Thread: Read this! Silencer rights imposed!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Blitzkrieg

And he was wrong.. where is the accountability?

The Prosecutor's office and the Sheriff's department can have the first go at the guy and Bhowe can file suit if he wants to press the issue. I don't have the law in front of me but I remember reading the law where WA state gives a certain amount of latitude for a good faith mistake by an officer in the performance of his duty.

It's a Mistake vs. Malice thing and even if malice existed, I think it's going to be tough to prove malice on the part of the deputy. I'm not defending the deputy but at this point what you have is an interference with Bhowe's right to possess the suppressors (chattel). If he gets them back in the next week or two, what are his economic damages? Assuming they come back in good condition without the department having mucked them up, probably no economic harm. If they kept them for an extended period of time, Bhowe could argue conversion i.e. that the department effectively took them away from him and then the cost of obtaining replacements could be the measure of his harm.

If you're going to say it is purely the principle of the matter like trespass, fine how much do you assess the claim being worth to vindicate his rights? $500? $1,000? $5,000? More? Is it cost effective to litigate against the Sheriff for small amounts of money? Would a small claims court even hear the case or dismiss it? And assuming it would be heard, would the court be swayed that the property was seized lawfully as part of a criminal investigation and returned when no charges were filed? Would they view it as a "No harm. No Foul." deal?

Getting the suppressors back has always seemed achievable. Getting a pound of flesh from the deputy for this seems unlikely unless his own side decides to punish him for being wrong.

Originally Posted by Outrider

Getting the suppressors back has always seemed achievable. Getting a pound of flesh from the deputy for this seems unlikely unless his own side decides to punish him for being wrong.

That is entirely what is wrong with this situation. Even if Bhowe get's his silencer back, what is to prevent the same dumb-*** sheriff from putting someone else who is not breaking any laws through the same hassle. This should never have gone on this long to begin with. It shouldn't have taken more than a couple days for someone to realize "Hey this guy was not breaking the law." and give him back his property. These people need to be held accountable to do their jobs, and do them *right*. If they can't, they need to be re-trained, or fired.

Originally Posted by Atroxus

That is entirely what is wrong with this situation. Even if Bhowe get's his silencer back, what is to prevent the same dumb-*** sheriff from putting someone else who is not breaking any laws through the same hassle. This should never have gone on this long to begin with. It shouldn't have taken more than a couple days for someone to realize "Hey this guy was not breaking the law." and give him back his property. These people need to be held accountable to do their jobs, and do them *right*. If they can't, they need to be re-trained, or fired.

This is where I stand.. systemic change in officer training and confiscation guidelines needs to be mandated statewide as a result of these cases.. this is nothing less than a civil rights violation whether intentional or inadvertent

I really shouldn't say anything specific, the situation may not be the same for all parties involved, but I will say this;



Looks like this can be put behind me.

Thanks for the support!

Originally Posted by Bhowe

I really shouldn't say anything specific, the situation may not be the same for all parties involved, but I will say this;



Looks like this can be put behind me.

Thanks for the support!

About ******* time.

Hope we'll get to hear the whole story one of these days.

Weeeeee!!!!! Whooopeeee!

Congrats!

Definitely would've like to know the details to prevent such a situation in the future, but I understand where you're coming from.

Oh, come on. Did you get your cans back? Surely you can't be under a gag order because of an illegal police action? Youve done nothing wrong so lets hear what happened.

Originally Posted by wired

Oh, come on. Did you get your cans back? Surely you can't be under a gag order because of an illegal police action? Youve done nothing wrong so lets hear what happened.

if he's suing, his lawyer has most likely advised him against saying anything more about it publicly.

We are happy to hear that you are happy. I hope we get more details after the settlement.

Congrats on getting your cans back.

Originally Posted by wired

Oh, come on. Did you get your cans back? Surely you can't be under a gag order because of an illegal police action? Youve done nothing wrong so lets hear what happened.

I agree. Bhowe, did you actually get your property back? If so, were there any assurances that the sheriffs department would not do this to someone else in the future?

Once it is back in my posession I may feel more comfortable with talking about it. Although I wish it would have taken a lot less time, I am confident it will work out in my favor with the info I was given. I do no plan on any kind of lawsuit. I do not have the $ to do so, and as long as they follow through I don't feel the need to. If they had said they were going to charge me, I would not only fight it, but fight to change the laws of useage in the state (if thats what they were going to charge me with). Perhaps if they decide to charge the other person involved, he could then fight to change the law. I don't really know him or his situation though. And as far as I know, the deputy who was under the believe that silencers are completely illegal to own in this state, has been corrected. I guess that is the only assurance I have that it won't happen again. I highly doubt a memo will be sent to all police officers in the state regarding this. Therefore, if my silencer ever leaves the house again, certain precautions will be taken to make sure it never crosses paths with LE ever again.

Originally Posted by Bhowe

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!

Federal Law Authorizes you to possess the silencer - State Law does not supercede federal law - I would get an attorney and also contact the NRA for assistance..

Originally Posted by python287

Federal Law Authorizes you to possess the silencer - State Law does not supercede federal law - I would get an attorney and also contact the NRA for assistance..

I think you must have only read my original post. A lot has happened since then.

Thanks

Back when I was in high school my buddies dad gave us the warning every time we went out at night..." Stay away from the law! "

Originally Posted by coctailer

I would like to go to the place you were shooting and bring my machine guns.

I did it once here in Vancouver (The English Pit Shooting Range)
The fudds in there were freaking out

my friends misreading the RCW's and you can actually own a fully automatic weapon? They way I read it, even with the correct Fed documentation it's still illegal to own, or possess any automatice weapon or parts that can be made into one.

I thought I had read the RCW's pretty well but maybe I missed that.

Deen
NRA Benefactor/Recruiter
WAC member
ACOSWW member

Originally Posted by deen_ad

my friends misreading the RCW's and you can actually own a fully automatic weapon? They way I read it, even with the correct Fed documentation it's still illegal to own, or possess any automatice weapon or parts that can be made into one.

I thought I had read the RCW's pretty well but maybe I missed that.

Deen
NRA Benefactor/Recruiter
WAC member
ACOSWW member

There are grandfathered full auto weapons out there.

Plus coctailer is a Manufacture.