caimlas said:
Maybe you missed the place where he said they were holding his wife and son hostage, and would completely ruin their futures if he didn't comply. A felony charge alone, without a conviction, can ruin a person's life.
And you missed his drama-queen screed and his orig posts quoted in FreeP a year or so ago.
It's a family-run biz, and the other parties may well have had a degree of guilt as well. They appear to be 'country boys' that got real casual with the law, lived in a little little bubble of their own (i.e., survivalist colloidal silver sales, etc.) and it bit 'em. From his posts you can tell readin' & writin' ain't his strong points, so it's clear he shoulda been wary.
The average dude walking down the street knows you shouldn't buy a full auto SMG in the back of a warehouse in Reno without paperwork. This guy failed that test.
As I recall they got him on a range of valid violations, topped off by the illegal acquisition of an NFA firearms. (He was an FFL as well and, IIRC, had issues with those matters as well.) His original 'woe is me' posts quoted on FreeP forum basically appeared to be an admission of guilt post-arrest, pre-trial. So we really confirmed he was stupid, too.
As I recall, he was busted around the same time frame (2004ish) some idiots at the Big Reno Show were selling ARs, etc. that were not in compliance with the 1994 Fed AWB. I would frequently and politely tell these dudes, "Hey, this ain't quite right and it's a violation, can't have preban features, yada yada..." A couple of them told me "Relax, they ain't bustin' for that..." (approx. wording).
One of the guys that told me the above was one of the guys busted in 2004 for various AW violations. He plead out to multiple felonies right before the sunset of the Fed AWB occurred in Sep 2004.
We gunnies have enough legit fights with unwritten law - along with arbitrary & capricious regulatory matters (as we are dealing with in CA right now), as well as technically incompetent regulatory agencies & prosecutors - that to worry about stupid folk doing stupid things is a waste of time.
This guy asked for what he got. Not only was he stupid, he got stupider as time went on and dug himself further in the hole. (He talked, publicly and privately, about his case without lawyer.) His case was "easy pickin's" for a prosecutor.
Also note, as Bartholemew Roberts states above, that NRA *does* get involved in cases - when the cases are winnable, the guy didn't do anything wrong but a false position is held by prosecution, etc. They are being particularly helpful in CA right now against the DOJ Firearms Division's recent handwaving, and some AW cases that have popped up.
But no one wants to waste precious NRA funds for "please convict me" idiots like the Survival Enterprises guy. He violated clear and well-known laws and gave folks an open & shut case.
Bill Wiese
San Jose