Posted on 02/03/2020 9:24:25 PM PST by nickcarraway
Federal agents do surprise compliance checks
A Nebraska gun dealer will spend more than two years in federal prison for possessing an unregistered gun silencer.
In U.S. District Court on Friday, Joseph Melton, from Holdrege, NE, was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to the charge. Melton will also be on supervised release for two years.
Advertisement Melton, 31, was a candidate for mayor of Holdrege in 2018 and was part owner of Leadfoot LLC, a gun shop and manufacturer in Holdrege. Leadfoot obtained a federal firearms license to manufacture and sell silencers. During a compliance check in August 2017, federal agents found an unlicensed silencer inside the business. Agents also uncovered 18 violations of federal codes related to the firearms business.
Melton told investigators the silencer was a payment or trade from a customer.
The silencer was not licensed to Leadfoot or Melton in the national database. He plead guilty to unlawful possession in November of 2019.
The case of part of Project Guardian, a Department of Justice project to reduce gun violence and enforce federal gun laws.
THE PRESIDING JUDGE, MS. CHERYL ZWART MAY HAVE BEEN HAVING HER PERIOD WHEN SHE SENTENCED JOE.
Except for bumpstocks.
Good thing the feds are protecting us from this guy rather than wasting their time on illegal aliens.
“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime...”
Unless it’s President Trump - over 3 years and they still ain’t come up with an actual crime...
Two things:
1. The NFA is bad law, especially concerning mufflers. That is all suppressors are.
2. Unfortunately, the NFA is on the books and enthusiastically enforced by an agency that has a reputation for gung-ho-ness, so if you want to play in that sandbox you’d better have your papers in order.
This guy didn’t have his papers in order.
“Maybe pdjt can shut atf down”
That’s a good one! Reality check:
“Instead, on February 20, 2018, President Trump instructed the ATF to issue regulations to treat bump stocks as machineguns. ... The ban went into effect on March 26, 2019, by which owners of bump stocks were required to destroy them or surrender them to ATF, punishable by 10 years imprisonment and $250,000 fine.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_stock#Federal
Especially when dealing with Batfe.
Once this 'impeachment' crap is over, it's past time for Trump to focus on fixing some of these agencies. Suppressors need to be dropped from the NFA. Sadly, to do that will require legislation, because I think that particular portion of §922 was legislatively defined. Personally, I'd frame it as a health issue more than anything else.
Absent legislation, it needs to be challenged in the courts.
Almost assuredly. It's how they roll.
A 2 Liter soda bottle also works-—are those also illegal now???
Silencers aren’t registered, they’re taxed. Same with full-auto weapons, short-barreled rifles & shotguns. There’s a form of registration involved with the tax collection but what put this guy’s butt in a crack was not having the tax stamp.
Ridiculous. Suppressors should be legal anyway. They are even in a lot of European countries with strict gun control. There was never some epidemic of people being murdered by guns with suppressors. All they do is protect everybody’s hearing.
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