Dexter Taylor, the Brooklyn software engineer who's confined to a maximum security prison in New York for the "violent crime" of building and possessing firearms without the prerequisite approval from government officials, may soon be getting some company. Demetrio Daga, a 44-year-old from Albany County, was convicted this week on more than a dozen charges relating to his own homebuilt firearms, and could face up to 40 years behind bars when he's sentenced in October.
The fact that Taylor and Daga have now been deemed violent felons for their victimless crimes (that should be protected activity under the Second Amendment) is horrific enough, but it's how Daga was targeted that should scare the bejesus out of every New York gun owner.
Daga’s arrest on Jan. 8, 2025, came nearly two years after police first started examining purchases he had made on eBay and other e-commerce platforms for firearm parts. Court records show that State Police investigators were initially tipped off by investigators in the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, who have experience prosecuting ghost gun cases that originated from information about suspicious online purchases of gun parts.“We’ll provide you with a list of 10-20 viable targets to focus your efforts on as we try to bring our ghost gun model to the Capital Region as a test run,” an investigator in Queens wrote in an email to state troopers based in Albany.
Documents in the publicly available case file show that Daga, 44, was among the targets selected for further investigation.
Before his arrest, Daga was open about his enthusiasm for creating 3D-printed firearms. He spoke of his fondness for the practice in online gun enthusiast forums and described growing up in a pro-Second Amendment household.
Daga's attorney Kevin O'Brien says that none of Daga's online purchases were illegal, and it's unclear how law enforcement became aware of those purchases in the first place. It certainly sounds, though, that Daga was initially deemed a "viable target" because of his vocal enthusiasm for the Second Amendment and 3D printing.
That protected speech may have sparked the investigation, but it was Daga's frequent (and legal) online purchases that led to a search warrant of his home, and ultimately his arrest.
The search warrants, which gave investigators access to virtually every facet of Daga’s personal and private life, did not contain any evidence of illegal conduct, but rather suspicion, O’Brien claimed.
“They found a target and filled in the blanks after that,” he alleged.
He also pointed out that his client had no prior criminal history and that Daga’s alleged crimes were victimless because he had not trafficked the weapons or used them to commit crimes. But Albany County prosecutors frequently convict individuals who possess firearms illegally even when they have not been charged with trafficking guns or committing other crimes.
And those prosecutions are just as off-base, in my opinion.
According to the Albany Times-Union, O'Brien called Daga's case "one of the most troubling he had encountered in his career." With police in New York adopting and sharing the tactics used to charge Daga, that might very well change in the near future, because there are going to be others who end up under a criminal investigation for their Second Amendment advocacy and online purchases.
Is Albany any safer today because Demetrio Daga is behind bars? Absolutely not. As his attorney pointed out, prosecutors never alleged that Daga was trafficking firearms or even giving away his home-built firearms. He's now a violent felon in the eyes of New York courts simply for possessing firearms without having the proper paperwork.
I don't think Daga's prosecution and his upcoming sentence have anything to do with public safety. I think they're meant to have a chilling impact on the exercise of our First and Second Amendment rights in the Empire State. Being an outspoken supporter of the right to keep and bear arms may very well put you on the radar of law enforcement, who can apparently use your words as the jumping off point for a deep dive into your entire life... including your online purchases and a search of your home.
Guys like Dexter Taylor and Demetrio Daga are political prisoners, in my opinion. They've been jailed for violating New York's draconian gun laws, but they were targeted because of their flagrant belief in a strong Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The Albany County District Attorney should be ashamed of bringing this case to trial, but instead they're likely to be hailed as a "gunsense" hero by the gun control lobby and politicians like Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James.
