Nathan Brasfield, a one-time animal rights extremist, will be spending the next 48 months in a federal prison and three additional years on supervised release after being found guilty in federal court in Seattle for illegal gun possession.
It wasn’t just any gun, according to the Seattle P-I.com. Brasfield had a sawed-off rifle that had allegedly been modified to fire full-auto, which he reportedly kept for home defense. The story worsens, however, due to the marijuana grown at his Lake Forest Park residence.
Brasfield had previously been convicted of crimes committed as a teen involving animal rights activism in 2003. He pulled a one-year sentence for sending so-called “black faxes” to a research firm executive whose company tested drugs on animals, the newspaper reported.
Seven years later, Brasfield was in trouble again, this time for possession of stolen property including checks and computer equipment. He reportedly did three months on work release for that offense, to which he pleaded guilty.
In 2012, he showed a police informant the modified rifle, a .223-caliber from Vector Arms. At the time, he reportedly argued that the Second Amendment protected his right to have firearms despite his criminal history. He also reportedly claimed to have manufactured silencers, and to have fired machineguns in rural areas of two western Washington counties.
When investigators searched his home, they recovered the rifle and a couple of handguns.
Brasfield’s public defender described him as “a capable and talented young man who has no excuse for his too-late start down the right path,” the newspaper said.
Back in 2003, he was dubbed a “political prisoner” for being jailed on the “black faxes” offense.
