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<h6 id="google_ads_iframe_/424397508/dailymail.uk/dm_dmnews_newsart/billboard_0__container__"><span style="color: #332b2b;"><strong>Joshua Pratchard was sentenced to 75 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to 13 weapons charges</strong></span></h6>
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<h6><span style="color: #332b2b;"><strong>Pratchard, 38, was Feds said was </strong>running a &#8216;firearms and ammunition factory,&#8217; discovered after he was kicked out of an armed border &#8216;militia&#8217;</span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #332b2b;"><strong>Pratchard, 38, a dishonorably discharged Marine with a criminal past, had joined a civilian border patrol group in Arizona, but was ejected shortly after, for anger issues</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #332b2b;"><strong>He was asked to leave after expressing a desire to detain migrants &#8216;hands-on&#8217; and use a silencer on his weapon </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #332b2b;"><strong>The group included an FBI informant, who befriended Pratchard, and learned was manufacturing guns for some of his colleagues, leading to his arrest in June 2018 </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #332b2b;"><strong>FBI raided Pratchard&#8217;s home in San Diego and found an armory with equipment to build firearms and enough gunpowder to make about 9,000 bullets </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #332b2b;"><strong>As a convicted felon he was not allowed to own firearms he pled guilty </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #332b2b;"><strong>In February Pratchard pled guilty to 13 counts, including possession of a firearm by a felon, unlicensed transfer of a firearm and possessing an unregistered firearm</strong></span></h6>
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<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-327711" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/joshua-Pratchard-1.jpg" alt="joshua Pratchard 1" width="731" height="666" />Former Marine and would-be border vigilante Joshua Pratchard pled guilty to illegal possession of weapons in February. On Tuesday he was sentenced to spend six years behind bars.</strong></span></h6>
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<p><span style="color: var(--color-text);">A former Marine who was ejected from an armed civilian border patrol group for anger issues and being overly eager to pursue migrants on the US-</span><span style="color: var(--color-text);">Mexico</span><span style="color: var(--color-text);"> border has been sentenced to more than six years for manufacturing guns and ammunition at his San Diego home.</span></p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font"><span style="color: var(--color-text);">The discovery of a “firearms and ammunition factory” in his San Diego home, led to Joshua Pratchard being sentenced to 75 months in federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday.<br />
As a convicted felon, Pratchard was not allowed to own firearms, least ways, manufacture and distribute weapons.</span><br />
Prosecutors said the 38-year-old would-be vigilante drove from California in January 2018 to work with an armed group that patrols the border near Arivaca, Arizona, for illegal border crossings.</p>
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<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><strong><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-327713" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Weapon-from-Joshua-Pratchards-arms-factory-1.jpg" alt="Weapon from Joshua Pratchard's arms factory 1" width="640" height="480" />Prosecutors say Pratchard, who was a convicted felon, had an armory at his San Diego home stocked with gun making equipment along with enough gunpowder to make 9,000 rounds of ammo</span></strong></h6>
<div><span style="color: var(--color-text);">In the charging documents, prosecutors said the ex-Marine had a &#8216;firearms and ammunition factory&#8217; at his residence, about which he bragged to an FBI informant that he met last year at the Arizona Border Recon patrol group. </span></div>
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<p>Pratchard was asked to leave Arizona Border Recon after just a few days for allegedly wanting to physically detain migrants in a manner he described as &#8216;hands-on,&#8217; confront drug traffickers known colloquially as &#8216;rip crews&#8217; and use a silencer on his weapon, reported <a class="class" href="https://tucson.com/news/local/prosecutors-militia-member-had-gun-making-factory-in-his-house/article_d8ef63ae-5512-547e-a293-88b9c44bdcf9.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Arizona Daily Star.</a><br />
An FBI agent was using a confidential source who reported that Pratchard “became visibly angry when he was told he could not have a silencer on his weapon” while working with Arizona Border Recon, the agent wrote.<br />
“He also became angry when he learned he could not go ‘hands on’ with illegal aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.”</p>
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<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><strong><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><img class="alignnone wp-image-327712" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Weapon-from-Joshua-Pratchards-arms-factory-2.jpg" alt="Weapon from Joshua Pratchard's arms factory 2" width="742" height="541" />The weapon is part of the haul federal agents seized from Pratchard&#8217;s home, four of which he had built himself </span></strong></h6>
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<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><img class="alignnone wp-image-327715" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/joshua-Pratchard-bragge-about-his-munitions-factory-to-an-FBI-informant-1.jpg" alt="joshua Pratchard bragge about his munitions factory to an FBI informant 1" width="694" height="911" /><strong>Joshua Pratchard bragged about the &#8216;firearms and ammunition factory&#8217; at his residence to an FBI informant he met last year at the Arizona Border Recon patrol group, prosecutors said </strong></span></h6>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">When told by the leader of the group, Tim Foley, that he could not engage migrants that way, Pratchard grew &#8216;visibly angry,&#8217; which drew the attention of an FBI informant who was in attendance at that meeting, according to court records. Foley previously denied that his group is a &#8216;militia&#8217; and insisted that its actions are lawful.<br />
The FBI informant befriended the disgruntled would-be vigilante and the two went on several reconnaissance missions along the border in the spring of 2018 after Pratchard was ejected from Foley&#8217;s group for bringing a gun equipped with a silencer.<br />
During one of Pratchard and the informant&#8217;s independent patrols, the former Marine allegedly bragged that he had an armory set up at home where he had been building firearms for friends and family.<br />
<span style="color: var(--color-text);">In one recorded conversation, Pratchard said he was excited at the chance to run into a rip crew, as bandits who steal drug loads in the desert are known.<br />
</span><span style="color: var(--color-text);">His desire to physically detain migrants and engage with rip crews, as well as use a silencer, went against the rules of Arizona Border Recon, and he was kicked out after only a few days, prosecutors wrote in court documents.</span></p>
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<h6 class="overlay-icon mobile-gallery"><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-327729" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Bullets-and-magazines-fashioned-or-modified-in-Joshua-Pratchards-munitions-factory-2.jpg" alt="Bullets and magazines fashioned or modified in Joshua Pratchard's munitions factory 2" width="1200" height="814" />The former Marine told the court on Tuesday he had become obsessed with making weapons and ammo </strong></span></h6>
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<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-327720" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Weapon-from-Joshua-Pratchards-arms-factory-engraved-with-his-name-3.jpg" alt="Weapon from Joshua Pratchard's arms factory engraved with his name 3" width="788" height="511" /><strong>He confided in his informant that he engraved his homemade guns with &#8216;fake serial numbers&#8217; comprised of his wife and toddler son&#8217;s dates of birth</strong></span></h6>
<div class="mobile-gallery-icon"><span style="color: var(--color-text);">Pratchard&#8217;s past criminal record included two felony convictions for selling ecstasy pills and brutally beating a man, which barred him from owning guns. That is why he decided to manufacture his own weapons, telling the informant: &#8216;They just get addicting, and you can’t stop.&#8217; </span></div>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">He even engraved his homemade guns with fake serial numbers comprised of his wife and toddler son&#8217;s dates of birth, according to the prosecution.<br />
Pratchard was arrested outside the Casino Del Sol in Tucson in June 2018 with a .45-caliber pistol, a short-barreled rifle, another rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition in his truck.<br />
When federal agents raided his home in San Diego, they discovered what prosecutors described as a &#8216;firearms and ammunition factory&#8217; stocked with eight guns &#8211; four of them registered to the man&#8217;s wife &#8211; pieces of equipment used to build firearms and enough gunpowder to make about 9,000 bullets, reported<a class="class" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/30/border-militia-joshua-pratchard-gun-factory-fbi/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> The Washington Post. </a><br />
<span style="color: var(--color-text);">In February, Pratchard pleaded guilty to 13 counts, including possession of a firearm by a felon, unlicensed transfer of a firearm and possessing an unregistered firearm.<br />
</span>His defense argued that the former Marine had struggled with untreated mental illness for most of his life and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Since his arrest, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.</p>
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<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-327719" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Weapon-from-Joshua-Pratchards-arms-factory-4.jpg" alt="Weapon from Joshua Pratchard's arms factory 4" width="783" height="556" /><strong>The discovery of a “firearms and ammunition factory” in his San Diego home, led to Joshua Pratchard being sentenced to 75 months in federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday. As a convicted felon, Pratchard was not allowed to own firearms</strong></span></h6>
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<h6><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-327735" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Weapon-from-Joshua-Pratchards-arms-factory-7.jpg" alt="Weapon from Joshua Pratchard's arms factory 7.JPG" width="752" height="568" /><strong><span style="color: var(--color-text);">In February Pratchard pled guilty to 13 counts, including possession of a firearm by a felon, unlicensed transfer of a firearm and possessing an unregistered firearm</span></strong></h6>
<p>Federal prosecutors detailed what they described as the defendant&#8217;s &#8216;long history of violence and unresolved anger.&#8217;<br />
He enlisted in the Marine Corps as a teenager but was dishonorably discharged less than three years later after being convicted of selling ecstasy pills.<br />
In 2007, he was arrested for stomping on a man&#8217;s head during a bar brawl, which resulted in a felony assault conviction.<br />
In 2014, Pratchard&#8217;s wife called the police on him, claiming that he verbally threatened to hurt her and then threw her on the bed. The woman ultimately chose not to press charges against her husband and the case was dismissed.<br />
When given a chance to speak during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Pratchard admitted that he &#8216;made a really stupid decision.&#8217;<br />
The aspiring border vigilante explained that he had become so engrossed in manufacturing his own weapons that the pursuit became his &#8216;idol.&#8217;<br />
&#8216;I don’t want anything to do with guns anymore,&#8217; he said. &#8216;They are the bane of my existence.&#8217;</p>
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Ex-Marine, 38, sentenced to 75 months in federal prison for running a ‘firearms and ammunition factory’ – Which was only discovered by Feds after Joshua Pratchard was kicked out of an armed border ‘militia’ because he wanted to use a silencer and get ‘hands on’ with illegal aliens
