Naw, he had allegedly shortened a shotgun barrel just slightly under the limit. Very slightly IIRC.
As I remember it, the barrel was actually cut to 18”+
but the stock was cut making it shorter than 26” thus
illegal.
Yep. Oh, the barrel was legal at 18.25 inches. But there's another requirement Weaver didn't know about regarding overall length, and that's the one they tried to get him on, or more properly blackmail him on. They weren't actually after a firearms law conviction, they were after Weaver to become a spy within a white supremacy organization for them.