Editors Note: The following press release is directly from ATF. Regular readers of AmmoLand News know our stance on the unaccountable Federal Agency: No comment. We invite our readers to leave their hard-hitting insights in the comments below.
BANGOR, Maine – -(Ammoland.com)- An Old Town man was sentenced in federal court today for possessing an unregistered firearm, U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee announced.
U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker sentenced Stephen Warren, 38, to four years and two months in prison and two years of supervised release. Warren pleaded guilty in July 2021.
According to court records, on September 8, 2020, Warren was stopped by an Old Town police officer. Warren was issued a summons for operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license and served with a protection order. Warren was told not to operate his car due to his suspended license. He ignored this order, however, and drove away from the area. Following a brief pursuit, Warren was stopped and arrested.
A subsequent inventory search of Warren’s car revealed a short-barreled shotgun without a serial number. The shotgun was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR). [he did not pay the tax] Federal law prohibits the possession of an unregistered weapon made from a shotgun if the modified weapon has a barrel less than 18 inches in length or an overall length of less than 26 inches.
“These firearms are more dangerous because they are easily concealed and devastating when used at close range,” said U.S. Attorney McElwee. “As a result, anyone who seeks to possess one of these weapons must comply with the registration requirements of the National Firearms Act.” The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Old Town Police Department investigated the case as part of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) initiative.
PSN is a nationwide initiative that brings together federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, community leaders, and other stakeholders to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in a community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. PSN is coordinated by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in the 94 federal judicial districts throughout the 50 states and U.S. territories. PSN is customized to account for local violent crime problems and resources. Across all districts, PSN follows four key design elements of successful violent crime reduction initiatives: community engagement, prevention, and intervention, focused and strategic enforcement, and accountability.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
ATF is the federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating violations of the federal firearms and explosives laws and regulations. More information about ATF and its programs can be found at www.atf.gov.
The prohibitive $200 tax is unconstitutional and racist, preventing poor minorities from purchasing effective self-defense weapons, and the punishment for violating this illegal law is cruel and unusual, with a standard 10,000 dollars and ten years in prison. All for failing to pay $200 in tax. Did AOC get a multiple of that penalty when she failed to pay the IRS over $2,400 in taxes? Did Al Sharpton get a few thousand year prison sentence for owing the IRS MILLIONS in taxes?
What a moron, the length in the law is an arbitrary number on an unconstitutional law. It’s no more deadly and if I shoot someone with a 17.9 inch barrel compared to and 18” will not matter.
Looks like the government thugs are bragging about armed robbery, aggravated kidnapping, and violation of rights again.
Breaking, government thugs seize firearm that endangered no one, imprison man guilty of no harm.
I hope agents/policemen involved know what they are. I shudder to think they go to bed at night thinking they are trying to help their fellow Americans.
You have entirely too much time on your hands, sport. Recommend a year or two on a tuna boat to give you a perspective on the real world.
…”These firearms are more dangerous because they are easily concealed and devastating…”. No doubt the bad guy’s after reading ATF rules are thinking’ “…the next house I rob I’ll make sure the owner has a shotgun with a really long barrel because it’s not as concealable and less deadly”…geeeezzee!
I see the same commenters every day in the same place, and it turns into an old geezer pissing contest or a cop hating platform for disgruntled parking ticket scofflaws.
If you’re not sitting in jail, moms basement, China, Russia or some other $hit hole, try being civil or your comments will be summarily dismissed by the “good guys with guns that come to this site for intelligent information.
I would like to hear the rest of the story. So he had a suspended license, and the cop warned him not to operate the car. Instead of pretending to comply, walking away, and returning later to retrieve his car, he instead just drove away in front of the cop who issued the warning. Any normal person, who had an unregistered short barrel shotgun would have walked away thanking his lucky stars the cop did not search the car. Just park it legally and tell the cop you’ll have a friend come and drive it home. Instead he drives away.… Read more »
The bans on machine guns, short barreled shotguns/rifles, and silencers were the result of legislators watching old black and white gangster movies. There was (and is) virtually no problem in America of crimes committed with these weapons/devices. Yet if you possess one you will go to prison longer than someone who defrauds a pension fund of millions of dollars. It’s utter madness.
More Concealable? With today’s fashions not really. Any shotgun up close and personal, depending upon the Load, is dangerous and devastating (ask Birdshot Dick Cheney). I really can’t see where SBRs and SBSs were that big of a problem back in the bad old days. There’s stories, but very little actual Forensic proof. The NFA is and remains a major Infringement upon the 2nd Amendment. No matter how you look at it or try to justify it. It remains an Infringement, and largely came about as the results if a problem the government itself created. Without Prohibition, Organized Crime wouldn’t… Read more »