November 27-2015
The home of an Iranian immigrant who was licensed by the federal government as an arms dealer was raided last week and an immense haul of weapons, some of them military, removed.
They were removed because the Iranian-American had been diagnosed with a mental illness, which means he can no longer own any weapons, let alone sell them.
The US Department of Justice said it was the biggest haul ever made from a single home in California—541 guns were seized.
Albert Sheakalee, 59, had handguns, shotguns, assault rifles and at least one high-caliber sniper rifle—all locked and stored safely, according to his attorney Mark Coleman, who added, “These guns were all stored lawfully.”
Coleman says his client was selling guns legally out of his house in Clovis, located in the middle of California near Fresno, and has been doing so for more than 30 years. “One of the rights he has as an American is to own firearms,” Coleman said.
The Department of Justice disagreed, saying Sheakalee was institutionalized earlier this year for mental health issues and that his right to own the guns was thereby lost. Because of mass killings in recent years by the mentally ill, much attention—by both conservatives and liberals—has been focused on keeping guns out of the hands of the disturbed.
Coleman admits his client reached out for help and was treated.
Michelle Gregory of the Department of Justice said, “He’s prohibited from owning or possessing firearms at this time and, because of that, he’s not able to sell firearms.”
Gregory said Sheakalee should have been notified of that.
Coleman said, “They have no proof he was notified, because he wasn’t.”
The California Department of Justice said California is the first and so far only state to set up an automated system for tracking people with gun licenses who are no longer allowed to have weapons because they fall into a prohibited category: convicted of a felony or violent misdemeanor; placed under a restraining order for domestic violence; or suffer from a serious mental ailment.
At this point, Sheakalee has not been charged with a crime. He is free after posting bail of $11,000 and will appear in court next month. Coleman says it will be a fight for his client’s gun rights and he’ll try to get the guns back.
Sheakalee left Iran in the 1970s and subsequently became an American citizen. His attorney doesn’t believe ethnicity had anything to do with the arrest.
