Editors Note: The following press release is directly from ATF. Regular readers of AmmoLand News know our stance on the unaccountable Federal Agency: No comment. We invite our readers to leave their hard-hitting insights in the comments below.
GREAT FALLS –-(AmmoLand.com)- A Great Falls man who admitted to a firearm crime after shooting another man in the hand with a sawed-off shotgun was sentenced on June 16 to three years and four months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said today.
Hunter Dylan Bell, 28, pleaded guilty in March to possession of an unregistered firearm.
Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided.
In court documents, the government alleged that in August 2020, Bell shot a man in the hand with a sawed-off shotgun over a dispute about a car just a few dozen yards from an elementary school in Great Falls.
In a statement later to law enforcement, Bell said that on the day of the shooting, he had gone to retrieve a vehicle from the victim that the victim had stolen. Bell admitted to acquiring the shotgun and bringing it with him to the altercation but claimed to have shot the victim in self-defense.
Bell acknowledged that the gun was placed in a nearby trash can after the shooting and that he had fled to Lewistown. Law enforcement retrieved the firearm from the trash can and determined it was a Mossberg Haven Model 495T, 12-gauge shotgun that had a barrel length of approximately 12.875 inches and an overlength of 24.50 inches. The government further alleged that at the time Bell possessed the sawed-off shotgun, he was prohibited from possessing firearms because he had a prior felony conviction.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey K. Starnes prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Great Falls Police Department.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative to reduce violent crime. Through PSN, federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement partners in Montana focus on violent crime driven by methamphetamine trafficking, armed robbers, firearms offenses and violent offenders with outstanding warrants.
Denver Field Division
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
ATF is the federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating violations of the federal firearms and explosives laws and regulations. More information about ATF and its programs can be found at www.atf.gov.
Nfa, gca 68, all gun laws…..UNCONSTITUTIONAL and so are the nazis at atf
f’ em, F’ their extended families!
REQUIRE THEY PUBLISH THEIR HOME ADDRESSES AS A CONDITION OF DRAWING A PAYCHECK TO HARASS TAXPAYERS
The only crime this individual did was to ruin a vintage shotgun.
Felon caught violating the NFA. Should have let law enforcement do their jobs instead of exposing one’s self to adventure and prison. Would have been a lesser sentence with a simple Non-sawed-off shotty. Although that was a pretty lax sentence for violating the NFA. I wonder if a non-felon would have gotten any less time.
It is still like that everywhere
What I have learned about self-defense using firearms with our oppressive government is that it better be legal to own, registered to you and that you better be dead right. These agencies could care less about the safety of the victims as evidenced by their spinning the blame to the victims. The use of a gun in defense appears to diminish the perpetrators part simply because a weapon was used to stop them.
He did not get in trouble for hurting the guy, but he did get in trouble over what should be his Constitutional right to be armed. That is social engineering being forced on our society to stigmatize guns, when the government goes after the thug for the Constitutional protected weapon, but not for the violent crime. Low impulse control and low iq bad guys like in the article have the right to be armed, and get shot by one of us armed Citizens when they attempt to harm another. It is evil to say that a Citizen not in jail… Read more »