A federal judge recently denied a request by an illegal alien, who had purchased 170 guns and undergone multiple background checks, to drop illegal gun possession charges because he claimed they violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms.
According to a Fox News report, Carlos Serrano-Restrepo’s lawyer submitted a motion to dismiss the charge arguing that he has the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. The judge denied the motion to dismiss the charge against the Ohio man, who had been in the U.S. for 15 years, writing in his opinion that “disarming unlawful immigrants like Mr. Serrano-Restrepo who have not sworn allegiance to the United States comports with the Nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulations.”
“The swearing of an oath of allegiance occurs through the naturalization process, not through his asylum application or his years of living in the United States,” Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. wrote in the ruling.
Serrano-Restrepo had told the judge that his firearms, which included a .50-caliber Barrett multiple AR-15s— was “for self-defense” and part of “his collection,” according to court documents. And had he been a lawful citizen, those would have been very good points. The ruling that illegal immigrants don’t have a Second Amendment right to bear arms isn’t the first such, as the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August that illegals don’t have 2A rights.
While that question appears to be answered—at least for now—the bigger question is how Serrano-Restrepo passed so many federal background checks. Each time he filled out the 4473, he answered that he was a U.S. citizen when he wasn’t.
ATF agents recently began investigating Serrano-Restrepo after he completed a purchase of at least 22 firearms. When they searched his home, they found 170 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
While the media might make that sound like an “arsenal,” TTAG readers know it more as a “nice gun collection”—something to strive for, not to fear. Still, the fact that someone in the country illegally could pass the background check just by lying about his citizenship is concerning, especially since citizens are delayed daily over small errors without the FBI system.
Since simply lying on the background check is a serious crime, Serrano-Restrepo could have been charged with a 10-year felony for every time he underwent a background check while purchasing the 170 guns. Consequently, it takes a pretty brazen lawyer to argue before a court of law that he shouldn’t face a charge of illegal firearms possession when he could face hundreds if not thousands of years in prison for background check falsehoods.
