Prison for firearms dealer, gunman

In their stepped-up attack on gun violence, the feds this week whacked a gunslinger and also a gun seller with no respect for the law.

Michael McGinnis, 59, owner of Mac's Gun Shop in Clifton Heights, Delaware County, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison yesterday for falsifying records, selling guns to a convicted felon and other gun violations, as part of a plea agreement.

In 2004, McGinnis said he would sell a gun to an undercover informant who said he was a convicted felon. It is illegal to sell guns to convicted felons.

The informant was working with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

When McGinnis talked with the informant, he told him that his criminal record didn't matter: If he had "the green," the gun "walks."

The informant paid $500 cash for the gun and McGinnis did not prepare the required paperwork for the transaction. McGinnis warned the informant that if he were arrested, he should tell authorities he bought the weapon at a gun show, and that if authorities showed up at his gun shop, "lips would be sealed."

U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond called McGinnis' crimes "serious," saying they showed contempt for the law. "I think deterrence is essential in a society awash with firearms in a city where people are gunning each other down every day."

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Berle Schiller slapped Nathaniel Hurt, 26, of Cheltenham with a 25-year sentence in federal prison and five years' supervised release for weapon and drug violations.

Hurt pulled a firearm on the probation officer who was supervising him in 2004 on a Philadelphia firearms conviction. After Hurt brandished his weapon, local authorities searched his apartment and found a Ruger .44 revolver and crack cocaine.

On Oct. 15, 2005, he was arrested by ATF agents and charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence - a five-year mandatory sentence - and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

Last Dec. 19, Hurt was found guilty on all three charges. The Cheltenham Police Department and Montgomery County narcotics officers turned the case over to ATF, because firearms offenders are likely to receive substantial jail time if convicted in federal court. *