Hello,
Today myself and a few friends decided to go out shooting. They know a place in Sultan WA that is legal to shoot at and off we went. Long story short, there were a few other people leaving as we arrived and they wanted to chit chat. We got to showing firearms to one another and some silencers we had with us at the time.
They were unaware of the legalities of silencer ownership and were under the impression they were completely illegal to own. We showed him copies of form 4's with the $200 tax stamp fully registered to each of us. We eventually wrapped up the conversation and they left.
Not ten minutes later, two Snohomish County Sheriffs deputies showed up with their lights on and instructed us all to the front of our vehicles, hands out of our pockets etc. Then they wanted to know who had the silencers. We said we did but explained they were legally owned, and no one had been shooting them (or even had them on guns).
They had us retrieve them from our bags and I also gave him the copy of my form 4. He stopped me and said "what is that?" so I told him and he said "that piece of paper doesn't mean anything to me, that only means the Feds can't come after you, but we still can." word for word.
He then told us we were lucky we were not being dragged out in cuffs. I tried to ask why but he looked like he was going to taze me or something so I backed down, not wanting to argue with someone who is already itching to arrest someone. They instructed us that it was a "class C felony" to posess a silencer in Washington State, even an FFL holder (which is something he just brought up out of the blue). They took them and said they would be forwarding it to the prosecutor who would do the actual filing of charges. Then they left and we continued shooting without incident.
Can anyone help!?!
If it is a felony, why weren't we dragged out in cuffs?
If it is a felony, why can I purchase one from an FFL dealer, and the DEALER isn't in trouble for selling it to me?
I am frustrated and confused.
Please help!
Today myself and a few friends decided to go out shooting. They know a place in Sultan WA that is legal to shoot at and off we went. Long story short, there were a few other people leaving as we arrived and they wanted to chit chat. We got to showing firearms to one another and some silencers we had with us at the time.
They were unaware of the legalities of silencer ownership and were under the impression they were completely illegal to own. We showed him copies of form 4's with the $200 tax stamp fully registered to each of us. We eventually wrapped up the conversation and they left.
Not ten minutes later, two Snohomish County Sheriffs deputies showed up with their lights on and instructed us all to the front of our vehicles, hands out of our pockets etc. Then they wanted to know who had the silencers. We said we did but explained they were legally owned, and no one had been shooting them (or even had them on guns).
They had us retrieve them from our bags and I also gave him the copy of my form 4. He stopped me and said "what is that?" so I told him and he said "that piece of paper doesn't mean anything to me, that only means the Feds can't come after you, but we still can." word for word.
He then told us we were lucky we were not being dragged out in cuffs. I tried to ask why but he looked like he was going to taze me or something so I backed down, not wanting to argue with someone who is already itching to arrest someone. They instructed us that it was a "class C felony" to posess a silencer in Washington State, even an FFL holder (which is something he just brought up out of the blue). They took them and said they would be forwarding it to the prosecutor who would do the actual filing of charges. Then they left and we continued shooting without incident.
Can anyone help!?!
If it is a felony, why weren't we dragged out in cuffs?
If it is a felony, why can I purchase one from an FFL dealer, and the DEALER isn't in trouble for selling it to me?
I am frustrated and confused.
Please help!