Frederick Sheriff and Dealer in Hot Water

[Sgt6402]

Aha, I was telling the XO last night, I thought that it was likely that the arrangement between the sheriff and Krop was tipped to AFT by a former TMGN employee. I'm betting that is them ^^^.

That thought has crossed my mind also on a few different occasions.... Like when things just happen to pop up out of the blue..... Like when MOSHA & OSHA did an inspection and found some violations on the range.

 

[Mightydog]

Sheriff Jenkins is better than that and knows better than that. He’s been the only thing keeping Frederick County from becoming another MoCo. His strong law and order stance and his coordination with ICE has upset many Democraps in the county for years. Hopefully all a nothingburger!

 

[DanGuy48]

That thought has crossed my mind also on a few different occasions.... Like when things just happen to pop up out of the blue..... Like when MOSHA & OSHA did an inspection and found some violations on the range.

 

[T-Man]

The conspiracy part of the allegation is pretty clear. That the Sheriff’s office had no intent to review the weapons and they conspired to create a fake reason to get the machine guns knowing that it was false. If they did that, then they are cooked as everything else seems to stem from that.

The fact that part of the charge includes a request to transfer Mg’s from another law enforcement agency doesn’t help the govt much.

There is nothing in the charging document showing that they did with the email exchange included seeming to meaningless by itself. The question is what else does the gov’t have? conspiracy is hard to prove and the charges are that they knowing did these things - meaning they knew it was fraud.

The options seem to how dumb are these guys or how politically motivated is the prosecutor. Stay tuned.

 

[RFBfromDE]

To add some color, however, more than one LE group I am aware of has SAWs in their inventory. Not saying that I endorse it but it's a fact that definitely refutes the indictment claim that the saw is suitable only for war.

That was what I got out of it.

 

[lazarus]

People cheat in their spouses all the time and often get caught. They bungee jump and zipline too, because "it won't happen to me".

I'd imagine plenty get away with it. A large percentage of murders are never solved, and those have a HECK of a lot more investigative resources put into them.

An estimated, what? 10-20% of taxes are not collected because of both legitimate mistakes, but also a lot of fraud. Last I checked, we don't have 10-20% of Americans in prisons for tax cheating.

Lots of people don't get caught for crimes. Especially when people consider them "victimless" (not that tax cheating is victimless, it screws all the legitimate tax payers who have to pay more in the end)

 

[lazarus]

Sheriff Jenkins is better than that and knows better than that. He’s been the only thing keeping Frederick County from becoming another MoCo. His strong law and order stance and his coordination with ICE has upset many Democraps in the county for years. Hopefully all a nothingburger!

The indictment says otherwise.

How many righteous people put their hand in the till or think they are above the law? Spoilers, a lot. He is a politician. Just because he has done some great stuff, doesn't mean he cannot have possibly done anything wrong. Far from it.

He is absolutely innocent until proven guilty, and I think the feds are going to have a high bar to cross to prove a crime in this instance, but just because he has been a great sheriff, doesn't mean he cannot be above reproach.

 

[brianns]

That would not be possible to have rented it on last Friday....... The M249 SAW was confiscated several months ago to almost a year ago, along with several other MG's.

I was kind of looking around for it. I couldn’t see down the one end by the retail counters. But had no idea the confiscation had occurred. I’m just caught up partially when people began talking about the PNC bank thing.

 

[gungate]

I don't know how the machine gun places work that rent full autos, but don't most of them do this same thing? Use a "loophole" in the law that allows them to purchase machine guns for "testing"? I mean if they go after TMGN wouldn't they go after all of them? I can't believe the are all using transferrables, are they?

 

[Abagnale]

Well looks like I'll be heading over to the Machine Gun Nest to give them some support! I'll help them out with their fight! I don't give a crap what they did! All of you that are still in Maryland are going to need all of the help that you can get in the coming next couple of years. You are about to lose everything and I mean everything!

 

[brianns]

I don't know how the machine gun places work that rent full autos, but don't most of them do this same thing? Use a "loophole" in the law that allows them to purchase machine guns for "testing"? I mean if they go after TMGN wouldn't they go after all of them? I can't believe the are all using transferrables, are they?

I’m having the same questions. I thought dealers were allowed to use such firearms for such purposes as long as they were not selling them.

Maybe profit is not a valid ‘reason’ for ffls to acquire or manufacture MGs. Possibly needs to be for bona fide ‘research or demonstration’. I can see how they might run afoul of the ATF. And it seems it would be easy for the ATF to investigate the legitimacy of such ranges that clearly profit from rentals.

Maybe TMGN acquired them but used the Sheriff for the paperwork with a reason that wasn’t actually proven to be true. Sooo, say you have a legitimate test and eval/demo for Law Enforcement does the FFL get to keep in its possession the firearm and go on to use it in a profitable manner as long as it started as a true research/demo/? Is there always some threat of having to surrender materials to some agency after complete??

Btw, rumor has it, that Baltimore PD bought HK21s for their police work. Speaking of police work and machine guns. Something about breaking glass from helos. Yeah, I know, sounds strange.

 

[4g64loser]

Btw, rumor has it, that Baltimore PD bought HK21s for their police work. Speaking of police work and machine guns. Something about breaking glass from helos. Yeah, I know, sounds strange.

BPD, unless they are contracting out (think michaels machine), wouldn't be able to keep 21s running. I have time on 11s and they are a PITA. Know two guys who have 21s and that system is a cantankerous bastard.

At least two fed LE groups have saws. Probably more, but I know of two. One has 240s (again, probably more but one for sure). There are still departments that have legal m2s in their inventories. Frederick city has at least one belt fed (probably still doesn't work) and a pile of shoulder fired autos. They dumped their MP5s for shorty m4s. Have a tommy gun too. I can keep going.

 

[bcr229]

Maybe this can be used to challenge the constitutionality of 922(o).

 

[Phoenix_1295]

Seeing that the sheriff has been talking/cooperating with DOJ and ATF over the past year and is, currently, retaining his office, it would not be surprising to see this end as a plea agreement.

 

[John from MD]

Ken posted the significant regulation that makes the case for a conspiracy to have occurred.

“The law letter required by section 479.105(d) authorizes a qualified licensee to obtain a post-86 machinegun for demonstration to the requesting government entity in anticipation of future sales. A law letter from a government entity must express the government entity’s need for, or interest in seeing a demonstration of, a particular machinegun. A licensee may not use a law letter as a method to enhance a personal collection or inventory of machineguns with assistance from a government entity. It is unlawful to use a fraudulent law letter to circumvent the transfer and possession restrictions under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o). Examples of using a fraudulent law letter to circumvent section 922(o) may include submitting a law letter on behalf of a government entity without that government entity’s knowledge or submitting a law letter when the licensee knows the government entity has no interest in the machinegun requested.”

As others have said, a SAW is not acceptable for use in Law Enforcement so the Frederick Sheriff's dept. would not have anticipated any future sales.

I like Sheriff Jenkins too and think his has done a great job. Unfortunately if the allegations are true, he made a really bad decision to get involved with TMGN.

 

[RFBfromDE]

As others have said, a SAW is not acceptable for use in Law Enforcement so the Frederick Sheriff's dept. would not have anticipated any future sales.

What did I miss?

I thought someone with personal knowledge gave examples of departments with that weapon in inventory.

How are the local agencies supposed to beat down the vast threat of insurrection and rising neo-nastyism without machine guns?

Are you implying such threats are overstated?

 

[Brikhaus]

Ken posted the significant regulation that makes the case for a conspiracy to have occurred.

“The law letter required by section 479.105(d) authorizes a qualified licensee to obtain a post-86 machinegun for demonstration to the requesting government entity in anticipation of future sales. A law letter from a government entity must express the government entity’s need for, or interest in seeing a demonstration of, a particular machinegun. A licensee may not use a law letter as a method to enhance a personal collection or inventory of machineguns with assistance from a government entity. It is unlawful to use a fraudulent law letter to circumvent the transfer and possession restrictions under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o). Examples of using a fraudulent law letter to circumvent section 922(o) may include submitting a law letter on behalf of a government entity without that government entity’s knowledge or submitting a law letter when the licensee knows the government entity has no interest in the machinegun requested.”

As others have said, a SAW is not acceptable for use in Law Enforcement so the Frederick Sheriff's dept. would not have anticipated any future sales.

I like Sheriff Jenkins too and think his has done a great job. Unfortunately if the allegations are true, he made a really bad decision to get involved with TMGN.

I would suspect that any desire for the firearms in question would've come through channels within the agency, to the sheriff. Then, if he deemed that it was worth evaluating, he would have completed "The Law Letter" request, to start the ball rolling. Presumably, there would've been multiple agency personnel present for the demo. And, following the demonstrations the parties responsible for evaluating said arms, would have submitted written appraisals of each of the respective firearm's suitability, or lack thereof, to the sheriff. If so, there should be a paper trail to support his innocence. While he is not obligated to prove his innocence, one would think that providing such documentation would tend to dispel the accusations in the indictment and be to his benefit.

 

[John from MD]

Can you imagine if a LE agency actually used a SAW against the public what the result would be? In this day and age, there is no justification for them to have one period.

 

[Brikhaus]

Can you imagine if a LE agency actually used a SAW against the public what the result would be? In this day and age, there is no justification for them to have one period.

Agreed!

 

[4g64loser]

Ken posted the significant regulation that makes the case for a conspiracy to have occurred.

“The law letter required by section 479.105(d) authorizes a qualified licensee to obtain a post-86 machinegun for demonstration to the requesting government entity in anticipation of future sales. A law letter from a government entity must express the government entity’s need for, or interest in seeing a demonstration of, a particular machinegun. A licensee may not use a law letter as a method to enhance a personal collection or inventory of machineguns with assistance from a government entity. It is unlawful to use a fraudulent law letter to circumvent the transfer and possession restrictions under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o). Examples of using a fraudulent law letter to circumvent section 922(o) may include submitting a law letter on behalf of a government entity without that government entity’s knowledge or submitting a law letter when the licensee knows the government entity has no interest in the machinegun requested.”

As others have said, a SAW is not acceptable for use in Law Enforcement so the Frederick Sheriff's dept. would not have anticipated any future sales.

I like Sheriff Jenkins too and think his has done a great job. Unfortunately if the allegations are true, he made a really bad decision to get involved with TMGN.

Someone better be out confiscating all the belt feds in LEA inventories then. I'm ok with UD and others losing their belt feds. If one can't have em, neither can the others. Oh, and ATF has to empty it's technical branch locker too.