I know, I know….
It's been 4 weeks since I climbed on and wrote something down for FF.
In all honesty, part of the reason is frustration. Pure unadulterated frustration at our own Government. The same Government that our Founding Fathers created to safeguard our liberties.
I watch story after story around the country tell the take of a federal agency out of control. I see people like Ryan Horsley of Red’s Trading Post in Idaho, slammed again and again on the legal mat, beaten down with our own tax dollars. Persecuted and prosecuted for what amounts to a %.4 error rate on his BATF paperwork. Now of course the boys and girls at F-Troop (BATFU) want to revoke a licence that’s been in place and serving the community for more than 70 years. Stay strong Ryan.
I see Albert Kwan, an FFL/SOT holder, under attack for the same rabid attack weasels at the ATF. Trying this time to revoke his license for not making enough sales. In the process the ATF seized ALL of his lawfully owned firearms, took them to their offices and had their technical branch modify them to full auto, using that as proof that he had a ‘readily restorable machine gun’. Luckily the jury saw through that one, after it was proven by Len Savage that any idiot with a full machine shop and half an ounce of mechanical ability could turn ANY semi-automatic firearm into a full auto.
I read about Greg Pruess curator of the North Carolina Military Museum, who in 1993 was the target of an ATF raid on his museum. ATF thugs seized approximately 20 full automatic firearms, inert artillery shells, and more than 100,000 rounds of small arms ammunition.
The rub?
All of the 20 firearms were lawfully registered to Mr Pruess, as a Class III and Destructive Device license holder. Also the inert arty was labeled “EOD INERT” yet the geniuses on site from the ‘Guberment’ claimed that not only did the shells contain ‘powder residue’ they and the small arms ammunition ‘could’ have been stolen from the military.
The worst part of that story was that in 1994 Mr. Pruess was indicted and in 1996 sent to prison. 10 years later (March 24, 2004) he was finally proven innocent of all charges. BATFE explosives agent Richard Campbell, under oath stated that the the ammunition, 40mm and larger artillery shells that Pruess was indicted for as "Destructive Devices" were not then, nor are they now, Destructive devices without their launchers. But the information came too late as Pruess states:
However, now that the evidence has finally come out that was never offered timely by the government as to the proper classification of the ammo, its too late, the Court says, to do anything about my conviction!!!
Innocence has an expiration date, it seems, and no one cares. ATF destroyed my museum, my family, my reputation, my livelihood and sent me to prison!! The justice system is a facade and cares nothing about setting anything right even when the government's own expert confirms the real truth under oath in open court.
What happens now, I was subsequently again indicted as a felon in possession of firearms in 1997 for keeping my gun collection of 25 years because I knew I was right but couldn't prove with the cover up, when I was actually never legally convicted in the first place to be a felon!
On top of all this, I see that the FFL’s in this country AND the manufacturers continue to be under attack. Since 2002 85% of American Firearms manufacturers have been forced to close their doors. Sadly only 373 remain in existence today. And of the 245,628 licensed FFL’s that were operating in America in 1994, fewer than 55,000 remain today. And as its reported to me by several local law enforcement officials, the ATF refuses to prosecute federal gun crimes that local LEO notify them about.
Frustrated? You Bet.
It reminds me of a button someone gave me recently, one that at the time, I thought was just alittle paranoid. Now I’m not so sure. It reads:
They’re ALL in it together, and they’re DOING IT ALL ON PURPOSE!
Ok, I may have a problem with that interpretation. Considering that DOJ stats show that 'assault weapons' are used in less that 2% of all gun crimes, and less than 0.25% of all violent crime. In some major metros (San Antonio, Nashville, etc) and even some states (New Jersey, Maryland, etc) the rate is less than 0.1%.² In fact you're 11 times more likely to be beaten to death than to be killed by a so called 'assault weapon'. ¹
