The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office has posted an announcement on their Facebook page describing a sting operation in which they cooperated with ATF agents to purchase an unregistered SBR from a local trying to sell the rifle online. Peter Chirco, the owner of the rifle even knew that the rifle was under the legal 16-inch barrel length when he posted it online, in addition to even being barred from several local shooting ranges because the range staff realized the illegality of the rifle itself.From the Facebook post-

From the Facebook post-

Sheriff Detectives and members of the ATF set up an undercover buy of this illegal short barreled AR-15 style rifle yesterday. The gun was listed for sale online by Peter Chirco, 25, who told detectives he knew it was illegal and had even been banned from gun ranges because of it. Chirco was arrested and charged with possession of a short-barreled gun/rifle and booked into the St. Lucie County Jail on a $15,000 bond.

To think that a mere pistol buffer tube could have made the difference between this fellow being charged with a felony and having a successful purchase just baffles those of us who pay so much attention to staying within the legal limits that we have to adhere to on a daily basis. Or even the fact that he was a mere several inches to be within a legal barrel limit. It appears that the barrel is probably 12 inches with a compensator attached to it. If this was a case of he probably didn’t realize the extent of NFA laws or was just ignorant about the barrel length, maybe we could have some sympathy, but it is hard to with this blatancy.