Man Sentenced for Selling Machine Gun Device

(Cape Girardeua, MO) In a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Missouri's Cape Girardeau office, officials are announcing the sentencing of 41 year old Edward Hardin, from Stoddard County, to 21 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to sell devices that convert AR style rifles into fully automatic weapons. The release indicates Edward Hardin supplied his codefendant 28 year old Sidney Brianne Scowden, also of Stoddard County, with the devices, also known as “lightning links.” Scowden sent a Snapchat message to a confidential informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives August 3rd of 2022 offering to sell a lightning link. Eight days later, she sold three of the devices for $1,500 to the informant, saying her source bought a link for $10,000 and made copies. Scowden sold three more devices on September 19th of 2022 and another October 19th of 2022. Hardin pled guilty in April to a charge of conspiracy to distribute machine guns. Scowden pled guilty in February to conspiracy and three counts of transferring a machine gun. She was sentenced in May to 18 months in prison.