He gets pulled over and the car gets searched. Guilt by association? Maximum sentence per violation is 10 years and $10,000 but the supreme court has all but declared sentencing guidelines unconstitutional. Most first time offenders with no priors get 2 years max for actually building a machinegun. Mr. Lawless got about what would be typical considering the nature of the offense. This country already has the highest percentage in the world of its population in jail. Why make it even more of a police state sending people who went shooting with someone else who actually committed a crime to jail?

[Taitertots]

67. If you believe that I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you

It seems open and shut. He knew the gun was legally in his possession, it was an automatic, and a reasonable person should know it is illegal.

How should he have known, how could he miss it? Ignorance of the law is not a good defense. A reasonable person would be well aware that those weapons were illegal.

He actually committed a crime. Being in possession of a unregistered machine gun.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

68. The other guy made and owned the guns.

The other guy was in the car with him. The other guy was in possession of his own property.
It's open and shut.

Explain to me how "a reasonable person should know it is illegal"?
Those weapons are not illegal unless unregistered with the ATF. Machine guns can certainly be legal.
Unless he is the ATF he couldn't be expected to know that SOMEBODY ELSE'S guns are not registered.
I have a machine gun... it's a Mac 11/nine. It might or might not be legal - OH NO!
If you saw me at the range shooting or at a gunshow with it, how would you verify that it is legal?
Answer: You wouldn't and it would not be because you aren't a reasonble person.

The only thing illegal in his possession was some pot.

[truthbesaid]

89. Lawless had his own illegal weapons in this case, NOT INNOCENT

The great Lawless wasn't innocent, But not knowing the full story, as you will not see in the media or papers, is that Lawless had his own illegal weapons in his possession at his residence (nothing to do with the other guy). Of all the criminal violations he was originally charged with, he pled to the one charge of possession of the two machineguns (unregistered and no serial numbers, no serial numbers pretty good clue they aren't registered at all? Hmmm) in order to have the other charges (more damaging to him) dismissed (you guys didn't get that memo). So not necessarily a case of wrong place, wrong time, Big bad bully policeman, he's basically a guilty shithead punk. I have machineguns and registered items as well and normally would have the paperwork with the firearms for verification. By the way, apparently law enforcement obtained emails in the investigation between Lawless and the other guy discussing them not being registered and confessed to arresting officers that he knew they were not registered. During his arrest, he told officers he had stuff at his residence that he shouldn't have (not the sharpest tool). As a reasonable person, I would have to believe that Lawless knew they were not registered. Lawless as a reasonable person, also owning properly registered items himself, would surely know that it was illegal to have possession of them knowing they weren't registered (again, you didn't get that memo). Lesson, don't always jump to conclusions in what you hear in the media or news,and knowing all the facts in a particular case will make life so much more less complicated. Best wishes and take care.

[NewMoonTherian]

87. I agree.

The laws should be enforced in this case, and we should work on changing the laws.

[Hoopla Phil]

92. Update: Lawless now being charged with "Stolen Valor"

http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/article_e830c9c0-2334-11e0-911b-001cc4c002e0.html

"Lawless, 25, was charged Thursday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., with violating the 2005 Stolen Valor Act by falsely representing himself to have been awarded decorations and medals. Under the act, it is illegal for anyone to claim they have earned a military medal when they didn’t."