A Black Hawk County man will spend more than three years in federal prison for illegally possessing an assault rifle.
Thirty-eight-year-old Michael Buttermore of Waterloo was denied a gun permit in Black Hawk County in 2014 after the sheriff found he had previously been committed to a mental institution in Pennsylvania. Waterloo police then arrested him in 2016 after he got into an argument with another man at his residence while holding an assault rifle.
Buttermore agreed to give up the gun and two magazines of ammunition after officers confronted him — but later tried to get it back from police. He pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm while being prohibited, and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.