My 21 year old son was recently convicted of drug trafficking, 5th degree felony. When he was arrested he was carrying a gun. He has been prosecuted for the drug charges and the county and state dropped the gun charge. He bought the gun on the street and when they checked it out it was stolen,has crossed state lines and then he was in possession of it when arrested. He did not use the gun during the drug deal for which he was arrested and did not steal it or know that it was stolen, he was up front with the arresting officers, told them who he bought the gun from and completely cooperated. He was sentenced to 30 days in county jail and is serving that sentence now. This morning he called and told me that the ATF is being called in and now want to press gun charges. Is this legal as he has already been prosecuted for the drug charges and is currently serving time. He has been up front with the courts and told them who he purchased the gun from, but they do not follow up, they just want to nail him with these charges now at a federal level. He is a dumb kid who screwed up and he knows it, but our local sheriff's dept. is pissed he got off on the gun so they called the feds! What can we do and what should we expect? Very scared and very worried mom.

This is perfectly legal for the "feds" to charge him with the gun charges as it is a stolen gun that crossed state lines.

Get a good attorney.

You are very flippant by describing your son as a "kid who screwed up" seeing as how he was arrested for drug trafficking AND in possession of a stolen hand gun. Makes no difference if he did or did not know it was stolen. You make it seem like he's some kind of misguided choir boy. Choir boys don't go around carrying guns!

And the outcome of the "feds" case could very well be a nice vacation at Hotel Fed for a few years with free room and board provided by the tax payers. The Feds take gun cases VERY seriously. I don't envision him getting off without some jail/prison time and just probation only.

Yes, he can be, and their rules of evidence are different on gun, the mere possession is often the guilt. And they often will do a plea deal at 3 to 4 years from a 10 to 15 year sentence.
This is what local DA's often do if they want someone bad but the local courts are not getting them the time they want.