A hobby gunsmith in New York City has been convicted on 13 weapons charges after his judge declared the Second Amendment "doesn’t exist here."
Dexter Taylor, 52, is a software engineer by day but had begun manufacturing weapons in his spare time.
“Ever since I was a kid, I was really, like most red-blooded American kids, I was interested in guns and tanks and fighter planes because it was cool,” Taylor told Red State in an interview before his conviction.
“I found out that you can actually legally buy a receiver and you can machine that receiver to completion, and you buy your parts and you put them together and you've got a pistol or a rifle. And once I saw that I was hooked. I was like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever. This is the most cool thing you could possibly do in your machine shop.’” .@DoniTheDon_ and I had a very serious conversation with @futureradiocast about his gun case in New York City.
The government is trying to lock him up for 18 years for manufacturing his own firearms.
Check out this clip.
I'll be writing about this later with more detail. pic.twitter.com/ymEZmQR3SB
— Jeff Charles, An Awful Pundit🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) December 13, 2023
In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) raided Taylor in a joint operation.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on April 22, 2022, that Taylor had been indicted for purchasing “$10,000 worth of gun parts online to build illegal, untraceable firearms known as ghost guns.”
Red State noted, "Taylor was not suspected or charged with any violent offenses and has a clean criminal record. Nevertheless, he is facing 18 years in prison."
Vinoo Varghese, Taylor’s defense lawyer, told the outlet that Judge Abena Darkeh "admonished the defense to refrain from mentioning the Second Amendment during the trial."She told us, ‘Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.'
Taylor's sentencing is scheduled for May 13. He is currently being held on Riker's Island.
A GiveSendGo fundraiser to help cover his legal fees has raised nearly $60,000.