Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
19 counts of selling arms without a license handed up by federal grand jury
By KEVIN VAUGHAN
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
A Denver firefighter already facing federal machine gun charges was named in a new 19-count indictment Wednesday that accuses him of selling weapons without a license.
The new indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury and unsealed Wednesday morning, accuses Stan Ford of selling guns without a federal firearms license on 19 separate occasions over the past five years.
Anyone “engaged in the business” of selling guns is required to hold a federal firearms license.
“They allege that he was engaged in the business,” said Will Hood, Ford’s attorney. “We contend that he was not engaged in the business and that these transactions, to the extent he engaged in any transactions, were for the purpose of pursuing a hobby and improving on his own firearms collection, as many gun owners do.”
Federal agents arrested Ford early on Nov. 22 as he drove away from his southwest Denver home.
He was charged with selling illegal machine guns three times in 2005 to an undercover witness working for the FBI. Ford, 35, also was charged with possessing a Colt handgun with an obliterated serial number, one of more than 70 weapons found in his home after his arrest.
An unattributed statement in the arrest affidavit said that he had been “described as a Denver firefighter who holds anti-U.S. sympathies and has ties to an unknown domestic terrorist organization.”
Ford, through his attorney, has denied that allegation.
The Denver Fire Department suspended Ford without pay after his arrest.
Ford had been scheduled to go on trial in that case April 17. However, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn granted a motion by Hood to postpone the trial.
Hood had argued that he was still waiting for federal prosecutors to provide him with evidence in the case, including copies of the hard drives of computers confiscated from Ford’s home.
In addition, Hood filed a motion that could lead to a consolidation of the earlier case and the new one filed Wednesday.