Yet Another Case Demonstrating Hypocrisy of Gun Control

“I can’t even with these people,” my friend Salena Zito replied to me while discussing this case from Westmoreland County. By the end, I promise that you’ll have even stronger responses.

A year ago, two men used a stolen pickup truck to smash into a gun store and steal more than two dozen weapons. It didn’t take long for police to find them; master criminals they aren’t, although they keep practicing at it. KDKA in Pittsburgh reported that one of the two perps got sentenced yesterday, and you won’t believe what he got:

A 27-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 months in prison and three years of supervised release after he was found guilty of stealing two dozen firearms in Westmoreland County early last year. 

According to the Department of Justice, Michael Guin was sentenced on Tuesday after his involvement with a gun store break-in earlier this year [sic] in New Kensington. 

Guin crashed a pickup truck through the main door of RC Firearms around 3:30 a.m. on January 22, 2024. Investigators said Steyn Sarduy then ran inside and smashed the front door, and Guin went in after him. 

 Twenty months for burglary, grand theft auto, and burglary and possession of stolen firearms? The damage from the robbery was so significant that the owner had to relocate his business, according to KDKA’s video report at the link. Also according to the video report, police have only ever recovered three of the stolen firearms; the others remain missing, and the perps have apparently misled investigators as to their location. 

By the way, this isn’t Guin’s first dance with law enforcement, either. Guess what his firearm-ownership status was before this idiotic burglary?

Guin is also a previously convicted felon and that prohibits him from possessing a firearm. 

His partner in the crime had an active warrant out for a probation violation, too. Surprised?

At any rate, this amply demonstrates the futility of passing new restrictions on law-abiding citizens for keeping and bearing arms. The state isn’t penalizing these two idiots for possessing the firearms they stole; arguably, they’re not even giving them a punishment commensurate for stealing the truck. Twenty months would be a light sentence for the burglary alone for a first-time offender, let alone a previously convicted felon that stole two dozen firearms and only returned three of them. 

Guin should be serving twenty years, not months. Pennsylvania law sets the penalties for felons “caught possessing, transporting, controlling, or otherwise having a firearm” under any circumstances at 5-20 years and a fine up to $25,000. Guin committed burglary and grand theft auto to steal 24 firearms with his partner, both of which are listed in Section 6105’s statute as aggravating circumstances. Guin ended up with a sentence less than a month per firearm. 

Why bother passing more restrictions on otherwise law-abiding citizens when prosecutors won’t enforce firearms-prohibiting laws on the books against previously convicted felons?

And the story gets even better, as my co-host and pal Cam Edwards points out today. The reason why Pennsylvania law may not apply is because the perps got tried in federal court. It was the Biden Department of Justice — the same administration that constantly pushed for more gun control — that offered both perps the deal of a lifetime:

So why did he get a slap on the wrist, and who was responsible for his light punishment? U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer was the one who sentenced Guin, but the U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted the case are the ones who offered Guin one helluva plea deal. …

When multiple defendants are charged with a crime, it’s not unusual for one of them to be offered a deal in exchange for testifying against their compatriot. In this case, however, both Guin and Sarduy were given the opportunity to plead to lesser charges, so it’s not like the Biden DOJ was trying to play one against the other. 

Got that? The Biden administration wanted more and more restrictions on people who don’t commit crimes while letting actual felons off the hook for violating laws already on the books. And then Joe Biden himself made the hypocrisy blatant by pardoning his son Hunter from facing the consequences of violating a law that Biden himself pushed to pass. And why was this in federal court anyway? It looks like the DoJ deliberately intervened to let these two off the hook for firearms violations while the Biden administration pushed gun control for everyone else.

Cam and I will be discussing this at length less than an hour from now in our VIP Gold live chat. If you have not yet signed up as a VIP Gold member, or haven’t upgraded your existing account to VIP Gold or VIP Platinum, now’s a great time to do so and join us at 1:30 pm ET to discuss this — and anything else on your mind. Become a HotAir VIP member or upgrade today and use the code GOLDBARS for 50% off and get the media deal of a lifetime!