Posted on Mar 24, 2023
Green Bay Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Manufacturing and Trafficking 3D-Printed Ghost Guns...
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Firearms and Guns
Collecting Guns
Justice
Posted >1 y ago
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SPC Robert Coventry good day Brother Robert, always informational and of the most interesting. Thanks for sharing, have a blessed day!
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There are a lot of things in that article to make any knowledgeable person go "hmmmm"
It says "The 3D-printed plastic handgun was sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Firearms Technology Criminal Branch for a technical examination, where it successfully fired." and then it says "The firearm also was subjected to a Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) metal detector. During the test, the firearm successfully went through TSA screening without setting off the alarm. This is the first known fully operational plastic firearm seized by ATF that has successfully passed through a TSA metal detector."
The ATF "test" to see if something is a functional firearm does not require that the firearm survive firing -- only that it can make a round fire ONCE.
Checking the gun through TSA screening was almost certainly done with no ammunition and probably no working magazine.
This was a career criminal, whose sentence was only a small fraction of what federal laws would assign for the laundry list of charges mentioned in the article -- clearly this was a plea deal not a case brought to trial. A deal like this is typical of federal prosecutors where career criminals are given a generous plea deal that discards any "status offenses" (felon in possession of a firearm) and the most serious charges (possession of a machine gun) in favor of a quick guilty plea. Meanwhile those same federal prosecutors will 'throw the book at' any otherwise law-abiding citizen who happens to run afoul of some interpretation of an obscure ATF regulation.
The ATF and federal prosecutors rely on plea deals for several firearms "violations" because they know that making the case in court can be very risky because some ATF regulations are contradictory and their interpretations often dubious.
It says "The 3D-printed plastic handgun was sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Firearms Technology Criminal Branch for a technical examination, where it successfully fired." and then it says "The firearm also was subjected to a Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) metal detector. During the test, the firearm successfully went through TSA screening without setting off the alarm. This is the first known fully operational plastic firearm seized by ATF that has successfully passed through a TSA metal detector."
The ATF "test" to see if something is a functional firearm does not require that the firearm survive firing -- only that it can make a round fire ONCE.
Checking the gun through TSA screening was almost certainly done with no ammunition and probably no working magazine.
This was a career criminal, whose sentence was only a small fraction of what federal laws would assign for the laundry list of charges mentioned in the article -- clearly this was a plea deal not a case brought to trial. A deal like this is typical of federal prosecutors where career criminals are given a generous plea deal that discards any "status offenses" (felon in possession of a firearm) and the most serious charges (possession of a machine gun) in favor of a quick guilty plea. Meanwhile those same federal prosecutors will 'throw the book at' any otherwise law-abiding citizen who happens to run afoul of some interpretation of an obscure ATF regulation.
The ATF and federal prosecutors rely on plea deals for several firearms "violations" because they know that making the case in court can be very risky because some ATF regulations are contradictory and their interpretations often dubious.
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MSgt Steven Holt, NRP, CCEMT-P
My thoughts exactly MSG. I call Bovine Feces on the supposed "TSA Test". Considering one of the last times I flew, TSA metal detectors lit up like the Las Vegas strip because I forgot a small pair of nail clippers in my briefcase I highly doubt they successfully passed live ammunition if the scanner was operating within normal sensitivity. The "ghost gun" itself, maybe, but certainly not live ammo.
As for the test of whether it would fire...A person could take a piece of appropriately sized galvanized pipe, a piece of 2x4 lumber, a nail, and an elastic band and make a device that would fire a live round once. Whether you can use it again or do so without sustaining injury is another question.
As for the test of whether it would fire...A person could take a piece of appropriately sized galvanized pipe, a piece of 2x4 lumber, a nail, and an elastic band and make a device that would fire a live round once. Whether you can use it again or do so without sustaining injury is another question.
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MSG Thomas Currie
MSgt Steven Holt, NRP, CCEMT-P - Interestingly enough your example of a piece of pipe, a board, a nail, and an elastic band is a design that the US government printed up with diagrams and instructions in several languages and distributed to Japanese-occupied areas in the Pacific during WWII. That same diagram later appeared in one of the common magazines (I don't recall which one, Popular Mechanics or Boy's Life or something) in the late 1950's. I didn't try building one myself but I kept the page with the plans for quite a while.
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