DGEWOOD, Md. (WBFF) – An Edgewood man has been sentenced to nearly three-and-a-half years in prison for possessing an unregistered firearm silencer…
..On June 22, ATF agents executed a search warrant at Candelario’s Edgewood home. There, they recovered items used to make firearms and silencers, including a drill press and other tools, boxes of AR-15 lower receivers, AR-15 magazines and rifle sights with boxes and a fuel filter with an adapter used to assemble silencers.
Source: Edgewood man sentenced to prison, admits to illegally manufacturing firearms | WBFF
Notice that the poor sod only gets nailed by the silencer charge. This is a reminder that ATF has zero sense of humor and the smallest thing will get you a nice time in prison. How small? This small:
A simple pipe adapter that has many other uses, but attached to your firearm suddenly becomes the stuff of federal indictments.
It is just a reminder that in this day and age, you do not need Mens Rea to end up facing a Federal Judge. Just the presence of certain items is enough with the government to screw with your life forever. Never forget that the average citizen unwillingly commits Three Felonies a Day.
Being paranoid does not mean they are not after you.
” you do not need Mens Rea to end up facing a Federal Judge.” except in Chicago where committing actual violent gun crimes will get the charges dropped or misdemeanor.
…except in Chicago where committing actual violent gun crimes will get the charges dropped or misdemeanor.
But only the violent ones. The non-violent “crimes” — say, possession of a firearm without a FOID by a white suburbanite with no criminal record — get no mercy. It’s a felony and you WILL serve your full 10 years.
“items used to make firearms and silencers, including a drill press and other tools,” If having a drill press makes you a suspect, all they have to do is walk into any home shop hobbyist’s house and we’re all going to prison. How many woodworkers also have a drill press?
I was kind of curious about silencers a while back, since I do have a machine shop. I found that there is nothing like an “80% lower” rule on silencers. The way I read it, if you have a metal lathe and they can find any way to string an argument together that you’re intending to make a silencer, you’re in deep sh*t. From this, it looks like you don’t even need to have a lathe. Just an oil filter and some threading tools puts you in jail.
Remember that the ATF till not long ago considered shoelaces, paper clips and crazy glue as machine gun parts.
I think that’s one of the reasons why Colorado has a law stating that no knife is considered an illegal weapon unless it’s actively being used as one.
Hence, it’s totally legal to carry a Switchblade here, as long as you don’t stab anyone with it.
I’m genuinely surprised he wasn’t also charged with possession of bomb making materials. If he didn’t have gunpowder he surely had bleach, windex, and aluminum foil in the house.
When Waco Jim was the SAIC for the Nashville office, anytime they arrested anyone they always included that charge.