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Updated October 3rd, 2019 at 14:41 IST

US Coast Guard officer expected to plead guilty over gun stockpiling

A Coast Guard officer accused of stockpiling weapons & targeting SC justices is expected to plead guilty in case charging him with a gun, drug offences

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A Coast Guard lieutenant accused of stockpiling weapons and targeting Supreme Court justices, prominent Democrats and TV journalists is expected to plead guilty in a case charging him with gun and drug offenses. Christopher Hasson is scheduled to appear in court on September 3 for a re-arraignment, which typically signals a plea agreement has been reached. A person with direct knowledge of Hasson’s plans said he’s expected to plead guilty during his court appearance in Maryland. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because a plea deal hasn’t been announced. Federal prosecutors have described Hasson as a domestic terrorist, but they haven’t filed any terrorism-related charges against him since his February arrest. In a court filing, prosecutors said Hasson “intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.”A federal judge on Friday refused to dismiss gun charges against a Coast Guard lieutenant accused of being a domestic terrorist who stockpiled weapons and drafted a hit list of prominent Democrats and TV journalists.

READ: Gun Control Risks Losing Momentum As Impeachment Fever Rises

U.S. District Judge George Hazel rejected defense attorneys’ argument 

U.S. District Judge George Hazel rejected defense attorneys’ argument that charging Christopher Hasson with unlawful possession of firearm silencers violates his Second Amendment right to bear arms. Hazel said a silencer is a firearm accessory, not a weapon in and of itself, and therefore isn’t a “bearable arm” protected by the Second Amendment.
“Although ammunition is the means by which firearms are effective at serving their purpose as weapons and restrictions on type and usage may run afoul of the Second Amendment, the same cannot be said for silencers because a firearm remains an effective weapon without a silencer of any type attached,” the judge wrote. Hazel’s ruling paves the way for Hasson, 50, to be tried on all four counts in his indictment. Two of the counts charged him with illegally possessing unregistered and unserialized silencers. Prosecutors have called Hasson a domestic terrorist intent on carrying out a mass killing but they haven’t filed any terrorism-related charges against him since his February arrest. His trial is scheduled to start Oct. 21 in Greenbelt, Maryland. Hasson also is charged with possession of a firearm by unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance, and illegal possession of tramadol, an opioid painkiller.

READ: Las Vegas Massacre Anniversary Sparks Debate On Gun Control

Windom: The government had no doubt that Hasson’s arrest prevented bloodshed

Defense attorneys asked Hazel to dismiss the other gun charge on different grounds, arguing the underlying statute is unconstitutionally vague on its face and therefore void. The judge disagreed and ruled that the law isn’t vague when applied to somebody whose drug use is “consistent, prolonged, and close in time to his firearm possession.”Defense lawyer hasn’t sought the pretrial dismissal of the drug charge, a misdemeanor. During a hearing earlier this year, Windom said the government had no doubt that Hasson’s arrest prevented bloodshed. Prosecutors have said Hasson appeared to be planning attacks inspired by the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in a 2011 bomb-and-shooting rampage. Investigators found 15 guns, including seven rifles, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition at Hasson’s basement apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland. He researched how to make homemade bombs and mortars, studied sniper training and used his government computer to search for information about Nazis and Adolf Hitler, prosecutors said.

READ: Las Vegas Massacre Anniversary Sparks Debate On Gun Control

READ: US Leader McConnell Says Congress In ‘holding Pattern’ On Gun Control
 

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Published October 3rd, 2019 at 14:26 IST

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