Here is a list of things that the State Nanny Big Brother Asshole Society (better known as "Government") should stay out of... In the words of Peter Tosh: LEGALIZE IT!!!! DON'T CRITICIZE IT! 1- Homosexuality and Gay Marriage-- legalize and fuck off! 2- Polygamy -- legalize 3- Prostitution -- legalize 4- Incest (between consenting adults) -- legalize 5- All Pornography (adult--fuck off!) 6- Gambling (stay out!) 7- Suicide (none of your goddamn business!) 8- Seatbelts & Helmets (fuck off!) 9- Drugs (legalize and regulate) 10- Adoption (stay out!) 11- Marriage (stay out!) 12- Statutory rape (abolish this bullshit law) either you are a minor not capable of consent or you aren't! A host of other stupid fucking horseshit legislation as well. As much as I hate to say this word... I HATE the State
The following article is from the July 93 issue of the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor. POLICE STATE TACTICS The heavy-handed tactics of the BATF (and many other federal government agencies) seems to know no bounds. On February 5, 1993, the BATF (of recent Waco, Texas fame) destroyed the home of a Portland, Oregon black woman, and terrorized her children for several hours in a case of mistaken identity. Consider the tactics used by the BATF, as described in the following 3/7/93 editorial by Margie Boule in the Portland Oregonian, and then realize that these unconstitutional tactics are being used by the BATF, FBI, FDA, EPA, and other federal agencies against thousands of American citizens on a regular basis: "Janice Hart had a car full of kids when she pulled up to her house about 7:30 on the evening of Feb. 5. She'd just returned from grocery shopping. Janice Hart is the mother of two young girls. She's a beautician. She keeps a tidy house. "On this night, a cold midwinter Friday, she had no idea law enforcement officers had been ransacking her house while she was wandering the aisles at Cub Foods, filling her cart with laundry detergent and her daughters' favorite breakfast cereals. She had no idea they wanted to take her to jail. "There was a lot Janice Hart didn't know when she arrived home and saw her front door wide open, uniformed officers streaming in and out. But then, the folks from the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had no idea they were raiding the wrong woman's house. "You could call it a simple case of mistaken identity. Or you could blame a paid informant who may have been too eager to collect the ATF's financial gratitude for incriminating information. Or you might wonder why these guys don't just go home and let the FBI chase the bad guys. "Janice Hart got out of her car. 'I scream out, What are you doing in my house? Get out of my house!' says Janice. She walked to her side door, holding her house key. But the door was jammed. That's because ATF agents had kicked it in to gain access to the house, and then had nailed it shut. "'Then this officer tells me to identify myself. He says, You know why that door's jammed. You know what's going on. I'm just in a daze. I say, I'm Janice Hart.' Janice says that's when the officer took her by the arm and pulled her inside, saying, 'You're going to jail.' "Janice's daughters, 12 and 4, and a neighborhood friend, 9, heard that part. They got very afraid, very fast. 'I was crying,' says Nina, Janice's 12-year old. 'They say, Shut up and get back in the car. So I put up my knee like to get out, and he shut the door on my knee.' Nina says an officer searched her mother's purse then, and the trunk of the car. 'But all there was, was groceries.' "Inside, Janice had trouble recognizing her own home. In the kitchen, men were shoving dishes to the floor. In Janice's bedroom they were ripping clothes from hangers and emptying drawers. 'I'm screaming, Oh my God, what are you doing to my house? They told me to shut up. They said I could talk later. And they kept saying, You're going to prison, Janice. The whole house was totally destroyed.' And it was. Janice has pictures. "After about 15 minutes, the three girls were led inside. All were crying. 'It was dirty,' remembers Randi, who's 4. 'They throwed all the stuff on my floor. My church clothes were pulled down.' "Janice's parents came to take the children away. That's when Janice says the ATF agents took her down to her basement to be interrogated. Janice is putting in a beauty salon in her basement. That night, she stood in the basement and started crying, just like her daughters cried upstairs. "'There's about eight of them down there and they're asking me over and over my name, my Social Security number, my birthdate. On and on, over and over. And I kept answering over and over. And I'm saying, What did I do? I don't have anything to hide. And I don't. I'm 36 years old, and except for a misdemeanor when I did something stupid when I was 18, I have a totally clean record. No arrests, no nothing.' Janice says she sat in her basement answering questions for over an hour, before anyone had read her her rights. She says she asked to call an attorney and the agents refused. "'Then they started asking me if I'm Janice Marie Harrell. I say, No, I'm Janice Marie Hart. Then they show me this warrant they have. They're looking for a girl Janice Marie Harrell, 130 pounds, with scars on her right elbow, right forearm, nose, right hand, left eye. "'Well, I have no scar on my face. I'm not beat up like that. I'm not a street woman. I'm an everyday type, a working-class mother with two children. This is totally shocking to me. I'm like, I'm not the person you're looking for and they say, You are, and I say, We can go through this for 30 days. I bet I can hold out longer than you, because it's the truth. That's when the main investigator, this George Kim, he says to me, You are good, Janice. You're really a professional.' "Janice asked about the other Janice, the one they were so sure they were interrogating. What had she done? They said she was armed and dangerous, that she sells firearms,' says Janice Hart. 'They said she escaped from jail. They said an informant said I was her, and I was selling crack cocaine out my kitchen door. I don't sell cocaine.' "The ATF agents had two warrants: an arrest warrant for Janice Marie Harrell and a warrant to search Janice Hart's home for firearms. They found no guns. They found no Janice Marie Harrell, either. "'After about an hour I asked to see the picture of the girl,' says Janice. 'I looked at that and laughed. You couldn't believe they would even mistake me for this girl. We're different as night and day. Anybody could tell you--a blind man could tell you that's not me. I got hazel eyes, my hair is longer. I'm heavier.' "And then there was the business about the scars. 'They pulled up my sleeves, looking for scars,' Janice says. 'Of course they weren't there. I say, How do I remove scars? Scars just don't disappear.' That's when he started getting this expression on his face like 'I think I messed up.' But of course they don't want to admit that to you.' "Janice says they finally read her her rights. 'They're not just telling me I'm going to jail now,' Janice says. 'They're taking me to jail. I was crying bloody murder. That's not like me.' "A Portland police officer, working with the ATF, took Janice downtown to be fingerprinted. 'And I want this in the paper,' Janice says. 'The Portland police were very, very nice to me. They treated me like a person.' Which is a lot more than Janice can say for the ATF agents. 'Especially George Kim,' she said. 'He was beyond nasty. I will never forget him as long as I live.' "It took about 30 seconds for the woman in the fingerprint division to look at Janice Hart's fingerprints and shake her head. 'She said, 'You guys picked up the wrong person.' Then she turned to me and said, 'Baby, you can go home." Out in the hall, Janice says George Kim approached her. 'He has his head hanging down and he's telling me how sorry he is. I said, 'I bet you are.' That's all I said.' "One of the Portland police officers gave Janice a ride home, offering to fetch her children on the way. He even broke down the same side door since Janice had not been allowed to take her keys. It took Janice and her husband, from whom she's separated, two days to clear out the mess. Lots of things had to be taken to the dump, broken, torn, bent beyond repair. The ATF dropped off a form so Janice could record the damages. "I recounted Janice's story for Pete McLouth, the resident agent in charge of one of the local ATF offices. 'What you've just said is correct,' Pete says. 'She wasn't identified as Janice Harrell.' Pete says Janice Harrell was 'lodged' a few days later. "And why was Janice Hart thought to be Janice Harrell? It seems Janice Harrell uses several aliases, and one is Janet Stewart. Stewart was Janice Hart's married name. 'I can't give you any more details,' Pete said, 'because there's still an active investigation underway on the events that led us to her house that evening.' "Janice Hart said she hadn't been allowed to call a lawyer, hadn't been read her rights. 'I don't think that's accurate,' Pete McLouth said. (Agent George Kim, reached by phone, said he couldn't talk to the press.) He says he doesn't know why Kim might have apologized that night 'other than for the inconvenience of coming downtown to straighten out the identity.' "Janice Hart has lost a lot of sleep since then. She's had trouble eating. She and Nina are going to see a psychiatrist to help with stress. Randi, the 4-year old, has been angry at school. Janice had to meet with her teacher. And the neighbors don't seem to like Janice Hart anymore. 'If (the ATF agents) were sincere about being sorry, I think they should come out here and straighten this out with my neighbors,' Janice says. "This last week, Janice has been thinking a lot about something one of the officers said to her that Friday night, right after her fingerprints were examined and found to be different than Janice Harrell's. 'He turns to me and he says, real quiet, 'Janice, off the record. Come Monday you need to get yourself a good attorney.'" [ED. NOTE: How does this differ from Nazi Germany or Communist Russia, China or Romania? It differs, because it is happening in the United States of America--and on a regular basis! Note the attitude of the BATF agents during the raid, and even after the raid when they found out they were mistaken.... In what ways do they differ from the Gestapo?]
I agree with everything except possibly seatbelts/helmets. (On the fence about that one.) How about abortion?
[size=+2]ATF: a mixed heritage[/size] Recent bungling in Waco, Ruby Ridge overshadows successes [size=-1]By HOLLY YEAGER Copyright 1997 © 1997 Hearst Newspapers[/size] WASHINGTON -- The official history of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms conjures up images of the Roaring Twenties, when federal agents like Eliot Ness went after bootleggers and mobsters like Al Capone. "Today's ATF special agents are the successors to those legendary `Untouchables,' " says an ATF history. But today's ATF agents, who are responsible for enforcing federal handgun laws and regulations, also have another heritage, that of things gone terribly wrong during the bureau's pursuit of white separatist Randy Weaver and its 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco. Despite efforts to reform the agency and reshape its image, the ATF has had a hard time shaking descriptions such as "beleaguered" and "hapless" that cropped up during those episodes. Perhaps the most brutal attack came from the National Rifle Association. Frustrated with what it saw as overzealous enforcement of gun laws, the NRA in a 1995 fund-raising letter called ATF agents "jack-booted thugs." The gun group later apologized for the remark. A Senate investigation into the deadly confrontation between federal agents and Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, found that a zealous ATF informant had virtually entrapped Weaver into selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns in 1989. That deal eventually led to the 1992 clash with Weaver, in which his wife and son were killed. The Senate report also accused the ATF of wrongly identifying Weaver as an ex-convict and suspected bank robber, leading marshals and FBI agents to think they were up against a dangerous fanatic. At Waco, four ATF agents and six cult members died during the botched initial raid on the Branch Davidian compound. The FBI took over the ensuing 51-day standoff, which ended in a deadly fire that killed cult leader David Koresh and 80 of his followers. A tough 501-page report on the incident by the Treasury Department, which oversees the ATF, found "disturbing evidence of flawed decision-making, inadequate intelligence gathering, miscommunication, supervisory failures, and deliberately misleading post-raid statements about the raid and the raid plan by certain ATF supervisors." The two events spurred congressional hearings, agency inquiries and calls for change, from internal reforms to dissolving the bureau. To add to its troubles, ATF employees were among the federal agents cited last year for attending "Good O' Boy Roundups" in East Tennessee that included drunkenness and racist behavior. On the plus side, the agency played a key role in the investigations into the bombings of the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 and of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. The ATF's 3,936 employees are responsible for a mix of tax collection, regulation and law enforcement, carrying out all federal laws on alcohol, tobacco, firearms, explosives and arson. That means a wide range of work, from issuing licenses to gun dealers to collecting taxes on cigarettes, plus assisting state and local law enforcement officials.
Prior to the early twentieth Century, only two Federal Law Enforcement Agencies existed. They are the Secret Service, and the U.S. Marshalls. The Secret Service originally was formed to combat making phoney money. It was put under the Treasury Department for that reason. A section of the Secret Service, was slated to guard the President. It has maintained its' reputation as a sterling Federal Law Enforcement Agency. To date, it still maintains that reputation. The U.S. Marshall Service is another of those Federal Law Enforcement Agencies that have maintained its' reputation. To date, it has many functions. One of them is to transport prisoners. Another is to catch escaped prisoners. It too has maintained its' good if not sterling reputation as a "law abiding" Federal Law Enforcement Agency. Some where arround nineteen hundred and twenty, States began to complain that criminals who crossed State lines escaped their crimes. Prior to this Federal Law Enforcement Agency, Criminal could escape the Police by simply going into another State. The FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigations, was began to handle just that problem. It later expaned its' scope to include kidnapping after baby Lindberg was kidnapped and killed. After that, Kidnapping became a Federal felony. the FBI has since become a much larger Law Enforcement Agency encompassing more dutys, but at that same time maintaining thier respectability. The most Recent Ruby shooting and WACO fiasco have blemished the FBI, but the FBI has maintained for the most part its' respectability. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, ATF began as a Department of the Treasury. It began basically as accountants with guns and badges. It was originally designed as an IRS Law Enforcement Division. One can remember that at one time alcohol was forbidden to manufacture, possess, and drink. this action gave the gangsters the "need" to disobey that amendment. The ATF was basically accountants with guns and badges. If one saw the movie "untouchables", one can remember the scene in which the accountant was given a shotgun. A broad smile appeared over his face and he had the "billy bad ass" look. You know the look. That is the look that says I have a gun and badge and will use both regardless of the rules and or Constitutional restraints. That attitude has impregnated the ATF and what we have now is a rougue Federal Law Enforcement Agency that has lilttle if any Constitutional regard. The ATF gained more power during the 1934 National Firearm act which gave it power over full auto firearms, sawed off shotguns, silencers, and other items. For the First time in American History, Americans were denied access to a type of firearm and the Federal Government under the ATF's authority FEDERALLY REGISTERED weapons. the next thirty four years saw little if any gain in the ATF's power. The GCA 68, Gun Control Act of 1968, again increased the ATF's UNCONSTITUTIONAL authority over firearms. this Act established the NAZI Gun Control concept of "non-sporting" firearms. this concept came directly from Thomas J. Dodd (Senator) recieving a German copy of those laws and then translating them into english. Many new gun control concepts came from those laws. In short, the U.S. employed NAZI gun control laws into a Constitutional Democratic Republic. the ATF then had more power. This act also established a mandatory age of 18 for long guns, and 21 for pistols. It also established the "insanity" clause which states "any one adjudicated mentally unsound, may not legally possess firearms or ammo" It also established the "criminal" prohibition. 1989 George Bush Senior signed an executive order forbidding the importation of certain semi auto weapon types. I can most certainly say that the ATF had something to do with this. ever since then the ATF has been "legislating" new regulations. After a while, they become part of the United States Code. THE ATF IS NOT A LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, IT IS NOT EVEN A LEGISLATIVE BRANCH. IT IS A DIVISION OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT AND ONLY THAT. IT DOES NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE LAW. IT ONLY HAS THE DUTY TO ENFORCE IT. the GCA 68 is the second time in American History Americans were denied the right to bear arms and or particular types of arms. the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, for the third time in American History has denied Americans the right to bear arms, not just singular arms but whole classes of arms. the ATF now has immense authority to the point that it acts as a Legislative body, not a Law Enforcement Body. The DEA, Drug Enforcement Agency, is another of those Federal Law Enforcement Agencies designed to fight a "nasty" enemy. this "War on drugs" is not a war. It is a way to deprive Citizens of their Constitutional rights. During President Reagan's reign, he signed an act allowing any one person to become a "conspirator" on one persons word. Yes, you heard correctly. It only take one person's word to have the Federal government label you a conspirator. Since the DEA's inception, it has violated Citizen's Civil rights under the guise of a "drug war" The CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, began as the WWII OSS, Office of Special Services. It was directed against Hitler and the Axis's. some time after WWII it became the CIA. It was directed to solve foreign intelligence while the FBI was relegated to domestic intelligence. Of all the above Federal Law Enforcement Agencies only the DEA and ATF have a "bad boy" image. In my opinion, they envinsion machine gun toting, goggle wearing, gas mask wearing goons busting your door down at 03:00. the FBI has the image of a suited Federal Agents investigating first then shooting. the CIA has the aloof reputation for toppling foreign governments and other nasty actions. the U.S. Marshalls has the reputation of escorting prisoners and recapturing them. the Secret Service has the reputation of protecting the President, but that is not its' primary duty. Prior to the early twentieth Century, the United States did not have the level of Federal Law Enforcement Agencies we now have. That was a good thing. Too many Federal Law Enforcement Agencies create the following problems. 1. Inter Agency rivalries. 2. Inter Agency lack of cooperation. 3. Inter Agency "secrets" causing the deaths of thier fellow Federal Law Enforcement Agencies personnel. In short, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. 4. The American People now must pay taxes to support a wide variety of Federal Agencies while the early twentieth Century Americans did not. 5. The National budget must now account for these agencies and maintain them. If one were to study this further, one would find that Socialists fresh with the 1917 Russian Revolution may have had a hand in this trend. The amendment that spawned the IRS was from a Socialist idea. Prior to that, taxes were collected well and regularily. Why did we need such a organization? I suggest you research the history of United States Federal Law Enforcement Agencies. It is interesting.
ATF RIPS OFF ANOTHER ARIZONA GUN DEALER! * Confiscates 274 guns and 3,000 Form 4473's * No official arrest, no charges filed by Angel Shamaya Director, KeepAndBearArms.com November 1, 2000 Direct link to story. "They were throwing vintage collector's items in mint condition through the air and into a trashcan 10 feet away," said Jerry Michel, licensed gun dealer, after being assaulted and pillaged by the ATF. "I felt like I was going to throw up." And so might you before you're done reading this report. On October 25, 2000, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms sent approximately 30 federal and local agents in stormtrooper attire to confiscate firearms from a dealer who, according to what they told him, "did not have his papers in order." Jerry's Guns & Ammo d.b.a. Specialty Firearms of Mesa, Arizona was the latest in a long list of gun dealers who've been paid a visit by people who, when rightly told, "You're not supposed to do that" respond by saying things like: "We're the ATF. We can do whatever we want." According to Jerry Michel, that's what they said to him when he confronted them as they threw a 1960's Winchester Model 94 Antique into a trashcan that already contained a few dozen of his guns. Though the classic, mint condition gun was still in its original box, they removed it from the box and tossed it into the growing pile of firearms ranging in value from a few hundred to several thousand dollars -- metal slamming against metal, metal gouging wood, etc. -- like one might toss so much kindling onto a campfire. These government operatives also confiscated guns Jerry held on consignment for several customers, and they also took his personally-owned firearms along with guns he'd been storing for an ailing friend. When I called ATF today to find out if it is standard operating procedure to wantonly damage collector's items when they are stealing them, Larry X said, "They didn't do that. They don't do things like that." "Were you there, Larry?" "No, I wasn't." "Then how do you know they didn't do that, Larry?" His response made me laugh: "Who am I speaking with again?" You should be able to see the above actions on color video. Jerry installed video surveillance equipment at Specialty Firearms some time ago and uses it consistently during hours of operation, too. He'd only been open for three minutes when he was lured out the front door under false pretenses and surrounded by heavily armed and body-armored gun confiscators, so there was a new tape in the player and the tape was rolling. But ATF confiscated the tape that shows them unnecessarily and irreparably damaging Jerry's property -- and broke his VCR in the process. I am sitting here reading -- for the third time -- the search warrant, given to me by Jerry himself, and I can't seem to locate the words "video tape" anywhere on the warrant. The video tape will be subpoenaed to prove damages, we pray, in a class action lawsuit against ATF. Will it mysteriously disappear? (Was ATF afraid to let people see what abusive and disrespectful people they are? Why else would they cover their tracks like common hoodlums? Maybe Special Agent in Charge and Group Supervisor Marvin G. Richardson or Assistant SAIC, Joe M. Gordon - overseers in this outrageous act of violence - can answer those questions. Or perhaps Robert C. Gantt, the agent who secured the search warrant from U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence O. Anderson -- the judge who presided over Bob Stewart's preposterous hearings -- can help shed some light on how a tape can be stolen when it's not on the search warrant.) The Mesa police assisted in this raid, as well, earning themselves a demotion in the eyes of every gun owner in Arizona. Congratulations, officers. You helped assault a Good Guy and alienated a whole segment of the society you are supposed to protect and serve. Nice goin'. Jerry's crime? Apparently, in Mesa, the city has an ordinance requiring gun dealers to have a "pawn permit" if they sell used firearms -- or so he was told while a team of armed and consistently disrespectful "men" busied themselves stealing 274 guns with an estimated value of approximately $300,000. "How much is the pawn permit," you ask? $100. Jerry Michel's Federal Firearms License (FFL) is current by way of a 6 month extension, so he is in fact a legal gun dealer. In fact, he's had his FFL since 1986, continuously. He does business with approximately 285 other gun dealers around the nation, and his reputation is one of integrity and lawfulness. No arrests or prior convictions, at all. Not even a speeding ticket to his name. Jerry is a "by the book" kinda guy. Except for that little permit said to be required in Mesa. And that is only if the ATF was telling the truth. (Some of them are incorrigible liars, you know. ATF sends super-secret special agents who impersonate other people's identities into gun dealers' businesses to attempt to trick them into committing technical violations, so they are not only liars, they are entrapping imposters, as well.) Jerry Michel had two guns on his person at the time of the assault. Both were returned to him after his business and personal quarters were trashed entirely, all drawers emptied as if the place had been looted. (It had.) When he asked if he was "out of business," he was told he could conduct business as usual. When he asked what he was supposed to sell, one agent's response tells all about the ATF. "You can sell some of this ammo," he said with a mean, sneering chuckle. "Heh heh." The fact that Jerry's gun business profits are helping to take care of his ailing mother -- who just got out of the hospital and is on expensive medications -- is of little importance to ATF. They strip people of their possessions and livelihood for insignificant, petty technical violations as a way of life. It's who they are. With an unusual October rain pouring down on a cool desert night, the battered gun dealer began to open up about the event. We were sitting in my vehicle in a parking lot of an auto parts store in Mesa as Jerry was feeling a bit uncomfortable in his home and business. John Arbon of CPHV.com was with us. Having been a personal friend of Jerry's for nearly 4 years, he helped set up the meeting. (During the two and a half hours we talked, several unmarked vehicles u-turned at the median directly in front of where we were parked, some of them two and three times, and every time we noticed that the vehicles had two to four antennas sticking out of them -- and the passengers kept hiding their faces. Coincidence?) "I have operated my business by the book to the very best of my ability since day one," Jerry stated matter-of-factly. "In fact, I have sold many guns to police officers over the years, and I've worked on a lot of cops' guns, for quite some time. I've even had cops ask me to build machineguns for them and to show them how to convert guns to full auto, and I have refused every time. I respect the law. I have a lot of friends who are good cops, and I respect them, too." But the law no longer respects gun dealers like they once did, a fact Mr. Jerry Michel now fully and very personally understands. "I don't have anything to hide," he said quite clearly, exasperated. "I am not a criminal. I just got my FFL extension in mid May. Why would they extend my license if I was under suspicion?" he asked, reaching for understanding as to why he was targeted. "And why wouldn't they simply call me up and tell me I need to come down and pay for some $100 permit? That is what an aboveboard and citizen-supportive organization would do." During the course of this atrocity, Mr. Michel's fingerprints were taken, on the premises. His mugshots were also taken, right out in front of his store with 35-40 people looking on, including one or two of his own customers. "I was humiliated and outraged, and I still am," he says. "I did nothing at all to deserve this, and they treated me like I was a criminal right out in front of my own store." Angel Shamaya: Jerry, this type of assault is being perpetrated against lawful, peaceable gun dealers all across America -- and has been going on for many years. We consistently hear from dealers how they were mistreated during the ordeal of watching their possessions stolen and their quarters ransacked. What are some other things you'd like to let people know about this event? Jerry Michel: Angel, it was disgusting to see them damaging gun after gun. I literally felt dizzy and sick. And when I told them to please at least take decent care of my guns, one of them said "Shut up!" I continued to complain, and he said, again, "I told you to SHUT UP!" That was the theme. They destroy my life's work, my prize collection, my customers' custom made guns, and I was just supposed to bend over and take it with a smile. It was a nightmare! And these guys took things they couldn't possibly have a reason to take. For example, they took a black powder firearm. Now why in heaven's name would they do that?! AS: Because they can. Nobody is stopping them, and they show up with 30 armed people to commit their crimes, so resistance means sure death, unless... Honestly, the ATF are traitors to the Constitution (that countless guys died for) who engage in such lowly and unnecessary tactics because they are an integral part of the tyrannical anti-gun, anti-freedom movement that seeks to destroy firearms freedom completely, as quickly as they can. And they do it because they are an unregulated agency with unbridled power run and manned by men who routinely disrespect the foundational American individual right to keep and bear arms. In other words, they are hired anti-American thugs. JM: You know, before this happened, I thought the ATF was getting a bad rap in the gun community. I've only ever had them be polite to me. I used to welcome them in and we'd actually chew the fat, you know, talk like people. But after this experience, I can see why you say that. What they did to me and to my property is wrong. And you're right about their perspective on the right to keep and bear arms, too. One of them asked me, "Are you one of those constitution fanatics?" I said, "Well, I believe in the Constitution, don't you?" He ignored me and continued trashing my place while I sat helpless, handcuffed and with guys behind me holding guns on me. AS: Happens every week in America, Jerry. Gun owners in America are now, far too often, like the Jews under Hitler. Scorned, abused, jailed and killed by the government gestapo, and ours goes by the name of the BATF. So what else did they do that makes you see red? JM: Well, let's see. Oh, they took a flare launcher and called it a grenade launcher. And they told me I sold two guns to straw purchasers. When they said that, I actually raised my voice and said, "That is a LIE!" They then tried to tell me they had proof that I sold to straw purchasers. I told them to show me the person and the gun and I would prove they were lying, and they just laughed at me and kept throwing my guns into a plastic trashcan on top of each other like they were enjoying it. Not only have I never knowingly sold a gun to someone that was intended for someone else, I've kicked people out of my store who were engaging in conversations that even remotely seemed like that was their intention, and I have plenty of witnesses to such oustings, too. They also took two Colt Custom Single Action Army's with real mother-of-pearl grips out of their boxes and threw them into the trashcan they were filling. They also took guns I've had since I was 10 or 11 years old that were made before serial numbers were required. AS: We hear this one a lot from gun owners. ATF sends an agents in, under cover, who behave like one is buying a gun for another, in hopes of catching a dealer who is not paying attention. Do you have any suggestions for other dealers who will be reading this message, Jerry? JM: Boy do I! Tell them this: "Any guy who has a Federal Firearms License, don't think this couldn't happen to you. Every bad thing you've heard about the ATF, I'm sorry to say, is true. They entrap you on some asinine technicality and destroy your property while you're cuffed, and they point loaded guns pointed at you. They steal your entire life's collection and throw it into a heap like it was trash. They belittle you, degrade you, and they attempt to get you to admit to things you did not say or do, and they enjoy it. Be careful, and follow every little tiny detail of the increasing red-tape regulations, and they still find a way to justify assaulting you. So watch your back, and be careful who you are willing to trust, because these guys look just like some of your customers, and they act like them too. In retrospect, I wonder now if I should have asked every single customer except those I knew well if they were government agents before I ever sold them anything at all, and it might be a good idea if you do that, too." AS: You seem like you're holding back from saying more, Jerry. I get a sense you're not really saying all that you feel like saying. Care to comment? JM: Angel, listen, my mother just got out of the hospital again, and the slim margins from my gun business have been helping me and my sister take care of her. They've just stripped me of my retirement. That's right, MY RETIREMENT. I had planned on selling much of my collection some time in the next few years and retiring, and now it's all gone, supposedly because of some $100 "pawn permit." They trashed custom guns that used to make people do a double-take when they saw them. My customers would say things like, "I didn't know a gun could look so perfect." And they threw those perfect guns of amazingly high personal and financial value into a trashcan. Am I angry? You bet I am. I don't even want to sleep at home, and my home is behind my shop, so it's all one big ugly mess now. They've not only successfully run me out of business, my mom called me today and told me she felt like she was having a heart attack just thinking about what they've done to me. I know the ATF has killed innocent people over their guns, and now they have compromised the privacy of over 3,000 of my customers by confiscating my sales records from the last 15 years. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!! They even threw the business proprietor next door up against the wall when he walked outside to see what was going on -- and patted him down, when he did nothing, and that is an illegal search, isn't it? Jerry has every right to be livid. I read through the 23-page list of guns the ATF took from him. When I called ATF today, I was told he's not even been charged with anything, nor would they disclose their justification for committing such an offensive operation against a man who bends over backwards to comply with laws. A phone call would have yielded their supposed $100 "pawn permit." And, the search warrant -- in my possession -- does not name some of what was taken, nor is the list (of confiscated guns ATF agents left with Jerry) a complete list. John Arbon (being threatened with lawsuit by HCI/CPHV for the domain name CPHV.com) alerted me to this mess through his having posted a personal account on TheFiringLine.com, an exceptional message board for gun owners. John visited his friend's gun shop during the ATF assault. In John's own words, written just after witnessing the thieves in action: I just got home from the most disturbing sight I have ever witnessed. Earlier today I tried calling the gun dealer that I have known and purchased from for 4 years now. The phone was busy for hours, and when I did get through all I got was his answering machine. Very unusual. I drove over to his shop and found the parking lot jammed with unmarked, tinted windowed cars, along with an SUV pulling a Mesa City Police trailer. The shop door was propped open, not usual. Three men were standing outside the door, one black, one oriental, one white. All had 'ATF' stitched over their left breast side of their shirts. I parked, got out and walked through the door as though I knew what I was doing. Inside I saw 10-12 more ATF maggots handling the guns, writing things down and pulling things off of the shelves. "What are you doing in here?" the voice from behind me asked. "Where's Jerry?" I asked, stunned. "He's not here. What do you want?" "I came by to pick up a gun. Is he alright?" "He's fine. You can pick it up tomorrow." "He'll be open then?" "He should be," was the response. John saw firsthand what many of us have known was happening for quite some time. We will procure the search warrant affidavit as soon as possible and post it on KeepAndBearArms.com. These guys are going to need some hard evidence to get away with this, and they don't have any, so they'll have to make it up -- again. Shouldn't be too terribly difficult for the ATF...we think inventing and tampering with evidence might even be part of their training. Many questions in this case remain as yet unanswered. Those that stand out like a sore thumb include: Why are there no charges when 30 armed-to-the-teeth "men" assaulted a man, confiscated 274 guns and over 3,000 records that show private information of 3,000 Americans? Where are the charges? Jerry Michel asked more than once if he was being arrested, and he was told "NO, you're being detained." If this man wasn't even arrested, why were prints and mugshots taken? And why was the video tape taken from Mr. Michel's surveillance equipment? Inquiring minds want to know. Surely someone has an answer, but it sure as Hell isn't Jerry Michel. He's dumbfounded. Jerry Michel gets the closing statement today, as follows: "If these guys will do this to me over some $100 permit when I was already licensed to sell firearms, I shudder to think of what they would do to someone over a $10,000 violation." If you wish to contact Jerry Michel of Specialty Firearms, here is how you do so: (480) 962-0913 1055 N. Mesa Drive, Mesa Arizona 85201.
Recall that Elian Gonzalez raid. They had gas masks, large guns, etc, when they came barreling in the house. Then Reno said, "Oh, we didn't scare the kid. Look at the video still. See? The finger of the agent isn't even on the trigger." I would have loved it if the family and their lawyers knew enough to hide that kid in another house. They probably wouldn't have been able to keep it secret since their were undercover agents monitoring the house. It would have been hilarious to see the federal agents running around like the Keystone cops looking for the kid.
Seatbelts and Helmets for children are one thing, but adults ought to be able to decide for themselves. As this bit people say about it burdening society? WTF?? Even there is an accident, if Joe chooses not to wear his seatbelt, JOE pays for it. I've never had the State pay one fucking cent of my medical bills. Plus, people do stupid shit all the time that the EMTs respond to. It's a matter of fucking control. I choose to strap my own body to a seat or I don't. I choose to strap some hard hat on my own head or I don't. The fucking asshole State doesn't have the right to tell me what I can and can't do with my own body.
Shaggie they could had hidden Elians in a million of places. why they did not "have no idea" they were completely fools. or fear the goverment would had confiscated the house and made them wanted. other wise is very easy to hide a kid in a city as large miami is or out of the state. The money surely was there if they needed.
