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Texas man sentenced to 8 years in prison for 3-D gun

Posted at 11:22 AM, Feb 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-14 12:25:34-05

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (AP) - A Texas man is heading to prison after police found him in the woods with a partially 3-D printed AR-15 rifle and a list of federal lawmakers' addresses in his backpack.

Eric McGinnis was sentenced to eight years in federal prison on Wednesday. He was convicted last summer of possessing an unregistered short-barreled rifle. He also was found guilty of unlawfully possessing ammunition while subject to an active protective order that had been issued because of a 2015 altercation with a girlfriend.

Prosecutors said McGinnis tried to buy a semiautomatic rifle in 2016 but was turned away because of the protective order. According to the Dallas Morning News, he instead used a 3-D printer to create the firing mechanism for an AR-15.

McGinnis' attorneys had argued that McGinnis should not have lost his right to own guns because of the protective order.

Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com

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