Charged for NFA Violation

[joshs]

I pulled the motion to suppress and the government's reply in opposition to the motion from PACER. The gov't definitely had information corroborating the victim's account that I think was sufficient to create PC for the arrest. They also found a handgun in the vehicle that was separate from the rest of the firearms, and it was found in a location that was consistent with a location a witness identified as where the defendant placed an object that he was carrying when he exited the vehicle.

I'm still not a huge fan of the justification for the inventory search in this case. The vehicle was legally parked and statements by the officers at the scene made it seem that the inventory was really a pretextual search. They should have been able to get a search warrant to look for the handgun given the consistent statements of the victim and the witness, which certainly would have been a much safer way to potentially avoid exclusion of the evidence (even though the court did end up upholding the inventory search in this case).

[LittleLebowski]

The local LE dropped the charges. The BATF flew people out to burn this guy. I don't think this should have happened from a justice standpoint but when you play "is it a pistol or is it a rifle" games, sometimes shit can happen.

Imagine what would have happened if he'd spent a whopping $70 on a dashcam(with an SD card, plug and play), kept his cool during the road rage incident, recorded the other guy's actions, and offered the video to the LE immediately. Say the other guy got in his face (via the driver's window). Turn that camera over to face him with one hand and let it grab video and audio. BOOM. DONE.

[Tamara]

Oh, and not being someone who comes to the attention of the police for a traffic stop involving an investigation into a threatening incident.

That helps.

You set the tone for a lot of your life's encounters.

Asshole gotta pay the asshole tax.

[joshs]

Local LE contacted ATF as soon as they found what they believed to be an unregistered SBR during the inventory search. ATF then responded to help with the investigation. It's not clear why the local charges were dropped, but they may have made the decision because the federal charge was much easier to prosecute and had more substantial penalties.

[Lon]

The local LE dropped the charges. The BATF flew people out to burn this guy.

Is there a more complete article out there somewhere? Did they dismiss it because ATF was taking the case or some other reason? I have no idea how it actually went down, but in my AO the SBR is a low level felony he'd get probation for. If I asked ATF to take the case I would have dismissed the local case.

Josh,

From the limited info I've read in the linked articles, it seems like the search would have been a textbook case of a search incident to arrest under Gant. Arrest for road rage, search for the gun used....depending on the circumstances an inventory may not have been necessary since the stuff would've been found under another exception. I'd love to see the stuff from PACER. What was found first? The SBR or the pistol which was probably used in the RR incident?

[Lon]

Local LE contacted ATF as soon as they found what they believed to be an unregistered SBR during the inventory search. ATF then responded to help with the investigation. It's not clear why the local charges were dropped, but they may have made the decision because the federal charge was much easier to prosecute and had more substantial penalties.

Answered while I was posting. Thanks for answering that.

[JR1572]

Local LE contacted ATF as soon as they found what they believed to be an unregistered SBR during the inventory search. ATF then responded to help with the investigation. It's not clear why the local charges were dropped, but they may have made the decision because the federal charge was much easier to prosecute and had more substantial penalties.

Local charges may have been dropped because the victim changed their mind about pursuing charges or just didn't show up to court. Charges being dropped doesn't necessarily mean the police fucked up. Some District Attorney's offices conduct trial during screening, but that's an issue for another discussion...

JR1572

[LittleLebowski]

There's a ton of info on ARF, including secondhand data from one of this guy's friends. Link, his buddy is "BamaInArk".

[rob_s]

The "AR pistol" thing has been a silly way to attempt to skirt around SBR rules pretty much since inception. It's this kind of cuteness that winds up causing problems for everyone eventually.

It sounds like this dude was skirting around the law way further on the wrong side than even your typical AR pistol owner, and it bit him on the ass.

I don't, for a second, think that cops couldn't/wouldn't have assembled two legal halves into an illegal half and then lied about it, or even simply not had a clue what they were doing, but I find it somewhat irrelevant since they couldn't have assembled parts not provided to them by the suspect.

[GardoneVT]

I've seen enough foolishness associated with the "shh, don't tell anyone about the illegal SBR/AOW in my trunk but F THA MAN!!!" theme to know right away the suspect earned his trip to court.

You'd be surprised how often morons bring federally illegal weapons to public ranges and are offended when the range staff tell them to beat it.

-Edit: I'll bet the post from ARF omits some details. Like when buddy was arrested.Oh, and if you're making a post about someone being innocent of brandishing a firearm , don't toss a line in about things "ending differently " for the complainant. Folks might think you're a bunch of short tempered morons with guns. Wouldn't want that to happen.