Indiana Appeals Court affirms Second Amendment doesn't apply to machine guns
A "Glock switch" device — pictured with a counterfeit logo — can convert the firearm into a machine gun. Glock Corporation doesn't make converters for its products. (Photo from the U.S. Department of Justice)
The Constitution's Second Amendment protections don't include machine guns, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled last week, citing existing case law. The term includes the fully automatic firearms and conversion devices.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officers arrested a then-18-year-old Jacob McGee, toting a Glock 22 fitted with a conversion device, in 2023. He was convicted of Level 5 felony machine gun possession in Marion Superior Court and sentenced to four years: two in community corrections and two suspended to probation.
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: 'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'
McGee appealed. He argued Indiana's ban on machine guns violates his constitutional right to bear arms, and, alternatively, that there wasn't enough evidence that he knew the 'Glock switch' made his firearm into a machine gun.
In a Feb. 19 opinion, a three-judge panel cited a long history of recognition that this constitutional right is 'not unlimited.' It agreed with 'the overwhelming number' of federal district courts and federal appellate courts that 'have uniformly concluded' that the Second Amendment's plain text doesn't protect machine guns because they're 'dangerous and unusual weapons.'
'McGee's Second Amendment challenge thus fails,' Judge Nancy Vaidik, the opinion's author, wrote.
The judicial panel also decided there was enough evidence to support McGee's conviction.
It noted that McGee said he bought the Glock 22 in a private sale for $800 the day before his arrest, and that it came with the switch. He testified the seller told him 'what it was.' When asked what one does, he responded that it 'make(s) your gun shoot fast basically' but said he didn't realize it would enable the firearm to shoot multiple bullets in a single pull of the trigger.'
The trial court opined that McGee still understood the switch would amplify the gun's ability to fire beyond semi-automatic functions. Vaidik wrote that he'd asked her court to 'reweigh the evidence, which we don't do.'
'The evidence is sufficient to prove McGee knew the switch made his gun a machine gun,' Vaidik concluded.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Man dies from suspected overdose, 2 arrested on drug charges
GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. (WSAV) — Two men have been arrested on drug charges after an investigation into a suspected overdose death. Glynn County Police Department (GCPD) officers responded to the Friendly Express Gas Station on Perry Road around 10 p.m. Thursday for a death investigation. Officers found a dead man inside a company box truck. Two individuals identified as Willie Thomas and Jamie Schneider, both residents of North Carolina, were present at the scene. As part of the investigation, officers recovered suspected cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, and fentanyl, along with a stolen Glock handgun, a digital scale and a glass smoking device commonly associated with narcotics use from the truck. After interviews, Willie Thomas and Jamie Schneider were arrested and taken to the local detention center. Thomas is charged three possession of schedule ii substance, possession of marijuana less than an ounce, theft by receiving stolen property and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Jamie Schneider is charged with theft by receiving stolen property and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The deceased man is suspected to have died from a drug overdose, a GCPD spokesperson said. His body was reportedly transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Crime Lab for a full autopsy to determine the official cause of death. This remains an active and ongoing investigation. This investigation is ongoing and any person with information on this case is encouraged to contact the Glynn County Police Department Non-Emergency at (912) 554-3645 or anonymously via Silent Witness at (912) 264-1333. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Stephen Stanko, who killed 2 and raped his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter, is executed
Stephen Stanko, who killed 2 and raped his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter, is executed While prosecutors painted Stanko as a cold, calculated psychopath at trial, his attorneys at the time argued that he was insane when he committed the rape and murders. Show Caption Hide Caption US expands execution methods Most death row inmates faced one execution method in modern history. Now, there are many alternative ways to die. South Carolina has executed a conman-turned-murderer convicted of killing two people and raping his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter. Stephen Stanko, 57, was executed by lethal injection on Friday, June 13, for the murder of 74-year-old Henry Lee Turner, a retired Air Force master sergeant and father of three. Stanko was sentenced to death separately for the murder of his 43-year-old girlfriend, whom USA TODAY is not naming to protect her daughter's privacy as a rape survivor. Stanko became the 23rd inmate put to death in the U.S. this year and the third in South Carolina. He was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. While prosecutors painted Stanko as a cold, calculated psychopath at trial, his attorneys at the time argued that he was insane when he committed the murders. His current lawyers argued that his life should have been spared because the execution methods in South Carolina amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the U.S. Constitution, an argument refuted by state officials and rejected by courts. Here's what you need to know about Stanko's execution. Stanko's execution just one of four this week Stanko's final breaths came during a busy week for the death penalty in the U.S., with four executions between Tuesday and Friday. Two were executed on the same day on June 10: Anthony Wainwright in Florida by lethal injection and Gregory Hunt in Alabama by nitrogen gas. Oklahoma executed John Hanson by lethal injection on Thursday, June 12. What did Stephen Stanko do? In the middle of the night on April 8, 2005, Stanko attacked his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter as she slept in her bed at home in Murrells Inlet, an unincorporated seaside community just south of Myrtle Beach. The girl later sobbed and clutched a white teddy bear as she testified about the hours-long attack, according to coverage by the Sun-News. At some point, worried about her mother, the girl broke free and found her lying on the floor in another room. The girl testified that Stanko then hit her over the head and she blacked out. When she woke, he raped her again and then pinned her body to the bed with his knee while he strangled her mother in front of her. "I said, 'Please God, take me and not her,'" the girl testified as people in the courtroom cried, the Sun-News reported. "I fought hard but she stopped making noises, and that was it." After he killed his 43-year-old girlfriend, Stanko then drove 25 miles north the Conway home of one of her friends, Henry Lee Turner, whose body was found fatally shot about 24 hours later. Stanko fled the scene, setting off a nationwide manhunt that made national headlines. Four days after the murders, federal authorities tracked Stanko down about 200 miles west to Augusta, where he was hobnobbing with Masters golf fans, introducing himself as Stephen Christopher, and lying about his wealth. Stanko had also already wooed a woman, moved in with her and had even gone to church with her on the Sunday before he was captured, authorities said at the time. "She said he was the nicest, most courteous young man," the woman's grandmother told Knight Ridder at the time. "You would never know he was a fraud." Charles Grose, Stanko's attorney, said that experts have diagnosed the inmate with brain damage, 'likely from numerous brain injuries including from a troubled birth, a blow to the back of the head as a teen while shielding a classmate from an assault, and repeated traumas from serious sports-related head injuries.' He said that problems resulting from the brain damage were manageable in a controlled environment like prison and that he "productively used his years on death row to repent of his crimes and seek God's forgiveness, help other inmates and write about his experiences.' Grose added: 'While nothing excuses Stephen's terrible crimes, his execution will not make South Carolina safer.' Stanko described as conman, psychopath Archived news reports citing courtroom testimony and interviews describe a con artist who had a knack for reeling in women. Stanko's various lies included, according to archived news accounts: that he was a millionaire, he owned multiple hamburger restaurants, he had an engineering degree from a prestigious university, and he made bigtime deals in oil and real estate. "He has a need for grandiosity," one forensic psychologist observed on the witness stand, according to a 2006 report in the Myrtle Beach Sun-News. Another one simply said: "Mr. Stanko is a psychopath." Although Stanko was adept at charming some, others didn't buy his act. "He was smooth and he was slick," John Gaumer, a colleague of Stanko's slain girlfriend, told the Sun-News. "It's a puzzle to everyone I know what it was that he had − that he was able to exercise so much control over her was a mystery.' Her ex-husband told the paper that he met Stanko at her home. "I didn't like him. He knew that I knew what he was,' he said. 'When we looked at each other, I just could sense that there wasn't something right here. But at the same time, you are being told that he is OK, and you want to believe that." He said that Stanko had admitted to having a criminal past, likely as part of a plan to gain her trust. "The snowing ... obviously it drew her in. It was all part of the barrage, the seduction," he said. Stephen Stanko had criminal past, helped write a book from prison It's unclear just how much of his criminal past Stanko shared with his girlfriend. He had served more than eight years in prison for kidnapping and trying to kill another girlfriend in 1996. He had been living with the woman in Goose Creek when they got into an argument about his involvement in theft and fraud, and she told him he had to move out, according to police reports obtained by Knight Ridder in 2005. The next morning, they fought again, and Stanko soaked a washcloth with bleach, put it over her mouth, and tied up her wrists and ankles before he left. The woman, who told police that Stanko had tried to suffocate her, was able to break free and get help, Knight Ridder reported. Stanko pleaded guilty to charges of assault and battery with intent to kill and kidnapping, and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, according to online court records reviewed by USA TODAY. During Stanko's time in prison for that case, he became an author and co-wrote a book called "Living in Prison: A History of the Correctional System with an Insider's View." On Amazon, the book is described as "a rigorous exploration of our correctional system" from Stanko's perspective "on the harsh realities of prison life." Who were Stephen Stanko's victims? USA TODAY was unable to reach family members of either of Stanko's murder victims. Archived news reports about who they were are limited, but both Stanko's girlfriend and Henry Lee Turner were described as trusting and caring people. Her ex-husband told the Sun-News that the mother of three had a great sense of humor. "She was a vivacious, intelligent, compassionate woman who was a very good mother," he told the newspaper. Turner's daughter, Debbie Turner Gallogly, told the Sun-News that her dad met Stanko when he and his girlfriend went to Turner's house to help him with computer problems. "He's a very trusting person, a very welcoming person," she said. "He loved inviting people into his home for meals."
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Federal officials arrest four protesters of immigration raid in Omaha
A worker is escorted to a bus headed to a detention center after she was apprehended at Glenn Valley Foods of Omaha during largest Nebraska immigration raid since President Donald Trump took office. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) OMAHA — Federal authorities on Friday announced the arrests Thursday of four protesters outside of an Omaha immigration raid conducted earlier this week, alleging that the four were 'aggressive' and captured on video damaging federal property and threatening to assault law officers in relation to the raid at Glenn Valley Foods. The statement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided no names. It said the protesters arrested are expected to face felony charges of 'assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating or interfering with a federal officer while engaged in the performance of their official duties, as well as damaging government property.' Video of a few people throwing rocks and others blocking law enforcement cars at the Tuesday raid site were widely circulated on social media. 'Many of these protesters claim to be fighting for justice, but instead they damaged property, threatened federal officers and agents and attempted to obstruct a lawful operation aimed at arresting individuals who exploited stolen identities to work illegally,' Todd Lyons, acting ICE Director, said in a statement. Federal immigration raid hits Omaha plant During the enforcement operation at Glenn Valley, immigration agents detained nearly 80 workers. It was the largest immigration enforcement operation in Nebraska since President Donald Trump took office with a pledge to carry out massive deportations. Of the workers detained, ICE has said some had active local warrants, prior DUI convictions or had been previously deported. The agency said in a statement that many may now face additional federal charges: fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents; assaulting a federal officer; resisting arrest; illegal reentry; and/or misuse of Social Security numbers. The investigation was conducted by ICE Homeland Security Investigations, with support from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI, and a fraud unit from the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles. 'Peaceful protest is a right protected under the Constitution, and our agents are proud to defend that right every day,' said Mark Zito, Special Agent in Charge of ICE HSI Kansas City, which covers Omaha. 'But threats, violence and property damage by criminal actors claiming some kind of vigilante justice will not be tolerated.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
