Moran ordered “fuel filters” from an advertisement on Instagram. When the package arrived from China, it had two items that looked more like silencers to him than fuel filters.
Moran went to a friend at NAPA Auto Parts who explained to him that these items were not actually fuel filters, that he knew others who had mistakenly ordered them, and that he should get rid of them.”
and…
However, despite cancelling the order and and telling the postal service that he wanted to refuse delivery of any future packages, 10 days later another parcel showed up at his home. According to Nappen, Moran “immediately put the box in his car” and drove back to the local police station with the intention of handing the contents of the box over to police. Before he could enter the building, however, Moran was stopped by federal and state agents who arrested him.
Can we finally put to rest this “Fuel Filters are legal” BS? Till legislation is changed, you are setting yourself for something like this.
Well, yes. But in the meantime, what we have here (apparently) is someone who received a silencer in the mail when he didn’t want it, and was arrested when he tried to get rid of it. In other words, it looks like he believed the advertisement, that these were legitimately fuel filters, he wasn’t doing the wink thing. Right?
So what happened here has nothing to do with the law — it simply means that the Feds are out of control. Not that this is a big surprise for an unconstitutional agency like ATF.
Yep. Click through to the Ammoland article, and you have a statement from Moran’s excellent attorney, Evan Nappen:
Attorney Evan Nappen stated, “In other words, in response to Moran’s initiating contact with law enforcement, voluntarily surrendering a package of questionable ‘fuel filters’ that he received, informing the authorities about a second potential package, and doing everything that he could to stop its delivery – Government surveilled him, followed him, and set up a trap to arrest him.”
He made every reasonable effort and attempt to not run afoul of the law, which specifically exempts people who voluntarily turn in unlicensed silencers. In return, the government is arresting and charging him for complying.
“Out of control” doesn’t begin to cover the Fed agencies’ actions here.
It’s a trap! No, I don’t mean a “solvent trap.”
There is more to this than just the “Fuel Filters are ok” line that some advertisers spout.
The rules are that silencers/suppressors are NFA items and as such must be registered and must have serial numbers and such.
In addition, suppressor parts are also considered NFA items. Thus having a “wiper” for an old fashion suppressor can get you in trouble.
Some “fuel filters” are the can with holes at both ends plus the baffles with holes at both ends. This makes it either a suppressor OR a suppressor part. In the same way, an adapter that goes from 1/2″ 28 to an oil filter is also a suppressor part and must be handled like an NFA item.
On the other hand, there are things like the cups and container that are not suppressor parts until they have the holes drilled in them. Both the cups and the can that contains them.
To turn one of these styles into a suppressor legally, you must first make sure you have it serialized, then you apply to manufacture a suppressor, file and wait for the NFA approval registering the thing you are about to make. Pay your $200 tax stamp. At that point, you can drill the holes and make the suppressor.
This article could be about the first time, where all you have to do is screw parts together or it could be the second time. If it is the first type, then this story has happened many times and will continue because the freaking idiot ordered a suppressor. If it is the second type, where they ordered an “80% suppressor” and got picked up, then this is a serious issue.
I have heard of one US company that is making “80% suppressors” and it does require machining (drilling holes) to make it into a functional suppressor. The company is very clear that you must fill out your NFA intent to manufacture a suppressor before you drill a single hole and that you must have the approval first.
The Chinesium “fuel trap” is a trap for sure. You have no clue what you are going to get.
IANAL!!!! I’ve done a little research into this because I do want a suppressor and I’ve been to cheap to fork over $1000 plus $200 and wait for months and months. This US version sounds like a reasonable method but I’d be doing a heck of a lot more research before I ordered anything.
I always wonder why suppressors are that expensive in the US? Not the tax stamp – but if someone in Germany wants 1.000€ for a suppressor than that thing better be solid platinum with gold rimming and guaranteed dead center accuracy.
Even titanium suppressors are cheaper. Heck, even 3D-printed(!) titanium suppressors are less than 1.000$!
Is it the mystique of the thing?
Limited market, expensive materials, so prices are high.
Suppressors could be made as “consumables” – say a $50 can made of aluminum, replace after every 100 shots, because the lightweight and inexpensive materials get ablated.
But so long as the US market has a floor price of $200 (tax stamp) + a year to even get your part, there’s no way that approach makes sense. So you start to go with expensive, long-lived materials because replacing the suppressor is a major hassle.
This is a preview of what buying magazines would be like if Biden & Co. manage to get them on the NFA.
But that’s what I’m saying – not even the titanium-mil-spec-wonder-waffles are that expensive over here!
I’m looking at some scandinavian full titanium light-weight silencers right now and the biggest of the bunch retails for around 700$.
A-Tec Mil-Spec full steel full auto compatible? 500-700$ depending on the model.
Granted – Brügger & Thomet is around 1000$ but that’s B&T for you – you only buy these when you don’t have a choice or too much taxpayer money to burn.
I think you also get two other effects.
First, the US market is a protected market, in the sense that importing (or exporting, for that matter) suppressors is heavily restricted. (As far as I am aware.) So a comparable suppressor might be less expensive elsewhere, but if you can’t import it, it might as well not exist.
Second, the market in the US is growing but still rather small, and the paperwork and compliance costs are not inconsiderable all throughout the chain from design, to manufacture, to final point-of-sale/delivery. That all gets passed on to the purchaser, including both an amortization of non-recurring costs (e.g. engineering R&D, manufacturing fixture development), and costs that happen for every sale (e.g. the point-of-delivery dealer having to log the thing in, file the paperwork, keep the thing for a year in a protected fashion, etc.).
Just a guess, of course; but generally a market that is small, heavily regulated, and isolated, will lead to higher costs for a given item than a large, open market with limited regulation.
No, no – I totally understand the points made. It’s just… your market still is not “small” – 2017 there were 1,3 Million “registered” silencers* in the United States:
“As of 02-03-2017, there are 1,297,670 suppressors registered with ATF under the National Firearms Act,” Justice Department spokesman Dillon McConnell told the Free Beacon.”
A number that nearly DOUBLED in 10 years, I might add.
That is NOT a small market – that is still big enough to be compared to Europe – don’t forget that (one of) the biggest firearms markets in the EU, Germany, only made silencers legal for *all* hunters (around 380.000) only this very year in february.
Not arguing against the facts, just wondering.
Maybe because most silencers around here are used for hunting (in most countries it’s the hunters that get silencers but not the sport shooters) but you guys use them more for fun and giggles? Idk.
On the other hand guns are like 30-50% CHEAPER in the states 😀
*) Yes I say silencer! Deal with it! SCHALLDÄMPFER 4ever!
€dit: In my previous comment I wrote “A-Tec” when I meant “Ase-Utra”. I don’t like A-Tec but I recommend Ase-Utra. Heavy Metal for Heavy Duty 😀
In raw numbers, it may not sound like a “small” market. But most European nations only have a few million gun owners total, if that. Germany has about 1.4 million gun owners, Great Britain about 1.2 million.
America has at least 100 million gun owners. Maybe 120 or 140.
1.3 million registered suppressors among 100 million gun owners (on the low end) means they’re relatively rare, compared to what the prospective market could be without all the hassle.
The regulations, cost of compliance (at all levels, but ultimately paid by the consumer), and tax stamps price enough gun owners out of the market — and that’s not counting those who refuse to own anything that must be registered — to render suppressors into a niche “1%” market here; only about 1% of lawful gun owners are willing to pay the artificially-inflated costs, fill out the paperwork to apply and register, and wait for processing to own one.
(I for one can’t justify the cost and hassle for an inert accessory that costs twice as much as the gun it will go on, and most gun owners are similar. Do I want one, or a few? Yes. But I can’t justify it.)
Compared to the gun-owning population, it’s a small market.
The answer is simple: the impediments the government puts in place. Not just the buying, but the manufacturing.
Abolish the NFA and they would go down to $50 for a basic one, maybe a few times that for high end models. Consider the prices in countries where suppressors are considered ordinary accessories.
3d printing seems like a nice option. Someone should post the G-codes… and of course there’s always the low tech kind that Philip Luty designed.
You know what’d be really slick? Doing the paperwork, getting the serial number, and printing the number right into the can as it’s deposited.
It is the cost of being an FFL manufacturer as a start. To make and sell suppressors you need to be an FFL, which has a cost. You have to apply to manufacture firearms, which has a cost which includes an ITAR yearly fee, you have to have compliance officers for all of this.
To put this in perspective, a firearms manufacturer lost his business because things were becoming firearms and not being record in his books at the right times. When the ATF did an inspection, they found “firearms” that were not on the books. He had to pay a very heavy fine and is prohibited from ever being involved with firearms manufacturing again.
Next you get into how to make a good suppressor. One of the old style methods was to have a can holding a series of wipers separated by spacers. The first shot through the suppressor punched a hole in the wipers exactly the right size. Very quiet. Now you could shoot a more rounds, but each round through the suppressor made it a little louder until it wasn’t really doing its job.
At the point where the wipers were no longer doing their job, you took the can apart and replaced the wipers. No big deal.
BUT the NFA says that suppressor PARTS must be treated the same as an actual suppressor. This means that you, as a person, would have to get NFA paper work on each part of the suppressor.
The answer today is that if you need the wipers replaced in your can, you send it back to the factory who can replace the parts. Thus, one of the cheapest forms of a suppressor are just not really viable in the US market because of regulations.
Thus the development of monolithic baffle systems. These are fancy baffles that continue to work over many many shots. They are not suppose to wear out, though they will. They get made out of exotic materials for weight reasons and for wear resistance. The manufacturing time to make these baffle systems is a lot higher than a couple of spacers and wipers. Or a series of cups.
I figure the simplest suppressor could be made in a good shop in about 2 hours. That would be boring a tube to size, building the spacers, building the baffles, making an adapter to connect the can to the end of a barrel. It shouldn’t be expensive.
But the NFA is the reason why suppressors are expensive, the same way that an full auto M16 goes for better than $15,000 if it is transferable, but the parts kit is $79 and it requires one extra hole in an AR15 lower receiver. Nobody is going to tell me that 1 hole and two extra parts takes a firearm from $600 to $15,000.
BUT the NFA says that suppressor PARTS must be treated the same as an actual suppressor. This means that you, as a person, would have to get NFA paper work on each part of the suppressor.
And the ATF decided that such everyday, household items like “Chore Boy” scrubbers (it’s an abrasive steel-wool-like scrubber) — that someone lined a can with to make a homemade suppressor — are NFA parts, which nearly put Chore Boy out of business and endangered millions of innocent consumers through no fault of their own. (Also Google “shoestring machine gun”. Yes, the ATF determined for a time that a 14-inch shoestring is an NFA item.)
If you have an empty soup can and a Chore Boy scrubber, you have enough “suppressor parts” to build a suppressor, and because the NFA and ATF don’t differentiate between intent and non-intent, you could be guilty of illegal manufacturing.
Getting arrested for trying to comply with the law is always my favorite form of jack-booted thuggery.
I knew a guy who took care of his grandmother until she dies of cancer. When she did he took all her unused pain medication to the local pharmacy for disposal.
They alerted the police that he turned in more than the legal limit of pain meds so he was arrested for drug trafficking.
I know he never went to prison but I lost touch with him when I moved.
It’s a statutory thing. You can only have so much of a prescription controlled substance at a time. If you don’t use up one script’s worth before you refill the script you can have too much on hand. Having too much is “intent to sell” by statute, whether you actually sell it or not.
So when he turned in a bunch of half empty bottles, he exceeded the government limit which made him by statute a dealer. Welcome to the bullshit of malum prohibitum. You wouldn’t be surprised how often this happens to people with chronic pain.
I can’t wait for the ATF to start raiding independent mechanics for ordering fuel filters in bulk.
J. Kb: what happened after Mr. Cancer Caregiver’s arrest?
And, what sort of “drug trafficker” turns his inventory over to a pharmacy for disposal?”
This is fake news.
Everyone knows the BATF would have gone to his house and shot his dog first.
I have an 07 FFL and an SOT(special occupation tax) I can build anything I want as a dealer sample. I ordered one of these last MAY. Never received it. I think alot of these are a scam. Also these are aluminum, they might not take a lot of pressure…..
Per the Bearing Arms write up, NJ has a law providing immunity from prosecution for turning in stuff like that….
Oh, wait. The Feds do not have a similar law, and NJ Police called them.
If I accidentally get a fuel filter from China, I will just toss it in the bay. Why try to do the right thing?
Even beyond these “fuel filter” kits, there was a YouTuber who was paid a visit by local and federal (DHS) because they had tracked his online purchase history and determined that he was ordering “too many” fuel filters. And we’re not talking some AliBaba “Fuel Filters” but legit Caterpillar diesel fuel filters.
I saw that one. He installs engine upgrades and lift kits on pickups as a hobby. He gave the officers a tour of his garage and showed them the trucks he was currently working on and the fuel filters in question, and explained in excruciating detail how, since he works on so many trucks all the time, it’s much cheaper to buy filters in “bulk” (really just 4 or 6 at a time, not 50) than individually.
The officers still acted skeptical. As if they wanted more than anything to catch him up and find an excuse to arrest him. (If they did, then of course they’re going to go to their department’s vehicle maintenance guys and arrest them, too, for the exact same “crime” of buying consumables in bulk, right? Right!?)
That’s one of the biggest problems with the “justice” system in modern times. We’re supposed to enjoy the presumption of innocence, but increasingly that only applies in court, and even then only just barely. On the street, you’re assumed guilty and treated accordingly, until and unless you can prove beyond all doubt you’re innocent.
During the whole encounter, I could understand why he’s showing the officers around, to try and prove he’s legitimate, but the back of my mind was screaming, NO! DO NOT CONSENT TO THE SEARCH! If anything had been out of place or seemed suspicious, he’d have been arrested on the spot for that, in addition to the fuel filters.
That was exactly what I was thinking. I get thinking “I’ve got nothing to hide,” but I was shouting “NO! DON’T CONSENT TO THAT SEARCH!” as well. I’m honestly surprised the locals and feds didn’t try to find something else to hang him up on after the fact.
Oh, I have no doubt they were actively trying, but the guy really didn’t have anything to hide.
He was lucky. I always remember the old adage about the prosecutor and the ham sandwich, or the good old, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”
“Three Felonies a Day”, and all that.
Nobody is safe from a prosecutor willing to leverage the full resources of the State to find some petty misdeed you committed, probably without even realizing it.