Local man sentenced for illegal gun sales

A longtime Crescent City business owner was sentenced to 18 months in prison this week for illegal firearms sales.

Donald E. Nuss, 69, admitted to selling five machine guns and converting two semi-automatic rifles into machine guns, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Nuss opened Redwood Welding at 1020 U.S. Hwy. 101 in 1969. It will be closed before he begins his sentence, he said Friday.

Nuss pleaded guilty in June after being indicted in federal court last October of last year, according to the Department of Justice.

The DOJ stated Nuss was also sentenced to a supervised release of three years, after serving his 18-month sentence.

The federal indictment stated that during the period from March 2006 to May 2007, Nuss sold several machine guns, including an AK-47, Sten machine guns, a 1928 Thompson machine gun and several high-capacity magazines.

He is scheduled to begin his sentence Jan. 8.

Nuss said Friday he has always been a collector of guns, including automatics, but not many people knew he had them.

Back in 2006, Nuss said he was approached by someone who turned out to be a government informant “wearing a wire and under surveillance” who asked if he could convert a semi-automatic into an automatic.

“They supplied me with the materials that I modified,” said Nuss.

He did admit to owning automatic weapons before he was approached by the informant.

“The fact is, it’s one individual that I sold all these to,” said Nuss. “It isn’t like I’m an arms dealer, I didn’t sell any of these things on the street.”

During his career in Crescent City, Nuss said he restored the 3-inch cannon in front of the Del Norte Historical Society Museum and had manufactured parts for the St. George Reef Lighthouse and for the Battery Point Lighthouse.

“Forty years in this community and thousands of hours of community service, and this is what I get,” said Nuss, but he added that he realized he had done “a reckless, foolish thing.”

“It kind of makes me feel like I violated the trust of the community,” he said.