‘American Guns’ Cast Member Sentenced to 6 Years in Jail for Illegally Dealing Guns

A cast member of Discovery Channel’s American Guns has been sentenced to six years in jail for dealing firearms without a license.

On Thursday, March 8, Richard Wyatt, 54, was sentenced to 78 months in jail for failing to report $1.1 million in income to the IRS, conspiracy, and dealing firearms without a license, the Denver Post reports. His sentencing came after the U.S. District Court found him guilty on 10 felony counts last year.

According to court records, Wyatt, who starred in Discovery Channel’s American Guns from 2011 to 2012 and owned Gunsmoke Guns, entered an agreement with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to relinquish his federal firearms license in 2012. Despite that agreement, he continued to keep Gunsmoke Guns running by conspiring with local gun stores to continue operating under a straw license. His customers would reportedly purchase a firearm at his gun store and then go to other stores for criminal background checks and to pick up their weapons.

His operation was foiled when two undercover ATF agents wearing body cameras purchased four guns from him on three separate occasions, according to court records.

In March 2015, ATF agents seized 83 guns and ammunition from his shop.

Wyatt’s attorney, Brian Leedy, argues for a two-and-a-half-year sentence, claiming that Wyatt’s loss of his ability to exercise his Second Amendment rights is punishment enough and is “as severe as could be imagined aside from incarceration.”

“Guns have been my entire life. I’ll never be able to touch one again … I’ve got to start over completely,” Wyatt explained, adding that while he believed his stint on the Discovery Channel show would put guns in a good light, he got in over his head.

“But I got in a little bit over my head. The pressure of it. The places I got to go and the people I got to meet…I drank the Kool-Aid and I thought I was special.”

Wyatt’s career on American Guns lasted from 2011 to 2012. He was paid $500,000 for the 26-episodes that featured him, his wife, their two children, and employees at Gunsmoke Guns.