Md. man gets 3 years for trying to buy F-14 machine gun

[gunsmith]

hey, what caliber is that gun anyway?... bummer though, that would be awesome fun to shoot. FREE WAYNE!
http://www.correctionsone.com/weird-news/articles/2082527-Md-man-gets-3-years-for-trying-to-buy-F-14-machine-gun/
Md. man gets 3 years for trying to buy F-14 machine gun

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK, Va. — A former museum director was sentenced Monday to three years in prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to buying a rotary machine gun used on F-14 fighter jets.

Wayne Miller, 49, of Maryland, admitted that he went to Oceana Naval Air Station in 2005 and bought the machine gun from a Navy chief petty officer in charge of decommissioning aircraft.

Miller, who worked then as an executive director of the Aviation Hall of Fame in Teterboro, N.J., was planning on opening a flight simulator business.

Two others were arrested and convicted in the case, but prosecutors labeled Miller "the driving force behind the conspiracy."

Federal authorities learned that the Navy man, Matthew Sutton, was stealing Navy aircraft parts and selling them. Sutton pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison. A third person, Jody Goucher, who acted as the middle man, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in prison.

Miller's lawyer, Arenda Allen, told the court that Miller's "visions of grandeur" in creating a "super-duper" flight simulator business went awry when he began buying F-14 parts, including the machine gun and a tail fin, on the black market.

The jet-mounted machine gun, which was operational, weighs 300 pounds and can fire 6,000 rounds a minute.

Miller "never intended any harm or evil to anyone," Allen said in a court filing.

[41magsnub]

An M61 Vulcan would be fun!  Anybody have a reloading press for 20mm?   

[Perd Hapley]

"Rotary machine gun"?  Is that coin freshly minted?

[Doggy Daddy]

So then, uhhh... it's still available?   

DD

[gunsmith]

"Rotary machine gun"?  Is that coin freshly minted?

does that mean its a gattling gun?

[AZRedhawk44]

hey, what caliber is that gun anyway?... bummer though, that would be awesome fun to shoot. FREE WAYNE!
http://www.correctionsone.com/weird-news/articles/2082527-Md-man-gets-3-years-for-trying-to-buy-F-14-machine-gun/
Md. man gets 3 years for trying to buy F-14 machine gun

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK, Va. — A former museum director was sentenced Monday to three years in prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to buying a rotary machine gun used on F-14 fighter jets.

...

Two others were arrested and convicted in the case, but prosecutors labeled Miller "the driving force behind the conspiracy."

Federal authorities learned that the Navy man, Matthew Sutton, was stealing Navy aircraft parts and selling them. Sutton pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison. A third person, Jody Goucher, who acted as the middle man, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in prison.

Questions:

--How can you be the "driving force behind the conspiracy" when you're the consumer, and you didn't consume all the black market parts?  And probably didn't inititate the stripping of black market parts for sale on the black market?

--Why did the guy who bought parts get 3 years, but the people who STOLE THE PARTS FROM THE GOVERNMENT while swearing an oath to defend the country only get 4 or 6 months?

You don't just put a post on Craigslist that you want to buy Tomcat machine guns.  Usually you know someone who can sell them to you and is routinely loose enough in their moral fiber that they would bend the rules to make something like that happen.

[41magsnub]

does that mean its a gattling gun?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M61_Vulcan

[MechAg94]

An M61 Vulcan would be fun!  Anybody have a reloading press for 20mm?   

Use hard cast bullets for better performance.   

[HankB]

Despite the rate of fire, I'm not impressed, since these 20mm M61 guns only have an effective range of 500 yards. (At least, that's what the plaque said on the F14 display aboard the U.S.S. Midway in San Diego a couple of years ago when I visited it.)

. . . --Why did the guy who bought parts get 3 years, but the people who STOLE THE PARTS FROM THE GOVERNMENT while swearing an oath to defend the country only get 4 or 6 months? . . .

A most excellent question, that. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

plea bargains

[Scout26]

Why did the guy who bought parts get 3 years, but the people who STOLE THE PARTS FROM THE GOVERNMENT while swearing an oath to defend the country only get 4 or 6 months?

They are probably also going to get/have been hammer(ed) under the UCMJ.  Therefore, they may currently be turning big rocks into gravel, and gravel into sand.


Uncle Sugar has no sense of humor when it comes to F-14 parts, since the Iranians have a few of them that need some parts to become operational again. 

[Jamisjockey]

Here's what I don't get:
What in the hell was he going to do with it?  Its not like he could conceal it under his coat and shoot up a school or something.

[AmbulanceDriver]

Not only that, but how much is just one round for those things?  And isn't *each* round considered a DD? (paging PTK, PTK to the white courtesy phone plz.....)

[Jamisjockey]

Not only that, but how much is just one round for those things?  And isn't *each* round considered a DD? (paging PTK, PTK to the white courtesy phone plz.....)

If the rounds are just rounds and not HE, I'd assume they are not.

[AJ Dual]

Despite the rate of fire, I'm not impressed, since these 20mm M61 guns only have an effective range of 500 yards. (At least, that's what the plaque said on the F14 display aboard the U.S.S. Midway in San Diego a couple of years ago when I visited it.)
A most excellent question, that. 

Effective range means, distance at which you have a chance in hell at hitting something. Not "How far the round travels with sufficient force to still be breaky-explodey on it."

[MicroBalrog]

Justice: awesome ain't it?

[AmbulanceDriver]

If the rounds are just rounds and not HE, I'd assume they are not.

True.  It's just the gun that fires them that's considered a DD since the bore is greater than .50 inches.  But since it's an unregisterable machine gun (or machine cannon, I suppose), that's kind of a moot point...  Although one wonders, some of those guns *were* made prior to 1986..........

[MillCreek]

Not to mention that a M-61 for aircraft is going to need quite the specific mount and electrical/control connections.  It is electrically-driven, and there is no way in heck you can just mount it on a tripod and hook up a car battery and expect it to work.  I wonder just what the heck he was planning on doing with it.

[MicroBalrog]

Worse yet, the M61 weighs over 200 pounds unloaded. Aiming would be an issue. The projectiles weigh 3.5 ounces each, which translated to 21 pounds of ammunition just to fire  the gun for one second.

[Nick1911]

Worse yet, the M61 weighs over 200 pounds unloaded. Aiming would be an issue. The projectiles weigh 3.5 ounces each, which translated to 21 pounds of ammunition just to fire  the gun for one second.

So?  I have a welder and an F250.

Would make for an AWESOME technical.

[MicroBalrog]

How would you aim the gun?

And how would your truck avoid getting flipped over while firing?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

recoil would be problematic 

[Devonai]

The M61, like its big brother the GAU 8/A, is driven by the hydraulic system of the aircraft.  To use it in another role, you'd have to create an independent hydraulic system to go along with everything else.

Some dude I know wrote a sci-fi series that involved the theft of several GAU 8/A systems and the subsequent integration of them into a non-traditional role.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0741419858

[Tallpine]

The M61, like its big brother the GAU 8/A, is driven by the hydraulic system of the aircraft.  To use it in another role, you'd have to create an independent hydraulic system to go along with everything else.

So, mount it on a bulldozer 

Is there a puppy-launching accessory     

[41magsnub]

There is an air driven version too, dunno if that is the case in the F-14 or not, but if true would be a lot easier to engineer.