A 25-year-old Pennsylvania man was sentenced on October 18, facing up to two decades in state prison after pleading guilty to making multiple firearms straw purchases at gun stores across Bucks County according to authorities. A straw purchase is defined by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as buying a firearm for a person who is prohibited by law from possessing guns, or for someone in general who does not want their name associated with the purchase.

In August, Cody Kirk McInnis of Bristol Township pleaded guilty to 12 felony counts of making false statements on firearm purchase forms, 11 counts of firearm ownership – duty of other persons and filing false reports, and two counts of criminal conspiracy. Unsurprisingly, Common Pleas Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. ordered that McInnis not possess or own firearms and ammunition as the cherry on top of his 10 to 20-year state prison sentence, which means it could be two decades before McInnis will ever be able to seek the services of Vanilla Ice’s eyebrow technician again. 

Although McInnis filled out paperwork indicating he was purchasing the firearms for himself, he has since admitted to selling those guns to others, denying any recollection of who he sold them to. Nonetheless, investigators have recovered multiple firearms from McInnis’ July 1 through October 5, 2021, spending spree under suspicious circumstances or from people who were prohibited from possessing firearms.

During the trial, McInnis claimed he had sold some of the firearms back to stores, also stating that one of the firearms had been stolen from him. Investigators, however, found no indication that he ever reported a stolen gun and no records were available to substantiate the claim he had sold them back to the gun stores.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the ATF, Newark Field Division were assisted by the Montgomery County Detective Bureau’s Violent Crime Unit, the Trenton Police Department, and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office’s Gun Violence Task Force. The investigation concluded that McInnis had straw-purchased 11 firearms and one rifle lower receiver, also classified as a firearm by the government, at gun stores throughout Bristol Township and Middletown Township.

Purchasing firearms for prohibited individuals is a dangerous game, not just because it can land you in prison, but because you may be facilitating violent crimes and adding fuel to the anti-gun dumpster fire. If anyone ever proposes you purchase a firearm on their behalf, don’t respond with, “If there was a problem, Yo! I’ll solve it,” like Cody Kirk McInnis likely did. That was my last Vanilla Ice reference. Instead, get as far away as possible from that situation. Word to your mother! Okay, I’m done now.