Gregory Allen Berry is an avid firearms enthusiast who describes himself as a hobbyist who enjoys building rifles and trading them at gun shows.
“I’ve been a big gun collector for the last half of my life, and I love working on guns,” he told Townhall. “That’s where I get my joy from guns, working and collecting them. I’m not really a shooter or anything like that. I like historical weapons, Cold War historical weapons.”
Unfortunately, his hobby turned his life upside down in November 2024 when federal authorities arrested, indicted, and charged him with engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license. He is now serving a four-year sentence.
Berry’s ordeal began in July 2024 when undercover agents with the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) purchased two firearms from him at a gun show in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Unbeknownst to him, the ATF had been surveilling him for months. Officers noticed repeated “E-Traces” of guns he had sold that later turned up in crimes.
Federal agents abruptly arrested Berry on November 15. The gun hobbyist recounted the incident, which occurred when he was traveling to a gun show in Arkansas. “They shut the freeway down when they arrested me,” Berry said. “There were cops everywhere. They came in like I was some kind of cartel boss.”
Berry recalled the officers pointing rifles at him as they stopped his vehicle.
The hobbyist said he laughed when they first pulled him over. “I thought they had the wrong guy,” he said, noting that he has a clean criminal record.
Berry was blindsided by the arrest. No federal agency gave him any indication that they believed he was violating the law. “Usually, they give you a cease-and-desist letter, and I got nothing. I didn’t get an investigation,” he said.
A grand jury indicted Berry for being “knowingly engaged in the business of dealing in firearms without being licensed to do so,” according to the indictment.
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Days later, Magistrate Judge Christy Comstock refused to grant bond, claiming that Berry posed a danger to public safety.
“I had a public defender for only 15 minutes beforehand — no defense presented. Judge and prosecutor aligned against me. It was belittling,” Berry said.
The hobbyist’s public defender argued that Berry had no prior convictions and had lived nearly 50 years without harming anyone. He further noted that his client owned property in Missouri and Arkansas and had family connections, which meant he was not a flight risk. The attorney pointed out that his alleged crime was selling and trading firearms at gun shows — not a violent crime.
The prosecution painted Berry as a dangerous gun trafficker who would pose a threat to the community if he were allowed bond. They used a statement Berry had made when speaking with the two undercover officers.
While discussing the ATF shooting of Arkansas airport executive Bryan Malinowski that occurred last year, he said, If somebody showed up in plain clothes and didn’t have a badge and was banging on my door early in the morning, yelling police, I might shoot them too, if I didn’t think they were actually police.”
The prosecution claimed his statement indicated a desire to kill law enforcement officers and pointed to his large arsenal of firearms. They further noted that he lived near a school.
The judge sided with the prosecution and denied Berry’s request for bond. “They treated me like I was a danger to the community,” Berry said.
The prosecution targeted the hobbyist because some of the guns he sold were recovered at crime scenes or in the possession of prohibited people. However, as Berry explained, “There were seven guns that they said were found at crimes, but the crime would be felon in possession of a gun. There was no shootings or anything like that with any of my weapons.”
It was also revealed that he had not directly sold guns to those involved in the crimes.
Berry was initially planning to fight the case because he did not run a gun business. He was simply a hobbyist to traded and sold firearms at gun shows. It was not a primary source of income.
However, the prosecution had something up its sleeve. They added charges for possession of firearms as a marijuana user and lying on a Form 4473, which is used to conduct background checks for those buying guns. This would have resulted in a longer sentence if Berry was convicted.
Berry used marijuana to manage pain, which is legal in his home state of Missouri.
To avoid a longer sentence, Berry accepted a plea deal. He was sentenced to four years in prison and the loss of his Second Amendment rights.
“Basically, I feel like I got sentenced for something that I didn’t get to take to court. I didn’t get to really fight,” he said.
The ordeal has taken a heavy toll on Berry. While he was awaiting trial in jail, he was assaulted by Aryan gang members. “I got beat up by the Aryan gang members because I wouldn’t go along with their rules. I don’t believe in that white supremacy stuff,” he said.
He also missed his father’s funeral because the marshals refused to allow him to attend. During his incarceration, squatters stripped his property and stole one of his cars.
“I’ve lost everything,” he said. “My savings are gone, my property’s gone, and the hobby that defined my life is gone.”
Berry believes the government targeted him for political reasons — especially his vocal opposition to the Malinowski shooting. ATF agents had been investigating Malinowski because of his large gun collection. He also traded at gun shows, and was acquainted with Berry.
During the raid, Malinowski reportedly fired at agents when they showed up at his home. The ATF returned fire and fatally wounded him. He died two days later.
“I was very outspoken about how it was ridiculous that any of that happened,” he said. “I think ATF took it personally.”
Berry told Townhall that he had been trading firearms for decades. He even interacted with ATF agents at gun shows with no issues because there was nothing illegal about his activities.
However, this changed in 2022 when Congress passed the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The legislation altered the federal definition of “engaged int he business” of selling firearms. Before, the government had to prove that someone sold firearms with the “principal objective of livelihood and profit.”
This means that as long as selling guns was not one’s main source of income, the federal government did not consider them to be dealers who should be licensed. After the law removed the word “livelihood” and replaced it with a much broader provision, anyone who sells firearms with the “predominant intent to earn a profit” could be targeted if they did not possess a license.
Because of this legislation, the government can essentially define a sweeping number of people as dealers even if they are just hobbyists. “The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act made things vaguer and they applied it retroactively to me, going back to 2017. I wasn’t making a livelihood out of it. I was trading and building because I loved it,” Berry said.
Berry is currently working on appealing his case and has indicated he hopes to obtain a pardon from the Trump administration. But he did have some advice for other collectors: “Watch what you say at gun shows. They’ll twist casual talk into evidence.”
Editor's Note: Like Greg Berry, Americans all across the country are being persecuted for exercising their God-given Second Amendment rights.
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