SEATTLE — A Washington state man who recently served prison time on a gun charge amassed an arsenal of homemade “ghost guns” after his release even though he was on federal supervision, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court.
Nathan Brasfield, 40, of Edmonds, was sentenced to four years in prison after a 2014 arrest for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He began a three-year term of supervised release in October 2017.
Such supervised release periods typically require offenders to check in periodically with U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services and to grant probation officers access to their homes at any time.
Nevertheless, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said in a federal complaint unsealed Thursday that when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched his home and vehicle on Feb. 6 they found dozens of guns as well as several machines used in home manufacturing of firearms: a 3-D printer, drill press and computer numerical control machine — also known as a “ghost gunner.”
Agents reported finding 17 pistols, 24 rifles and 10 silencers, with most of the guns being homemade and having no serial numbers. Such weapons are called “ghost guns” because of the difficulty of tracing them. The complaint said agents also found 300 pounds (136 kg) of ammunition — thousands of rounds.
One homemade pistol, recovered from his vehicle, was loaded with 15 rounds, agents said.
They said they also found 20 “80% lower receivers” that were nearly completed, but which required some additional machining and milling to be considered firearms under federal law. The lower receiver is the part of the gun that typically includes the trigger and magazine. Some companies sell the 80% lowers as kits; because they are not considered firearms, and people don’t have to pass background checks to buy them.
A federal complaint unsealed Thursday charged Brasfield with being a felon in possession of ammunition. He made an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, where he did not contest his continued detention pending trial. His court-appointed attorney, Dennis Carroll, declined to comment.
The complaint said the ATF searched the home after U.S. Customs and Border Protection searched two packages that were addressed to Brasfield. Their labels indicated that they contained “aluminum tubes,” but in reality they contained five silencers, the complaint said.
It remains unclear how someone on federal supervision might have produced or amassed such an arsenal. Connie Smith, the chief of U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services for the Western District of Washington, declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
The proliferation of homemade, untraceable guns is of growing concern to law enforcement and others.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson has sued President Donald Trump’s administration in federal court in Seattle on behalf of 22 states and the District of Columbia. The lawsuit seeks to undo a rule change that would deregulate the publication of blueprints for making 3D-printed guns, allowing them to spread further on the internet. Arguments on a preliminary injunction motion to block the rule were held Friday; the judge did not indicate when he might rule.
Brasfield’s criminal record includes eight felony convictions, including theft and possession of stolen property. Before his sentencing on the previous gun charge, he wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour, saying that he was a nonviolent person and an animal rights activist and that he had struggled with depression and attention deficit disorder. In her own letter, his mother said he had stopped taking medication for those conditions because he was opposed to drug testing on animals.
Brasfield wrote that he is not a threat to society. “This will most likely be the only time you’ll see me. … There are a large number of people in my life who want to support me and see me succeed.”
