I’m not sure what to make of this story – the feds have indicted a man who sold ammunition to the Las Vegas mass murderer. Apparently he was illegally selling him tracer rounds.
From Fox News:
An Arizona man who sold ammunition to Las Vegas massacre gunman Stephen Paddock was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on one count of manufacturing ammunition without a license.
Douglas Haig, 55, was charged in Arizona earlier this year with manufacturing armor-piercing bullets after authorities said his name was found on a box in Paddock’s hotel room at the Mandalay Bay hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
According to a Justice Department statement, Haig operated an online business selling “high explosive armor piercing incendiary ammunition, armor piercing incendiary ammunition, and armor piercing ammunition.”
Are they just going after him because the mass murder was so awful or do they have a case here?
The prosecutors also said Haig’s fingerprints were found on reloaded, unfired .308-caliber cartridges inside Paddock’s hotel room. Authorities had previously said that armor-piercing ammunition recovered inside of Paddock’s room had tool marks consistent with Haig’s reloading equipment.
Marc Victor, an attorney in metro Phoenix who represents Haig, told The Associated Press his client will aggressively fight the Nevada charge. Victor also said he expects a separate federal case filed earlier this year in Arizona that charges Haig with manufacturing armor-piercing bullets will be dismissed in the coming days as a result of the Nevada indictment.
Victor said he was preparing to provide prosecutors with a response to evidence turned over in the Arizona case, but the prosecutors instead went ahead and indicted him in Nevada. “We are disappointed by that,” Victor said.
Here’s where they mention the tracer rounds:
Haig, an aerospace engineer who sold ammunition as a hobby for about 25 years, had previously acknowledged selling 720 rounds of tracer ammunition to Paddock in the weeks before the attack. Tracer rounds, which are legal to sell, contain a pyrotechnic charge that illuminates the path of fired bullets so shooters can see whether their aim is correct.
I would be uneasy if this were a political act so that the politicians can say they did something, but on the other hand, if he’s guilty, then he’s guilty. I’m gonna admit that gun laws are so complex that I’m not sure which option is more true here – and the complexity of the laws is a problem in itself.