Gun Shows in Political Cross Hairs

The kits for sale on James Michael Swain’s table during last month’s Great Western Gun Show at the Los Angeles County fairgrounds in Pomona drew a lot of attention. For inside the plastic bags were most of the parts allegedly needed to assemble a British Sten Mark II machine gun.

During the two-day show, Swain is alleged to have sold the parts kits to three undercover agents and made arrangements to meet later in Newport Beach. It was at those mid-July meetings in Orange County that Swain allegedly delivered the crucial part, called a receiver tube, needed to complete the illegal weapons. Although it is legal to sell the kits with most of the parts for the weapon, it is not legal to sell the receiver tube, which allows the guns to operate.

During one of those meetings in his apartment, Swain also allegedly sold a high-powered military assault weapon called a Browning Automatic Rifle to an undercover federal agent for $3,000 in cash.

Swain was arrested on Aug. 10 and charged with unlawfully possessing a machine gun.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charge and is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Swain was assigned a federal public defender, who did not return phone calls. The U.S. attorney’s office said Swain may be indicted by a federal grand jury on additional charges.

On that same day, white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. wounded five, including three children, when he sprayed the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills with gunfire, and later shot and killed a postal worker on a Chatsworth street.

Furrow’s crimes earned the San Fernando Valley a place in a string of shootings this spring and summer that include April’s massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, a July 4 rampage near Chicago, and a day-trader’s assault on two brokerage offices in Atlanta late last month.

The highly publicized shooting sprees have sparked calls for tougher gun control laws and closer looks at gun shows.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke plan to push for adoption of an ordinance to ban the sale of guns and ammunition on all county-owned property, including the Fairplex in Pomona. Four times a year, the Great Western gun show--billed as the nations’s largest--is held at the fairgrounds.

Unlike the Fairplex, the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa is owned by the state and regulated by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which in May instructed fair boards not to enter into any new contracts with gun show promoters.

The department’s office of fairs and expositions issued the order because an appeals court struck down some of the state’s gun show regulations. Legislation pending in Sacramento would fix and reinstate the regulations and prohibit children under 18 from attending gun shows unless accompanied by an adult.

Last year, 97 shows were held at the Orange County Fairgrounds, bringing in $953,423.

Despite the state order, Orange County Fair and Exposition board members decided to honor their contract for the Crossroads of the West gun show this weekend, which on Saturday drew a crowd of 5,500. The show will return for another two-day stint in November.

Bob Templeton, the Kaysville, Utah, owner of Crossroads of the West, said the new restrictions are the only way to keep the gun shows open.

“We’d like to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” Templeton said Saturday. “Overall it will be good for the industry.”

Bob Schmidt, 72, of Newport Beach wasn’t as diplomatic. Schmidt said regular gun owners, collectors and National Rifle Assn. members have been turned into villains.

“There’s been an ongoing distortion of our patriotic, outgoing and community-spirited people,” Schmidt said. “Some nut cake out there does something and they blame the NRA.”

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks are expected to announce Monday that they endorse the ban on the sale of guns and ammunition on county property.

If the ban is successful, the largest firearms show could be forced out of the Los Angeles county fairgrounds after a run of more than two decades.

Making Contact

At center stage in the coming debate about the proposed ban is what allegedly took place the weekend of July 10 and 11 at the Fairplex in Pomona.

An affidavit filed in federal court by a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent provides an intimate look at how the gun show allegedly provided the point of contact to arrange for the sale of illegal weapons.

According to the affidavit, here is what happened on July 10, when an undercover Pomona police detective saw the machine-gun parts kits displayed on Swain’s table at the gun show:

Swain explained that in order to put the kit together and make a complete machine gun, the buyer would need to acquire a receiver tube. He showed the detective where to cut the necessary holes in the receiver to attach the other parts. He later allegedly sold two parts kits to the detective for $200.

Swain made arrangements to meet the detective at a later date to transfer the receiver tubes. During their conversation, the affidavit says, Swain repeatedly cautioned the detective that the parts kit and the receiver tubes “together constituted an illegal act.”

A second undercover agent, this time from the ATF, then approached Swain’s table. Swain allegedly sold him a parts kit and an instruction manual on how to manufacture the Sten machine guns using a receiver tube for $140.

Once again, Swain identified himself as the person who had receiver tubes. He agreed to mail the parts kit to the ATF undercover agent the following Monday.

On July 11, a second undercover ATF agent spoke to Swain about the parts kits at the show.

The agent paid Swain $235 for two parts kits, a manual on how to make a Sten gun, and a magazine for the weapon. During their conversation, Swain allegedly agreed to provide the receiver tubes with templates attached at his apartment in Newport Beach on July 13.

When the agent arrived at Swain’s apartment, the affidavit says, Swain removed from a cupboard above the refrigerator a red bath cloth that contained a receiver and a trigger group for a Browning Automatic Rifle.

Over the next two hours, Swain exhibited about 15 weapons, including silencer kits and at least three kinds of machine guns, according to the affidavit.

Swain agreed to supply 10 parts kits and 10 milled receiver tubes for $250 per gun, along with five magazines for each gun. He eventually delivered to the agent two receiver tubes and several extra Sten parts for $50.

The affidavit says that at the end of the meeting, Swain agreed to sell the ATF agent a fully assembled Browning Automatic Rifle on July 15 for $3,000 in cash.

Before meeting with the federal agent on that date to consummate the deal for the rifle, Swain met with the Pomona detective at another location in Newport Beach.

By prior arrangement, he delivered two Sten machine gun receiver tubes with templates attached.

Strong Denial From Show Manager

Chad Seger, manager of the Great Western gun show, told the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors last week that “we had absolutely no illegal activity whatsoever” at the July show.

Asked about Swain’s alleged sale of the Sten machine guns and the Browning Automatic Rifle to undercover agents, Seger insisted, “That did not take place at our show. The ATF actually met the man at our show, but he was unwilling to do anything illegal at the Great Western and they subsequently got him to do illegal things after the show.”

Seger said Yaroslavsky’s depiction of the show as a shopping mall for illegal weapons was “a very unfortunate and wrong characterization. . . . We are trying to foster an environment where criminals do not feel comfortable. We’ve got very, very stringent security requirements. We’ve got a very large presence of law enforcement at the show as well as our own security.”