Outrage. "Shock verdict — Mark Witaschek guilty of possessing muzzleloader bullets in D.C." Now it can be told: expended steel cases DO have a purpose in life.

The black-robed traitorous bastard known as Judge Robert E. Morin, Superior Court of the District of Columbia and Professor of Law at Georgetown University.

In a surprising twist at the end of a long trial, a District of Columbia judge found Mark Witaschek guilty of “attempted possession of unlawful ammunition” for antique replica muzzleloader bullets. Judge Robert Morin sentenced Mr. Witaschek to time served, a $50 fine and required him to enroll with the Metropolitan Police Department’s firearm offenders’ registry within 48 hours.

In the afternoon on Wednesday, Judge Morin shook the plastic shell and tried to listen to something inside. He said he could not hear any gunpowder. He then asked the lawyers to open the shell to see if there was powder inside.

(This seemed like a bizarre request since the lack of primer — not gunpowder — would be relevant to the interoperability of the misfired shell.)

Assistant Attorney General Peter Saba said that the government wanted to open the shell but that, “It is dangerous to do outside a lab.”

(NOTE: The hysterical laughter you hear in the distance is mine. What ignorant weenies.)

The prosecutors and police officers left the courtroom to try to find a lab that was open in the afternoon to bring the judge to cut the plastic off the section that holds the pellets. When that proved not possible in the same day, the judge decided to just rule on the bullets.

The 25 conical-shaped, .45 caliber bullets, made by Knight out of lead and copper, sat on the judge’s desk. They do not have primer or gunpowder so cannot be propelled. The matching .50 caliber plastic sabots were also in the box.

There was much debate over whether the bullets were legal since D.C. residents are allowed to buy antique replica firearms without registering.

The judge seemed inclined to throw out this charge since he repeatedly asked how the bullets could be illegal if the gun that they go in was not.

During lunch, the government came up with a list from ATF of types of muzzleloader rifles that could be converted to use rimfire ammunition. Not that Mr. Witaschek owned one of these nor was modern ammo at issue in the trial.

Nevertheless Judge Morin said, “I’m persuaded these are bullets. They look like bullets. They are hollow point. They are not musket balls.” He then ruled that Mr. Witaschek had possessed “beyond a reasonable doubt” the metal pieces in D.C.

Here's the black-robed traitorous bastard's official bio.

A reader who reported this to me in an email early this morning commented:

It's in. Judge ruled that muzzleloader sabots were bullets and that he had to register as a firearms offender. He did not rule at all on the shotgun shell.

Do you have a smuggling program into DC? Since components are just as illegal as as real loaded rounds, I propose sending expended, berdan primed, steel .223 casings to a long list of tyrants in DC.

Might even be able to get these through for the cost of a stamp.

You know, this is an excellent idea. I've always wondered if there was some use for those steel-cased, berdan-primed, scrap-value-less-than-the-cost-of-bending-over-to-pick-them-up Russian marvels. Now there is.