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. allegedly wounded five, including three children, when he sprayed the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills with gunfire, and later allegedly shot and killed a postal worker on a Chatsworth street.
Furrow's alleged 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.
