Roseville man charged with building illegal assault weapons to sell at gun shows
A Roseville man was charged Tuesday with owning, manufacturing and selling illegal assault weapons after regulators overheard him trying to sell a silencer at the Placerville Gun Show in November, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced.
Marc Berman was charged with 17 counts of violating firearms laws in Placer Superior Court, along with four additional counts in El Dorado Superior Court, the two criminal complaints, dated Feb. 6, show.
State special agents and the Roseville Police SWAT team raided Berman’s home on Nov. 12, seizing eight assault rifles and a silencer, Bonta said in a news release. They also found “numerous other handguns, rifles, disassembled rifles, firearm parts, large capacity magazines, and rounds of ammunition,” Bonta said.
State prosecutors allege that Berman was manufacturing and assembling the weapons in his garage, and then selling them at gun shows.
“The regulations and protocols surrounding firearm purchases have been put in place to ensure the safety of California,” Bonta said. “When bad actors try to skirt the rules and bypass these integral processes, it creates situations with deadly consequences.”
The 21 counts are all related to illegal assembly, distribution, possession and sale of illegal weapons, including assault and semi-automatic rifles.
Berman will be arraigned on the El Dorado County charges on March 10 and the Placer County charges on March 17, court records show. Penalties for the various charges range from six months to eight years, the complaints show. The longer sentences involve the illegal assault weapons.
The charges grew out of an inspection at the Placerville Gun Show on Nov. 3, Bonta said. Field representatives from the state Bureau of Firearms Regulatory Compliance Unit overheard Berman talking to customers there about selling a silencer, which is illegal in California. They searched his stall and found two assault weapons, prompting the broader investigation, according to the Department of Justice.
