Civil Liberties

Man Arrested After Building Machine Guns "To See If He Could"

Regulate that!

|

There's been much talk lately about where guns come from. Gun shows. Straw purchases at gun shops. Black market dealers. Online auctions. Father's nightstand. Nevada.

Add "residential garage" to the list.

An East Bay man, federal prosecutors claim, built six fully automatic machine guns in his garage.

On Oct. 18, according to court documents, Newark police officers headed to the home of Harry Shepherd Lewis Jr. The department had received a tip that Lewis "might be involved in the manufacture of firearms."

Lewis was cooperative, the complaint states, and admitted making guns from scratch because "he wanted to see if he could actually build a firearm." He then allegedly handed authorities a bag containing all the weapons he had made over the past six months.