Grant County Man Pleads Guilty to Unlawfully Possessing a .50 Caliber Machine Gun

EUGENE, Ore. – On Monday, January 23, 2017, Michael Ray Emry, 54, of John Day, Oregon, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken to unlawful possession of a fully automatic .50 caliber machine gun that was not registered to him.

After accepting the guilty plea, Judge Aiken scheduled Emry’s sentencing hearing for April 3, 2017. Emry faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on May 6, 2016, federal agents executed a search warrant on Emry’s trailer in John Day and recovered a Browning M2 machine gun with an obliterated serial number. Emry told agents that the firearm was fully automatic and could fire between 550 and 650 rounds per minute, that he had stolen it from a man in Idaho, and that he had removed the serial number prior to bringing it to Oregon.

The case was investigated by the FBI in close collaboration with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and is being prosecuted by Nathan J. Lichvarcik, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Oregon.