FELON IN POSSESSION OF A FIREARM STATUTE:  Any person who has been convicted of a felony is prohibited from possessing, receiving, or transporting a firearm.

POSSESSION OF UNREGISTERED MACHINE GUNS & SILENCERS:  It is unlawful for any person to possess fully automatic firearms and/or muzzle silencers without registration.

In T.I.’s current situation he solicited one of his bodyguards to purchase a number of firearms for him.  The bodyguard was to purchase the weapons under his own name, and then surrender the weapons to T.I.  When the bodyguard attempted to purchase the weapons without registering them, from a seemingly legit dealer, the dealer reported the incident to ATF agents.  In an attempt to avoid serious conviction himself, the bodyguard turned rat.  Working with ATF agents the bodyguard arranged a delivery of the weapons (various firearms, including unregistered silencers and automatics) to T.I.  As soon as the exchange was made, agents swarmed T.I.’s vehicle.  Later a search warrant for T.I.’s house was given and several more guns were discovered.  In total 12 guns were discovered in the convicted felons possession.

All things considered T.I. could face 10 years of imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000.00 per charge, which comes out to well over 3 million.

Of course if we ask O.J. we will learn that any celebrity facing hard time will likely find a way to buy their way out of trouble.  No surprises here, T.I. opens his wallet wide and hires renowned white collar criminal defense lawyer Steve Sadow, to slip his way out of a serious bind. 

When the plea bargaining dust settles T.I. looks at a year in jail (which he will likely never come close to serving), 1500 hours of community service (in which he will tell kids how terrible guns and violence are with the non-profits organization It’s Cool To Be Smart and The Music Education Group), 3 yrs supervised release, and a laughable $100,000.00 fine.  Does this sentence seem fair to you?  What would you consider a fair punishment for T.I.?

In reality T.I. will likely profit from this slight run-in with the law, as it will do wonders for his hardcore gangster rapper image.  Do you agree with this, or will this harm T.I.'s image?

The lesson to be learned here?  Unless you are a multi-platinum recording artist, stick to legal and registered guns, and keep yourself out of trouble if you want the right to continue owning them.  Unfortunately for the rest of society, a charge this serious would probably only mean a heavy prison sentence and a fine that couldn’t be paid off in 3 lifetimes.  As for boosting your image, think FRESH MEAT…