A Kauai U.S. Postal Service worker with a history of mental illness pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to possession of a machine gun and purchasing a gun from the mainland using the license of a local gun dealer without permission.
Troy Haruki Hamura, 51, faces a maximum 10-year prison term for each crime when he is sentenced in December.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Hamura told its agents that he made 15 to 20 unauthorized gun purchases using a federal firearms license that belonged to a Kauai gun dealer. Hamura ordered the guns from the mainland and had them sent by mail to the gun dealer’s address. Because the address is on his delivery route, Hamura was able to intercept the deliveries.
For the charge to which he pleaded guilty, Hamura said he sent the license by facsimile to a company in Florida.
He was not working on the day the gun he ordered arrived in the mail. So he instructed another letter carrier to deliver the order to him instead of to the gun dealer, to whom the order was addressed, according to his plea agreement.
Authorities began investigating Hamura after the person to whom he sold the gun tried to register the weapon. Kauai had no record of anyone previously registering the firearm on Kauai.
When its agents went to Hamura’s home in June, the ATF said, Hamura turned over 19 unregistered firearms, including the machine gun, a Colt AR15/M16A1 rifle capable of firing on full-automatic mode. Hamura told the agents he purchased the rifle, which had "Property of the U.S. Government" stamped on it, for $2,000 from a friend.
The ATF said its agents went back to Hamura’s home with a search warrant and seized 30 more weapons — 10 rifles and 20 handguns, all registered to Hamura — and 23,000 rounds of ammunition.
Hamura told U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi that he has been diagnosed with bipolar disease and depression for which he takes medication and has been seeing a psychiatrist for the past 10 years.
Under state law anyone with a significant behaviorial, emotional or mental disorder — as defined by the American Psychiatric Association diagnostic manual — cannot own or possess firearms or ammunition.
Hamura apparently was able to do so because his condition fell short of the legal threshold that would have allowed police to block the acquisitions.
Keith Shigetomi, Hamura’s lawyer, told the Star-Advertiser last month that his client’s mental problems never rose to a level that would have prevented him from owning guns. In order for such a prohibition to be imposed, a person would have to be deemed a danger to himself or others, and Hamura’s doctor found no indication of that being the case, Shigetomi said.
The U.S. Postal Service did not return telephone calls from the Star-Advertiser about whether Hamura is still employed there.
