I stumbled upon an interesting article from Middletown Press, regarding an individual who was was arrested in early 2014 for an incident that occurred in December 2013 during which Cromwell police discovered him carrying a firearm that looked like a rifle but had a 9.5" barrel (from the pictures it appears that it is a 7.5" barrel with a flash hider). (There is a picture of the weapon in the link- cheap New Frontier Lower with some very nice accessories on it)



The man was originally charged with carrying a pistol w/o a permit and criminal possession of a pistol/ revolver. He recently plead guilty to a single count of carrying a pistol without a permit and has yet to be sentenced. The criminal possession charge, which has been subbed away, reportedly stemmed from a 1996 Assault 3d conviction.

It appears that a second docket number reflects a 53a-167a interfering charge that was levied against the accused on the day of the incident, for attempting to run away from police, when the officer responding to the call for service came upon him. He has plead not guilty to that charge, which is still pending.

http://www.middletownpress.com/general-news/20140106/cromwell-man-arrested-for-illegally-carrying-pistol-that-looked-like-rifle

A long time ago, when I first posted about the status of sub-12" SBRs, I got a little bit of blow back from a few people on this site who strongly  disagreed with me. I hope that for those people who have or are considering a <12" SBS or SBR and no pistol permit read this story.

The law is pretty clear on it. Under 12 inch barrel..it's a pistol, even if it has a stock, in Ct... It's a pistol.

No federal charges?
Article says he removed standard 12 inch barrel and added the shorter one.

Feds don't usually get involved

For an unregistered SBR?.

I think they tried hard to charge him because he ran from them. The pistol disqualification was the way to do it.

Nope- they don't usually get involved. It needs to be a bigger case

In the picture. Is there a third pin drilled in that lower?

Sure  looks like it

I don't believe that they had to try that hard. That's what the interfering charge was for that day. I do, however, believe that the weapon perplexed them a little bit- they knew something wasn't right, but needed to figure out exactly what...which didn't take them very long, all things considered.

Yea wtf is going on here?  I'm sure they have WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more things to put him in fed prison for so they're basically just slapping him on the wrist for having what seems to be an unregistered SBR/MG.  

I have no idea why he isn't being charged with an NFA violation here.  Forget the 12" to 9" conversion how about the stock on there?

With that third hole Ill bet he didn't register it with the state as an MG. Maybe their research should have included a function check. His lawyer is probably saying carrying without a permit, we will take it!

So if the barrel is less than 12" isn't there some sort of weight restriction also?

i thought you couldn't carry a "pistol" with the mag outside of the grip of the firearm?

So I'm a little confused. I know a firearm with a sub-12" barrel is considered a "pistol", I get that.

But in it's original form, with a 12" barrel, wouldn't it be an SBR? Doesn't say anything about it being a legally registered SBR.

Or did he originally buy it as a 12" "Pistol", and illegally added an M4 buffer tube and collapsible stock?

Sounds to me like he got off easy.

when the story first came out i remember the firearm having a stock and the responding LEO didn't know the laws so he only got charged with carrying a pistil. i may be wrong though

I bet I know why he went with a crappy New Frontier lower with all that other fancy expensive hardware. Its a lot easier for a couch commando to competently (and illegally *added as disclaimer) drill out that auto sear pin hole. What a dumb ass, I can't believe this isn't an automatic 10 years in jail.


 

Not if preban.

However even if preban it is still technically considered a possible AW in which case the AW transport laws, even if a handgun, would still apply.

Day of, he was only charged with interfering for running away from the cop. The cop siezed the weapon, investigated the laws, and got a warrant for criminal possession and pistol no permit.

Since the lower is a registered AW, the weight restriction is null on pistol AR, no ? As long as you do not put a stock or forward grip to fall in SBR territory

If the lower was registered as an AW then yes the state law on evil features on on handguns and or long guns would no longer apply (at least that is the general consensus). Once  a firearm is an AW (preban or legally registered) the state has set specific guidelines on where it can be legally possessed and how it is to be transported between those legal locations.

I can't believe it's an issue at all. These laws are all unconstitutional. You got a prior felony ok maybe you should be infringed. But fuck all if it's 6" or 6' long or shoots 2rnds / minute or 600. Fuck the limits and stupid laws all to hell. Fuck the ATF too.

I'm wondering what effect the date of offense (12 DEC 2013) may have had an charging decisions, particularly given the specific mention that he was eligible to possess the firearm in its initial configuration, but then modified it.

At that point in time, it would have been an assault weapon regardless of configuration though the registration window would not yet have been closed.

Hahah well that helped the discussion.  




Ok, so can anyone answer why NFA violations aren't being pressed here?  I'm still confused on that

Without seeing the file and all of the facts, it might be along the lines of what Nutter said.  The U.S. Attorney's Office is very selective in its case selection in CT...or anywhere for that matter.  If the crimes "overlap" jurisdictionally, we sometimes give cases to them and they to us.  Issues are strength of the case, applicable law  and bang for the buck sentencing wise.  That said, illegal guns are pretty high up on the list right now which is the reason one would have to see the actual file of what happened  instead of simply guessing.

10 years is the maximum sentence for NFA violations. A surprising number of people who the feds prosecute for those violations get substantially shorter sentences. David Olofson, of ARFCOM fame,  for example, was sentenced to 30 months- which news articles suggest is what federal sentencing guidelines (approximately) recommend).

The whole thing is a head scratcher because of the lack of information. He had a third-degree assault conviction from 1996. He gets arrested on 12/12/2013 while carrying the New Frontier Armory LW-15 apparently in public. He had a LW-15 with a 12 inch barrel that he supposedly changed out to a 9 inch barrel. There is no mention of the gun being registered as an SBR (which means possible NFA violation) or when (on what date) the gun barrel was changed.  No mention if the LW-15 was manufactured prior to 9/13/94 (I assume it wasn't). There is no charge for and no mention of the gun being an illegal AW, nor any mention of it being registered as one even though it clearly is an AW post 4/4/13 (if manufactured post 9/13/94). The current charges appear to be just "53a-167a INTERFERE WITH OFFCR/RESISTING" (he plead not guilty) and  "29-35(a) CARRYING PISTOL WO PERMIT" (he plead guilty).

I'll bet its a stock photo and we have been debating a completely different gun

Ha yea no kiddin. I was thinking the same thing kinda.

Did this get looked into or is all this just going off of a news article and hoping it's factual and accurate?

I feel like this would have been talked to death on here at the time of the incident.




And even though it has no value to the discussion; fuck yeah, Cav!!

True, this guy I know was in cali making suppressors for his 22 from pipe and other home made things, even tried some stuff on a lathe at one point.  He mentioned it to me and I said you should probably not do that.  He got the idea after we went shooting here in CT with my toys, I explained the legal way to do it and I think he tried while in ct but then gave up after getting all the paperwork and resistance from the town on a form 1.  I think.  

Needless to say he got In trouble with cali PD and they looked in his phone, saw my legal SBR/suppressors and guns along with his pics of the stuff he made.  Big ordeal since the PD/ATF initially thought he was like making stuff or running illegal guns for the gangs in the area or something.  

In the end I think he did 1yr, maybe 1.5 in cali for the suppressor related things.  Not sure if parole or anything after.  The max 10yr usually isn't given unless you did something really bad or found making and selling NFA stuff for a while or something.  Not sure and this is just what I've over heard through others in the past 4 or 5 years.

plea deals and co operation with the authorities often lead to drastically reduced sentences.