The Hound bets the Loch Lomond neighbors of Michael Sonka weren't aware they were living next to a 55-year-old man with an arsenal of some 636 weapons. They do now.
Cops busted the self-proclaimed gun dealer late Friday at his home at 910 Granville Road (www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/561877,5_1_WA18_GUNS_S1.article).
The Hound once hung with a bunch of folks who with that amount of guns and ammo could take over a small Caribbean nation or a former African colony. Yipes, 636 guns, plus ammo in a residential neighborhood! That even scares The Hound and he doesn't scare easily when it comes to weapons.
The Hound has the feeling cops are still doing inventory on that cache of weapons and wonders how many so-called "assault rifles" were in the mix. And how do you move 636 weapons? Very carefully, very carefully.
Until very recently the man had a federal license to sell guns. It's not unusual for a dealer to have more guns than he had.
Did anyone get hurt? No. Was it wrong to sell the guns the way he did? Yes. Slap his wrist, give back his property. Case closed. Most homeowners have enough lawn mower gasoline to do as much damage as all of his guns.
THE HOUND SAYS: Gasoline doesn't kill people, people kill people. It's not unusual for a gun dealer to have 600+ weapons inside a home in a residential neighborhood? Most gun shops probably don't have that much inventory on hand in a business location. It's a zoning issue, not a 2nd Amendment issue.
I am with Tom, I hate guns and I am anti-gun. But I think this story is over blown. I hear there is more than one gun dealer in our town that sells on the Internet which I find that very scary.
In my opinion this isn't anything worse than someone hoarding animals, or has junk piled so high in their homes that it becomes a fire hazard to themselves and their neighbors.
Selling the guns wasn't the smartest thing to do of course, but I think that finding out all the facts is important, before we decide to crucify the guy or give Kudo's to the police department.
THE HOUND SEZ: This story is overblown but then you;re scared about a guy selling guns over the Internet? Hmm, you sound conflicted.
Hopefully, the guy selling guns over the Internet has a federal gun license to do so. That is what the Mundelein gun runner the cops busted didn't have, although he used to have one.
Another thought: Perhaps this is the same person selling guns over the Internet.
I am a personal friend of Mike Sonka and can attest that he did not KNOWINGLY sell guns illegaly. He did make a severe mistake in not holding the delivery/sale for the required time. He was aware of the rules of selling as a dealer but was unaware of the rules governing private party sales.It was an oversight in his knowledge of PRIVATE PARTY sales of firearms.
In fact he was a federaly licensed firearms dealer for over 18yrs and had acquired numerous guns,most of them being part of his private collection. He willingly gave up his federal license! So what was he to do with his inventory besides put it into his private collection.Yes it is a large amount of guns but there is no law against owning such an amount and selling some as a private party.
I can assure the public that he is no criminal and would never illegaly sell any gun, ever! He just made a mistake by poor judgment.
THE HOUND SEZ: Hold your trigger finger there a minute. "A mistake in judgment" has moved from Hollywood to the rest of the nation quicker than a rapid-fire repeater. If he was aware of the law, then why did he go around it? Sounds like the "mistake" was getting caught.
It may not be illegal, but The Hound thinks it's criminal to have an arsenal in a residential neighborhood. That many weapons is what I would call a gun store. Those are usually found in areas with commercial zoning and the owners follow state and federal laws to the letter.