Man Who Owned 170 Guns ‘Illegally’ Cites Second Amendment: Feds

On November 26, 2024By Pranco

Weapons owned by Carlos Serrano-Restrepo (The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive/WSYX).

A man who lives in Ohio who illegally pays taxes and has a Social Security number, tried to use the Second Amendment as an excuse for the 170 firearms he was caught with earlier this year, telling a federal judge that his “unlawful” arsenal — which included a .50-caliber Barrett sniper gun and multiple ARs – was “in self-defense” and was part of “his collection,” according to court documents.

Carlos Serrano-Restrepo’s legal bid was shot down last week U.S. District Court in Columbus by Judge Edmund Sargus, who punished the alleged gun enthusiast for his confession weapons cachesaying that people “who have not pledged allegiance to the United States” have no right to own firearms, even though Serrano-Restrepo is a taxpaying citizen who has a work authorization card and a driver’s license in the Buckeye State.

“Disarming unlawful immigrants like Mr. Serrano-Restrepo … is consistent with the nation’s history and tradition of firearms regulation,” Sargus wrote in his Ruling of November 21which was obtained Saturday and posted online by a local CBS affiliate WSYX.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was behind Serrano-Restrepo’s arrest earlier this year, with federal prosecutors charging him with “possession of a firearm with knowledge that he was illegally and unlawfully an alien in the United States.” , said Sargus. His attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charges, saying he has the right to bear arms as an Ohio citizen who works and pays taxes.

Authorities say Serrano-Restrepo entered the U.S. illegally in March 2008 and applied to the Internal Revenue Service for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). He eventually got an ITIN, a Social Security number and a work permit card and paid taxes as the founder of a “successful company,” according to court documents.

“According to Mr. Serrano-Restrepo, his conduct reveals connections significant enough to qualify him as a member of the national political community and entitled to protection under the Second Amendment,” Sargus said.

But Serrano-Restrepo still entered the country illegally, and it was not until 2022 that he applied for asylum, authorities said.

In his ruling, Sargus argued that our Founding Fathers did not write the Constitution with people like Serrano-Restrepo in mind. “The lack of federal immigration regulation suggests that the presence of unlawful immigrants in the United States, and by extension their ownership of firearms, was not a general social problem that the Founders addressed in any significant way,” Sargus said.

Each time Serrano-Restrepo purchased a gun in the U.S., the Colombian resident said he would file a Form 4473 declaring that he had “citizenship of the United States” and that he was “neither unlawfully in the United States , nor was admitted under a non-immigrant visa. ” said Sargus. Serrano-Restrepo, a former Arizona resident, allegedly purchased more than 90 firearms between May 2023 and January 2024 after moving to Ohio in May 2022. After one such purchase of 22 firearms, ATF agents began surveilling Serrano-Restrepo, officials said.

Sargus concluded his submission by stating that “persons unlawfully in the United States shall not be presumed to have any allegiance to the United States,” with the legal precedent of restricting “the possession of firearms by those who refused to take an oath of allegiance.” loyalty to the United States,” he said.

“Taking an oath of allegiance occurs through the naturalization process,” Sargus concluded. “Not because of his asylum application or because of his years of residence in the United States.”

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