Two lessons in this story

[berettaprofessor]

1) Don't knowingly break the law.

2) Don't discuss your guns with new friends on the internet.

https://www.ammoland.com/2022/07/fb...f-nfa/?ct=t(RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN)#axzz7Z3wbBqu7

I'm pretty sure if he didn't put a stock on the rifle, he wouldn't have been arrested. Support the 2A, but don't be dumb and poke the bear. Whether or not I agree with the NFA and the way it operates, I'm not going to violate it when I know better.

 

[citizenconn]

1) Don't knowingly break the law.

2) Don't discuss your guns with new friends on the internet.

https://www.ammoland.com/2022/07/fb...f-nfa/?ct=t(RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN)#axzz7Z3wbBqu7

I'm pretty sure if he didn't put a stock on the rifle, he wouldn't have been arrested. Support the 2A, but don't be dumb and poke the bear. Whether or not I agree with the NFA and the way it operates, I'm not going to violate it when I know better.

Looks like Meija got Randy Weavered.

Like the story says, this is a victimless "crime". Yet idiots with bogus paper tags drive up an down the highways here in Houston at over 100 mph with impunity, endangering everyone's lives because they watched one too many Fast and Furious (no, not THAT F&F) sequels.

 

[doubleh]

This guy is stuck in prison for a harmless crime while drug dealers are being released without bail or not even charged. Our world is seriously messed up.

 

[Basura Blanca]

If you read the actual complaint, there's a dialogue on page 17 where Meija offers to sell him a gun. Shortly thereafter the context gets muddy and it sounds like he's offering to sell him the gun, and gives the informant some prices. Then the informant mentions they couldn't find the same Scorpion with the stock to which Meija replies: "They don't sell that. That's uh, extra".

Part of his sentence was based on that information alone.

United States District Judge Carlos E. Mendoza sentenced Mejia to 21 months in a federal prison:

“Mejia then offered to sell his illegally modified firearm to a confidential source working at the direction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mejia also provided direction and instruction to the confidential source on how the confidential source could purchase the same model of pistol and modify it himself.”

 

[Demi-human]

While I want to feel, something, for Mejia, pointing to a bunch of other dangerous law breakers to excuse this intentional law breaking, how ever victimless, doesn’t make me feel it.

Spending two years in prison for trying to look cool in front of an informant by putting a stock on a pistol is too much. Almost like a good deterrent.
I wonder what this otherwise “good” human will learn while locked in a rough cage for two Christmas’s?

But, so long as those in power have ridiculous laws to annoy and punish the pawns with, it is our duty to know them and stay free. It sucks, but it was an easy to avoid situation.

I know I don’t show off my contraband, and if I do, it’s to someone I know well enough that I know they aren’t FBI informants.
Which begs the question, ‘Why wasn’t it a BATFE informant?’. Evidently he was being investigated for something else too? Or do the agencies work together so well?

And a final observation upon reading the official complaint.
Most of the 40 pages is about all the computers and electronic devices they are going to steal and search, and any other human they can charge with any other crime, even though they already have pics of the contraband and a video of the subject using it, on government supplied surveillance equipment.
Once Dracula is across the threshold they turn you inside out and “find” everything else they can pin to your jacket.
Or your daughter’s.
Or your mom’s.
They ruin not just your life.
And it doesn’t make the country any safer…

Looking for terrorists, huh? Well, they missed a few shooters this week…

 

[Jimbo80]

[QUOTE="Demi-human,] if I do, it’s to someone I know well enough that I know they aren’t FBI informants.[/QUOTE]

You can't know someone well enough.

 

[BlueHeelerFl]

[QUOTE="Demi-human,] if I do, it’s to someone I know well enough that I know they aren’t FBI informants.

You can't know someone well enough.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. Anti gun relatives , an angry ex, or an arrrsted friend looking to cut a deal will cause problems

 

[Hugger-4641]

[QUOTE="Demi-human,] if I do, it’s to someone I know well enough that I know they aren’t FBI informants.

You can't know someone well enough.[/QUOTE]

I don't own any illegal or NFA items, but if I did, no one would know, not even my very best friends. I surely wouldn't try to sell one. Some folks just don't understand the world we live in.
I agree, it makes no sense that child abusers and armed robbers get lesser sentences. But that cliche applies here: "Play stupid games win stupid prizes".

 

[mokin]

I know a couple guys like Mejia. I reckon I'm not the only one here who does. A third lesson is, even if you are following the law and don't invite strangers to go shooting, you might end up on someone's radar just by association. Keep those guys at arms length.

 

[bdickens]

"Got Randy Weavered." Ya know, Randy Weaver wasn't exactly a pillar of the community....

 

[jrmiddleton425]

I think there's an important question here: why did this guy have the stamps for two suppressors, and then intentionally not get one for the SBR, TO WHICH HE ATTACHED A PAPERED SUPPRESSOR?

 

[citizenconn]

"Got Randy Weavered." Ya know, Randy Weaver wasn't exactly a pillar of the community....

No, but he didn't go around soliciting to saw off shotgun barrels for $$ either. The govt entrapped this guy with a mole/informant. Sound familiar?
They didn't even want him; they just wanted to use him to get inside the white separatist movement. I'm not espousing or condoning his views or politics. But some govt official sitting behind a desk, just thinking up ways to ratf*** some law abiding guy minding his own business is abhorrent to my sensibilities.

 

[bdickens]

"Law abiding guy minding his own business?" What a crock.

Not that the cowboys from the .gov were blameless angels either. Plenty of wrong to go around on both sides.

The govt entrapped this guy with a mole/informant. Sound familiar?

Yeah. A lot like "you can't cheat an honest man."

 

[Demi-human]

I suppose I should have stated it, “if I had any contraband”.
It’s just so much easier to follow the law, you know, for most humans.

But some govt official sitting behind a desk, just thinking up some way to do an injustice some law abiding guy minding his own business is abhorrent to my sensibilities.

I agree. However, Mr. Mieja was not only making illegal weapon combinations, and flaunting the law by showing it off, he was about to sell it to an “unwitting” buyer.
I hope that was a major decision in his prosecution, but I kinda doubt it.

You can't know someone well enough.

I’m divorced. So, you get my drift…

Believe me, I’m a very private human.
(Except when I show off my new toys here.)

 

[buck460XVR]

But some govt official sitting behind a desk, just thinking up ways to ratf*** some law abiding guy minding his own business is abhorrent to my sensibilities.

But he wasn't "law abiding" and he wasn't "minding his own business". Had he been doing either or both, he wouldn't be in this jam.

He knew he was breaking the law and openly admitted it. His comments from the above linked story.....

“It’s not exactly, uh, something that you want to take a video of,” Mejia told him, according to court records.

So if I already have a suppressor, why pay the government 200 extra dollars just to put pieces of metal together.

...just two of many examples that Mieja knew what he was doing was illegal. Then he flaunted it by asking someone he barely knew to come over and admire /shoot it and bragged about getting away without paying for a stamp. He knew he was trying to pull the wool over the ATF and got caught. While I admit two years is a bit harsh for the crime, he has no one to blame but himself.

 

[alsaqr]

Whether or not I agree with the NFA and the way it operates, I'm not going to violate it when I know better.

Same here.

Many years ago i invited a friend to my firing range. He showed up with an Encore handgun with a shoulder stock. After some discussion we disassembled the short barreled rifle and installed the grips on his handgun.

 

[citizenconn]

But he wasn't "law abiding" and he wasn't "minding his own business". Had he been doing either or both, he wouldn't be in this jam.

He knew he was breaking the law and openly admitted it. His comments from the above linked story.....

Hi. Sorry I wasn't clear in my comments. I was referencing Randy Weaver in that instance. Not Meija. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Ignition Override]

Most of us know the difference between guns with standard 16.5" barrels and the SBR etc barrel types and/or high-profile stocks, struts etc, and what Might not be legal.

Wow....That is so much easier than complying with the many different critieria for the CAT 1, 2, & 3 ILS or 'non-precision' approaches we flew for decades. Etc.