ATF: Passports Taken but No Charges after Two Years for Australian Making Silencers in Texas
Peter Brennan, his wife Jacqueline Shaw and their eight-year-old son Archie Brennan will never forget the day the ATF raided their Texas gun-parts shop, which is located in northeast Texas near the Oklahoma border.
“We pulled up to our gun shop in an old GMC truck and all these cars surrounded us,” Peter Brennan told the Second Amendment Foundation. “They had seven cars and a load of tactical guys jumping out. We didn’t realize what was happening. We hadn’t done anything wrong?”
They agents tried separating the family.
“They kept trying to yank my son away from his mom,” Brennan said. “These agents – some wearing man-buns – were trying to act as hard as nails. A lot of people were watching. They handcuffed me and put me in one of their cars.”
“You know why we’re here – not by accident,” one of the agents told Brennan.
“That’s debatable,” Brennan replied, as they tore his shop apart. “Like you guys don’t make mistakes. Nothing in the shop is illegal in Texas. I want to get a lawyer.”
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“They took our passports, which we still don’t have back, along with phones and computers – all of our money. They told us to ring them in a couple days on a Thursday. All I had in my pockets was 40 dollars,” Brennan said.
The ATF threatened the couple if they ever decided to get new passports and return to Australia.
“They said if we went to our embassy they would arrest us. That’s unconstitutional. They shut down my YouTube channel. We had no food and they took all our money,” Brennan said. “We were supposed to go to England a week after the raid.”
The raid took place nearly two years ago. So far, the couple has not been charged with any crime, but Brennan’s family cannot leave the United States because they have no passports.
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After he opened his gun-parts shop, many of Brennan’s customers began asking him about silencers, which are also known as suppressors.
“We would get asked about them all the time,” he said. “They said you can sell suppressors in Texas if they’re made in Texas and stay in Texas. They showed us the law.”
One of Brennan’s friends worked for the local sheriff’s office. He told Brennan he had watched Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sign the state law, known as Texas House Bill 957, in September 2021.
The state law is very clear: “A firearm suppressor that is manufactured and remains in this state is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of the United States Congress to regulate interstate commerce.”
My guess is that they're not going to actually prosecute, because they might lose. SCOTUS is far less open to a broad interpretation of interstate commerce than when the Progressives held the balance.
Hopefully, the new leadership will quash this, and with any luck, will terminate those responsible for cause.
