Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms seized guns at this property on West Cattail Road in Leacock Township on Jan. 14, 2022. The property, pictured in this Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, photograph, has a foundry business and dairy operation.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms seized guns at this property on West Cattail Road in Leacock Township on Jan. 14, 2022. The property, pictured in this Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, photograph, has a foundry business and dairy operation.
An Amish dairy farmer in Leacock Township who sold thousands of guns despite lacking a federal firearms dealer license must pay a $35,000 fine and will spend three years on probation.
During a sentencing hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr. also ordered Reuben King, 56, to forfeit more than 600 rifles and shotguns.
The sentence Leeson imposed was less than both federal prosecutors and the defense were seeking. The maximum sentence is up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.
In court filings ahead of the sentencing, federal prosecutors argued for 41 to 51 months incarceration.
King’s attorney, Robert Barnes, of Los Angeles, argued for five years of probation and community service.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized guns from King’s farm during a January 2022 raid, leading a grand jury to indict him that June on a single count of dealing in firearms without a license.
A federal jury in Allentown convicted King on May 17, 2023.
King told an LNP | LancasterOnline reporter who visited the farm shortly after the 2022 raid that his business is running a dairy. He said he sold “some” guns from his personal collection, but didn’t advertise and didn’t sell handguns.
Prosecutors wrote that they discovered King advertised guns for sale as far back as 2014 and going up to January 2022 in a local newspaper, though the memorandum did not specify the paper.
LNP classified ad records show a Reuben King at his property’s address paid to advertise a rifle for sale in 2008.
King’s actions, prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum, required that he be sentenced to prison.
“King repeatedly violated federal law by running an unlicensed firearms dealership from his barn, for which he maintained an inventory of over 600 longarms, including pallets of new-in-the-box firearms, and even posted newspaper ads for his wares. He did this both before and after receiving the extraordinary benefit of a warning letter from ATF,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors wrote that a person can get a license to sell firearms and noted that the investigation was “triggered by the complaint of one such legitimate firearms dealer.”
In arguing for probation, Barnes downplayed King’s actions.
“King was not running guns to criminal cartels, forging documents, scraping off serial numbers, marketing guns to drug dealers or selling firearms for unlawful use,” Barnes wrote in his sentencing memo. “The government would treat King as if he is the Merchant of Death, rather than the Amish farmer with an 8th grade education, no criminal record, a key supporting member of his community, who simply ran afoul of the licensure rules our government increasingly imposes on more and more people.”
Another attorney for King, Berks County attorney Joshua Prince, said ahead of Tuesday’s sentencing that King intended to appeal his conviction but could not do so until he was sentenced.
King’s attorney’s contend the law requiring a federal firearms license is unconstitutional because it is vague. Prince on Tuesday said the ATF itself has acknowledged “there is no bright line rule as to whether an individual requires a federal firearm license.”
According to a 15-page document posted to the ATF’s website titled “Do I need a license to buy and sell firearms?”, a person needs a license if they “repetitively buy and sell firearms with the principal motive of making a profit.” Licenses are not required for someone who engages in “occasional sales of firearms from your personal collection.”
Prince said another issue in King’s favor is a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a different case holding that firearms regulations had to be consistent with the country’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
In that case, Prince said, the Supreme Court looked at what laws were in place when the country was founded and “declared that mid- to late-19th century laws come too late to provide any insight into the meaning of the Constitution in 1787.”
Prince said firearms dealers weren’t required to be licensed until 1938, or 147 years after the Second Amendment was ratified.
King also claimed in court filings as the case made way to trial that his right to practice his Amish faith under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was burdened by the requirement that a licensed dealer be photographed. The Amish contend their religious beliefs prevent them from posing for photographs. King never sought the license.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
