I've got an amazing story about this one. Let me tell you all about how "If you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to worry about" almost got me charged with unlawful possession of a minigun. 1/?
About 8 years ago I took a trip to Vegas. There's a shooting range there that lets you shoot basically any gun you want. My friends and I went, shot AK-47s, Uzis, and I shot an M134 Minigun. Now, a very little known part of US law is felons aren't the only people banned from possessing firearms. 2/?
If you read all the way through 18 U.S. Code § 922, you'll find non-immigrant visa holders are listed under "Prohibited Persons" alongside Felons. So that's anyone on a tourist visa, H-1B, O-1, student visa, etc. Almost nobody knows this because it's never enforced (until it is). 3/?
If you go to one of those shooting ranges (which openly advertises to tourists), they make you sign like a 30+ page waiver. Somewhere in there it has you agree that you are "not a prohibited person under 18 U.S.C. § 922", which absolves them of any liability for not checking your status. 4/?
Another little known part of US law is "possession" is not just owning a gun. There's a concept called "constructive possession" which means if you someone hands you their gun, you're now in possession of a firearm. Of course, at the time I knew exactly none of this, because I'm not a lawyer. 5/?
Couple of days later I get picked up by the FBI, for what I thought was related to my cybersecurity work. "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" I told myself. Turns out it was a trap, I was wanted for something I did 5 years ago in the UK, and the work related questions were just to lower my guard. 6/?
After arresting me, they wanted to get my bail denied because being held without bail means you just sit in prison until your trial is over. As a result, most people will plead guilty because you'll often spend less time in jail getting convicted than the years you'll spend awaiting trial. 7/?
Now, there's only two common reasons your bail can be denied.
1) it's deemed likely you may flee the country to avoid prosecution.
2) you're a danger to society and are likely to harm someone should you be released.
8/?
I, of course, am expecting them to go with option 1. Since I'm a foreign national charged with white collar crimes. So, imagine my surprise when the prosecutor shows up and starts handing the judge photos of me with a minigun. 9/?
May 14, 2025 02:07They even deliberately waited until the middle of the hearing to submit the photos into evidence, knowing it'd catch my lawyer off guard, because nobody could have possibly seen that one coming. ?/10
Luckily for me, the judge wasn't having any of it, chewed out the prosecutor, then granted me bail. But yeah, "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" is a nice idea until you find out how thin the line is between "popular & fun vacation activities" and "unlawful possession of a firearm". 11/11.
