..used in mass shooting that killed seven people and wounded 25 last year pleads guilty to gun crimes.




Seth Aaron Ator, 36, of Odessa, Texas, was killed by law enforcement after going on a shooting rampage that claimed the lives of seven people and wounded 25 others on August 31, 2019



The man who sold an AR-15-style rifle used in a mass shooting in West Texas last year that killed eight people, including the gunman, and wounded 25 pleaded guilty on Wednesday to unlicensed firearms dealing.

Marcus Anthony Braziel, 45, of Lubbock, also pleaded guilty to concealing the proceeds from weapons sales from the IRS, according to a statement from federal prosecutors.

He faces up to five years in federal prison. No sentencing date has been set.

Braziel admitted selling the rifle that Seth Aaron Ator, 36, of Odessa, used when he killed seven people and wounded 25 others in the Midland-Odessa area.

The rampage ended when police shot Ator dead.


According to court documents, Braziel admitted selling Ator an AR-15-style rifle on October 8, 2016 - nearly three years before the August 31, 2019, shooting rampage.




Documents said Ator, who had been adjudicated 'mentally defective' and was therefore legally prohibited from possessing firearms, first attempted to purchase a gun from a sporting goods store but was rejected after his mental status was flagged in the national database.

He circumvented that system by buying a gun from Braziel, who did not run background checks on any of his buyers.

Although background checks are not required for in-state, private gun sales, Braziel admitted he was 'engaged in the business of selling firearms' and should have been licensed and checking his clients' backgrounds.

He admitted routinely buying firearm firing mechanisms, using milling equipment to build them into guns, then selling them for profits of $100-$200.

In a four-year span, Braziel inadvertently sold firearms to four people who were barred from having guns: a convicted felon, a man under felony indictment, an immigrant in the United States illegally, and Ator.



In August, family members of two of the deceased Odessa mass shooting victims sued Braziel and the gun parts manufacturer for over $1million in damages.

The families of 15-year-old Leilah Hernandez and 40-year-old Joseph Griffith filed a civil lawsuit against Braziel and Anderson Manufacturing, a Kentucky-based gun parts manufacturer.

Ator killed seven people and injured 25 others during a 10-mile, hour-long car chase that began on Interstate 20 in Midland County and ended when police finally cornered and killed Ator outside a crowded Odessa movie theater.

The lawsuit was filed three days before the first anniversary of the shooting.

'Our clients want to hold accountable those who manufactured, profited from, and supplied the AR-style weapon used in the shooting,' attorney John Sloan, who is representing the families of Hernandez and Griffin, stated in a press release.

According to authorities, Ator's shooting spree began on August 31, 2019, when he fled a traffic stop after opening fire on state troopers, hijacked a postal truck and began shooting indiscriminately at motorists and passersby in the neighboring cities of Odessa and Midland.


Continued

Lock him up.

Tear drop tats....should have been shot on site before it even happened

Selling a gun to someone is not a crime.  Ever.

soooo....  an unlicensed dealer

But muh paper trail......

The law disagrees with you, bigly.

Not guilty.

WTF did Anderson do? Sell parts? LOL

Selling to a tear drop tat douche should be

Have deeper pockets.

And if I do not have the recourses to do this background check, then I am not allowed to perform commerce?

No different than selling a vehicle to someone who then uses it to run over a bunch of people on a bridge.

Felons should get their fun rights back, and voting. Hell we should just expunge everything and let them go like nothing happened.

Like people with over 10 EE sales???

Bullshit laws and conviction.

The one responsible for the killing is dead. That should be the end of it.

Based on the language of the law and definition of dealing, it would be an incredibly hard case to make for one gun. As it is not repetitive, and a regular course of business.

Two would be a little easier I guess.

Actually it would depend on what those ee sales were ..  Lots of stuff gets sold on the EE that ain't a gun

Apparently it is.

Attached File

So shall not be infringed means nothing to you then huh.

It did not help his position that he admitted to being engaged in the business of selling firearms for profit and that he routinely made $100-200 per sale.

And manufacturing

In the article he admits to routinely buying 80 percent receivers, finishing them and selling them for profits of 100-200 dollars.

Gun rights yes, voting no.

Why would you want a bunch of criminals to vote ?

It is entirely different than guns, there is no individual guarantee of a right to vote.

I keep hearing that here for years, I've never heard of a unlicensed dealing case for one gun. Every story or case I've ever read involved multiples usually in the dozens.

The language doesn't fit. It would be a very hard case to make.

Braziel also admitted in his plea papers that he routinely bought firearm firing mechanisms (also referred to as “lower receivers”), then used milling equipment to build full-fledged guns, which he then sold for roughly $100-$200 profit, according to the release.

At least one went to a felon, one to a person under felony indictement, one to a person illegally in the US, and the shooter, who had been rejected by a NICS check at a gunstore due to mental issues.

And, just for fun, wasn't reporting the income on his tax returns.

REF:  Lubbock man who sold AR-15 used in Midland-Odessa shooting massacre pleads guilty in court

He doesn’t seem too bright.

There is nothing illegal about turning a profit on a gun sale nor intending too. There laws prohibiting the regular conduct and practice of it.

He finished 80% lowers and assembled guns?

I don't remember

I do not recall

I need to speak to my attorney

Would you have a problem selling a car or house to a felon?

ETA - I see you added in child molester for some extra emotion.

Some of you need to get your poop in a group.

What part of Shall Not Be Infringed is so fucking hard to comprehend?

No FTF in Texas?

"Although background checks are not required for in-state, private gun sales, Braziel admitted he was 'engaged in the business of selling firearms' and should have been licensed and checking his clients' backgrounds.

He admitted routinely buying firearm firing mechanisms, using milling equipment to build them into guns, then selling them for profits of $100-$200."

Sounds like an unlicensed manufacturer and dealer.

FTF is legal by that statement.

Part in red is proof the guy is a dumbass.

Correction; Selling a gun to someone is a crime, sometimes.

Good luck with that as your defense.  "How things should be" versus "how things are" is a whole different argument.

Rule #1 of civil litigation: Never ever sue poor people.

Freedom is awesome.

So the first girl you fucked or fooled around with was at least 18??? If not then you're a child molester as well and should turn yourself in to the police.

@migradog