Man going to jail for finishing AR lowers for customers

[alpacaheat]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...-to-41-months/

Man who used CNC mill to make untraceable guns sentenced to 41 months

Daniel Crowninshield let essentially anyone "unlawfully manufacture firearms."

CYRUS FARIVAR - 2/17/2017, 5:45 AM


A Sacramento, California, man was sentenced Thursday to over three years in prison for unlawful manufacture of a firearm and one count of dealing firearms.

Last year, Daniel Crowninshield pleaded guilty to those counts in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping other charges. According to investigators, Crowninshield, known online as "Dr. Death," would sell unfinished AR-15 lower receivers, which customers would then pay for him to transform into fully machined lower receivers using a computer numerically controlled (CNC) mill. (In October 2014, Cody Wilson, of Austin, Texas, who has pioneered 3D-printed guns, began selling a CNC mill called "Ghost Gunner," designed to work specifically on the AR-15 lower.)

"In order to create the pretext that the individual in such a scenario was building his or her own firearm, the skilled machinist would often have the individual press a button or put his or her hands on a piece of machinery so that the individual could claim that the individual, rather than the machinist, made the firearm," the government claimed in its April 14 plea agreement.

Under federal law, it is allowed to manufacture your own firearm (even with a CNC mill), but it is not allowed to do so for others without proper licensing.

In a Thursday statement, Special Agent in Charge Jill A. Snyder, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said that Crowninshield "owned and operated a machine shop where he allowed customers with unknown backgrounds to use his machinery to unlawfully manufacture firearms for profit. That activity posed a very dangerous threat to the safety of our communities."

[alpacaheat]

You just can't do that, he should have known the law, even if you don't agree with it.

[KCJones]

You just can't do that, he should have known the law, even if you don't agree with it.

Ditto. Agree or not the (current) law is very clear on this.

[Boo Vuccla]

Default Re: Man going to jail for finishing AR lowers for customers
It's a fucking cnc mill, why didn't the idiot just let his customers press the button to start it?

The main issue is that he was "profiting" from the use of his CNC. If he is charging customers/friends/etc for the use of the equipment, irregardless of who is doing the actual setup of the lower on the jig, he has now transformed himself into the definition of a firearms builder who is not licensed. Oh and the BATF doesn't like that apparently.

[Hodgie]

You just can't do that, he should have known the law, even if you don't agree with it.

I bet he knew the law, he just didn't give a shit about breaking it.

[4thdimension]

What difference does make if he knew the law. Everything is illegal anymore. There is enough asinine laws on the books to incarcerate everyone for something.

[markshere2]

Shoulda used the Hillary defense...........

No INTENT for harm.

[Daycrawler]

41 Months in Commiefornia? I think he got off easy. They could have made that a life sentence!

[free]

That sucks.

[MT1]

What difference does make if he knew the law. Everything is illegal anymore. There is enough asinine laws on the books to incarcerate everyone for something.

Shoulda used the Hillary defense...........

No INTENT for harm.

Sounds to me like someone is practicing their Hillary lines.