Gun dealer found guilty of illegally possessing anti-tank rifle

Following a trial this week, federal jurors found a Macon gun dealer guilty of illegally possessing a Finnish Lahti 20mm anti-tank rifle in 2014.

Evidence presented during the trial showed that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives received information from a previous owner of the anti-tank rifle that Mark Mann, owner and operator of Mann’s World LLC, also known as The Rifleman gun shop, had the gun, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release.

The previous owner contacted the ATF after two checks from Mann’s business account were returned for insufficient funds in his attempts to pay for the weapon, according to the release.

Certain weapons cannot be legally possessed unless they’re registered with the ATF. The anti-tank rifle wasn’t registered to Mann, who had used his status as a firearms dealer to circumvent the registry requirement, according to the release.

Mann will be sentenced in about two months. He faces a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine or both.

Henry Hyde McGirt III, general manager for the store, pleaded guilty last month to making a false entry in a firearm record to purport that Mann’s World LLC was the owner of the rifle.

He is set to be sentenced in June and faces up to a year in prison, a fine of up to $100,000 or both.

“The case was handled appropriately on behalf of Mr. McGirt,” said his lawyer, Brian Jarrard.

According to his plea agreement, McGirt drove to Michigan, wrote checks for the anti-tank rifle and brought it back to the Macon store, located on Hawkinsville Road. The transfer of the gun was supposed to be approved by federal authorities before McGirt took possession of the gun.

In October 2014, agents saw pictures of the rifle on Rifleman’s Facebook page, showing the weapon as being for sale. An undercover agent went to the store and spotted the gun. Later, a search warrant was obtained and the gun was seized by the ATF on Dec. 30, 2014, according to the agreement.

When questioned by authorities, McGirt said Mann told him to go get the rifle. He said he paid the previous owner $4,000 in cash and with two checks totaling $6,500, according to the agreement.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Gun dealer found guilty of illegally possessing anti-tank rifle."