Man Gets 22 years for BB Gun/ Air Rifle Silencer/ Suppressor

[Master Shake]

This guy who lives near here just got 22 years for possessing a silencer for an air rifle. Not only that, but he was busted by the post office x-raying mail. I didnt think they did that. So apparently xraying your belongings isnt unreasonable search and seizure. This also means that silencers for paintball guns and potato cannons could get you into similar trouble.

Guilty verdict in firearms trial
By BUFFY SPENCER

SPRINGFIELD – A federal jury found Michael A. Crooker guilty of a gun crime that will mean atl least a 15-year minimum mandatory prison sentence.

The jury delivered its verdict shortly after 2 p.m. today, after deliberating about 10 hours over two days.

Crooker, 51, formerly of Agawam, had been charged with being a previously convicted felon “causing a firearm to travel in interstate commerce.”

Crooker was accused of trying to mail an air rifle and sound muffler to an Ohio man in 2004. Air rifles are not considered firearms under federal law, but silencers that can be used on regular guns are. Testimony during the trial centered on whether the black metal cylinder mailed with the air rifle qualifies as a silencer and therefore a firearm. Felons are prohibited from owning firearms.

The jury yesterday morning came back to Judge Michael A. Ponsor with a question, basically asking for more of a definition of a silencer under federal law. Ponsor told them he could not give any more of a description than had been given in his jury instructions.

Crooker sat silently and without obvious expression beside his lawyer, Vincent A. Bongiorni, as the verdict was read.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1665337/posts
http://www.masslive.com/news/republican/newslog/index.ssf?/mtlogs/mass_therepublican/archives/2006_07.html

[Rand]

Ya, that guy got screwed.

Check out this story about a woman, Mary Winkler, who shot her husband in the back with a shotgun while he slept. She got 210 days. I don't care what this guy did to her, apparently he beat her and pressured her to wear a wig and high heels....at certain times.... whatever, get a divorce.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5576886,00.html

[Master Shake]

Well we all know justice isn't fair. In these cases it all comes down to the juries, who in both cases are complete morons.

[yellowcake]

This guy got convicted for a metal .44 caliber silencer he made for an air rifle, which was found with it. I didn't even know they made air rifles that big. So the feds put his silencer on a .22 caliber gun and it silenced it (somewhat). So they called it a silencer, and the jury bought it. The silencer was supposedly designed so using it with a real gun would break it, even if true it may have silenced the first shot and therefore been illegal. This is why vague laws are bad, they can be used to persecute someone if they attract the ire of the powers that be, under this law a pillow is an illegal silencer.

Anyway, don't think a silencer in the much more common air gun .177 caliber is legal. There are real guns in this caliber, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.17_HMR, even though I doubt any person has ever been killed by one.

[FoxNewsFan]

Well we all know justice isn't fair. In these cases it all comes down to the juries, who in both cases are complete morons.

Yep, you're right...look at the "Jena 6". They deserve punishment, but who in their right mind would send a young man with a bright future to prison for 20 years? Im sure the beating was bad, but look at it like this...if 6 people were attempting to murder one, im sure it would have happened. 6 people beating your brains in = you dead. Seems to me they may have decided "enough is enough" and stopped, otherwise he wouldnt have been up and functioning later that night.

[mbz300sdl]

And this is in America well i cant stand to think what is going on in all these countries that need our help to become free? What really is free in the 21st centry?!?