A little light on the ammo

In Columbia South Carolina:

Federal authorities found more than 23,000 rounds of ammunition, 90 guns and tactical gear inside the home of a Midlands Technical College student who researched mass shootings, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

That figures out to only about 255 rounds per gun. That’s a little light on the ammo side.

When I read the various headlines I wondered why the Feds were hassling him. It turns out he was defrauding a bunch of different people and/or businesses:

According to an affidavit, the ATF’s investigation began in October 2018 after getting a tip about Kimpton’s PayPal transactions.

According to the document, Kimpton used false names to buy the items from sellers and retailers from PayPal accounts—and then contested the sale, saying he never got the items. The affidavit said that left Kimpton with the items and the sellers without payment.

Agents believed this scheme started in June 2018. They executed a search warrant for Kimpton’s home on April 20, 2020.

Okay. He deserved the wire fraud and mail fraud charges. The machine gun charge for the bump stocks? Not so much. But, it’s not totally bogus.

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3 thoughts on “A little light on the ammo

  1. 23,000 rounds – less than five boxes of 5,000 round cases of .22 :R. Total investment – a few hundred dollars.

  2. How can a college student afford to buy 90 guns, let alone 23,000 rounds of ammo?

    I also wonder how he bought guns with his ‘Paypal scheme’? Is there something in SC that allows one to buy guns online and have them mailed? (I assume some gun merchants accept Paypal at point of sale and he contested the charger later with Paypal? {maybe Palmetto State Armory?})

    • If you don’t pay for it, you can “afford” anything.

      Was he buying from dealers or in private sales? I don’t think he was buying all these guns in the same place – very few businesses are so poorly managed that they can take a loss 90 times before they stop shipping to the same address and call the cops. (But I assume at least one seller must have started to put things together, and that’s how the BATF got onto him.)

      I don’t know what the regulations are for interstate shipping in private sales, but I doubt the average seller knows either, so perhaps he just looked for private sellers that didn’t think to check.

      Or he could have acquired an FFL, and then it would be clearly legal to ship to him. If he could not get an actual FFL, how hard is it to fake one?

      The final surprise is that someone can be smart enough to come up with such a scheme, but dumb enough to expect to be able to take 90 physical deliveries without giving the cops enough to find him! People are strange…

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