Firearms Dealer Pleads Guilty to Illegal Possession of a Firearm and Lying to Federal Agents

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite announced today that WAYLON GIVENS, age 41, of Amite, pled guilty to a two-count Bill of Information charging him with illegal possession of a machine gun and making a false statement to agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”).

According to court documents, in July 2014, ATF conducted an investigation into RH Custom, an internet company based in Sweden.  RH Custom sold selling “Glock Switches,” “Lightning Links,” suppressor builder’s kits (silencers), and other firearms components to customers in the United States.  Some of these parts are designed to convert semi-automatic firearms to fully automatic firearms, in violation of the National Firearms Act.  ATF learned of GIVENS’s purchases by reviewing invoices obtained in relation to the investigation of RH Custom.  As a result of the investigation, ATF learned that between June 2012 through August 2012, GIVENS, a Federal Firearms Licensee, doing business as Givens Firearms, ordered and received seven Lightning Links and four Glock Switches. 

On July 11, 2014, ATF interviewed GIVENS and informed him of the nature of the investigation and that agents were aware of his purchases from RH Custom.  Agents advised GIVENS that the purpose of ATF’s investigation was to retrieve the parts that he received from RH Custom.  GIVENS told ATF that he sold multiple “Glock full-auto conversion kits” and “Lightening Links” to an unknown individual, but that he did not know the location of the parts.  After further investigation, it was determined that GIVENS had sold the illegal parts to known individuals whom he knew were in possession of the parts at the time of the ATF interview.