A Las Vegas man with multiple prior felony convictions is headed to federal prison for more than six years after admitting he possessed an unserialized AR-15-pattern pistol and threatened to “shoot everybody” during an October 2023 confrontation. Prosecutors and federal agents say the case is another example of federal attention on privately made “ghost” guns that are far harder to trace than factory-built firearms.
Sentence and plea
Federal prosecutors announced the sentence on June 25, 2026, in a post from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Nevada on its X account, saying the defendant was ordered to serve more than six years in federal prison. The office credited ATF agents and Las Vegas police with investigating the case and noted that the prison term follows the defendant’s guilty plea.
The defendant, identified in court records as Noel Lynn Waters, pleaded guilty on Sept. 29, 2025, to one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. He admitted he had a loaded, privately made 5.56x45mm pistol built on an AR-15-pattern lower receiver after an Oct. 20, 2023 incident in which he pointed the weapon and threatened to “shoot everybody,” according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada. Local outlet ran local details about the arrest and charges when the plea was entered last year.
Case details and local reporting
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Waters has prior felony convictions in Los Angeles and Clark County, Nevada, which legally bar him from possessing firearms. The paper also notes that the seized pistol included an unregistered lower receiver and a silencer with no serial number, a combination that put him squarely in federal crosshairs.
Investigation and legal note
According to the U.S. Attorney’s press release, agents with the ATF’s San Francisco field division and detectives with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department handled the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Cowhig prosecuted the case. Waters pleaded to a single federal count of possession by a prohibited person, a charge that carries a statutory maximum of 15 years in prison, and the judge imposed a multi-year sentence this month after weighing the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
Why this matters
The conviction and lengthy term land amid a broader federal push to rein in privately made firearms, often called ghost guns. The ATF’s recent press releases show multiple prosecutions and sentencings around the country involving similar weapons. National reporting has documented a sharp rise in recovered privately made firearms in recent years and ongoing federal scrutiny of kits and parts that can be turned into unserialized weapons, conditions that law enforcement officials say make tracing and accountability tougher when crimes involve these guns.
