Illegally Sell Suppressors, Go To Jail

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

An East Palestine man may find out this week if he’ll be going to prison after federal agents say they caught him with unregistered firearm silencers for a second time in two years.

According to court documents, Brent See was arrested on August 12 after a search of his Bacon Avenue office and machine shop turned up 196 silencers.

Three more of the devices were confiscated during an earlier visit by See’s probation officer, according to investigators.

An affidavit filed by an agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says that See told investigators that he has been making the devices for more than a year, then selling them on eBay for $50 to $80 apiece.

Although See calls the devices “muzzle breaks”, the ATF classifies them as unregistered silencers, bearing no serial numbers.

According to the ATF, a silencer is any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a firearm.

See does not have a license to manufacture silencers according to the government.

See is still on probation from a 2014 conviction for possessing unregistered firearms after he sold an ATF undercover agent three kits that could be assembled to make a device used to diminish the report of a firearm.

During that investigation, agents from the U.S. Postal Service and ATF searched See’s Signal Road home in Fairfield Township.

In December 2014, See was sentenced to six months electronically monitored house arrest and placed on probation for five years.

A probation revocation hearing stemming from the current investigation was held last week in U.S. District Court in Akron.

A detention hearing for See is set for Wednesday.

Source: http://www.wfmj.com/story/32807776/atf-arrests-east-palestine-man-with-nearly-200-firearm-silencers