Gun dealer gets 8 years for possessing unregistered Lahti anti-tank gun

Mann listed the Lahti for sale on social media for $10,000 with a matching tool kit, four magazines and 10 rounds of 20mm ammunition (Photo: The Rifleman)

A Georgia gun dealer was sentenced to more than eight years in prison Monday for illegally possessing an unregistered Lahti L39 anti-tank gun.

Mark Mann, owner of The Riflemann gun shop, was sentenced to 97 months in prison for possessing the destructive destructive device and will also have to pay a $5,000 fine, The Telegraph reported.

In April, a jury found Mann guilty of possessing the anti-tank gun, which he had been trying to sell even though the weapon had not been registered in accordance with National Firearms Act regulations.

Court documents show that on Feb. 20, 2013, ATF agents performed a compliance inspection and found several items they believed were not registered to Mann, which led to a search warrant being issued for The Rifleman. While executing the search warrant, agents found that several NFA firearms had been illegally transferred by the shop.

Then in November 2014, the previous owner of the Lahti contacted the ATF and told them that two of the checks Mann’s manager, Henry McGirt, had used to purchase the gun had bounced. Mann also did not submit the required NFA transfer paperwork for the gun, which is considered a destructive device under NFA guidelines.

While Mann had listed the Lahti for sale on social media for $10,000 with a matching toolkit, four magazines and 10 rounds of 20mm ammunition, the gun was now considered stolen in the NFA’s registry after the phone call from the previous owner. An undercover ATF agent then followed up and found the gun on display in Mann’s shop, leading to another search warrant and the seizure of the weapon in December 2014.

For his part in the crime, McGirt pleaded guilty to making a false entry in a firearm record. He was sentenced to five years probation last month and given a $2,500 fine.