by Lee Williams

Former U.S. Navy sailor Patrick “Tate” Adamiak has been pardoned by President Donald J. Trump—effective immediately. He was one of several people pardoned by President Trump Friday.

Adamiak, who still had 16 years left to serve of his 20-year federal prison sentence, will soon be a free man.

Adamiak said he was “numb headed” after he was released. He was dreaming of eating a burrito.

He has said he plans to continue his legal fight against the government since he never committed a single crime, and with his felony convictions completely overturned he can now fight as a free man.

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project published more than 60 stories debunking Adamiak’s arrest, conviction and lengthy prison sentence.

“We are thrilled that he is free. He did nothing wrong and broke no law,” said SAF founder and executive vice president Alan M. Gottlieb. “It took a humanitarian like President Trump to rectify a government wrong.”

Adamiak’s defense attorney Calum Welch was thrilled Friday.

“I am very excited for Tate and couldn’t be prouder to have played a small role in his getting home where he deserves to be,” Welch said.

Flawed investigation

Adamiak never sold a single real firearm—not one—even though he sold thousands of dollars per month of military gear and gun parts legally on his former website.

He was one of Gun Broker’s top 500 dealers, until the ATF decided to target him personally and lie under oath about the facts of his case.

Adamiak enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 and eventually became an E-6 Master-at-Arms. He has a bachelor’s degree and was working on a master’s until his arrest. He was on track for an officer’s commission within Naval Special Warfare.

The confidential informant, or CI, that brought Adamiak’s freedom to an end was cooperating with the ATF to work off charges of his own.

While dropping off gear at Adamiak’s home, the CI saw a replica grenade launcher and belt-fed machinegun replicas. He asked Adamiak if he had an SOT (Class 3 FFL). Adamiak told the CI the items were replicas—toys incapable of firing live rounds.

From this point forward, Adamiak said he became the target of a “fishing expedition by the ATF.”

Adamiak did agree to broker the purchase of a PPSh-41-barrel shroud for a client, which does not qualify as a firearm.

“It was literally purchased in open commerce, with a business check, from a confirmed FFL as an unregulated part directly off of Gun Broker,” Adamiak said last year. “Evidently, the ATF must have realized this was the closest thing they could get from me to a firearm, but what they really wanted was to get in my house to see the Mark 19 and the M240 replicas that their CI was boasting about. When applying for their search warrant the ATF told the judge in a criminal complaint that at issue was the PPSh-41-barrel shroud that they said was a machinegun, but that was not even close, legally.”

Show trial

More than 40 federal agents and police officers raided Adamiak’s home and a rental property he owned. Agents came from the ATF, FBI, HIS, NCIS, SWAT, Bomb Squad and local police.

“They turned my house upside-down but did not find a single functional machinegun or destructive device,” Adamiak said last year.

The agents seized about 35 replica firearms and parts from Adamiak’s personal collection and labeled them “suspected machineguns and destructive devices.”

Most worrisome, the agents seized money and silver Adamiak collected as “proceeds of illegal activity,” including his antique currency collection, which was worth thousands of dollars. Eventually, hiring an attorney was difficult for Adamiak because law enforcement took all of his savings.

“It’s my opinion and that of my family’s that the ATF realized they had messed up after they didn’t find a single illegal weapon,” Adamiak said from prison last year. “So, they completely reinterpreted the statutes and implemented a new rule to spin the jury and get me convicted. They manufactured crime to convict me.”

The ATF’s first indictment charged Adamiak with possessing 33 machineguns. There were no destructive devices mentioned. To counter, Adamiak and his attorneys hired former ATF senior official Dan O’Kelly as a defense witness.

O’Kelly joined the ATF as a Special Agent in 1988 after serving 10 years as a sworn police officer. He became a legend within the agency, including a stint as the lead instructor of Firearm Technology on staff at the ATF National Academy. O’Kelly has taught internationally and co-wrote the program establishing the Certified Firearm Specialist for the ATF, while he was at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

The prosecutors knew that O’Kelly would make mincemeat of their charges, so they reindicted Adamiak, charging him with possession of one machinegun and four destructive devices.

“They knew we’d make them look like fools at trial with Dan’s testimony, so the AUSA filed motions to block his expert testimony saying, ‘Any testimony about the definition of a frame or receiver of a machinegun would be both irrelevant and confusing to the jury.’” Adamiak explained last year.

His trial became “literally theatrical.”

“The AUSA absolutely twisted every fact, cherry-picked messages to completely change the whole narrative, and blatantly lied about everything to make me look bad,” Adamiak has said.

• 1. She claimed the down payment for Adamiak’s house were profits of illegal gun trafficking. Adamiak bought his house a year before he started his hobby business using his Navy pay.

• 2. She claimed Gun broker was the dark web.

• 3. She used his military training against him.

• 4. She claimed he stole parts from the military, despite the fact that he had detailed records for every single part.

• 5. She claimed his honest business strategy of buying low and selling for profit was “greed.”

• 6. She attempted to make Adamiak look like a neo-Nazi because he had his grandfather’s WWII war trophies stored in his safe, some of which had German markings on them.

Throughout the trial, the ATF’s attorneys showed jurors pictures of Adamiak’s extensive personal collection, including random parts, barrel shrouds and MAC-10 flats.

“They told the jury these were all machineguns,” Adamiak said in a previous interview. “The worst was the M240. They displayed a photo of the ATF case agent holding the belt-fed M240 replica and testified that it was a machinegun, and also made filings saying the same thing, despite the fact that the ATF’s own report says it’s a replica and not a firearm at all.”

Rather than winning the trial as his attorneys had claimed they would do, Adamiak was found guilty and sentenced to 20-years imprisonment.

Please check back for more updates throughout the day.

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by Lee Williams

California’s state legislature employs some of the busiest and most creative anti-gun staffers in the world, who operate in an atmosphere of nearly complete permissiveness.

Whatever lunacy these well-schooled goons propose has an extremely high likelihood of becoming state law, especially if it targets guns or shaves a chunk off of the Second Amendment protections enjoyed by free people living in free states.

Want to buy a Glock?

Sorry, it’s not one of the handguns California’s “experts” approved for personal purchase.

Need an AR?

Sorry, all you can have is a bastardized amalgamation of AR parts that won’t accept mags or function like normal ARs do for normal people in normal states.

These well-paid legislative dullards are the reason why California’s anti-gun laws migrate east and become laws in other deep blue states.

One of the favorite tactics they use to further erode gun rights is to “clarify” previously passed anti-gun laws.

Few bills have the heft of AB-1753, which the anti-gunners claim will only “clarify” the state’s Gun Violence Restraining Order, or GVRO.

California’s hellish GVRO already subjects the state’s 40 million residents/internees to unconstitutional Red Flag laws, multiple hearings and massive legal consequences if they legally own a firearm and a petitioner accuses them of being naughty.

Keep in mind, in the People’s Democratic Republic of California, nearly anyone with a faint pulse can sign a petition claiming that someone’s guns need to be taken away for a myriad of reasons. They don’t even have to live in the same home. Coworkers can suffice, as can anyone who attends the same school.

Now, what do the anti-gunners want to add to “clarify” this state law and make it even worse?

The answer is simple: Ammunition

“This bill would make clarifying and conforming changes to the procedures relating to the protective or restraining orders described above by explicitly requiring the restrained person to relinquish, in addition to any firearm, any ammunition in that person’s immediate possession or control. The bill, commencing January 1, 2028, would require courts to permit a party or witness to appear remotely at a hearing for a postsecondary educational institution or workplace violence restraining order at no cost. This bill would also require courts to develop rules and instructions for such remote appearances and to post them on their internet websites. The bill would also, commencing on January 1, 2028, require courts to allow filings related to those protective orders to be submitted electronically, as specified,” the authors, who are apparently paid by the word, claimed.

And who will bear the ultimate responsibility of seizing the ammunition of anyone who violates this California law?

Why that would be state law enforcement, of course.

“This bill would additionally require a peace officer to take temporary custody of any ammunition in plain sight or discovered pursuant to such a search,” the bill states.

Takeaways

If you are reading this behind enemy lines in The Golden State, run. Leave immediately. “John has a long mustache.” It’s time to go.

Ronald Reagan and George Deukmejian are gone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is far too busy to help.

Sure, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is doing better, but there’s a long way to go, and even if he wins, California will likely remain hopelessly blue.

What’s needed are fresh federal laws that do not allow rogue states like California to subject their subjects to gun bans or other loathsome regulations.

Help, friends, may be coming.

“Reckoning day for lawmakers in Illinois, Connecticut, and elsewhere across the country, is not far away and it’s high time they are finally put in their place for infringing on the constitutional rights of citizens,” said Alan M. Gottlieb, Second Amendment Foundation founder and executive vice president.

On June 30, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear two SAF cases—Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins—challenging the prohibitions of many commonly owned rifles like ARs.

I could not have said it any better.

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by Lee Williams

Just look at the some of the featured speakers who are coming to Dallas in 25 days for the Second Amendment Foundation’s Gun Rights Policy Conference.

• United States District Judge Roger T. Benitez (Ret.), SAF’s 2026 Keynote Speaker

• Robert Cekada, ATF Director

• Brandon Herrera, “The AK Guy” and political candidate

• Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights

In 2021, after reading Judge Benitez’s 94-page decision in Miller v. Bonta, I wanted to jump up, scream “Murica” and salute the flag.

Rob Cekada is actually fixing the ATF—something no one even thought was possible.

When I interviewed Brandon Herrera, the GOP’s official candidate for Texas’ 23^rd Congressional District, I realized he knows more about guns and gun rights than any member of Congress.

AAG Dhillon has never once responded to my calls, emails, texts or tweets, so I look forward to meeting her and explaining that I am not that bad of a guy.

These are only four of the featured speakers who will be at SAF’s 41^st Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference, which runs from September 25 to 27 at the Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport Hotel.

These four featured speakers, plus the others, will make this the best GRPC ever.

The full list of speakers is here, but none are more impressive than Second Amendment Foundation founder and executive vice president, Alan M. Gottlieb.

Mr. Gottlieb is the main reason behind the Second Amendment Foundation’s incredible success. He is the reason that the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear two SAF cases—Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, which challenge the prohibitions of many commonly owned rifles, including the AR-15, in Cook County, Ill., and Connecticut.

The question presented in SAF’s opening brief is simple but powerful: “Whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.”

SAF’s incredible legal work will be thoroughly addressed throughout the conference.

AMM-Con

The 10^th annual Alternative Mass Media Conference, or AMM-Con, will be held before the start of the Gun Rights Policy Conference, starting at 9 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 25. It is co-hosted by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

AMM-Con is a gathering of some of the top Second Amendment media members and influencers who provide educational presentations about all things related to our right to keep and bear arms.

For those who are established or aspiring journalists, bloggers, video media personalities, podcasters, or have a general interest in new media, AMM-Con is a must-attend event.

Previously, the event was exclusive to media members only, but the committee recognizes that each of us—through friends, family and social media—can help spread the message.

The National Rifle Association’s Mark Keefe will give the keynote address during the event and discuss melding publications and media to streamline operations.

Additional speakers include Cam Edwards, Mark Smith, William Kirk, Robyn Sandoval, Rich Yumul, Chris Swainhart, Stephen Gutowski and many more.

Featured topics will include:

• The ethical use of AI and AI tools

• Rebranding and driving business via your blog

• Effective use of video, video equipment and podcast growth

• Reporting from the heart and navigating YouTube

• Panel discussion featuring Second Amendment advocates/activists on how to utilize media to deliver a positive message

I once said that AMM-Con is “like drinking from a firehose. A master class in guerrilla journalism, all in one day.”

I hope you can make it to both events!

See you in 25 days.

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by Lee Williams

Jeffrey R. Bodell—the ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer responsible for imprisoning Patrick “Tate” Adamiak for 20 years by claiming that a toy and legal semi-automatic pistols were machineguns and that two inert RPGs were actually destructive devices—is still working for the ATF and will soon testify under oath about firearms seized in other criminal cases.

Bodell admitted during testimony in June that he has spent the last year and a half “operating a federal testing lab that 3D prints firearms.” This is about the same time that coverage of Adamiak’s case began to focus on Bodell and his testimony.

Now, Bodell is set to resume his duties as a Firearms Enforcement Officer by testifying about the actual weapons recovered during yet another ATF investigation, according to a source who did not want their name used for this story.

ATF Director Robert Cekada declined to comment about Bodell.

“It’s a personnel matter that I am not allowed to discuss,” Cekada said Wednesday.

Bodell’s previous testimony

Adamiak was arrested and charged by the ATF during the height of the Biden Administration’s war on gun rights and the Second Amendment.

Adamiak, who is now 31, was just a 28-year-old E-6 in the U.S. Navy prior to his arrest. He enjoyed firearms and ran a private website that sold gun parts—not guns. He was always extremely careful about what he sold. After all, he had to protect his naval career, which was doing extremely well.

After ATF agents kicked down his doors, they found nothing illegal or even suspected of being illegal. As a result, the ATF brought in Bodell who took the actual items that the agents had found—all of which are still sold legally online, most do not even require an ID—and turned them into machineguns and destructive devices, even though they were, and are, completely legal.

As the case against him moved forward, Adamiak and his attorneys were unprepared for Bodell or his deceptions, which have become almost legendary.

Adamiak’s trial was the first time Bodell had ever testified under oath, and what he said still raises questions.

Bodell inserted a real STEN action and a real STEN barrel into Adamiak’s toy submachinegun and got it to fire one round, even though the toy’s receiver wouldn’t accept a real STEN magazine. Bodell actually classified the toy, which are very popular, as a machinegun.

“I examined the large black item in the photograph there. It’s marketed as a replica submachine gun, specifically a Sten Mk II, which was a World War II British submachine gun. My examination of that, I found it to be both a firearm under the Gun Control Act and a machine gun,” Bodell told the jury.

Bodell fired five of Adamiak’s very expensive and extremely collectible legal semi-auto handguns, which fire from an open bolt. All the ATF technician could achieve was semi-auto fire, but he still classified all five highly sought after firearms as machineguns.

“They did not shoot automatically, and they weren’t converted to shoot automatically, but they are machine guns because they’re designed to shoot automatically,” Bodell told the jury.

Bodell ruled that several receivers that had been cut in half were actually machineguns. The same parts are still legally sold online and do not require an FFL or any paperwork.

The worst thing Bodell told the court were his misconceptions about two inert RPGs, which Adamiak bought years earlier at an outdoor fair in California.

Bodell took the inert rocket launchers to the ATF’s lab and added missing fire-control components including a firing pin from a functional RPG from the ATF’s collection. Bodell also added a sub-caliber training device that resembles a warhead, which can fire 7.62x39mm rounds on its own without even loading it into an RPG.

When the subcaliber components fired a live round, Bodell classified the RPGs as rocket launchers.

“He fired a 7.62x39mm rifle cartridge through it utilizing the sub-caliber training device, which is a standalone rifle that can be fired independently on its own,” Adamiak said in a previous story.

During Adamiak’s sentencing hearing, Bodell claimed that 977 pieces of flat sheet metal were machineguns, but the judge threw out these claims. The additional 10 years prosecutors wanted for the flats were not added to Adamiak’s 20-year sentence. or Adamiak would have received 30 years behind bars instead of 20 years.

All of what Bodell insisted were illegal items are still sold legally online: Inert RPGs, the toy STEN, submachinegun receivers and especially open-bolt semi-autos. The RPGs, toy STEN and submachinegun receivers don’t require any paperwork to purchase.

Takeaways

Adamiak has been in federal custody longer under President Trump than under Biden. Were it not for the claims Bodell made under oath, Adamiak would likely be a free man.

Given Bodell’s record, it raises questions about why ATF would allow him to become involved in yet another trial—or any future trial.

Adamiak has been held in a Virginia county jail since June 16 and was not available for comment for this story.

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by Lee Williams

The Trace—the propaganda arm of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control empire—moved a story Monday that has caused a bit of laughter—actually, a lot of laughter.

“Inflated Claim About Guns and Self-Defense Returns to CDC Website” claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, better known as the CDC, estimates “a range of 60,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses each year.”

“The change reflects the Trump administration’s staunch Second Amendment advocacy, putting the president in lockstep with a gun lobby that’s long promoted the idea that a ‘good guy with a gun’ is the only thing that can stop a ‘bad guy with a gun,’” wrote reporter Jennifer Mascia.

Ms. Mascia describes herself as “a senior news writer and founding staffer at The Trace. She previously reported on gun violence at The New York Times and was a contributor to CNN’s Guns in America team.”

Whom does Ms. Mascia use to call out the CDC and the Trump administration for publishing this inaccuracy? Well, it’s none other than the Gun Violence Archive and its leader, Mark Bryant.

The Players

You’ll remember GVA, Mr. Bryant and his faulty numbers. He claimed there were 417 mass shootings in 2019. The FBI says there were 30, because it uses a much narrower and more realistic definition.

When I interviewed him in 2021, Mr. Bryant deflected blame for the media’s overhyping of his overhyped data.

“If the numbers are misleading, the journalist didn’t do their homework, you could make that argument. The media zeroes in on it, not us. At one point we wanted to take mass shootings out of the loop, but the phone started ringing on a daily basis. It’s important to me that we’re not misinterpreted. We’re not anti-gun. Look at our staff, over half are gun owners. I intentionally do not hire from the GVP community. I want researchers — period. We wanted to have an honest set of data, and you can use it how you want,” he claimed.

Mr. Bryant wasn’t the only anti-gunner Ms. Mascia quoted in her story. She also cited an early Trace contributor, Devin Hughes, who runs GVPedia, which she described as “a nonprofit gun violence research outfit.”

GVPedia describes as something else—something completely different. It exists to counter the reporting and hard work of just one person.

“As it currently stands, the project focuses significantly on the work and actions of one individual: researcher John R. Lott Jr.,” GVPedia says on its website.

Just to be clear and so we’re all on the same page, the two entities Ms. Mascia cites to take down the CDC are the bizarre journalistic stylings of the Gun Violence Archive and a website devoted to countering the hard work of Mr. Lott.

Before we get to the substance of Ms. Mascia’s in-depth reporting, you need to recall something she claimed about her employer, the Trace.

She bristled when the Trace was compared to Everytown for Gun Safety, another anti-gun group founded and funded by Bloomberg.

“You know The Trace is not a gun control org. We don’t lobby. We don’t tell readers to support laws. We don’t publish our opinions. We are all journalists. None of us have ever worked in advocacy. Our backgrounds are easily searchable. Why do you persist with this myth?” Mascia wrote on Twitter, now X. “Follow the bios. We all went to journalism school. The facts don’t support your claims.”

Enter Rob Romano, an intelligence associate at the Firearms Policy Coalition.

He examined the IRS Form 990s for the Trace and Everytown and found a stunning similarity. Both nonprofits share the same president, John Feinblatt.

Further examination shows Mr. Feinblatt is also listed as the two nonprofits’ principal officer. The 990s show that the Trace and Everytown also use the same phone number, 646-324-8250. Both nonprofits were incorporated in Delaware, which is known for its stringent corporate privacy laws.

He published his findings in a tweet to Ms. Mascia, stating simply: “The president of your organization is literally the president of Everytown.”

The Play

Mr. Bryant told the Trace reporter that the CDC’s number were “nothing more than gross estimates based on limited surveys.”

Mr. Hughes said they were “politically motivated laundering of disinformation that has become a hallmark of the Trump administration’s approach to all scientific inquiry, and gun violence is no exception.”

After her two journalistic gurus took their shots, Ms. Mascia then admitted that defensive gun usages are hard to track and are not counted by local law enforcement or even the FBI.

As a result, her story completely fizzled and died a quick death.

Takeaways

The Trace has always operated under a series of untruths and misconceptions.

It masquerades as a newsroom solely to provide cover for members of the corporate media who republish their stories as if they’re actual news.

Trace staffers call themselves journalists, some even have journalism backgrounds, but in reality, they’re nothing more than ardent anti-gun activists paid in Bloomberg bucks.

As to its reporting, the Trace has always made false claims.

This story is no different.

It’s a legacy of its founder, Michael Bloomberg, who claims—while surrounded by his well-armed, professional bodyguards—that we’ll all be safer if we would only give up our guns.

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by Lee Williams

There was initially a lot of talk about releasing Patrick “Tate” Adamiak from federal custody after President Donald Trump won his second term.

One senior government official actually said Adamiak would be “home by Christmas” of last year, which thrilled Adamiak’s family. After all, to this day they remain totally convinced he did absolutely nothing wrong—certainly nothing illegal.

Unfortunately, the 31-year-old remains behind bars, with no sign he’s even being discussed, much less released.

Adamiak was sentenced to serve 20 years behind bars in June 2023.

To be clear, he has been in federal prison about a month longer under President Trump than under Joe Biden, and this time is increasing every single minute of every single day.

There is no debate about which president is responsible for putting the former active-duty Navy E-6 in prison. Biden and his corrupt ATF bear responsibility for this, like they do for killing another one of their “suspects,” Bryan Malinowski, who like Adamiak had never been arrested, not even once.

The Trump Administration has kept Adamiak’s pardon request active, unlike the hundreds of other pardons that were denied. Adamiak’s family still has hope he will be pardoned someday, but their hope decreases as his time behind bars increases.

There is no doubt President Trump has been busy during his second round in the White House. His incredibly rigorous schedule is far from the presidential norm. His work restoring and upholding the Second Amendment has been simply amazing—unlike that of any other president in American history. Still, all it would take is a word to a staffer and Adamiak could be a free man. That’s how easily presidential pardons can work.

Adamiak’s next court hearing is Sept. 30^th, but no one thinks much will happen. Arenda L. Wright Allen, the federal judge in charge of his case, saw to that. She cancelled a hearing that was scheduled for June and gagged Adamiak’s defense attorney during the resentencing hearing next month.

“His objections were previously addressed at his sentencing hearing and affirmed by the Fourth Circuit and cannot be re-raised at this resentencing hearing. Accordingly, the Court is precluded from considering, and will not hear, any evidence or argument on the objections at the resentencing hearing,” Judge Wright Allen wrote.

Calum Welch, Adamiak’s defense attorney, doesn’t know if a pardon will ever occur, but he remains busy “advocating for Tate’s interests.”

“Since we’re stuck in court and have a strategy, we’re limited to actions taken. It makes it particularly challenging for us to maintain a constant legal strategy when we’re being told about potential executive actions,” Welch said. “We’ve got to keep everybody in the loop, and we’ve got to say promises have been made but I have no info to add. It’s a difficult spot. We have to prepare a legal strategy, if we don’t have something tangible in hand.”

Neither President Trump nor Attorney General Todd Blanche returned emails seeking comments about Adamiak’s plight or whether a pardon is likely.

ATF Director Robert Cekada said he stands by his earlier comments, which stated that Adamiak’s sentence was far longer than other similar cases.

“I think that this is a case that warrants review by the Pardon Office or the President,” Cekada said Wednesday evening.

Questionable charges

Adamiak was arrested and charged by the ATF during the height of the Biden Administration’s war on gun rights and the Second Amendment.

He had been accepted to attend BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training). Had the ATF left him alone, Adamiak would likely be leading a Navy SEAL platoon.

After ATF agents kicked down his doors, they found nothing illegal or even suspected of being illegal. As a result, the ATF brought in a specialist, ATF Firearm Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R. Bodell, who discombobulated the actual items that the agents had found—all of which are still sold legally online, most do not even require an ID—and turned them into machineguns and destructive devices.

Adamiak was charged with illegally possessing a machinegun for a toy STEN submachinegun found during the search warrant. He paid $75 for the non-firing Spanish replica—or toy—which was made by Denix and is still sold online. Bodell inserted a real STEN barrel and receiver, but neither Bodell nor his assistant could make it fire more than one round at a time. Despite their hard work, the toy STEN would not even accept a real magazine. Still, Bodell officially ruled that the toy was a machinegun.

Adamiak was charged with illegally possessing two destructive devices, two inert RPGs that had holes drilled into their receivers and were stripped of internal parts. ATF’s “expert” added parts from real RPGs until they would fire a single subcaliber 7.62x39mm round. As a result, he classified the RPGs as destructive devices. The inert RPGs are still legally sold today without an FFL or any other paperwork.

Bodell’s status at the ATF today is not known.

Adamiak’s prosecution is led by Brian J. Samuels, who served as the criminal chief of the U.S. Justice Department’s Eastern Virginia office for nearly two decades, until he was demoted just a few months ago.

The main reason for Samuels’ demotion was never made entirely clear, but it may have involved a decision to not file charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, each of whom tried to prosecute President Trump.

Once responsible for management and major cases within the office, Samuels is now just an assistant U.S. attorney—the same title given to anyone who graduates law school and joins the Justice Department.

He recently released a document titled “Position of the United States with Respect to Sentencing Factors.”

It shows he will offer Adamiak no mercy.

Samuels never once mentioned Joe Biden or how he was responsible for the out-of-control ATF and their massive stint of illegality that occurred during his presidency. In fact, Biden is mentioned only once in the entire document, in a quote from Adamiak’s father.

Takeaways

Adamiak’s father, Dave Adamiak, does not understand why nothing official has happened to his son’s charges, yet he still is hopeful that Tate will somehow be released.

He thinks about Tate nearly every minute of every single day. It has changed his life and not in any good way.

Tate Adamiak has been held in a dangerous Virginia county jail since June 16 and was not available for comment.

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by Lee Williams

Saturday was supposed to be a big sales day for Lock N’ Load Firearms, which is located in Southington, Connecticut. The gun shop has two major sales each year, and Saturday was its “Customer Appreciation Day.” The store spent a lot on advertising the event and on party goods. Several vendors came out for the sale.

The fun ended around 11:40 a.m., when the state’s computer system went down, and it stayed down throughout most of the day.

Josh, who works at the gun shop, estimates they lost thousands of dollars.

“Guns aren’t $200 or $300 anymore. They cost $600 or $800,” he said. “To set up an event like that, all the advertising, and then to not be able to sell firearms definitely hurt us. But here, it happens all of the time.”

The State of Connecticut does not allow gun dealers to run their own NICS computer checks. It insists on running the checks for them, as well as a half-dozen other state checks.

Josh said the state’s computer shutdowns are becoming far too common.

“I don’t know how to hold the state accountable,” he said. “I hate to think that a lawsuit is the answer, but that’s where we are at. We can’t flip the state reps and senators to get more fair representation at the state capitol.”

Matt, who works at The Gun Store in Waterbury, Connecticut, said the state’s computer shutdowns have become “random but consistent.”

“You can expect to go down every couple of days,” Matt said. “It’s more than I’ve ever experience in the past 20 years. I’m not saying that the State of Connecticut is intentionally doing it, but it’s been consistent enough lately. If only they used NICS and circumvented all the other six or seven checks they use. The problem is that the state legislature added all these checks. It’s created massive amounts of confusion.”

Common names, he said, like “John Smith” have become a serious issue for the state’s computer systems, which lack the clarity of a NICS Unique Personal Identification Number or UPIN, which gun owners can apply for.

“If they have a NICS UPIN, you find out quickly that it’s not the ‘John Smith’ wanted for murder in Idaho,” he said.

At Central Connecticut Arms in Portland, Connecticut, staffer Ronnie said the shop lost thousands of dollars.

“We couldn’t sell any firearms. It was not a very good day,” he said. “Some customers put their purchases on layaway, which helped.”

The state had another major shutdown just a few weeks ago, Ronnie said.

“We were down for three days. They don’t explain when it’s going to be back up,” he said. “We just sit around here hoping it will be back up soon. It’s a major pain in the ass, man.”

Holly Sullivan is president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League and serves on the board of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

She said there is growing speculation on whether the shutdown was an effort to prevent state residents from purchasing firearms.

“Unlike other states, FFLs are not allowed to use the NICS system themselves. The State of Connecticut acts as a middleman between the FFLs and the NICS system,” she said. “The state does NICS and state-level checks. Usually, if there’s an IT issue, every FFL gets an email. None were sent on Saturday. This ‘breakdown’ was unusual. Generally, the state will say it’s an IT issue, but they didn’t do that this time.”

Hundreds of Connecticut gun shops were affected, she said.

“This is a symptom of a much larger problem,” she said. “The state wants to control us, but they’re not adequately doing their job. They don’t trust FFLs to do their job. People are denied their Constitutional rights. Let’s say if someone works offshore, it could be months before they get this opportunity again. And besides, Saturday at noon is prime time to buy guns!”

The state has an extreme anti-gun history, Sullivan explained.

“Attorney General William Tong—his hobby is being anti-gun,” she said. “Every legislative session, every anti-gun bill was proposed by Tong. And then he’d bring in his Mom’s Demand action crew. It’s an ongoing problem. Dealers lost a lot of money.”

Neither Connecticut Attorney General Tong nor Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection commissioner Ronnell A. Higgins, whose office is responsible for conducting the background checks, returned calls seeking their comments for this story.

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by Lee Williams

Dave Adamiak, whose son Patrick “Tate” Adamiak has 17 more years left to serve in federal prison, is confused, perplexed and nearing his wit’s end.

While he appreciates all the support his son’s case has drawn—there are hundreds of videos and stories chronicled on his “Freedom for Tate” website—Tate remains is prison.

To date, there has been no formal move to secure his release—despite the kind words of more than a few elected officials.

Adamiak’s family sent a pardon request to Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Justice Department Pardon Attorney Edward J. Martin Jr., along with nearly 2,000 signatures of supporters, who all believe Tate should never have been charged with a crime.

Tate’s name remains on President Donald Trump’s pardon list, unlike hundreds of others. In addition to 301 pardon denials, the Pardon Attorney has said that 5,908 clemency applications were also rejected.

His 20-year prison sentence, too, has received scorn, even from ATF Director Robert Cekada.

Cekada believes Adamiak was mistreated and massively over-sentenced.

“On the facts of this case, the sentence Mr. Adamiak received is excessive. Mr. Adamiak had no prior criminal history. He dealt with these weapons as curios. We have no evidence that he intended to use the weapons unlawfully or that he was part of a criminal organization. The extremely high sentencing guidelines likely reflect the paradigmatic cases of individuals possessing destructive devices, such as grenade launchers, and normally involve terrorism or organized criminal activity. No such conduct was present here. For me, unlawful possession of National Firearms Act items sentences approximately in the three-to-five-year range are common,” he told me just over a month ago.

Cekada is not alone. Six Republican lawmakers sent their own letter to Blanche and Martin seeking Adamiak’s release.

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans along with Congressmen Eli Crane, Eric Burlison, Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S., Rob Bresnahan, Jr., and Daniel Webster were very clear as to their intent:

“We, the undersigned Members of Congress, respectfully request that you work with President Donald Trump to give fair consideration to a commutation request for Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak. We believe that certain inconsistencies in the regulatory framework applied in his case as well as the broader enforcement environment at the time warrant careful review and consideration for executive clemency,” the lawmakers wrote.

The Representatives were extremely clear about Adamiak’s innocence, stating he had “maintained a well‑documented interest in military history and the lawful collection of historic artifacts, replicas, and training devices.”

“The items of concern in his case were inert collector pieces, nonfunctional replicas, and training aids that were incapable of firing,” the letter states.

For reasons that neither he nor his family understand, Adamiak remains housed in the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk, Virginia—a county jail and a dangerous hellhole with none of the amenities of a federal prison.

On the day he first arrived at Tidewater, two guards pepper-sprayed an inmate for little or no reason, rammed his head into a metal door, and then dragged him through the jail until his neck and hand were broken. The jail’s medical staff said the inmate was “unlikely to regain limb control.”

The two guards were later fired and charged with malicious wounding; a Class 3 felony in Virginia involving intentional injury with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill. They each face up to 20 years in prison and $100,000 in fines.

Attempts to contact Adamiak in this facility were unsuccessful.

Case history

Adamiak, who at the time was an active-duty Navy E-6, was arrested and charged by the ATF during the height of the Biden Administration’s war on guns, gun owners, gun rights and the Second Amendment.

Adamiak had been accepted to attend BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training). Had the ATF left him alone, he would likely be leading a Navy SEAL platoon.

After ATF agents kicked down his doors, they found nothing illegal or even suspected of being illegal. As a result, the ATF brought in a specialist, ATF Firearm Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R. Bodell, who discombobulated the actual items that the agents had found—all of which are still sold legally online, most do not even require an ID—and turned them into machineguns and destructive devices.

Adamiak was charged with illegally possessing a machinegun for a toy STEN submachinegun found during the search warrant. He paid $75 for the non-firing Spanish replica—or toy—which was made by Denix and is still sold online. Bodell inserted a real STEN barrel and receiver, neither Bodell nor his assistant could make it fire more than one round at a time. Despite their hard work, the toy STEN would not even accept a real magazine. Still, Bodell officially ruled that the toy was a machinegun.

Adamiak was charged with illegally possessing two destructive devices, two inert RPGs that had holes drilled into their receivers and were stripped of internal parts. ATF’s “expert” added parts from real RPGs until they would fire a single subcaliber 7.62x39mm round. As a result, he classified the RPGs as destructive devices. The inert RPGs are still legally sold today without an FFL or any other paperwork.

Takeaways

Adamiak and his father are very concerned about an upcoming hearing, which is scheduled for next month before Arenda L. Wright Allen, the federal judge who oversaw his trial and sentenced Adamiak to serve 20 years in prison.

They both doubt Judge Allen will give Tate a fair hearing. She has already precluded his attorney from rehashing much of anything from the trial. Adamiak could actually receive even more time behind bars.

Every day seems to be a constant battle, Dave Adamiak said. While Tate receives verbal support, nothing official is ever done.

Dozens of politicians have said Adamiak should never have been charged, yet he remains in prison.

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By Lee Williams

Ask any longtime shooter to name a single piece of gear available today that they wished they had when they first started shooting years ago. If they hear you correctly, and you don’t have to repeat yourself too many times, many will likely say, “suppressors.”

It doesn’t matter what you call them—silencers, cans, gun mufflers, whisper pickles or suppressors—they work extremely well, and dramatically reduce the decibels headed toward your ears.

Depending on the type of suppressor you’re using, the firearm, its caliber and ammunition, the results can be simply stunning, amazing in fact.

Today, suppressors are easier to purchase than ever before, although they still require federal oversight, which may soon be changing. Turnaround time from filing your federal paperwork to picking up your suppressor can be measured in days if not hours, as opposed to months or even years as seen when Joe Biden’s ATF was in charge. Also, they’re dropping in price.

More organizations are speaking out on behalf of the cans, telling anyone who cares about maintaining their hearing that suppressors are effective, which is not what the anti-gunners want to hear.

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, through its the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, took a pro-suppressor position, stating suppressors offer, “effective engineering controls to reduce hazardous gunshot noise at the source, lowering peak sound pressure levels at the shooter’s ear by 17 to 26 decibels.”

In other words, cans are good, which is why they’re legal in 42 states.

Lifetime shooters struggling with hearing loss and tinnitus may actually become a thing of the past, but unfortunately a lot depends on where you live.

Suppressors remain prohibited in Hawaii, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, and the District of Columbia and, of course, California.

These deep blue states are apparently worried that hitmen, assassins or gangsters may go to a gun store, choose a suppressor, fill out the federal paperwork accurately—including their full name, address and other personal identifiers—wait until their suppressor purchase is approved, return to the gun store, pick it up and then sally forth and commit armed, albeit quieter, mayhem.

Timothy Wheeler, MD, is a retired surgeon and director emeritus of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership—a project of the Second Amendment Foundation—and a nationwide network of physicians, health professionals and others who support the safe and lawful use of firearms.

The California Medical Association, Dr. Wheeler says, is “stubbornly refusing” to endorse suppressors as a way to reduce hearing loss, even after the CDC report said they function extremely well.

For Dr. Wheeler, who lives in southern California, the CMA’s rebuke was not a surprise.

The CMA did not respond to multiple phone calls or emails seeking information about their position on suppressors/silencers.

Their unwillingness to even discuss whatever issues they may have with modern suppressors was expected, of course. If you shoot a gun you deserve to lose your hearing, I’m sure they believe.

Hiram Percy Maxim—whose father Hiram Stevens Maxim invented the first machinegun—was granted the first American patent for a suppressor in 1909, which should have been enough time for the newness and scariness to have worn off.

Suppressors should be available without any paperwork—especially federal paperwork.

One should be in included in the box with every firearm purchased in every state—especially California.

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by Lee Williams

Deep inside the hills near Martinsburg, West Virginia, on a government base with incredible security, lies what may be one of the most impressive firearm collections in the entire world. It contains more than 17,000 individual firearms of nearly every type—from Oerlikon cannons, cane guns, internally-suppressed pistols, gold-plated AKs and thousands of machineguns to one or more examples of nearly every model of rifle, pistol and shotgun ever produced. This base houses ATF’s National Tracing Center, and the collection is called the National Reference Gun Vault or simply “The Vault.”

Those who have actually been inside the massive structure—at least the real gun guys—talk about it in hushed tones, for hours. They recall every firearm they saw, touched or picked up and especially those they had never seen before.

In the past, the vault was staffed by a half-dozen armorers most of whom had retired from the U.S. Marine Corps. They bore the title: ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer. Their job was to answer questions from ATF agents in the field. If they didn’t know the answer, they had more than 17,000 examples to check.

Not too long ago, for reasons unknown, the ATF decided to radically increase the number of Firearm Enforcement Officers, or FEOs, and station them not in the vault but at several regional ATF offices across the country.

Unlike Special Agents, FEOs are technical specialists rather than sworn law enforcement officers. They have no arrest authority; only supporting enforcement through technical expertise. They work closely with ATF special agents and local law enforcement to identify firearm-related evidence found during search warrants and investigations, classifying the crime guns to build legal cases.

This is where the problem starts. ATF answers directly to the Attorney General, who is the top law enforcement official in the country, and the Attorney General answers directly to the President. ATF cannot afford to have the FEOs give an opinion which differs from the position or feelings of the White House on firearm hot topics such as braces, forced-reset triggers, bump stocks or solvent traps, so FEOs are coached, if not ordered to provide an opinion in their reports, which aligns with those of the administration—especially an anti-gun administration.

This practice has been in place for so many years of anti-gun administrations that it has become the norm.

FEOs provide guidance to agents, who commonly need it because of their lack of training—when encountering anything beyond a modern firearm which bears markings indicating manufacturer, model, caliber, and serial number engraved on it—results in a need for further guidance.

Agents then take this guidance as reliable and accurate information to judges, who issue a search warrant based on this information. The agent then takes what is found in the search to a federal prosecutor who, knowing only what the agent tells them, files charges against the person who was searched. Obviously, the information provided to an agent by an FEO carries a lot of weight, and can have a serious negative effect on people’s lives if it isn’t accurate.

There are many examples of FEOs taking an oath and then testifying to supposed facts that they know to be untrue. The most recent was in ATF’s case against Rare Breed Triggers, whose trigger the FEOs claimed for four years was a “machinegun.”

These new FEOs will say anything and do anything that the ATF administrators want, and unfortunately, they’re used far too often. Any case that goes beyond a simple firearm calls for an FEO. Never mind reality or fairness. They aren’t impartial at all.

This, friends, has been going on for decades.

On paper, the FEOs, are “firearm experts trained in all aspects of firearm operation and identification.”

“They support multi-agency police responses to violent crimes across the country. FEOs work closely with ATF special agents and investigators, other federal agencies and local law enforcement to identify firearms-related evidence found during search warrants and investigations,” the ATF claims.

In actuality, the new FEOs will stretch the truth while under oath to support the agency’s bad investigators and their bad investigations.

They are a symptom of a much larger problem within the organization: ATF agents do not know or even understand guns, according to one former senior ATF official who has seen enough.

“The ATF would not need many FEOs if they would start teaching their agents what they need to know to be competent in the field,” said Daniel G. O’Kelly. “They don’t teach their people over half of what they need to know about guns, so ATF agents must rely on the FEOs. The FEOs get directed by the politically motivated, which results in people like Tate Adamiak sitting in jail for no reason. The ATF has had some people sitting in jail for no reason since 1992, when they became an agency.”

O’Kelly’s theory is simple: If ATF special agents were given a proper amount of firearm training, rather than the three days they currently receive in the academy, they would know guns well enough to recognize all violations and to not overlook violations and their agency would no longer need as many FEOs. These FEOs could be used merely as tutors that an agent could call upon for minor clarification when an obscure issue or firearm is encountered. Very little should be an obscure issue to the gun police in the most gun-prolific country in the world.

After all, O’Kelly estimates that 95% of what the ATF agents will do during their career is related to firearms. The remainder—alcohol, tobacco and explosives—amounts to only around 5% of an agent’s career.

“During my 23-year career I assisted with one tobacco case, never had a single alcohol case and did around 10 arson and bombing cases,” he said.

O’Kelly joined the ATF as a Special Agent in 1988 after serving 11 years as a police officer. He became a legend within the agency, including a stint as the lead instructor of Firearm Technology on staff at the ATF National Academy. O’Kelly is one of the country’s leading firearm experts, and a staunch Second Amendment supporter. After he retired from ATF, O’Kelly raised the bar of firearm knowledge nationwide, among police, the firearm industry, attorneys and the public by founding the International Firearm Specialist Academy, training thousands of law enforcement and industry professionals worldwide.

In an interview, O’Kelly said that ATF agents only receive three-and-a-half days of firearm training. If they understood firearms better, the agency could get rid of its FEOs, many of whom would not be needed.

On paper, FEOs are part of the ATF’s Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division, whose mission is, “to serve as ATF’s technical authority relating to firearms and their classification under Federal laws; to respond to law enforcement agencies requests to test, evaluate, and provide expert testimony on firearms and ammunition; and to provide technical services to the firearms industry and other members of the public.”

As stated, ATF considers its FEOs—not its special agents—the real “technical authority” on firearms and gun parts, who provide “expert testimony.”

In actuality, FEOs turn non-firearms including toys into firearms—even machineguns—and then testify, sometimes falsely, about their findings.

O’Kelly’s fix would be simple. He would rewrite the agents’ basic training to add more firearm training. Existing agents would go through additional in-service firearm training to be able to independently recognize what’s enforceable and what’s not, without the misdirection currently being given by FEOs. O’Kelly would be willing to teach the agents himself or help develop a new training curriculum.

“The biggest problem with the ATF is that agents do not receive enough training,” O’Kelly said. “None of this Tate stuff would have happened if they knew firearms as well as they could.”

Tate stuff

The ATF’s case against Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was led by two Assistant U.S. Attorneys, but their main witness became the real reason why a jury found Adamiak guilty, and a federal judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison, which he is currently serving.

To be clear, Adamiak was utterly railroaded by ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R. Bodell, who works out of the ATF office in Martinsburg.

Bodell’s background is still suspect. He claimed to have worked for Lebo’s Gunsmithing in Shippensburg for 10 months, Legendary Arms Works in Harrisburg for 16 months, and then he ran his own gun shop called Bodell Custom, LLC, for 17 months in Shippensburg. After closing his own gun shop, Bodell went to work for the ATF.

Adamiak, who is now 31, was just 28-years-old and an active-duty E-6 in the U.S. Navy prior to his arrest. He enjoyed firearms and ran a private website that sold gun parts—not guns. He was always extremely careful about what he sold. After all, he had to protect his naval career, which was doing extremely well.

Adamiak was unprepared for Bodell or his incredible deceptions, which have become almost legendary. Bodell actually turned toys into firearms and legal semi-autos into machineguns.

When he took the stand to testify falsely about what he did to Adamiak’s firearms, Bodell had been an ATF employee for less than two years.

Most damning was the fact that this was the first time Bodell had ever testified at any trial.

Bodell told the jurors about how inserted a real STEN action and a real STEN barrel into Adamiak’s toy STEN submachinegun and got it to fire one round, even though the toy’s receiver wouldn’t accept a real STEN magazine. Bodell actually classified the toy, which are very popular, as a machinegun.

Bodell fired five of Adamiak’s very expensive and extremely collectible legal semi-autos, which fire from an open bolt. All the ATF technician could achieve was semi-auto fire, but that didn’t stop him. He classified all five highly sought after firearms as machineguns, despite the fact that publicly-known ATF Rulings in 1982 grandfathered these models as “not machineguns.”

Bodell ruled that several receivers (which don’t qualify as receivers according to the ATF written definition at that time) that had been cut in half were actually machineguns. The same parts are still legally sold online and do not require an FFL or any paperwork.

The worst thing Bodell told the court were his misconceptions about two inert RPGs, which Adamiak had purchased at a flea market in California.

Bodell took the inert rocket launchers to the ATF’s lab and added missing fire-control components including a firing pin from a functional RPG from the ATF’s collection. He also added a sub-caliber training device that resembles a warhead, which can fire 7.62x39mm rounds on its own without even loading it into an RPG. So, he inserted a firearm into a non-firearm, then called the non-firearm a rocket launcher.

“He fired a 7.62x39mm rifle cartridge through it utilizing the sub-caliber training device, which is a standalone rifle that can be fired independently on its own,” Adamiak said in a previous interview. (Adamiak is now being held in a Pennsylvania county jail and was not available for comment.)

Bodell falsely testified that the missing parts didn’t matter, legally.

“It doesn’t matter whether it fires or not, and if it’s missing some component parts, it wouldn’t be relevant to the classification of a destructive device,” Bodell told the court, which is not what the statute or case law state.

Bodell even made a video of him and an assistant firing one rifle round from Adamiak’s heavily converted RPG.

“An RPG is a very simple and crude device,” Adamiak previously said. “Taking a piece of metal pipe and hose clamping a fire control mechanism to it would effectively duplicate what Bodell did in his testing.”

Bodell’s six-page Curriculum Vitae is loaded with long lists of the firearms on which he was trained, but it is also chock-full of nonessential information, including legislation he has studied, historic information he received, museums he has toured, and trade shows he attended.

How to fix the ATF

O’Kelly’s plan for fixing the ATF should be required reading. Almost all of it is common sense. It calls for efforts affecting special agents, restructuring the agency and much more training.

Some highpoints include:

• Focus on the prevention and investigation of violent crime. End the weaponization of the agency. Become anti-crime, not anti-gun ownership toward law abiding citizens.

• Support and educate the firearm industry and the public, rather than persecuting them.

• As in ATF’s original position, stop treating items such as solvent traps and fuel filters as silencers, unless there is actual evidence of intent to use it to diminish the report of a firearm. Stop treating Forced Reset Triggers as machineguns, as they do not satisfy the statutory definition, and as in ATF’s original position, stop prosecuting braced-pistols as Short Barreled Rifles.

• Abandon the false narrative that “ghost guns” are evil and support the right of otherwise non-prohibited citizens to make and possess a privately-made firearm. Abandon the false narrative that buy-build-shoot kits are firearms, as they don’t satisfy the statutory definition.

• Stop treating gun parts which do not satisfy the statutory definition as firearm “receivers,” such as AR-15 lowers and FAL uppers.

• Stop pretending that the occasional sale of a firearm to enhance one’s collection is “dealing without a license” and allow the occasional sale to enhance one’s private collection.

• Start allowing Agents to do actual “police work” and abandon the Mon-Fri 8am-4pm mindset. Begin having them work various hours, like police officers, so they can actually catch violent criminals.

• Stop the false narrative about “ghost guns” (PMFs). Pre-1968 shotguns and .22 rifles have no serial numbers either and cannot be traced, yet ATF never rails about them because it would expose the falseness of the issue. The fact is that PMFs can only be prosecuted in State courts, and ATF needs federal statistics to justify budget increases.

• ATF has historically refused to teach their employees what they need to know to be fully competent about firearms. Begin teaching all Agents and Industry Operations Investigators a comprehensive program so that they are fully competent in the field.

“The fix is simple,” O’Kelly said. “All that’s needed is for ATF leadership to admit they dropped the ball. Once they do, they need to train existing agents and get their people to an acceptable level, so we could go back to the eight FEOs in the vault. We would no longer need these ‘liars for hire’ that the FEOs have become.”

Takeaways

Few believe we will see the same level of anti-gun zealotry by the ATF now the President Donald Trump and ATF Director Robert Cekada are in charge that we experienced when Joe Biden and Steve Dettelbach were calling the shots.

Still, elections happen every four years, and the ATF has proven to be overly accepting of presidential suggestions. Therefore, professionalizing the entire agency should be the goal.

We have all seen the horrors that can happen when ATF follows unlawful orders emanating directly from the White House.

Dave Adamiak, Tate’s father, has spent the past four years worrying about his son’s safety and trying to get him out of federal prison.

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by Lee Williams

A former ATF official reached out to me recently with a strong warning: The ATF is asking for information that could very easily be used against anyone who tries to make a homemade silencer lawfully.

If you answer certain questions on a digital Form 1, you may regret it.

In other words, your own honesty could lead to you own imprisonment.

The former ATF official said on the electronic ATF Form 1, which you need to complete to make a homemade silencer, there is an electronic documentation box, which states: “Please submit the following descriptive information: Pictures of the parts that you will use to make the silencer (the pictures should be clear and allow the identification of the parts photographed). Failure to upload additional documentation could lead to the Form 1 being Disapproved.”

This, the former ATF official said, is a classic example of the ATF’s NFA Division, “not having a clue about what the law says, which they’re supposed to enforce.”

The federal definition of a silencer at 18 USC 921(a)(24) not only includes completed silencers, but also includes “any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication.”

Therefore, any photos of silencer parts that someone submits to ATF can be legally seen as pictures of silencers—for which the applicant does not yet have authorization to possess.

The first time the former ATF official heard about this was a few years ago.

“It started with the solvent trap,” the former ATF official said. “People decided to purchase a solvent trap and then do a Form 1. Once ATF learned about that they denied the registration, because the applicant’s intent was to make a silencer, but they were actually in possession of an unregistered silencer—exactly as the definition says.”

A lightbulb came on within ATF’s NFA Division, the former ATF official said, and they started asking questions of everyone who wants to make a silencer.

I asked the former ATF official what lawful applicant should put on the form.

He recommended this: “I don’t have any silencer parts because that would be a felony.”

“This can only work two ways,” the former ATF official said. “Either they’re playing entrapment and they want gun owners to send them ‘evidence,’ of their own crimes, or they’re complete numbskulls at the NFA Division and they don’t realize what they’re doing.”

ATF Director Robert Cekada said the real issue is solvent traps that are made cheaply overseas, but he was quick to point out that no one will be charged for complying with Form 1 as long as he is running the ATF.

“No will be arrested for photos. We’re trying not to register solvent traps,” he said Monday evening. “They are coming into this country illegally. We want to dissuade people from registering solvent traps, which are built overseas as suppressors without the hole, except for the part that says ‘drill here.’”

Cekada said ATF is in the process of modernizing all of its paperwork, including the Form 1.

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By Lee Williams

Robert Russ spent more than 20 years in the U.S. Air Force fixing fighter jets around the globe while away from his family.

His career took him to Texas, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdon, New Mexico, Nevada, the United Arab Emirates, Niger and even Turkey.

“I joined after 9/11 because I wanted to be in the fight,” Russ said this week.

He doesn’t have one specific event that sums up his time in uniform.

“Honestly, the whole experience did,” he said. “The people, responsibility, the mission and the community all became a big part of who I am. There were tough times being away from family, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything now. It was integrity and honor with a sense of duty.”

Russ served from 2002 to 2022 as an Aircraft Engine Mechanic, retiring as a master sergeant or E-7.

Money isn’t a huge issue for Russ and his family. He and his wife own a plumbing company where she serves as CEO. He now works as an aircraft mechanic for a private firm. Still, something was missing from his life.

“Like a lot of veterans, getting out was an adjustment. When you leave the military, you do not just leave a job. You lose a community and a shared sense of purpose that is hard to replace,” he said. “For a while, I kept coming back to the same question: how do I get back in the fight in a meaningful way?”

After a lot of thought and family discussions, he started Above Ground Gear just five months ago, for a myriad of good reasons.

“I wanted to build something that supports veterans, strengthens community and culture, and gives people a brand they can trust. I also wanted it to reflect the values I grew up with and carried through my service: integrity, service, family, faith, freedom, and pride in this country,” he said.

He chose the company name for a good reason: “Every day Above Ground is a good day,” he said.

Above Ground Gear offers “apparel for veterans and patriots who refuse to blend in. Apparel that stands for freedom, personal responsibility, and the unbreakable mindset forged through service—because being above ground means you’ve got another day to live it right.”

The firm offers t-shirts, hats, blankets and more, all of which bear patriotic and/or humors sayings and logos. The shirts are extremely high quality.

I am proud to name Russ’ firm Above Ground Gear as a new sponsor of this site.

He offers 15% off eligible apparel for TGW readers who use the code GUNWRITER15.

Thanks,

Lee

If you or your firm would like to help sponsor The Gun Writer, send me an email and I will be in touch.

By Lee Williams

When Dave Adamiak first heard that his son had been arrested by Joe Biden’s ATF, part of him thought he must have done something wrong. Perhaps ATF agents had found a dozen Glock switches or some other illegal device during their search warrant of his son’s home. Dave Adamiak, who will be 71 in October, grew up with the utmost respect for law enforcement, especially federal law enforcement, back when they arrested bad guys and protected the innocent from harm. The federal agents wouldn’t make a mistake, right?

But the ATF found absolutely nothing illegal in Patrick “Tate” Adamiak’s home, so agents concocted a myriad of fake charges for non-functional artifacts and gun parts that were purchased online—all of which remain legal to own.

When Dave Adamiak learned about how ATF agents chose to investigate his son—he had a popular website—how they bamboozled a judge into issuing a search warrant—agents falsely claimed he had a machinegun—and what they found—he had absolutely nothing illegal—his whole opinion changed about the ATF and federal law enforcement—especially if they’re working for Joe Biden.

The Adamiak family expected more from President Trump, who has been in office 555 days. Adamiak’s father was sure his son would be pardoned or somehow released, but Tate has remained in prison for 1,379 days.

After all, he did nothing wrong, yet a federal judge gave him a massive 20-year prison sentence, which even the current ATF Director, Robert Cekada, said was far too much.

Dave Adamiak believed Tate would be pardoned earlier this month, after media reports indicated that President Trump was going to pardon 250 inmates, but of course nothing happened. Tate remains locked inside a dangerous county jail, and no one will say why he wasn’t moved back to a federal prison.

“With all the attention that Tate’s case has received, I thought President Trump would have reacted in a positive way, especially after seeing what they did to Tate and how it’s so similar to what they did to him. But he—President Trump—had attorneys to keep him out of prison,” Dave Adamiak said. “With all the attention Tate’s receiving, I thought this would have gotten onto his radar, and that he would have done the right thing and pardoned Tate.”

Dave Adamiak still has nothing but respect for the president.

“I still hope he will do the right thing about Tate,” he said. “I’ve been fighting for my son for four years. We thought we were at a pretty good place when President Trump was elected, and this would have all been done. We’re getting close to September now. Another month has gone by and Tate’s in a dangerous county jail.”

Remaining positive

Matthew “Tucker” Adamiak, 39, is seven years older than his brother Tate. The two remain incredibly close.

“When Tate joined the Navy, it was always tough,” Tucker said. “I always looked forward to him coming home on leave. We would cram as much into those weeks as possible. That’s what I always looked forward to, or just working together at the house helping dad.”

Tucker got a call shortly after Tate’s arrest.

“We were blindsided by the entire thing from day one,” he said. “I was at work. I immediately drove over to my dad’s house, and we were like in shock for weeks until we found out what happened. Once we learned the details, we were relieved. We believed there’s no way that any of this would ever stick in court. When he had his trial, we were waiting for the call to hear he’d been found not guilty. When we heard he was found guilty, my heart just sunk. When the judge sentenced him to 240 months, when I realized that was 20 years, my jaw just hit the ground.”

Since Tate’s sentencing, Tucker has tried to stay positive even though it’s been extremely difficult.

“I think it’s important for people to know that we have court sentences there for a reason, but sometimes they get it wrong, and I 100-percent believe that’s what happened in Tate’s case. There are innocent people in prison and Tate is one of them,” Tucker said. “Throughout my life I’ve heard stories of people being incarcerated for crimes he didn’t commit and are later found not guilty. It never related to me until this whole ordeal began with Tate.”

His brother’s incarceration has impacted Tucker.

“It’s affected me in so many ways. When someone in your family is sick with cancer, your entire family is affected. Even though I’m not personally going through that, I would compare it to having someone incarcerated. Even though I’m not incarcerated with Tate, I’m in my own little prison. Everyone who’s going through this with him is in their own prison, too,” he said. “It makes me feel guilty just going through life, waking up next to someone you love, going to work, eating healthy meals—every time I think about my brother, I think how he’s missing that. I have remained positive, which is difficult. I’ve never lost hope that one day all of this will be corrected, and that one day I’ll be able to see my brother again, outside of prison.”

Tucker and Dave Adamiak were extremely grateful for the support they have received from the Second Amendment community.

“Tate has the most incredible crew of friends, starting with our dad, friends from childhood, the military, gun owners,” Tucker said. “He really didn’t even have to be there right now. He was offered plea deals, but he never took them. He stood up to the government. When he asked me what I thought he should do, deep down I hoped he would go against the government, but I was scared, especially with their unlimited resources. He didn’t want to give up his rights. To this day he remains innocent, in everyone’s eyes but the government’s.”

Tucker and his dad created “bug-out bags,” which they’ll grab and then jump in the car when Tate’s released from prison.

“They’re getting a bit dusty,” Dave Adamiak said.

Takeaways

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project sent an email to President Trump’s media team. It consisted of only one question: “Why hasn’t President Trump pardoned Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak?”

So far, the White House has not responded.

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By Lee Williams

A Sunday story published by Gannett’s USA Today seems to defy the newspaper’s blatant and longstanding anti-gun editorial stance—at least at first.

“What the Supreme Court’s test for gun rules could mean for AR-15s this year,” was written by Maureen Groppe, a reporter who covers the U.S. Supreme Court.

Groppe did not include much of her employer’s usual anti-gun caterwauling, which is unusual. Don’t forget USA Today allows anti-gun activists from The Trace—the propaganda arm of Everytown for Gun Safety—to write, supply photos and even edit its newspaper stories.

Instead, Groppe changed tactics: Out are the kids from the Trace. In are two new, more refined anti-gun voices, both law professors, in fact, cofounders of the Duke Center for Firearms Law.

Now, a brief segue about the Duke Center for Firearms Law and their extreme positions on firearms and firearms law. All you really need to know is that last December, the group welcomed a new executive director, Hayley Lawrence.

A press release sums up Lawrence and her professional history:

“Her pro bono practice focused on representing individuals in criminal justice matters and working with groups like Brady, Giffords, and Everytown to promote gun safety policies as amici before the federal courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court,” the press release states.

The NRA published a story last December shortly after Lawrence took over: “Gun Control Advocate to Lead Duke Center for Firearms Law.”

NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action promised it will be keeping its eye on Ms. Lawrence, which was a worthy decision.

Now, back to Groppe’s Sunday tome.

The reporter actually made room for one pro-gun voice, a member of Gun Owners of America, but he only got one quote. I’d bet every one of my ARs that was done only to satisfy the longstanding journalism rule about including “both sides” of a story. Both sides are certainly included, but the remainder of the story—the vast majority of the space—went to anti-gun sources.

Douglas Letter, whom Groppe described as the “chief legal officer for the Brady gun violence prevention advocacy group,” was quoted as saying: “Obviously, there are disagreements on where that line should be drawn. We think it absolutely should be drawn so that assault weapons bans are constitutional.”

Joseph Blocher is a law professor at Duke University School of Law and cofounder of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, whom Groppe referred to as a “Second Amendment expert.”

Blocher has a history of anti-gun writings. He’s especially anti-Bruen.

In 2022, while testifying before the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee, Blocher noted that the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision “introduced significant unpredictability into Second Amendment law going forward.”

In 2023, he and Professor Darrell A. H. Miller, a law professor at the University of Chicago School of Law who cofounded Duke Center for Firearms Law with Blocher, wrote that “guns can create fear, intimidation, and social trauma; deter civic participation and the exercise of constitutional rights; and further entrench racial inequality.”

Blocher was relatively mild in Groppe’s story, although he referred to legitimate gun ownership as a “debate” rather than a constitutional right.

“These weapons have become very, very wrapped up in identity on many sides of the debate,” Blocher said. “The stakes are high.”

Miller, too, emphasized this mythical debate over the Second Amendment.

“When they come down with decisions that ask questions like, `Is a modern jet airplane more like a horse, or is it more like a carriage, or is it more like a boat?’ I think people that are paying attention just feel a little bewildered,” Miller said. “It’s like, `What kind of odd, elite parlor game is happening up there?’”

The two professors are using that same tactic. Rather than admitting that Bruen is easy to decipher, far from complex and law, they describe it as bewildering and a debate. However, we shall see whether a majority of Supreme Court justices are able to somehow understand and grasp their previous decision, in about a year.

Groppe concludes her story by claiming that ARs are sometimes called “the iPhone of guns because of their popularity and how easy they are to customize.”

I somehow missed that.

I’ve never heard anyone refer to their AR as an iPhone, but then I’ve only been writing about guns for more than a dozen years, and I’m certainly not as well versed on the gun “debate” as any reporter working for USA Today.

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by Lee Williams

It’s hard not to smile or even giggle a little bit when you see how badly President Donald Trump is scaring the country’s paid anti-gun community, especially when you combine the President’s efforts with those of the United States Supreme Court.

No one is feeling this pro-gun heat more than the youngsters working at the Trace, the propaganda arm of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control empire, who want the public to believe it’s an actual newsroom comprised of actual journalists—a fiction they’ll go to great lengths to maintain.

The Trace kids are extremely busy trying to stop this Second Amendment tidal wave that’s washing across the entire country. They realize that they’re losing, so they’re rabidly coming up with new ideas to counter our coming freedom—and some of their ideas are absolutely crazy.

Two Tracers just released this tome: “New Jersey Just Lost Its Assault Weapons Ban. Here’s Why That Matters for the Rest of the Country.”

The story’s last line is bedeviling. It’s not a quote or taken from any report. It’s completely attributable to the story’s two anti-gun authors:

“If the Supreme Court strikes down assault weapons bans nationwide next year, states could try other strategies, including putting semiautomatic rifles behind a permitting process,” they actually wrote.

Can you actually imagine that?

The highest court in the country says you can legally possess ARs in every state and U.S. Territory, but then some blue state suddenly requires you to obtain a state permit—regardless of the Supreme Court decision?

Do they think that might actually work?

It’s a Second Amendment right, right?

It would be like requiring state permits before allowing someone to read a book or scour the internet, which are rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The Trace is redefining desperation.

I’m picturing five-gallon pails of Zoloft, Prozac and Xanax scattered throughout their newsroom, each with a “help yourself” label.

It actually gets even worse. They’ve actually run out of legitimate sources.

The two authors wrote this:

“It’s unclear whether rescinding the bans will cause an increase in gun violence — or mass shootings in particular. Assault weapons have been used in most of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, and studies have found that assault weapons, combined with high-capacity magazines, may increase the death count in mass shootings,” the story claims.

The link takes you to another hilarious medical study, which falsely claimed that “state assault weapons bans are associated with fewer fatalities.” The study based its findings on one particular source: “Data were abstracted from the Gun Violence Archive, an independent online database of US gun violence incidents.”

We’ve nearly written volumes about the faulty data from the Gun Violence Archive—so much so that it’s hard not to laugh every time some academic clod uses it in their “research.” Suffice it to say, the GVA said there were 417 mass shootings in 2019. The FBI says there were 30, because it uses actual data and doesn’t make stuff up.

The two authors actually supported using the GVA’s faulty numbers.

“The Trace uses the Gun Violence Archive’s definition of mass shooting, which includes shootings resulting in four or more injuries or deaths, excluding the shooter,” they wrote.

Trace history

The Trace calls itself “The only newsroom dedicated to covering gun violence.” Its staff refer to themselves as journalists, rather than anti-gun activists who are paid by Bloomberg to write propaganda.

Since the Trace was founded about a decade ago, scores of newspapers, websites and other legacy media outlets have fallen victim to this ruse. What’s left of Gannett’s flagship newspaper, USA Today, has collaborated with the Trace multiple times, and has even allowed Trace activists to produce and edit content, which appeared in the newspaper under a joint byline.

“We have partnered with more than 170 national and local media organizations,” the Trace boasts on its website. “We’re always looking to start new partnerships.”

The Trace is nothing more than the propaganda arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, which is also funded by Bloomberg.

Both nonprofits share the same president, John Feinblatt. In fact, Feinblatt is also listed as the two nonprofits’ principal officer. Federal tax documents show that the Trace and Everytown also use the same phone number, 646-324-8250.

Both nonprofits were incorporated in Delaware, which is known for its stringent corporate privacy laws.

Takeaways

Now that New Jersey-compliant ARs are a thing of the past, and California-compliant ARs may soon follow, we should take a minute to relax, but only one minute, no more.

The Trace and its followers will certainly come up with more whacky ideas, but they live in states whose judges support whacky behavior, especially if it harms the Second Amendment.

We remain in a constant battle for our civil rights, and anything can still go wrong at any time, according to Murphy’s Law.

Col. Charlie Beckwith said that. He should certainly know.

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by Lee Williams

The Office of the Pardon Attorney, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, announced Tuesday that President Donald Trump had denied hundreds of pardon requests this week.

Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was not among the denials.

His father, Dave Adamiak, was at first extremely worried until he found that his son was not listed among those whose pardon requests had been rejected by President Trump.

“We still have hope,” Dave Adamiak said. “There’s still a chance that Tate may come home.”

In addition to the 301 pardon denials, the Pardon Attorney announced that 5,908 clemency applications had been rejected.

All of the denials are listed on the Pardon Attorney’s website.

The White House has been inundated with requests to pardon Adamiak, who has always maintained his innocence.

We have published more than 50 stories that show how Adamiak was mistreated by Joe Biden’s ATF.

Lawmakers, too, have heard about the mistreatment. Some have taken action.

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans along with Congressmen Eli Crane, Eric Burlison, Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S., Rob Bresnahan, Jr., and Daniel Webster recently sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Pardon Attorney Edward J. Martin Jr., asking that Adamiak be freed from his 20-year prison sentence.

The letter was the idea of Rep. Eli Crane, who recently questioned ATF Director Robert Cekada during a live congressional hearing about Adamiak’s incarceration.

The six U.S. Representatives were very clear as to their intent:

“We, the undersigned Members of Congress, respectfully request that you work with President Donald Trump to give fair consideration to a commutation request for Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak. We believe that certain inconsistencies in the regulatory framework applied in his case as well as the broader enforcement environment at the time warrant careful review and consideration for executive clemency,” the lawmakers wrote.

Adamiak has said he would prefer a pardon over a commutation because he is completely innocent.

Adamiak, who was an active-duty Navy E-6, was arrested more than four years ago. More than 40 law enforcement officers led by ATF agents kicked down his doors and ripped his home apart. They found nothing illegal yet he’s serving a 20-year federal prison sentence.

If Biden’s ATF had left him alone, Adamiak would likely be leading a SEAL platoon. He’d already been accepted to attend BUD/S.

“Tate did nothing wrong,” Dave Adamiak said. “He’s been in custody for four years, missed his mother’s funeral, missed his friends and family. He has been through enough.”

The fact that his son was not listed among those whose pardon requests were rejected gave Dave Adamiak some hope.

“He broke no laws. He committed no crime. He needs to come home,” his father said.

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by Lee Williams

On the very same day Patrick “Tate” Adamiak arrived at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk, Virginia, two guards pepper-sprayed an inmate for little or no reason, rammed his head into a metal door, and then dragged him through the jail until his neck and hand were broken. The jail’s medical staff said the inmate was “unlikely to regain limb control.”

The two guards were later fired and charged with malicious wounding; a Class 3 felony in Virginia involving intentional injury with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill. They each face up to 20 years in prison and $100,000 in fines.

Even though he’s a federal inmate and his resentencing hearing was cancelled, Adamiak was never returned to a federal prison. He still remains inside the Western Tidewater Regional Jail since he first arrived there June 16.

“It’s not safe,” his father, Dave Adamiak, said Monday. “From what Tate has told me, whenever there’s an issue the guards don’t intervene. Someone could be laying on the ground for quite a while.”

Contact with his son is sketchy at best.

“I can’t get a hold of him. He has to call out. There is no way to communicate,” Dave Adamiak said. “Every few days he’ll call. It’s dangerous—not a safe place. He just tries to mind his own business and stay out of trouble, but there is always trouble carrying on. People are screaming all of the time. It’s a hellhole.”

Adamik’s father is still in legal limbo.

“Why haven’t they moved him? That’s a good question. His next resentencing hearing isn’t until the end of September,” Dave Adamiak said. “Maybe the judge is trying to make it worse for him. I am worried about him in there. It’s something you have to think about quite often—his safety.”

Adamiak, who at the time was an active-duty Navy E-6, was arrested and charged by the ATF during the height of the Biden Administration’s war on guns, gun owners, gun rights and the Second Amendment.

Adamiak had been accepted to attend BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training). Had the ATF left him alone, he would likely be leading a Navy SEAL platoon.

After ATF agents kicked down his doors, they found nothing illegal or even suspected of being illegal. As a result, the ATF brought in a specialist, ATF Firearm Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R. Bodell, who discombobulated the actual items that the agents had found—all of which are still sold legally online, most do not even require an ID—and turned them into machineguns and destructive devices.

Adamiak was charged with illegally possessing a machinegun for a toy STEN submachinegun found during the search warrant. He paid $75 for the non-firing Spanish replica—or toy—which was made by Denix and is still sold online. Bodell inserted a real STEN barrel and receiver, neither Bodell nor his assistant could make it fire more than one round at a time. Despite their hard work, the toy STEN would not even accept a real magazine. Still, Bodell officially ruled that the toy was a machinegun.

Adamiak was charged with illegally possessing two destructive devices, two inert RPGs that had holes drilled into their receivers and were stripped of internal parts. ATF’s “expert” added parts from real RPGs until they would fire a single subcaliber 7.62x39mm round. As a result, he classified the RPGs as destructive devices. The inert RPGs are still legally sold today without an FFL or any other paperwork.

Arenda L. Wright Allen is the federal judge who oversaw the trial and sentenced Adamiak to serve 20 years in prison—a sentence that even the new ATF Director, Robert Cekada, believes was far too long.

“On the facts of this case, the sentence Mr. Adamiak received is excessive. Mr. Adamiak had no prior criminal history. He dealt with these weapons as curios. We have no evidence that he intended to use the weapons unlawfully or that he was part of a criminal organization. The extremely high sentencing guidelines likely reflect the paradigmatic cases of individuals possessing destructive devices, such as grenade launchers, and normally involve terrorism or organized criminal activity. No such conduct was present here. For me, unlawful possession of National Firearms Act items sentences approximately in the three-to-five-year range are common,” Cekada said in a previous interview.

Lawmakers concerned

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans along with Congressmen Eli Crane, Eric Burlison, Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S., Rob Bresnahan, Jr., and Daniel Webster recently sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Justice Department Pardon Attorney Edward J. Martin Jr., asking that Adamiak be freed from his 20-year prison sentence.

Cekada was also copied with the correspondence.

The letter was the idea of Rep. Eli Crane, who recently questioned Cekada during a live congressional hearing about Adamiak’s incarceration.

The six U.S. Representatives were very clear as to their intent:

“We, the undersigned Members of Congress, respectfully request that you work with President Donald Trump to give fair consideration to a commutation request for Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak. We believe that certain inconsistencies in the regulatory framework applied in his case as well as the broader enforcement environment at the time warrant careful review and consideration for executive clemency,” the lawmakers wrote.

Less time behind bars

Every Friday, ATF releases information about their current cases: arrests, pleas, sentences and more.

Even a modest look at these press releases shows how badly Adamiak—who had no prior criminal record—was treated. They show criminals who received much less time behind bars than the 20 years, or 240 months, Adamiak is currently serving.

Here are the latest examples that were released last week:

• Quentin Hall, 30, of Valdosta, Georgia with three prior felony convictions for drug distribution, was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison for armed drug distribution.

• Aquille Omar Johnson, 32, of Savannah, Georgia, was sentenced to 120 months in prison and a $1,200 fine followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

• Eric Lowe, 45, of Dublin, Georgia, was sentenced to 96 months in prison and a $1,500 fine followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

• Mark Anthony Cavello, 52, of Dallas, Texas, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison. He had previously pleaded guilty on May 30, 2024, to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of meth, distribution of more than 50 grams of meth, and money laundering.

• Kevin Krebs, 32, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release by United States District Judge Mary Kay Costello for possessing unregistered explosive devices—specifically pipe bombs, and related materials, in a garage attached to the premises.

• Corey Adkins, 29, of Sharon, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in federal court to 84 months in prison, to be followed by six years of supervised release, on his conviction of drug trafficking and firearm crimes. Adkins engaged in armed cocaine trafficking from his Sharon residence, where Adkins’ girlfriend and a young child also resided and were present at the time. Adkins had been convicted twice for cocaine trafficking during the preceding eight years.

• Damian Barnett, 22, a felon residing in the District of Washington D.C., who was previously convicted of two attempted carjackings, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 28 months in prison for illegally possessing a loaded unholstered pistol in a residential neighborhood.

• Henry Holloway, 34, of Tallulah, Louisiana, was sentenced to over five years in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

• Terrance Long, 52, of Monroe, was sentenced to over eight years in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking offense. When officers executed a search warrant at Long’s residence, investigators located a black pouch containing multiple individually wrapped bags of crack cocaine weighing approximately 15 grams and a loaded Taurus 9mm handgun.

• Tyrone Whittington, 41, of New Orleans, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to two counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. According to court documents, Whittington was arrested by New Orleans Police Department officers on August 19, 2023, and by Louisiana State Police troopers on December 30, 2024. For each of those arrests, Whittington was in possession of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine that he intended to distribute, as well as two handguns that furthered those drug-trafficking crimes.

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by Lee Williams

Joe Biden’s ATF didn’t care about the law. They didn’t care about right or wrong. They didn’t care about evidence or proper procedure or telling the truth while asking the court for a search warrant while under oath. They didn’t even care about what was legal. All they cared about was terrifying gun owners, splashy headlines and making arrests regardless of the law.

Guns are bad, Joe Biden’s ATF believed. This untruth was reinforced by a team of anti-gunners working inside the White House and by others whom they collaborated with outside of the public eye.

While Biden napped, his ATF hit hard. They lied, kicked down doors, seized personal property for no legitimate reason, and they even took an innocent man’s life. In other words, they killed a man solely because of their own piss-poor planning.

ATF’s new director, Rob Cekada, is a good man who tells the truth and understands guns and gun owners, but the task in front of him is massive. He will certainly need help to fix the horrors Biden’s ATF left on his plate. If he can make the fixes, he will become a hero. If he ignores them, he will become just another in a long line of milquetoast ATF leaders who weren’t up to the job.

Here’s where he should start.

What follows are five leftover cases from Joe Biden’s ATF that should never have happened. Every single one violates federal law.

Bryan Malinowski

Bryan Malinowski was a lifelong collector. As a child he started collecting coins, a hobby he carried into his adulthood. Several years ago, his father handed down his gun collection, which sparked Bryan’s interest in firearms. He became a gun collector and hobbyist.

At the time of his death, Bryan was the highest paid city employee in the city of Little Rock as the Executive Director of the Little Rock Airport, where he earned an annual salary of more than $260,000.

In March 2024, federal regulations did not require an individual seller to hold a Federal Firearms License (FFL) unless that individual’s principal objective in selling firearms was livelihood and profit.

Bryan did not believe that by selling at gun shows he was engaging in conduct “with the principal objective of livelihood and profit,” and therefore did not believe he needed an FFL to sell firearms at gun shows.

In December 2023, the ATF opened an investigation and began following Bryan to and from work and on the weekends, placing a tracker on his car, and surveilling his daily activities.

During the investigation, at least two agents acting undercover interacted with Bryan at a gun show in Arkansas. Bryan answered one of the undercover agent’s inquiries by noting that he was a private seller, meaning he believed he did not need an FFL.

During their investigation, ATF learned a lot about Bryan. They knew he worked in a secure environment at the airport, where guns were not allowed.

They knew he had lived a law-abiding life with no criminal history, that he lived at home with his wife and two dogs, and that they kept a very regular schedule.

Bryan had no reason to believe that he was under investigation for violating the law. He never received a letter of inquiry, audit, personal visit, or request for information from the ATF; nor did he ever receive a target or subject letter from the Department of Justice notifying him that he was under investigation.

On March 6, 2024, ATF Special Agent Troy Dillard obtained two federal search warrants, which authorized federal agents to search the Malinowski home and Bryan’s vehicle for firearms, ammunition, electronics, sales records, and correspondence.

Importantly, it was not an arrest warrant. Nor did it set forth any facts that would lead any person to believe Mr. Malinowski would evade law enforcement, fail to cooperate, be dangerous, or pose a threat or risk of destroying evidence.

According to Special Agent Timothy Boles, the Arkansas ATF office is a small office, and “anytime anybody’s running an investigation, the other people know what’s going on.”

As lead investigator, Special Agent Troy Dillard drafted and submitted the ATF Operations Plan for the execution of the search warrant at the Malinowski home.

The Operations Plan was approved and signed by Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Clayton Merrill.

Nothing in the Operations Plan indicated Bryan posed a danger to himself or others, or that he was not expected to comply with law enforcement if he knew they were at his door.

The ATF agents including Agent Boles knew that Bryan did not pose a threat to their safety or the safety of others during the anticipated execution of the search warrant.

Specifically, ATF investigative officers would learn during their months long investigation leading up to Bryan’s death that Bryan did not pose an immediate threat to their safety or the safety of others during the search; that Bryan had no criminal history or history of violence; that Bryan had never threatened law enforcement officers; and that Bryan’s wife and dogs lived with him and would be present during a pre-dawn search warrant execution at the family home.

On the morning of March 19, 2024, the ATF agents on the entry team were all similarly dressed. They wore dark blue long-sleeved shirts, and any law enforcement insignia or identification on the front and back of their shirts were mostly or completely covered by their bulletproof vests.

Two agents wore tactical helmets without identifying insignia.

When the agents arrived at the Malinowski home before sunrise on March 19, 2024, their 10 vehicle caravan occupied the entirety of the cul-de-sac in front of the home.

It was still completely dark outside when agents arrived before 6:00 a.m.

The entry team was aware, or at least expected, that the Malinowski home had a video doorbell at the front door.

As agents approached the front door of the home, the first agent in the stack, Agent Bass, placed a piece of painter’s tape over the video doorbell camera, which was positioned just to the right of the front doors. This action disabled the camera and concealed the presence and identity of the armed team on the front porch.

The agents never rang the doorbell. Despite having Bryan Malinowski’s phone number and noting it in their Operations Plan, no one called to notify him of their presence.

No officer or agent attempted to announce their presence by using an electronic public announcement (PA) system, though the Operations Plan provided that a PA system would be used to announce their presence.

When forced entry is made and doors are rammed open, it is protocol at the Arkansas ATF office that agents automatically enter the home and execute a “limited penetration.” When executing a “limited penetration,” the person carrying the shield enters first.

In the process of breaking both sets of doors, the entry team became disorganized. According to Agent Sprinkles, “I think we were unprepared for the French doors.”

Bryan and his wife Maer, in bed in their room at the back of the house, never heard the police siren or any voices at their door.

Upon hearing loud banging at their front door and someone trying to get inside, Bryan scrambled out of the bed he shared with his wife. Their bedroom sat in the northwest corner of the house, down a hallway, past his home office, and a considerable distance from the home’s entryway.

Bryan quickly grabbed his handgun from the top drawer of his bedside table and went into the closet to retrieve a magazine. Mindful of his wife’s safety, Bryan motioned for his wife to stay back, pushing her down and out of the doorway.

Unbeknownst to Bryan, Maer refused to stay in the bedroom and followed him down the short hallway.

Bryan believed intruders were breaking into his home, and he was going to defend himself, his wife, and his home from the intruders.

Bryan fired his gun at the floor and hit one of the agents in the boot sole.

Agent Cowart, who entered second in the stack directly behind Agent Sprinkle, returned fire, pointing his rifle at Bryan’s head and pulling the trigger several times.

At 6:03:43 a.m., just 48 seconds after agents first approached his door to cover his doorbell, Bryan lay bleeding on the floor of his hallway, shot in the head.

Several ATF agents and task force officers who subsequently entered the Malinowski home noted that although Bryan laid on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head, they could hear him struggling to breathe yet offered no medical assistance because of the nature and extent of the bullet wound.

Bryan died two days later. He was 53 years old.

Byran’s widow filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the ATF and every agent who was at her home. The massive document clearly shows a host of serious errors ATF agents committed, all of which contributed to her husband’s death.

The saddest part is that if ATF agents hadn’t committed just one or two of a long list of substantial errors, Bryan would likely be alive today.

ATF is fighting the lawsuit.

Pastor Russell Fincher

Pastor Russell Fincher was a high school history teacher, a Baptist minister and a parttime gun dealer. He also coached Little League in his hometown of Tuskahoma, Oklahoma, which has a population of around 151 souls.

Fincher, 53, had a Federal Firearm License for three years. He had no brick-and-mortar gun shop. He was what used to be called a “kitchen table FFL.” He sold most of his firearms at gun shows, including Wanenmacher’s Arms Show in Tulsa, one of the country’s largest.

In April 2023, Fincher received a call from the ATF. They wanted to do an inspection at his home.

“I told them they were welcome anytime,” Fincher told me in July 2023.

Two ATF inspectors arrived a few days later. They spent three hours in his home. They took pictures of his 4473s with their cell phones, which Fincher later learned is an illegal although common practice.

“Honestly, they were way nicer than I expected,” he said back then. “They said I had some guns that had traces on them, which concerned them. It concerned me too.”

The inspectors returned two weeks later. They had some “concerns” involving Fincher’s penmanship, which they couldn’t read on a couple forms. They also found he had juxtaposed the model number of a firearm with the weapon’s serial number, which Fincher was attempting to rectify.

On June 16, 2023, Fincher and his son were packing for the gun show in Tulsa when the phone rang. It was the ATF. They said they wanted to talk to him before he left for the gun show.

“We can come out to your house,” he recalled the agent saying. “I told them sure; I’d be home.”

Seven vehicles roared up to his home and disgorged a dozen ATF agents wearing tactical gear, armed with AR-15s.

“It was like the Trump raid. They called me out onto my deck and handcuffed me. My son was there and saw the whole thing. He’s 13 years old,” Fincher said. “They held me on the porch for about an hour. I was surrounded by agents. One by one, they yelled at me about what I was doing. In my mind I decided if they were going to beat me up over every little thing, I’m done. As soon as I said, ‘If you want my FFL, you can have it,’ one of the agents pulled out a piece of paper and said, ‘Well then sign here.’ He had made three copies in case I screwed one up. It was exactly what they wanted. I was shocked.”

As soon as Fincher relinquished his Federal Firearm License, the ATF began loading up his guns, including a Colt Commander, five Glocks and a mint AK—a Polytech pre-ban milled under-folder, which is worth thousands of dollars.

“They took more than 50 of my personal guns,” Fincher said. “I asked them why, and they said they were ‘evidence.’ I’d estimate they took $50,000 to $60,000 worth of guns.”

After ATF’s SWAT team cleared Fincher’s home, they called the agent in charge of the raid—Special Agent Theodore Mongell—and told him it was “safe to come up.”

“You’re done. We have to shut you down,” Fincher recalled Mongell saying. “You tell all your FFL buddies we are coming for them. We are shutting the gun shows down.”

“One agent told me they hate home FFLs,” Fincher said. “He said if I wanted to sell a Browning shotgun to someone at a gun show with no paperwork, that’s no problem, but when I sell a Glock or an AR lower that’s a ‘gangbanger.’ I asked him where it said that in the regs. He said no gangbanger would be shooting people with a $2,000 Benelli. To me, that was one of the dumbest statements he could have made.”

A federal grand jury issued a three-count indictment charging Fincher with two felonies and one misdemeanor:

• Count one: Engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license, a felony.

• Count two: Selling ammunition to a prohibited person, a felony.

• Count three: Making false entry in records by a federal firearms dealer, a misdemeanor.

Fincher was arrested, booked and released, subject to a $10,000 unsecured bond.

Fincher’s Federal Public Defender negotiated a plea agreement, in which Fincher would plead guilty to selling ammunition to a prohibited person, which is punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the two remaining charges once Fincher signed the plea agreement.

The deal kept Fincher out of prison. Both sides agreed that three years of probation would be “the appropriate disposition of the case.” The plea agreement also specified that Fincher would not contest the forfeiture of 39 firearms.

He remains on probation, unable to possess or sell guns.

Patrick “Tate” Adamiak

Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, an active-duty Navy E-6, was arrested more than four years ago even though he never committed any crime. More than 40 law enforcement officers led by ATF agents kicked down his doors and ripped his home apart.

They found nothing illegal—not a thing—yet he’s serving a 20-year federal prison sentence.

If Joe Biden’s ATF had left him alone, Tate would likely be leading a SEAL platoon. He’d already been accepted to attend BUD/S.

It’s not just Adamiak or his friends and family who believe Joe Biden’s ATF was far too harsh in their treatment of the young active-duty sailor.

ATF Director Cekada does not believe Adamiak was treated fairly by either Biden’s ATF or the Justice Department.

Instead, Cekada believes Adamiak was massively over-sentenced.

“On the facts of this case, the sentence Mr. Adamiak received is excessive. Mr. Adamiak had no prior criminal history. He dealt with these weapons as curios. We have no evidence that he intended to use the weapons unlawfully or that he was part of a criminal organization. The extremely high sentencing guidelines likely reflect the paradigmatic cases of individuals possessing destructive devices, such as grenade launchers, and normally involve terrorism or organized criminal activity. No such conduct was present here. For me, unlawful possession of National Firearms Act items sentences approximately in the three-to-five-year range are common,” he said last week.

He could not be more correct.

One thing is certain, the judge who sentenced Adamiak to two decades behind bars doesn’t want to hear anything about the case or her decision.

Senior United States District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen recently cancelled Adamiak’s resentencing hearing. She also barred his attorneys from addressing any issues they have with his sentence, the ATF investigation or the case itself.

Adamiak was not available for comment. He has been moved so frequently lately we’re not even sure where he is at.

An 81-year-old and a 75-year-old

According to an ATF press release:

“Aubrey Foxworthy, 81, of California, Missouri, was charged with dealing firearms in Morgan and Moniteau Counties from approximately June 2, 2023, through September 9, 2024. He did not have a federal firearms license to deal firearms. Foxworthy was also charged with possession of a rifle with a barrel length less than 16 inches and that rifle was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record,” the press release states. “According to an indictment returned this week, Philip Leroy Rains, 75, of Popular Bluff, Missouri, was charged with dealing firearms in Morgan County from approximately April 1, 2023, through April 4, 2024. He did not have a federal firearms license to deal firearms.”

The ATF wanted 197 of Foxworthy’s personal firearms, according to a list attached to his indictment. The guns are about what you’d expect a lifelong gun owner to have in his safe. Almost all were American made: Ruger, Colt, Winchester, Savage, Browning, Remington, Marlin, Mossberg, Henry and Smith & Wesson. The ATF also wanted Foxworthy’s ammunition, and the list claimed he had more than 16,000 rounds.

Because the ATF prepared the list, there are four firearms identified as “machineguns,” but the type, manufacturer and calibers were listed as “unknown.” Also, Foxworthy was not charged with the illegal possession of any machineguns.

The list also shows that Foxworthy owned a dozen Winchester Model 94 rifles. The serial number of one rifle shows it was manufactured before 1896. Depriving the man of that rifle is almost a sin, especially since it will likely be kept or even resold by some nameless ATF agent.

Who hasn’t seen an old man at a flea market with a couple guns for sale either on a folding table or laying on a blanket in the bed of his pickup?

It’s classic Americana. There is certainly no crime or criminal intent.

Unfortunately, Joe Biden robbed us of this. Biden’s “engaged in the business” rule required anyone who made a profit on a single gun sale to obtain a federal firearm license.

Tom Harris

After an audit in 2022, the ATF asked Texas gun dealer Tom Harris some pointed questions about multiple firearms he sold to an individual.

“They put the squeeze on me, but I answered all their questions and gave them whatever they wanted,” Harris said at the time.

One of the ATF officials — Special Agent Aaron Loving — told Harris’ attorney he was cleared of any wrongdoing. Harris’ attorney documented this conversation in a letter.

“Agent Loving has informed me that you are no longer the target of any criminal investigation, and there will not be any criminal prosecutions forthcoming,” the letter states.

And then the ATF changed its mind.

A few months later, Special Agent Loving recontacted Harris’ attorney, stating “We need Tom to give up his license voluntarily. The bosses up the chain want him to turn in his license or face adverse actions,” Harris recalls his attorney saying.

“We thought this was all over,” Harris said.

In June 2023, Special Agent Loving and his partner personally served a Notice of Revocation to Harris, which contains two violations:

1. “On 10 occasions, Licensee willfully aided and abetted a non-licensee in dealing firearms without a license as required by the GCA…”

2. “On 46 occasions, Licensee willfully made a false statement or representation with respect to information required by the GCA …”

Harris learned that the individual to whom he sold the firearms was under investigation by the ATF.

“This individual was a customer of several FFLs,” Harris said. “The ATF had cleared me of any wrongdoing. They alleged I aided and abetted on 10 forms, but at the time the individual was actively being approved for his FFL. All of this was originally approved by the ATF.”

ATF put the smallest gun dealers—known as kitchen-table FFLs—through a special hell.

The vast majority of them “voluntarily” surrendered their FFLs after being threatened, like Pastor Fincher, with prison sentences.

Harris made the ATF take his FFL.

“In 2024, they would not renew my FFL,” Harris said this week. “The stuff they came up was all complete BS. The faces have changed.”

ATF’s Dallas DIO whose office was a mile from Harris’ home has moved on. The prosecutor retired. The ATF Special Agents have moved on.

Still, Harris is still waging a legal fight for the return on his FFL.

“I am stressed to the hilt,” he said. “The ATF is all gone. Their lawyers are all gone. I’m still waiting for the judge to give me a hearing on my FFL. Everything they did to me was crap.”

Harris said he has seen no changes since President Trump’s election.

“I’m not a gun dealer yet. I don’t know if I will be again. I’m just at my whit’s end,” he said. “The ATF has devastated me financially. I am a man of faith, but they really got me. I feel really let down by the DOJ and the Trump Administration.”

Takeaways

It must be difficult for current ATF agents to look back at the Biden years and point the finger at themselves. Their pride must be wounded. They must hope that the people whose lives they ruined will simply go away, but none are.

Instead, it is time for the ATF to do the right thing.

Settle with Harris, Foxworthy, Rains and Fincher. Renew their FFLs if that’s what they want, and return their firearms, including the dozen Winchester Model 94 rifles, especially the one that was manufactured before 1896.

Release Adamiak from his completely undeserved prison sentence. After all, he did nothing wrong.

And take care of Mrs. Malinowski. She does not need another court hearing.

That poor woman has been through enough.

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.

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by Lee Williams

Travis E. Smith and a friend spent Sunday, July 5^th shooting at his grandma’s rural property in Southwest Florida, about an hour north of his home in Pinellas Park.

It was a good day, he thought. The pair set up their own targets and shot Smith’s two Glocks, a 12-gauge shotgun, a SAR USA 9mm pistol, a Ruger .22 pistol, an AR-10 Smith had built himself, and what he believed was a Springfield AR pistol.

After dropping his friend off, Smith said he was nearing his home around midnight when he was stopped by a Pinellas Park police officer. Smith pulled into a restaurant’s parking lot.

The officer told Smith he stopped him because he had a “dim tag light.” Smith didn’t say anything to the officer at the time, but he strongly disagrees. His station wagon is nearly 40 years old and uses a bulb as its tag light instead of a modern LED, which are much brighter.

Smith’s buddy, who has a valid Florida medical marijuana card, had left an empty marijuana container on the back seat, which the officer saw. He told Smith the container was his “probable cause,” and that he was going to search the vehicle with or without Smith’s consent.

Smith, 28, was ordered out of the vehicle and told to take a seat on the curb.

“He began to search and I was sitting there for nearly three hours,” Smith said. “I wasn’t worried. I had nothing to hide.”

The officer called for backup. Over the next several hours, nearly a dozen more officers arrived. Most wore uniforms except for one who wore civilian clothes, a face mask and a ballcap.

They ran the serial number of every weapon through their dispatcher to make sure none were stolen. None were.

Things changed when the officers found Smith’s AR pistol. They measured the weapon and the barrel with a tape measure. They opened it up, which Smith believes was to make sure it had not been converted to full-auto. It hadn’t.

After the officers had talked for hours, one walked over, handcuffed Smith and placed him in the back of a squad car.

“They read me Miranda and asked me a bunch of questions about the AR pistol,” Smith said. “I answered some. I didn’t know what the problem was.”

Smith had owned the AR pistol for nearly seven years. He found it on a website and had it shipped to his local gun dealer. He had mounted a red-dot sight and what he thought was an aftermarket brace.

“I was under the impression it was totally compliant,” Smith said. “The brace was actually smaller than the one it came with. I thought it was a brace, not a buttstock.”

An officer then told Smith he was under arrest for possessing an unlicensed short-barreled rifle, or SBR, as the other officers loaded up all of Smith’s remaining weapons.

“They took them all,” he said. “And all the ammo too.”

Before he was hauled away to jail, Smith said one of the officers told him: “Man, these are nice guns.”

At the county jail, Smith was stripped, searched, given a towel, a thin sleeping mat and sent to a cell.

While in jail, Smith said he heard from four other inmates who said they too were stopped for either a “dim tag light” or window tint that officers claimed was too dark.

The next day, he was represented by a public defender at his first court hearing.

Smith was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana for his friend’s empty container, and possession of an unlicensed SBR—a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He also received two traffic tickets, one for not wearing a seatbelt and the other for “no tag light.”

All of the charges are for violating Florida state law. None were federal charges.

Before the hearing, Smith had no criminal history only a traffic ticket.

“I have never been in trouble with the law,” he said. “I’m a Christian. I believe in Jesus. I wasn’t rude to the officers. I was ‘yessir,’ ‘yessir’ the whole time.”

No comment

Pinellas Park Police Chief Adam Geissenberger was not willing to be interviewed for this story.

Chief Geisenberger tried to pass multiple interview requests to his Public Information Officer, Lt. John Shea, but a lieutenant is not responsible for the overall conduct of the department’s officers, which ultimately, is the responsibility of the chief-of-police.

“I have passed this along to Chief Geissenberger, and he has no statement on the incident,” Lt. Shea said in an email.

Brace or stock?

Chris Brooks is a longtime gunsmith and firearm expert who has held nearly every job in the retail firearm industry.

Smith works for one of Brooks’ friends, who texted him soon after Smith’s arrest.

“They reached out to me because they thought the cop was mistaken, that this was just a brace. They believed that Smith was in compliance. I may have burst their bubble, unfortunately,” Brooks said. “I can understand why they thought it was a brace, but it has some things that make it a stock. However, it’s a very grey area.”

Brooks classifies firearms and firearm parts for a major online retailer, but even he isn’t 100% sure that Smith had an SBR and not a pistol with a legal brace.

“I am not convinced that stock is a stock. It has an angle that makes it unique, brace-like. The portion that makes contact with your shoulder isn’t any larger than other braces. I am not convinced it could function like a stock. It’s more like a pistol brace,” Brooks said. “This arrest was not fair. It’s unusual. It seems like something that an officer would resort to if his intention was to make an arrest. I have never even heard of this. This gun was not altered in any way. It just has a different piece of plastic on back that can be removed without tools. I’ve probably sold more than 30,000 braced pistols over the years and this has never even come up.”

Brooks also took issue with the state charges.

“I wasn’t even aware of the Florida SBR statute until after all of this happened. The intent of the Florida law was likely to canonize the federal statute into state law, but they are a good three or four iterations behind federal law,” he said.

Reaction

Sarasota County (Florida) Sheriff Kurt Hoffman is also an attorney who served as general counsel for the department from 2005 until he became sheriff in 2021.

Hoffman believes that regardless of whether Smith had a legal AR pistol or an unlicensed SBR, the issue is whether his encounter with Pinellas Park police should have ended in arrest.

“When you have a citizen with no criminal history, who is not using firearms in an unlawful manner and you find what could be perhaps a technical violation, and it takes you three hours to determine whether you have a crime or not, perhaps the best thing to do is to take the offensive firearm part off the gun and then send the non-criminal on his way,” Sheriff Hoffman said. “I would like to think that law enforcement, when encountering someone who is not acting in a nefarious capacity, that we should not be going to the extreme. Certainly, the other firearms there were not illegal, so I don’t know what the intent was to seize them. Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy.”

Alan M. Gottlieb founded the Second Amendment Foundation more than 50 years ago and serves as its executive vice president.

Travis’ brother just created a Go Fund Me account, which he will need. Here’s a link: https://tinyurl.com/3yjenrsf

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.

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by Lee Williams

At one point, former Tallahassee mayor and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was known nationally as a staunch anti-gunner and a rising star of the Democratic party, in a state where guns and gun rights are a massive part of our culture.

Gillum lost his 2018 gubernatorial bid to Florida’s current governor, Ron DeSantis, by only 0.4% of the vote. It was one of the closest races in history.

Gillum was arrested last week in Alabama by officers of the Daphne Police Department, who stopped him for erratic driving, noticed a glass narcotics pipe sitting on the car’s center console and conducted a search. They allegedly found marijuana, three packages of what later tested positive for methamphetamine and the glass pipe.

He was arrested, booked, jailed and released the next day. Gillum faces up to five years in an Alabama state prison for the charges.

This is not the first time that the married, 46-year-old father of three has been caught with methamphetamine.

In 2020, he was found naked and passed out in a Miami motel room. Another naked man who had also overdosed on meth was found in the same room. Small baggies, pipes and piles of crystal meth were scattered everywhere, but Gillum denied using any illegal drugs. He agreed to seek treatment—for alcoholism—and no charges were filed.

In 2022, Gillum was arrested and charged with public corruption, but even though three other officials were convicted, charges against Gillum were later dropped due to a hung jury.

Anti-gun history

During the 2018 gubernatorial race against DeSantis, Gillum made guns and gun rights some of his key points. He blasted the National Rifle Association and promised to ban “assault weapons,” standard-capacity magazines and bump stocks. He also promised to implement universal background checks—in Florida.

The NRA gave Gillum an “F” rating, while some locals said he should have received an F-minus. DeSantis received an “A” grade.

In 2017, Gillum wrote an editorial titled: “We beat the NRA and you can, too.” His column bashed Florida’s powerful preemption statute, which preempts local governments from regulating arms and ammunition. Any public official who violates the statute faces fines of up to $5,000.

“The gun lobby, like many special interests, supports something called preemption, where they spend lots of money on state lawmakers to circumvent and strip power from local government. These preemption laws can end up allowing fracking in your neighborhood, guns in public parks, discrimination, dirty water, and many other harmful developments,” Gillum wrote. “We didn’t back down at the threat of personal fines, two years of litigation, and an onslaught of attacks from right-wing, well-funded interest groups. We found great lawyers, great partners, and made an example of the NRA and their affiliates. We also founded LINK REMOVED.” (NOTE: Gillum’s link now takes readers to a Mexican gambling website.)

DeSantis, of course, opposed additional gun control, defining “gun violence” as “identifying the problem people rather than imposing blanket bans of the rights of law-abiding citizens.”

Gillum’s staunch anti-gun statements drew praise from the country’s anti-gun community.

“The choice is clear! Urge your family and friends to Vote for Gillum! The effects from Florida’s ‘Stand your Ground’ Law have been devastating!” wrote the Women’s National Democratic Club.

Everytown for Gun Safety spent $2 million supporting Gillum’s run for governor.

“In Florida, this election is about gun safety — not political partisanship,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety said in a 2018 press release. “The era of the NRA calling the shots is over.”

Neither the Women’s National Democratic Club nor Everytown for Gun Safety have issued a statement regarding Gillum’s latest arrest.

Takeaways

In 2018, had Gillum somehow managed to obtain a few thousand more voters, Florida would be a massively different place.

Gov. DeSantis and his team strongly support the Second Amendment, which Gillum would have desecrated.

Nowadays, Gillum co-hosts a podcast titled: “Native Land Pod.” Last year, the podcast received an NAACP Image Award.

It is not yet known whether Gillum’s current legal predicament will affect his podcasting.

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.

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