Follow up to my own question:
After 4 months in jail under a 2 million dollar bond, he pled guilty to 70 felony gun charges and was sentenced to 51 years probation. I think he gets out today.
She is out on an ankle bracelet and has her court date later this month.
They were manufacturing, modifying, and selling unregistered assualt weapons out of their home under the cover of their fake “tactical supply” business which presented itself as selling only gun and shooting accessories.
They did not have a federal firearms dealers license. There were multiple weapons in their home. Some belonged to the couple and others were accompanied with the name of the owners and what mods were being done on the particular weapon.
The couple was also making “suggestive comments” about their modification activity a bit on FB- comments about machinery, measurements, etc., but it was pretty easy to read between the lines and see what they were really offering once I understood what it was they were doing.
They also made odd comments on FB about stuff like how, since you can’t shoot down a drone, you have to know the drone operator (suggesting to shoot the drone operator, and not the drone), and how to dig trenches that would keep LEO’s from being able to raid your compund easily.
It wasn’t just “memes” as the couple claimed. He closed his FB account after the second but before the third arrest. She continued to post for a while but deleted anything ‘questionable’. Her account has been inactive since just before thier third arrest and I presume that she is not allowed to use social media as a condition of her release.
They seemed to think that if he had the machinery and know-how, she conducted the sales, and a third party provided the weapon to be modified from semi-auto to full-auto, that somehow none of them individually was guilty of a crime.
For the next 51 years, he:
cannot own a gun or any part of a gun,
cannot own pepperspray,
cannot travel out of county for more than 48 hours without notifying his PO, travel more than 50 miles without notifying his PO,
cannot use drugs or alcohol (probably due to previous DUI/DWI charges),
must take regular and also random drug screens,
and must allow a search of his home or property at any time with or without notice,
must submit regular financial statements.
He also cannot own or operate a computer or use social media. He can have a cellphone but cannot use it to access the internet or use any software or programs intended to hide communication.
He can’t even own a mean dog if it would prevent LE from searching his home, car, or work.
Overall, he now has about 50 restrictions to his life for the next 51 years.
He does have permission to use an assumed name in the course of opening a business.
I wonder if he can resist the temptation to reopen his fake tactical supply business?