A Pennsylvania man was arrested at a Turks & Caicos airport for possession of 20 rounds of rifle ammunition. He was let off easy and that was the right call.
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Rifle Rounds Found In Luggage
In February 2024, Bryan Hagerich was arrested when 20 rounds of rifle ammunition were found in his luggage while departing his family vacation in Turks & Caicos.
“Hagerich was one of several Americans facing a potential mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison on ammunition charges in Turks and Caicos.” – CBS News
He spent more than 100 days in jail. US Senator Fetterman worked with Turks & Caicos officials to secure his release.
“According to spokesperson Jonathan Franks, the judge found that the case had exceptional circumstances and that the lengthy sentence would be arbitrary. The father of two, who also had to pay a $6,700 fine, landed in Pittsburgh late Friday night, where he was met by his family, along with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler.” CBS News
Respecting The Law In Spirit, And To The Letter
When you enter a new country, you abide by their rules. In the 1994, Michael Fay the son of a US businessman, was convicted for vandalizing cars and stealing road signs in Singapore. The penalty was caning (six strokes) and he had pled guilty before ultimately reversing his plea. It caused an international incident at the time with US officials advocating for a lesser sentence, which was reduced from six strikes to four. Regardless of whether Fay knew what the punishment was for his crimes, or whether they seemed egregious to him, he knew what he was doing was wrong. He also knew that there would be penalties in his home country if he did the same thing, though instead of caning, it would be fines, and/or incarceration.
In this instance, the penalties are drastically different.
In the United States, improperly packaged firearms in checked luggage is a $740-$1,490 civil fine with no criminal component. In carry-on luggage, ammunition isn’t specifically listed (oddly) but assuming it falls under “unloaded firearms” (even though it’s just the ammunition), the penalty would range from $1,500-5,370 + a criminal referral. All of those penalties are malleable in the United States.
In Turks & Caicos, it’s a minimum mandatory sentence. Regardless of whether it’s an honest mistake or terroristic criminal intent, this is the law and by entering Turks & Caicos (and pleading guilty) Hagerich both accepted that law and took responsibility for his error.
Why It’s The Right Call
Hagerich knew that it’s illegal to travel with ammunition not just in Turks & Caicos but also in the United States (and everywhere else.) And while I would not have faulted Turks & Caicos for enforcing the law to the full extent permitted, in this case, I think they exercised some valuable common sense.
For those that don’t carry firearms or ammunition in their luggage (I don’t), it can seem bizarre, even alarming, that weapons or ammo could be forgotten in their carry-on. That’s a fair thought, but considering that 20 rifle rounds fits in a small box (about 2″ tall x 4″ long x 0.5″ wide), it’s about the size of an external hard drive. Last week I found a Microsoft Surface mouse in my bag (roughly the same size.) I haven’t used that computer in more than four years. It was important when I put it in my bag, but it got lost in the bottom of my backpack and despite removing things and replacing them in that compartment countless times in the last nearly half decade, it’s been so long forgotten that I was shocked to find it.
What the courts in Turks & Caicos took seriously was the use of common sense. Hagerich didn’t have any other firearm equipment with him, he clearly didn’t have any ill-intentions, he wasn’t a threat and the bullets (without a component with which to fire them) was inert. In fairness, any lithium-ion battery is exceedingly more dangerous onboard a flight but is allowed without incident.
The Turks & Caicos judge applied a special circumstance exemption to defer from the minimum mandatory sentence of 12 years.
“Premier C. Washington Misick said in a statement Friday that justice had been “served as the law intended.”
“Today’s decision reflects our commitment to judicial independence along with upholding the law,” Misick said in a statement. “Residents and visitors can be confident that the Turks and Caicos Islands are dedicated to safety and compassion as we protect the safety and rights of all.” – CBS News
The penalty is intended to stop, punish, and deter genuine criminals. This man had no intent to commit harm, made a genuine mistake, and still spent 108 days in jail, paid a $6,700 fine and faces a suspended sentence of 52 weeks in jail.
Conclusion
In this instance, a penalty that was meant to punish those with serious intent on killing others and/or hijacking an aircraft had a broad brush with high minimum sentences. The judge and the government of Turks & Caicos applied common sense to this situation to release him. He had no prior criminal record, he wasn’t running guns nor was he intending to cause harm. He made a mistake and the court saw that. In Western Pennsylvania (I live here too), hunting is such a significant recreation that some school districts will close the first day of rifle season because if they didn’t they’d have so many kids calling out of school that it would be problematic later. Deer run rampant across highways in neighborhoods resulting in a danger to humans driving, carcasses are not an uncommon sight within the realm of one every two miles on highways in the area.
It’s not unreasonable that he had rifle ammunition. However, it’s his duty to check his luggage and if he violates the law of another country, to face the consequences. In this instance, the judge was right to enforce aspects of the law but not all of the law. It still sent a powerful message to travelers to check their luggage and understand that the rule of law in that country is to be abided, while at the same time, not punishing Hagerich for his mistake beyond what was reasonable for the level at which he committed the crime.
What do you think?
Here’s where I struggle to feel sympathy for all these people taking ammo to T&C… The “he didn’t mean any harm” defense is problematic. Guns aren’t normal there, there isn’t a gun culture, and possession of guns and ammo is illegal. Because of that, the street value of illegally imported guns and ammo could potentially be very high. An enterprising American could surely make a ton of money selling ammo while in the T&C islands.
We don’t actually know the motives of any of these Americans, but they do have one thing in common; they’ve all committed crimes in T&C. By letting these people off with a nominal fine, it may inspire people to travel to T&C to sell ammo. As long as you sneak it by TSA and sell it while on the islands, there’s really no risk.
+1
@Jerry … +2 .
I guess this just illustrates how desperately the USA needs to increase penalties for similar violations. If people knew that they faced a year in prison without exception for bringing weapons or ammunition on a flight they would be of the mindset that under no circumstances should they travel with dangerous contraband on a passenger flight.
@Christian … +1 .
Look at the Haitians , Chicagoians , and Hamasians .
Mindless morons , all .
Oh shut up, you dumb bigot.
Degenerate
Stop projecting, you vile wretched excuse for a human being.
Aaron loves to call others names while people like him would end humanity in a decade with their unnatural attraction to other mens asses.
Old sh#t dick is so judgmental because he’s not a normal human being.
18 and hairless? Call Aaron, the rich “businessman” and he will pamper you while he pampers your ass.
Meanwhile. just a reminder that shoplifting is generally decriminalized in large US cities unless you go over a certain amount of USD value.
Irrelevant. You’re mixing American and foreign laws. Bottom line is when in other people’s countries, RESPECT their local laws and culture!
@Blythe – I agree with this though I think common sense should still apply and did so here.
whatever happened to that case with the WA state senator that carried a gun on his carry-on to Hong Kong? Similar to T&C, HK was under the empire’s dominion.
Will the guy be rejected from Global Entry and even PreCheck after this incident? Or will US DHS pull the wool over its eyes about the violations this guy has committed?
I’m from Singapore and lived there during the Michael Fay incident.
Singapore has similar laws to T&C about ammunition and weapons so why do you agree with supporting the laws about vandalism but not weapons (or drugs as another example)?
Several commentators have said that ammunition is benign as there is no means to fire it, but what if someone locally had smuggled in a weapon but no rounds? The bottom line is countries like T&C and Singapore have penalties for aspects of anything they choose to prohibit.
@RR … +1 . Singapore also has penalties , which I support , for not waiting docile in a queue .
vs. morons at Delhi or Cairo airports will trample disabled passengers to be the first in line at the gate .
I think he made it clear that the difference between the two cases was intent.
Good point but if you break the law, you break the law and you have to suffer the consequences (and ignorance (of either the law or that you didn’t know what was in your bag)) is no excuse.
When travelling to someone’s sovereign country one needs to abide by the rules. Whether it was a mistake or not, you are still subject to prosecution. The big question however is, how did they get past US security with ammunition???
Where does the fault lie??
Hhhhmmmm.
@Mike- While the TSA has gotten better, since inception, its own testing has shown about a 90% failure rate in detecting a gun in a carry-on. Bullets has to be an even lower success rate.
I agree with the decision, although I believe he spent that time on bail, not in an actual jail.
I feel no sympathy at all! It’s pretty clear the only reason Hagerich had gotten such a VIP treatment (3 months in a nice Airbnb plus a small fine with no repercussion on his financial standing) is because congressional thugs like Fetterman, Wayne, Breechen, and Reschenthaler went down there to threaten T&CI officials with sanctions. Yet another VIP treatment is nobody is calling him by what he really is, a convicted felon, it looks like the only “felon” here is the judge giving something that isn’t even a wrist slap on Hagerich, which, by the way, has shown no remorse on his interview back in Pennsylvania.
Moreover, I don’t think that the “Mercy for me, not for thee” squad would ever support such compassion for a foreigner in a similar situation stateside. There has been no reciprocity, there’s no reciprocity, and there will be no reciprocity when it comes to compassion to foreigners in the United States, it’s an one way street.
The hatred here is very strong amongst our supposedly most tolerant people. Let’s see the same respect for all the immigration and shoplifting theft laws that the US has on the books, as you seem to have for the T&C laws.
Jcil- Bingo! It appears that when the crime involves possession of guns or ammunition liberals are more than ready to throw the book at offenders and hate with impunity (Let’s give him 12 years for those bullets!).
When it comes to other crimes it’s a very different story.
Hypocrisy runs amok.
Not sure where the hypocrisy is? We’re talking about one case, if you wanted to contrast a different case and got conflicting responses I’d take your point.
It’s their law. No the US’. Learn to respect and abide other countries’ laws. Y’all think you can go to other people’s homes and try to change how they do things! So arrogant.
The hypocrisy is ignoring laws against (for example) illegal immigration or shoplifting in the US and throwing the book at someone for breaking a law in T&C. Pretty obvious.
+1 Cairns. You make an excellent point about the hypocrisy of the Lunatic Left. The ‘tolerant’ people are the most insidious, ruthless bullies and bigots around.
“Alert” posting under a different name? Same style and nonsense posts.
I think it’s very unfair. If he wasn’t American he would have been sentenced to rot in jail. Regardless of his intention, he still broke the local law and should have suffered the consequences. They only got him off easy because Uncle Sam intervened! What a brat. You know that most Americans think they can do whatever they want when they visit other countries not respecting the local laws and culture. American tourists have that reputation. This case only sends a message that it’s true—as American you are above other countries’ laws… I wonder how much they bribed the judge.
AFAIC, huge difference between deliberately bringing in bullets and accidentally leaving one in a bag. Intent should matter.
One of the Americans caught in this kind of situation has been doing the rounds complaining that the USG/State Department didn’t help him and only reluctantly got involved due to media attention. He’s doing this after he got back to the US due to his 52-week jail sentence being suspended by 12 months courtesy of the judge.
I have no sympathy–lock him up
Central Florida woman Sharitta Grier was also caught violating this kind of law in Turks & Caicos. She got caught during a Mother’s Day trip this year. Let’s see if she gets released to return to the US under the same kind of terms.