A coalition of pro-gun groups is demanding a formal investigation of the Pennsylvania attorney general over an alleged illegal firearms manufacture and transfer.
Gun Owners of America, the Second Amendment Foundation, the American Firearms Association, the National Association for Gun Rights, and the Pennsylvania Firearms Association suspect that PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro and his office built and sent an un-serialized firearm to a New York resident in “violation of both state and federal laws.”
Last week, the organizations sent a letter (see above) to Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler to pressure the lawmaker to launch a probe.
“It isn’t right that the Attorney General is trying to strip constitutional rights from citizens while at the same time allowing his agents to break the law,” Andrew Austin, GOA’s PA legal counsel said in a press release obtained by GunsAmerica. “We live in a nation with ‘liberty and justice for all.’ It’s unfortunate that Mr. Shapiro seems to have forgotten both.”
In the letter, the groups explained what went down:
Earlier this year, NBC News Reporter Vaughn Hillyard, purchased two firearms build kits at the Oaks Gun Show, as part of a “hidden camera” investigation attempting to show the public how easy it was to manufacture a firearm from a kit. Ironically, Mr. Hillyard was apparently unable to finish the kit, and reached out to Attorney General Shapiro for assistance. Thereafter, Mr. Hillyard met up with “special agents from the AG’s office, who agreed to use the kit [he] purchased from the show and build it into a ghost gun.” Once the kit was complete, the agents of the Attorney General gave Mr. Hillyard, a resident of New York State, a finished firearm. This investigation was broadcast on/about March 17th, 2022.
The NBC segment on “Ghost Guns” is embedded below.
Under federal law, it is illegal “for any person … to transfer … any firearm to any person … who the transferor knows or has reasonable cause to believe does not reside in … the State in which the transferor resides[.]” 18 U.S.C § 922(a)(5).
And, per Pennsylvania law, it is illegal for any person to “sell or transfer a firearm to another unlicensed person” without doing so through a firearms licensee. 18 Pa. C.S. § 6111(c).
“While Attorney General Shapiro is attempting to shove more gun control laws down our throats by banning homemade firearms, he apparently believes that his own Office is exempt from current gun laws. It’s a simple case of ‘rules for thee but not for me’,” said Dr. Val Finnell, Pennsylvania Director for Gun Owners of America.
So far, Speaker Bryan Cutler has failed to respond to the letter. Maybe he’ll get around to it this week.
Stay tuned for updates.
Et tu, shapiro? Quois custodiet ipsos custides? To flip the coin on Merman/Middleton, Anything I Cant Do, You Cant Do Either. Noblesse oblige, eh? This merely reinforces my lifelong cynic’s understanding of why The Common Man hates Fat Cats
Beware the “Jabborwock” (the liberal govt. now in office) It is a mean and vicious beast, It will devour your constitutional rights in one swallow. beware my friends, beware.
I am 87 years old lived through a world war, and several “Police Actions” and never in all this time have I seen this country so “screwed up” by a bunch of misfit swamp dwellers ( Washington DC. (district of corruption).
God save and bless this great country, bring it to its senses again.
Thank you all who bothered to read this. DHF.
Good idea, until you consider who would be actually attending any “Convention of States”. Why it would be the same folks who sit in the governor’s houses today and their respective legislators. No thanks, they are just as bad and in some case worse than the feds. Regular citizens will NEVER be given a true voice by the powerful, they have to take it first and that seems unlikely at this point.
Gee, I can’t wait until the feds issue warrants to seize everyone’s communications, business and personal and then execute warrants in New York and Pennsylvania and arrest these law breakers. I recommend pre-dawn SWAT Raids and make sure you tip off the New York Times in Advance of the “secret raids”. These dangerous criminals need to be held without bail and be subject to a gag order, so they can’t discuss the case in public forums,
In fact the state and city of New York need to file their own cases against these criminals who broke all their laws as well. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that Journalists can’t be charged or arrested for possessing stolen property, unless they were in fact part of the theft itself. No where does this give the press the ability to engaged in illegal activity and to foment a conspiracy to break the laws in two states, federal law and the laws of the City of New York. Once you add up all the charges, we are probably looking at at least 20 years to life for all of these offenders.
Oh wait a minute, hold the phone, these were Liberals trying their best to ban guns, give them a medal in the Whitehouse and call them heroes. The above treatment is only for bad people like the Jan 6th Protestors or Project Veritas, Nothing to see here, move along, or Else.
Unbelievable!!! Enough is enough. Nothing will change unless we the people do it ourselves. Call for a Convention of States demand that the Constitution be enforced.
I believe there’s an even more substantial federal firearms violation: individuals are allowed to construct / assemble firearms ONLY for themselves; it is not permissible under federal firearms laws for an unlicensed individual to assemble a firearm for another person, nor can they deliberately assemble a firearm with the intent of giving it away or selling it.
By the above, it would seem that the agents specifically violated federal firearms law when they returned the kit which they assembled into firearm to Mr Hillyard.
When laws do not apply to those whom make them ,
the People are not being governed , they are being ruled.
It’s supposed to be illegal for someone else to build or help build and run the machinery on your build kit. I’d say the AG and people that did the work on the gun should be charged too, as they’ve gone after civilians and machine shops for these “crimes” in the past.
I support your letter about Attorney General Shapiro, his abuse of power is typical of the Dems overreaching the power of the office they hold to achieve there desired goal of weakening the 2nd amendment. Please don’t take the pressure off him, and get this story retracted. Expose the story as a lie. To as many people as saw the first broadcast!
This is just another example of how “big media” can do whatever they want as long as it follows the liberal agenda. This was proven when David Gregory was told by state and federal law enforcement NOT to bring a standard capacity AR15 magazine into Washington DC for a show he was doing on gun control, and he ignored them and proceeded to bring the magazine to the show. Nothing was done. If that was someone from a pro-2A group they would still be in jail..
Government clowns think they are immune.
That statement that says most guns are bought by convicts is a bunch of crap. Most of these kits are bought by people who are afraid of their own government.