Stag Arms LLC pleads guilty of serious violations of the United States federal firearms law. The company failed to account for hundreds of its weapons but it states that public safety was never compromised.
Gun manufacturing company Stag Arms LLC pleaded guilty in Hartford federal court on Tuesday of breaking US firearms laws. In behalf of the company, CEO Mark Malkowski was pronounced guilty of possessing 62 unregistered machine guns, reported Hartford Courant. Malkowski dropped his ownership of the company and received a lifetime ban from the firearms industry. Stag Arms will pay $500,000 fine and be sold as part of the plea agreement.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) withdrew Stag Arm's license. Malkowski is negotiating with a private equity firm in New York City to sell the company. Stag Arms said that the guilty plea was in the best interests of the company and its employees.
Malkowski will also plead guilty of failure to keep proper firearms records in a New Haven federal court, where he will be issued a fine of $100,000. Miami Herald reported that careless inventory and inability to strictly follow firearms regulations were the main reasons Stag Arms was unable to account for hundreds of missing weapons.
Stag Arms was not able to abide by a 1986 law that requires "rigorous registration and serial number stamping procedures" on firearms manufacture. The same law also bans ownership of private machine guns.
Connecticut Attorney Deirdre Daly said, "It is critically important for those who are responsible for manufacturing firearms, especially high-powered semiautomatic rifles, to diligently comply with federal firearms laws throughout the production and distribution process." Daly added that firearms laws exist to make sure weapons are accounted for and to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands, reported Connecticut Post.
The ATF investigation on Stag Arms started in July 2014 after lost weapons and record-keeping violations were revealed in a routine inspection. It was discovered that around 200 firearms were not accounted for by the company.
Stag Arms became the third largest firearms manufacturer in the state after it received license to operate in 2003. The company pioneered production of left-handed weapons and sold rifles to police and military groups worldwide.
