Something to ponder with your coffee this Sunny Saturday morning..
Another challenge to the ATF "taxing" suppressors.
Net Net:
The ATF (acting as a private seller) sold a man a can without properly filing the required form and paying the tax.
The man was then arrested by the ATF and charged with buying & possession of an unregistered can without appropriate ATF permission (form nor tax)
The argument: "it was the ATF's responsibility to file the form and pay the tax, NOT the person who purchased the can from the ATF.
If the article is factual, there seems to be some concurrence that the conviction may be flipped by the 11th Circuit Judge??
BUT, this is a narrowly formed challenge and may not reach SCOTUS.
Quote:
Panel Asked to Toss Gun Conviction of Accused Shooting Plotter
June 12, 2020 ALEX PICKETT
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (CN) — The attorney for a man accused of plotting to shoot up a Florida mosque asked an 11th Circuit panel Friday to throw out a related firearms conviction.
If successful, the appeal brought by Bernandino Bolatete, convicted in 2018 of possessing an unregistered silencer, could upend portions of a gun control law passed more than 80 years ago.
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After the detective sold an unregistered silencer to Bolatete for $100, FBI agents made an arrest and searched his home and car, uncovering 11 guns and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition.
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Originally Posted by ATF Process
Gun stores licensed to sell silencers will typically submit the buyer’s registration application with the $200 fee and release the device after approval by the ATF.
Similarly, the ATF provides private sellers with a form to sign and send with the $200 payment before the seller hands over the silencer.
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Originally Posted by U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch interjected
“Here you are faced with a defendant who did not have the option of paying the tax to avoid implicating the statute,”
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Originally Posted by U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Luck
“In other words, his defense was not that, ‘Oh if you hadn’t arrested me, I was on my way to paying the registration fee and get a stamp on this thing,’” Luck said.
“His argument was, ‘I was entrapped into doing exactly what I did.’”
“Correct,” Sholl replied.
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