Gretna man arrested on firearms charges - Video of arrest

By Staff

Published: April 30, 2008

A Gretna man is charged with illegally manufacturing and selling machine guns at his house.

Jack Randolph Scott, 64, was arrested at about 9 a.m. Tuesday at his house at 3761 Rockford School Road in Gretna, according to a news release from Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor.

Authorities from the sheriff’s office, Danville Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms assisted in the case.

“This arrest today has removed from our community illegally manufactured firearms exclusively for destructive and in many instances violent acts of criminal behavior,” Taylor said in the statement released Tuesday afternoon.

Phone messages left for Taylor were not returned by press time Tuesday.

Scott had been the focus of an undercover investigation since late last year for suspicion of making and selling numerous machine guns, the release states. The search warrant named Scott’s address and a shop located on the premises where the alleged firearms were milled and assembled.

Scott was arrested on a number of federal violations, including manufacturing or dealing in firearms without a license; nonpayment of the special occupational tax required for his business or registering as required by law; possessing or transferring a machine gun; possessing a machine gun not registered to him as required by the National Firearms Legislation and Transfer Records; making and transferring a firearm in violation of the provision of chapter 53 of the Internal Revenue Code; and possessing firearms not identified by a serial number.

Investigators and agents assigned to the Violent Incident Proactive Enterprise Response task force, or VIPER, conducted the investigation.

Scott was transported to Roanoke, where he will appear before the U.S. Western District magistrate later this week.

U.S. Attorney John Brownlee could not be reached for comment Tuesday.   

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the county’s task-force investigators at (434) 432-7825 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-791-0044.