[Paté]

Possession of bullets leads to 3-year prison sentence for Fall River man

FALL RIVER - Eight bullets and a checkered past will cost Anthony Lopes three years.
Lopes, 40, formerly of Green Street, was transferred to state prison on Wednesday to finish a sentence for possession of ammunition without an FID card after conviction of a crime of violence.

He has been in custody since his arrest on July 15, 2010.

Lopes was arrested after police went to his home on another matter and searched the residence with the permission of the woman who held the lease for the property.

Police found a locked safe under the bed Lopes used. When they opened it, they found five bullets for a .45 caliber pistol and three bullets for a .357 Magnum revolver.

No guns were found, according to court records.

By law, anyone in possession of firearms or ammunition must have passed a basic firearms safety course and have a valid Firearms Identification card. Lopes, in his plea on Tuesday, admitted he did not have a valid FID card.

He was originally charged with possession of ammunition after conviction of three or more crimes.

In a plea bargain agreement worked out by prosecutor Aaron Strojny and defense lawyer Susana Faria Ponte, Lopes was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of possession of ammunition after conviction of one crime of violence.

Lopes was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Richard T. Moses to three years to three years and one day in state prison.

He was given credit for the 559 days he has served in prison since his arrest.

Email Kevin P. O'Connor at [email protected]

Read more: http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x364059152/Possession-of-bullets-leads-to-3-year-prison-sentence-for-Fall-River-man#ixzz1kcLpT5Zs

 

[wreckhog]

MA is a tough state. I believe that someone got jail for wearing a necklace with a cartridge on it. Not a real cartridge, just jewelry.

 

[hydtguy]

wonder how many years for a knife?

Who did he piss off?

 

[Jake]

and they say ny is bad...

 

[warmnfuzzyar]

........  i guess he will have to  " bite the bullet" on this one.

 

[wreckhog]

Watch out for spent brass too.

http://www.massbar.org/publications/lawyers-journal/2011/july/don%E2%80%99t-pick-up-after-others,-or,-the-danger-of-spent-shell-casings

 

[SigSauer228]

that's fubar

 

[Pat M]

This, from the state that gave us the Battles of Lexington and Concord.  The founders are turning in their graves.

 

[DanHS]

What, I never even imagined that to be a possibility, that's so incredibly stupid, guess I'm never going to MA then either. Does that make someone a criminal if they drop a casing? I pick up casings I find in the woods, either for collecting or to clean up, but imagine innocently picking up someone's casings with the intent of cleaning up the woods or beach, etc, and going to jail for it. Let no good deed go unpunished!

 

[sherm66]

I have to laugh at you all.

I grew up in Mass.....liberal, love-the-criminal, Ted Kennedy-kills-AND-GETS-A-PASS, Willie Horton furloughing Massachusetts. I guess no one here read the article noticed he was already thrice convicted of "crimes of violence." He was most likely a felon, a prohibited person, a guy most of us would cheer to see convicted as he made law abiding gun owners look bad. And read on....this was a plea deal. What didn't he get charged with in exchange for his plea? He and his attorney found it reasonable to plea to the bullets, get credit for the time he already served (for another crime) and do the rest of the time in lieu of ducking the other pending charges.

Seriously, think a bit. Read between the lines.

 

[Lemming]

President Romney.  .  .  (sigh)

 

[Gpsma]

This guy is not the ordinary law abiding citizen...they nailed him for the ammo but he probably had a ton of crap on his record.

I knew a guy here on LI who...lets put it this way..spent a lot of years in prison for a lot of non-violent crimes..petty theft, burglary etc. He gets out of prison a few years ago and then we don;t see him again. Finally catch him at the local gin mill...he had gone back to jail..for what? He decided to go straight...didnt want to spend any more of his life in prison and gets a job with a trucking company. He gets pulled over for just an ordinary check of a truck. Turns out that the trucking company owner didnt insure or register that truck. Poor schmuch gets sent back to prison for that violation. He had to spend another two years in jail.

Would the ordinary law abiding citizen get sent to jail or prison for that? Absolutely not. But anyone with a record will be nailed for any minor offense because they are probably on probation.

The guy in Mass is not a saint and should not have had that ammo in his house. And he knew it.

 

[Lemming]

Sherm:

Since requiring a FOID card to possess ammo put this guy away, you would be okay with a similar law in NY as it'd help get other miscreants put into jail?

 

[CommackBoy]

It's still absolutely crazy. Another reason for HR822 to pass.

 

[DanHS]

I'm just upset that you need a license to possess a spent casing! WTF is that? If I was in MA and saw some shotshells in the sand on the beach, and decided to be a good person and clean them up, then an officer sees me holding them while walking off the beach to find a trash can, I can get charged for weapons possession?! That's just absurd. I know most likely I would just get warned about the law, but that's not a guarantee to protect someone from a ridiculous law.

 

[warmnfuzzyar]

I have to laugh at you all.

I grew up in Mass.....liberal, love-the-criminal, Ted Kennedy-kills-AND-GETS-A-PASS, Willie Horton furloughing Massachusetts. I guess no one here read the article noticed he was already thrice convicted of "crimes of violence." He was most likely a felon, a prohibited person, a guy most of us would cheer to see convicted as he made law abiding gun owners look bad. And read on....this was a plea deal. What didn't he get charged with in exchange for his plea? He and his attorney found it reasonable to plea to the bullets, get credit for the time he already served (for another crime) and do the rest of the time in lieu of ducking the other pending charges.

Seriously, think a bit. Read between the lines.

..... kind of a broad stroke of the brush you're painting with there.

Could you be a little more specific about which posts you find so laughable ?

 

[Mad Russian]

Upon reading the legal mumbo jumbo of the (in)decision as to whether a spent shell constitutes ammunition, I can only conclude that Massachusets is now run by morons.
Saying that a piece of brass without powder, primer or bullet is ammunition is akin to saying a tree branch is a bow and arrow, thereby anyone carrying such in the woods without a hunting license or out of hunting season, is hunting because the branch can be made into a bow and arrow, or an intoxicated person sitting on a block of steel is guilty of a DUI because the steel can be made into a car.
The decision defies any attempt to apply any reasonable standard of logic or reason.

WOW! Just WOW! I really feel bad for those poor shmucks up there...almost: They voted Ted Kennedy and Barney Frank into office time after time. That should tell you something about the level of intelligence in Massachussets.

 

[CJ]

It's still absolutely crazy. Another reason for HR822 to pass.

What does HR822 have to do with this?

 

[BLAMMO]

I heard a story where someone was arrested in MA during a traffic stop for having a single spent shell casing in their car.

 

[sherm66]

Sherm:

Since requiring a FOID card to possess ammo put this guy away, you would be okay with a similar law in NY as it'd help get other miscreants put into jail?

I in no way, shape, or form stated that. I would never support any law registering gun owners, creating new layers of restrictive bureaucracy or creating more steps to firearms ownership. Mass is indeed a draconian gun law state. But like a person from Tennessee wandering into NYC with a pistol that's legal in TN, you should know your laws. This guy probably did, but that's a guess. The bonehead did the crime, he's gonna do the time. This is akin to asking me if I favor laws banning full auto guns because some guy who robbed a bank got ten years tacked on because he used a full auto gun.

From the looks of it this guy did enough without having the FID card issue solely put him away. He seems to have run afoul of other laws on his own just fine. Don't make him out to be some babe-in-the-woods screwed only by MA's draconian gun laws. He seems to have garnered three violent offense convictions as well. I had a FID card in MA. I went on to get my pistol permit at the age of 18. Why? Because I, wanting to be on the right side of the law asked my local LE agency what I needed to buy a Sheridan PGP paintball pistol and the Chief said since it was a handgun "format," concealable, and fired a projectile that I needed a permit. So I rolled with it. I took the time to ferret out an answer. Again, I think FID cards, FOID are BS as most gun laws are.