by Lee Williams

Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was arrested more than four years ago even though he never committed any crime. More than 40 officers led by ATF Agents kicked down his doors and ripped apart his home.

They found nothing illegal—not a thing—yet he’s starting the fourth year of his 20-year federal prison sentence.

Bottom line: He is completely innocent.

For those of you who have asked, here’s Tate’s address:

Patrick Tate Adamiak

#95252-509

Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix

PO Box 2000

Joint Base MDL NJ, 08640

So far, we’ve written 44 stories about Tate, his family and what they are facing.

Here they are:

What Pennsylvania lawmakers are not doing for Patrick Tate Adamiak, May 19, 2026

Tate Adamiak’s letter to the new ATF director, May 13, 2026

Tate Adamiak’s upcoming ‘Diesel Therapy’ cancelled—he won, May 10, 2026

UPDATED: Tate Adamiak to receive 50 days of ‘Diesel Therapy’ punishment, May 06, 2026

SAF files amicus brief urging Supreme Court to review Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s case, May 04, 2026

How you can help free Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak, April 20, 2026

How Tate Adamiak’s 20-year sentence compares to 10 other ATF cases, Apr 14, 2026

It’s been four long years since ATF arrested Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak, Apr 08, 2026

An interview with The AK Guy, GOP candidate for U.S. House, Brandon Herrera, Apr 01, 2026

How President Trump’s ATF can help Tate Adamiak, Mar 12, 2026

Adamiak remains behind bars, guiltless but ignored by the Trump Administration, Feb 17, 2026

Behind bars: A day in the life of Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak, Dec 11, 2025

Expert firearm witness criticizes ATF’s treatment of Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, Nov 18, 2025

Even the ATF now admits inert RPGs—including Adamiak’s—are not firearms, Nov 11, 2025

How Adamiak received 20 years in prison for semi-auto Uzis and other legal guns, gun parts, Nov 04, 2025

Adamiak’s attorney strikes back at his criminal charges, Nov 01, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s criminal case now depends on his appellate attorney, Oct 21, 2025

BREAKING: Appellate Court finds one of Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s convictions violated Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, Oct 14, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s appeal was quick, inconclusive, Sep 12, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s appeal relies solely on the truth, Sep 09, 2025

While gun owners strongly support Adamiak, politicians don’t, Sep 04, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s appeal will be heard in 10 days, Sep 02, 2025

Hey, ATF! Nothing you found in Tate Adamiak’s home is illegal, Aug 19, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s asks President Trump for a pardon, July 30, 2025

Adamiak: ATF’s machinegun charges are complete fiction, July 8, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak: ‘Thanks for the help, New Jersey!’ July 1, 2025

Former ATF official: ‘Adamiak should not be in prison’ Jun 26, 2025

ATF prepping the same untruths, toy guns for Adamiak’s appeal, Jun 24, 2025

Judge unknowingly admits Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s inert RPGs were legal Jun 10, 2025

How Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak received a 20-year prison sentence May 20, 2025

How ATF falsely charged former sailor with possessing destructive devices May 13, 2025

Former sailor should be pardoned, ATF agents should be charged Apr 29, 2025

Meet the man whose lies put an innocent sailor in prison for 20 years Apr 25, 2025

How ATF used inert RPGs to imprison American sailor for two decades Apr 22, 2025

ATF wanted former sailor to serve an additional 10 years in prison for 100% legal MAC flats Apr 15, 2025

Q&A: Former sailor discusses his 20-year prison sentence, the ATF and his hope for the future Apr 08, 2025

Federal prosecutors now using ATF’s lies and fake evidence to harm former sailor’s legal appeal Apr 01, 2025

Trump should pardon innocent sailor jailed by Biden administration for 20 years Mar 18, 2025

One of the worst things ATF has ever done Feb 24, 2025

Sailor serving 20-years in prison for legal semi-auto collectibles Feb 18, 2025

How a replica STEN gun led to a sailor’s 20-year prison sentence Feb 14, 2025

Free Patrick Tate Adamiak Jan 31, 2025

ATF lied to convict sailor now serving 20 years in prison for selling legal gun parts — A SPECIAL REPORT Jan 29, 2025

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by Lee Williams

United States Congressman Rob Bresnahan is a young newly elected Republican serving Pennsylvania’s Eighth Congressional District, which is located in the northeast portion of the state and includes Patrick Tate Adamiak’s home where his father lives.

Bresnahan is the CEO of a construction company with 150 employees. According to his bio, the Congressman lives with his wife Chelsea and a cat named Blue.

Last week, Congressman Bresnahan’s staffers refused to allow him to be interviewed about Patrick Tate Adamiak, the weeks of “Diesel Therapy” he was recently saved from, or the 50-plus stories we’ve written about his wrongful prosecution, conviction and imprisonment.

Just minutes after killing the interview, Bresnahan’s staffers immediately called Adamiak’s father and questioned him once again about his son’s plight. The Congressman’s staffers have been talking to him for months but have done nothing substantive.

“We have been trying to get them on board for a long time. I first spoke to one staffer who blew me off. Basically, they said they don’t want to get involved with legal cases,” Dave Adamiak said Monday. “I was shocked and a little aggravated being a constituent that they can’t help in any way. A few weeks later, I was in touch with a different staffer. He was a little more responsive and said he’d get back to us. He never did. When you posted the tweet that’s when I got another call. He claimed it had nothing to do with the tweet.”

Late Monday afternoon, Congressman Bresnahan’s communications director, Hannah Pope, called and said, “We are looking into this issue.”

She still would not allow her boss to be interviewed, saying “We’re still looking into this. Try checking back in a few weeks.”

Congressman Bresnahan did not respond to interview requests.

Here’s the tweet Dave Adamiak referred to:

As of Monday, when the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari to Adamiak’s case, the role any federal or state lawmaker can take to help the 38-year-old former active-duty sailor became even more important.

Pennsylvania State Senator Lisa Baker is running for re-election to represent District 20. Another Republican, her current term ends in November.

Baker, who served as deputy chief of staff for two former Republican governors, did not respond to calls or emails seeking her comments about Adamiak’s plight, but her opponent did.

Tyler Meyers describes himself as Christian, a conservative Republican and a U.S. Army veteran, who was born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Both he and his daughter appreciate guns and are strongly opposed to what happened to Adamiak.

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Lee’s note: Tate Adamiak recently wrote a letter to ATF’s new Director, Rob Cekada. Here it is, completely unedited. Tate makes some great points.

May 8, 2026

If I could speak directly to ATF Director Robert Cekada, I would begin by acknowledging that what happened in my case occurred prior to his leadership at the ATF, under then-Director Steven Dettelbach. I recognize that distinction. I also recognize the tone he and Attorney General Todd Blanche have recently set, and it is one that gives me reason to write this.

If I could ask for one thing, it would be this: clear lines, consistently enforced. No American should have to guess where legality ends and a felony begins, especially when the consequence can mean decades of imprisonment and the permanent loss of constitutional rights.

The ATF holds extraordinary authority over how complex, technical firearms laws are interpreted. That authority demands not only expertise, but restraint and consistency. What I experienced reflected neither.

On April 11, 2022, four days after my arrest, President Joe Biden stood beside Director Dettelbach and acknowledged pushing for new rules because legislation could not be passed through Congress. Weeks earlier, the Department of Justice had already initiated an enforcement surge targeting privately made firearms, allocating additional prosecutorial resources and intensifying focus.

That context matters because my case aligned with that moment.

I was charged based on items the ATF classified as “firearm receivers,” items that had freely circulated in open commerce for decades. I was arrested before the rule redefining those items was publicly announced. That is not clarity. It is enforcement applied ahead of definition.

So, I continue to ask: how does something that did not meet the legal definition of a receiver at the time become the foundation for a federal prosecution? How does a collection of parts become a narrative carrying decades of exposure?

I have spent years asking those questions from a cell.

When I listened to Director Cekada and Attorney General Blanche speak about restoring clarity, aligning regulations with statutory authority, and eliminating ambiguity that leads to inconsistent enforcement, I heard something I had not heard in a long time: recognition that these problems exist. If those principles are to mean anything, then cases like mine should be examined carefully.

Because what occurred here was not simply strict enforcement. It was enforcement operating without a stable, publicly understood boundary. When legality depends on reconstruction, reinterpretation, or evolving internal standards, the law ceases to function as a guide and begins to function as a trap.

I hope that, from one gun enthusiast to another, that distinction is clear. I hope my case is recognized as an example of regulatory creep driven by vague, shifting, and subjective interpretations.

That reality does not affect only me. It extends to every collector, hobbyist, and citizen attempting to navigate the law in good faith.

I would respectfully ask Director Cekada to examine how technical determinations are made and presented. If an item is only deemed unlawful after modification, assembly, or theories of constructive possession and “readily convertible” status advanced by the government, then the issue is not solely the item. It is the standard being applied. And a standard that shifts from case to case is indistinguishable from no standard at all.

I would also ask that my prosecution be reviewed as a case study.

The investigative approach, as I experienced it, began with efforts by a paid criminal informant with pending charges to induce the creation of an illegal item that did not exist. When that effort failed, the focus shifted to an alternative theory aligned with a broader enforcement initiative. An object that did not meet the ATF’s own regulatory definition at the time was ultimately classified as a machine gun to support a warrant.

The testimony used to support that outcome is where the record becomes especially difficult to reconcile with ordinary expectations of law enforcement clarity.

The lead case agent testified that everything I possessed constituted illegal firearms. Yet he also admitted he had “only ever seen many of these items in video games,” and that he could not distinguish between a real firearm and a replica by sight alone. That raises a fundamental question: if the enforcing agent cannot make that distinction, how is an ordinary citizen expected to know where the line is?

He also testified that altering evidence is against agency policy while acknowledging that government experts nevertheless modified multiple items during examination.

On required filings, he suggested I should have completed a Form 1 application before acquiring certain components, while overlooking that such forms require serial numbers from those very components and are not applicable in the way he described. He further implied that approval would allow one to then assemble the item, despite the fact that I never assembled anything into a functional configuration.

The Firearm Enforcement Officer’s testimony added another layer of concern. He stated, “My understanding is the original definition of a firearm receiver did not fit 90-some percent of frames or receivers the way it was written.” In other words, he acknowledged that the regulatory definition in 27 C.F.R. § 478.11 did not align with how certain components were being treated, an issue later addressed through updated rulemaking. Yet in my case, conclusions still relied on interpretations that predated or extended beyond that framework.

He also described sheet metal components, M240 80% side plates, as having “reached a stage of manufacturing in which they are clearly recognized as plates for a M240 machine gun, therefore are machine guns as defined,” relying on internal policy language that did not publicly exist at the time of seizure.

In another instance, inert RPG training aids were described in a manner that treated a single component as though it constituted a destructive device, despite the statute and case law requiring a combination of parts and functionality that did not exist in my possession (United States v. Blackburn).

And perhaps most strikingly, an ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer testified that “a Sharpie marker in the correct location for a sear pin hole would be enough to classify an element as a machine gun receiver.”

Under that theory, lawful possession of otherwise ordinary items, combined with something as simple as a marker, could be reframed as constructive possession of a machine gun.

These were the classifications and opinions presented by the individual responsible for evaluating nearly every item in the case.

These are not abstract disagreements over technical language. They are the difference between lawful possession and decades of imprisonment.

I raise these points carefully and with respect for the agency’s mission of combating violent crime. But they lead to a necessary question: is this type of application aligned with that mission? Is there a meaningful distinction being maintained between a collector attempting compliance and an individual engaged in criminal conduct that threatens public safety?

There should be.

What followed was not only a legal outcome, but a complete disruption of my life. My career ended, my property was seized, and my family was subjected to a traumatic experience based on interpretations of items that were not functional and could not operate as alleged.

I was ultimately portrayed as a weapons trafficker based on items that have existed in various forms for decades, all of which remain in circulation today.

At trial, the ATF spent four days arguing that MAC flats were illegal machine guns, a theory later proven false, though only after the verdicts had already been returned.

If I may ask for one thing beyond review, it is clarity, and specifically correction of what I believe remains an unresolved factual dispute between what was presented in court and what the government still maintains about these items. The goal should not simply be winning cases, but getting it right.

Despite the evidence and the actual physical condition of the items, the position advanced by the prosecution and reflected in the record continues to treat them as illegal machine guns, receivers, or destructive devices when they were not. In other words, I remain in a position where plainly non-functional, incomplete, or legally exempt items are still being characterized as contraband weapons.

That is not a technical disagreement. It is the foundation of the case that upended my life.

For clarity, I respectfully request that the following be reexamined, accurately characterized, and communicated to the U.S. Attorney’s Office so the record may be corrected:

• Semiautomatic Pistols Presented as Machine Guns
  Seven semiautomatic pistols were standard, lawful Title I firearms, not machine guns, and were purchased lawfully through ATF Form 4473 transactions. ATF Rulings 82-2 and 82-8 expressly exempt these firearms from NFA classification, yet the court continues penalizing me for them based on ATF FEO testimony.

• Toy STEN Submachinegun
  A Denix STEN was a non-firing replica. It lacked the capacity to function and was never designed to do so. It is nevertheless being counted against me.

• Alleged Machine Gun Receivers
  Twenty-five items described as machine gun receivers do not meet the regulatory definition under 27 C.F.R. § 478.11. They were incomplete or demilitarized components that did not house the required elements. Despite this, they continue to be treated in the record as regulated machine gun receivers.

• Multi-purpose Launcher Components
  These were receivers only—purchased lawfully through ATF Form 4473 transactions—with no barrels attached, no bore, and no destructive device. When configured, they used lawful 37mm flare barrels, which are expressly exempt under ATF Ruling 95-3. The government’s theory relies on combining separate, legal parts into a configuration that never existed.

• Inert RPG-7 Training Aid Dummy’s
  These were inert training devices, clearly marked and physically incapable of firing. Critical components were missing, and both were permanently damaged with drilled holes that make use impossible and unsafe. They are not weapons, not missile launchers, and cannot legally be classified as destructive devices. (United States v. Blackburn)

These distinctions are not technicalities. They are the difference between lawful possession and decades of federal exposure. When those lines are blurred, the consequences are not theoretical. They are permanent.

I offer this letter with respect for your position and the responsibility it carries. I also offer it with the hope that my experience serves a purpose beyond itself, reinforcing the necessity of clarity, consistency, and restraint in the exercise of such extraordinary authority.

Because when those elements are absent, the cost is not abstract.

I am living it.

Tate Adamiak

Patrick Tate Adamiak #95252-509

Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix

PO Box 2000

Joint Base MDL, NJ

08640

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by Lee Williams

Sometime Monday morning, prison guards had planned to take inmate Tate Adamiak, stuff him in the back of a van and then drive him around the country for more than a month. It’s harassment the inmates and even the guards refer to as “Diesel Therapy.”

As of Sunday morning, those plans changed.

Now, Tate will stay in his prison, FCI Fort Dix, until his June 25^th court appearance.

How did this all happen? Well, it wasn’t easy. Let’s just say that it took nearly the entire weekend to get their Diesel Therapy plans stopped.

As you can imagine, Adamiak is extremely thankful that he can continue getting ready for his upcoming hearing.

These are important times for his case. Adamiak and his attorneys plan to evaluate what the probation officer comes up with, and what the prosecution offers. He expects to be smeared. He is making plans along with his attorneys to fight hard for his freedom.

His father, Dave Adamiak, was also thrilled when he learned that his son would not be spending the next 50 days in the back of a van.

“I am grateful that senior officials intervened and got it stopped. I’m definitely stoked too. It’s the best news we’ve heard in seven months. It shows good faith,” Dave Adamiak said.

Adamiak was sentenced to 20 years in prison even though he did nothing wrong.

He was serving as an 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 and never came close to breaking the law. Joe Biden’s ATF screwed up, kicked down Adamiak’s door but found nothing illegal during their search. As a result, they created a multitude of fake charges—including calling a plastic toy a machinegun.

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by Lee Williams

The United States Virgin Islands are beautiful, peaceful and serene as long as visitors don’t stray too far from the well-patrolled tourist areas. For Virgin Islands residents, as well as any visitors who may wander out of the safe zones, the USVI can be a death sentence.

The USVI has one of the highest crime rates in the world, per capita more than New York or even Washington D.C.

All major crime in the U.S. Territory is run by the “Commission,” hardcore but well-organized gangsters who are headquartered on St. Croix, the largest of the three islands.

The Commission is responsible for operating a massive international drug trade, which are delivered from across the Caribbean. It’s not unusual to hear planes landing at night without lights.

Virgin Islands criminals are smart, sophisticated and well-armed with handguns, shotguns and machineguns. For the most part, they only prey on other criminals, but this can change in an instant.

The Virgin Islands Police Department offers little resistance to the armed gangs who actually run the territory. The VIPD is severely undermanned, underpaid and undertrained. The department is horribly led.

Many VIPD officers are corrupt. If they’re told to stay away from an area because a shipment is inbound, they do what they’re told, or they can disappear without a trace.

Gun control in the USVI is the worst in the country, and as a result only the bad guys have guns. Civilians have no legal way to protect themselves, their family or their home.

In December 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the VI Government, the VI Police Department and the Police Commissioner, alleging that they “have continued to obstruct and systematically deny law-abiding American citizens this fundamental right by systematically delaying the processing of applications and imposing unconstitutional conditions on the exercise of this constitutional right.”

“The conduct by the USVI, the VIPD, and Defendant Brooks has rendered the constitutional right to keep and bear arms a virtual nullity within the United States Virgin Islands territory,” the lawsuit states.

While this may appear to be a good step forward, many VI residents see little likelihood that the lawsuit will be quick, and even less likelihood that it will force any significant change.

A unique idea

Kosei Ohno owns the Crown Bay Marina, which is located on St. Thomas. The marina has 100 slips, including many that can take mega-yachts of 200-feet or greater, and it’s only five minutes from the airport.

Ohno, who also spends time in Washington State, recently filed suit against the Virgin Islands Police Commissioner and the VI government after they denied his attempt to renew his firearm licenses, which he had for several years.

Legally owning firearms in the USVI is incredibly invasive and expensive. Gun owners must pay a tax of $150 per firearm every three years. If you legally own 10 guns, you’re going to pay $1,500 every three years. You must also allow a VI Police Officer access to your safe, and they photograph the contents. Getting the actual license can take 18 months or even longer.

“The officer comes into your home without a warrant, demands to see your safe, demands you open the safe and then takes pictures,” Ohno told me this week. “Some people have guns, jewelry and gold bars as well as cash, and you wonder how it gets stolen. The whole process creates a vulnerability and a list of people, many of whom have lost guns through burglaries and theft.”

Ohno soon learned he was not alone.

“I found out through a source of mine at the VIPD that they made it their new mission to deny everyone’s permits,” he said.

So far, Ohno said, he has spent more than $70,000 to get his permits back, so he decided to act. He created the Virgin Islands Safe Gun Owners, a private group of more than 250 residents who all believed it was time to get organized. Their mission is to “restore and promote Second Amendment Rights in the Territory while promoting safe gun ownership.”

“There was considerable abuse happening,” Ohno said. “Our members include many retired officer, feds, military and business owners. It’s a pretty diverse and expansive group. We were able to give the feds evidence, which allowed them to get involved in the Second Amendment litigation against the police department. I learned it’s not just me whose rights were violated.”

The group introduced legislation that they say will modernize firearms ownership throughout the territory.

Ohno said his lawsuit, which he filed in federal not territorial court, has “expansive potential.” But getting arrested for a firearm that’s not registered, he said, would be disastrous.

“According to Virgin Islands law, if you’re caught with an unregistered firearm, the mandatory sentence is 10 to life,” he said.

Ohno has just launched a GoFundMe page and is considering other legal options.

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by Lee Williams

UPDATE: As of around 10 a.m. EST Sunday, Tate’s move has been cancelled. We won. This took a tremendous amount of effort over the weekend. Senior ATF officials even helped stop the move. Bottom line: Tate will not have to worry about any “Diesel Therapy.”

____________________________________________________________________________

PREVIOUS STORY:

Federal inmate Patrick “Tate” Adamiak learned Wednesday that he is about to receive 50 days of “Diesel Therapy” prior to his June 25^th court hearing.

“I was told to pack up and that I was going to get moved,” he said Wednesday. “It’s Diesel Therapy. This is exactly what I was afraid of.”

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has never treated inmates well. One of the methods they use to mistreat inmates is by driving them around in a prison van for weeks or even months on end, which the inmates and even the guards call “Diesel Therapy.”

It prevents the inmates from contacting their friends, family and the occasional reporter. Most worrisome, the inmates are kept completely out of touch with their defense attorneys. They also miss meals, showers, sleep and are unable to work on their criminal cases.

Adamiak, who is serving a 20-year sentence at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey for crimes he never committed, must appear for a hearing next month in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia. It does not take 50 days to drive from his New Jersey prison to any courtroom in Virginia.

“I’ll be headed to Oklahoma or maybe even Georgia to get to Virginia,” Adamiak said.

His father, Dave Adamiak, is absolutely outraged.

“I am livid! This should have been fixed. Now my son has to drive around for months in a fu—ing van. They’re playing dirty pool. That’s how they roll. It’s not about what’s true. It’s so freaking horrible. I learned about it just an hour ago. For the first time ever, I couldn’t even talk to Tate. I was so boiling! His legal team has been looking at his case for three years now. There are a dozen ways he could get out. It’s horrible! We even laid off the pressure a bit. How many people have to call out how stupid their decisions are? All they have to do is drop Tate’s case! They don’t even want to help. It’s amazing they could bull—it us for so long. It’s horrible to have an innocent person in prison for four years and everybody knows the truth. They could put a hold on him. That would show some good faith, at least. Nothing’s materialized. On TV they’re saying they’re going to fix all of these Biden problems. Tate ranks right up there with Malinowski. The only difference is they didn’t kill Tate. He would not be where he is without these damn blue-state judges with too much power. Damn blue state judges. They disregard the First and Second Amendments. How is this America? What happened to this country? We need to get him out by whatever means we can. They need to admit they screwed up. They need to go after [ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R.] Bodell. He’s the problem here. He made up all of this. Tate does not need to be on anyone’s back burner. This is horrible. He’s on notice and they’re not doing jack,” Dave Adamiak said.

Senior officials at both the Justice Department and the ATF did not return calls or texts seeking to know why Adamiak is going to be moved across the United States from prison to prison for the next 50 days.

These same officials could stop this from happening by placing a hold on Adamiak, which would keep him at the Fort Dix federal prison.

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.

Because Joe Biden’s ATF screwed up, kicked down Adamiak’s door and then created a multitude of fake charges, it showed they would rather prosecute an innocent man and force him to serve two decades behind bars than admit the truth—that he violated no laws and did nothing wrong.

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by Lee Williams

Times are good and possibly getting even better for those who value guns, gun rights and the Second Amendment.

The changes brought by President Donald Trump are simply stunning. In just one year we went from an ATF that targeted individual gun owners for imaginary crimes to one that’s focused on arresting real bad guys with illegal guns.

Constitutional Carry, known by the other side as permitless carry, is growing. Today, 29 states allow law-abiding adults to carry firearms without a state permit, and the number is expected to grow.

So, it’s understandable that those who want to restrict and subvert the Second Amendment are getting desperate. In fact, they’re willing to try almost anything to restrict access to firearms while President Trump is in office. It’s as if they never even heard of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

Enter the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

These egg-headed goons want to roll back the clock to the late 1980s. Their just-released “Public Carry Permitting: Model Policy Guide” is pretty much what some states offered decades ago. It’s laughable—a trip back in time. Nowadays, it’s likely too restrictive for even the bluest of blue states.

Of course, the Center begins their report with lies—absolute deception—about guns, gun owners and gun rights.

By citing previous data from their own inaccurate reporting, they specifically target Constitutional Carry. It’s a hard sell, obviously, but they need to make a case for returning to the decades-old permitting system. They even support “may issue” rather than “shall issue” laws, which Bruen effectively killed.

Their allegations against Constitutional Carry are incredibly skewed and are not based on data or any hard facts.

“There are several hypotheses for the increase in violence associated with deregulation of public carry. Some scholars have argued that deregulation leads to increased carrying of guns in public places, meaning that interpersonal conflicts may be more likely to turn violent. One 2025 paper sought to examine what factors could be driving increases in violent crime and found that states that deregulated public carry saw large increases in gun theft and decreases in the rate of law enforcement clearance of violent crime,” the report claims.

Any attempt to subvert the Second Amendment needs a lot more than “several hypotheses” and scholarly arguments.

The Policy

The model policy recommendations are laughable.

It advocates for state permits that are obtained through a rigorous application process, which includes in-person visits with law enforcement, fees, fingerprinting requirements, a background check and even more. There are requirements for a written test and a live-fire qualification. The Center states that scores under 80% should fail the written test and 70% or lower fail the live-fire qualification.

The background check requirements are lengthy: “Background checks during the public carry permit application process should be comprehensive, including at least NICS indices, NCIC, III, and any available state and local public safety databases that may contain information on disqualifying prohibitions,” the policy states.

The authors believe permits should be denied for even non-violent misdemeanors discovered during the background check, including a DUI within five years.

Reciprocity, the model states, should only be granted to other states that are “at least as rigorous” as this policy outlines. Visitors from states without a similar policy would not be allowed to carry.

Permit renewals are required every five years, but the permit holder must once again take and pass the written test and the qualification course.

Anyone caught carrying a firearm without a permit should be arrested, the Center claims: “There should be penalties for carrying a firearm in public without a valid public carry permit, and these penalties should escalate after the first offense.”

Data from throughout the permitting process should be given to a host of organizations, including anti-gun groups.

“Data like these are crucial for state lawmakers, law enforcement, and researchers. These data will help identify how state laws and practices are affecting violence and whether there are any concerns about implementation related to costs, equity, or administrative burdens,” the policy states.

Alexander McCourt, PhD, JD, MPH, is the main author of this policy. He is well known for his work against guns and gun rights.

“Dr. McCourt serves as Assistant Director of the Center for Law and the Public’s Health and Core Faculty in the Center for Gun Violence Solutions,” his overview states. “Much of his work has focused on areas of public health law, including firearm policy and violence, opioid policy, transportation policy, and emergency preparedness.”

Dr. McCourt has written numerous anti-gun reports, including The Association Between State Minimum Wage and Firearm Homicides, 2000-2020, Variations in State Laws on Mental Health-Related Firearm Prohibition, State Reporting Requirements for Involuntary Holds, Court-Ordered Guardianship, and the US National Firearm Background Check System, Doucette et al. Respond to “Concealed-Carry Firearm Policies, The association between permit-to-purchase laws and shootings by police, Effects of Comprehensive Background-Check Policies on Firearm Fatalities in 4 States, Impact of Changes to Concealed-Carry Weapons Laws on Fatal and Nonfatal Violent Crime, 1980-2019 and Officer-Involved Shootings and Concealed Carry Weapons Permitting Laws: Analysis of Gun Violence Archive Data, 2014-2020.

The last report involving Dr. McCourt’s analysis of data from the Gun Violence Archive is curious. We have written dozens of stories that show how the GVA’s data is made up and extremely unreliable.

You have to wonder whether Dr. McCourt knew the data he was analyzing was faulty, or whether he even cared.

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BELLEVUE, Wash. — May 4, 2026 — The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging review in Patrick Tate Adamiak v. United States, a case involving a decorated Navy veteran sentenced to 20 years in prison for possessing cut-up gun parts and two inert RPG-7 training dummies.

Adamiak enlisted in the United States Navy at 17 years old, serving in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Panama Canal. At the time of his arrest, he had orders to report to BUD/S and had completed the first phase of training on his way to becoming a Navy SEAL. He was also a gun collector who sold legal gun parts until a paid ATF informant falsely reported that he had a Mk-19 grenade launcher. After a search of his home and subsequent trial, Adamiak was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

Editor of SAF’s Investigative Journalism Project, Lee Williams, has followed the case closely and has written more than 40 stories on Adamiak and his plight. The full list of stories can be found here.

SAF is joined in the amicus filing by the National Rifle Association, California Rifle & Pistol Association, Second Amendment Law Center, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

“Lower courts continue to distort Bruen by turning the ‘plain text’ step into a restrictive Goldilocks test that lets the government evade its historical burden entirely,” said SAF Director of Legal Research and Education Kostas Moros. “If cut-up gun parts and inert training aids are being regulated as ‘firearms’ under the NFA, they are presumptively ‘arms’ under the Second Amendment and require historical analogues. Patrick Adamiak should not be spending decades in prison because, among other abuses, courts refuse to apply the Supreme Court’s precedents faithfully.”

SAF’s brief focuses on the Second Amendment aspects of the case, including what constitutes an “arm,” why the plain text of the Second Amendment is implicated, and why Bruen’s historical analysis may not be avoided.

“This case highlights the human cost of lower courts’ refusal to faithfully apply Bruen,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “A Navy veteran is behind bars over inert gun parts, yet his Second Amendment claim was never even heard on the merits. SAF and its partners are committed to defending the right to keep and bear arms against this kind of judicial abuse, and we believe the Supreme Court must intervene.”

For more information visit SAF.org.

The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the fundamental rights of individuals enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. SAF engages in aggressive legal action to ensure the principles of armed self-defense, personal liberty, and the ownership of arms are defended, secured, and restored. Through public education initiatives, SAF teaches the importance of the Second Amendment to promote a society that values and exercises the right to keep and bear arms.

By Lee Williams

Traditional journalism is pretty simple, really. If you’re writing about a complex issue, make sure to include all of the sides.

For example, most political stories usually involve two sides. A good reporter will include both sides in their fair and balanced story and then let the readers decide whom to believe. If the journalist only includes one side in their story, it becomes advocacy instead of journalism, which should be avoided.

No one should know this better than the Associated Press, which was founded in 1846—15 years before the start of the Civil War. During the AP’s vast 180-year history, they’ve had a bit of experience producing good journalism, at least until now it appears.

AP reporters Josh Funk and Claudia Lauer published a story Thursday titled: “Amtrak may make it easier to bring guns on its trains despite the alleged attempt on Trump’s life.”

Quite frankly, it needed a bit of work.

Their story only includes comments from one side, John Feinblatt, whom the reporters only identified as the “president of the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.”

The AP reporters never mentioned that Feinblatt is also president of the Trace, which is paid to produce anti-gun propaganda, or that both anti-gun groups are funded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Certainly, these omissions would have helped Funk’s and Lauer’s readers put Feinblatt’s comments into better context.

Feinblatt, of course, used the story to further erode our Second Amendment rights.

“Just days after a man took an Amtrak train to Washington with a shotgun and pistol and tried to assassinate the president and other federal officials, the Trump Administration is trying to open the floodgates for firearms on every Amtrak route, while also moving to hollow out the agency responsible for enforcing gun laws and preventing gun trafficking. This will only make Americans less safe and Congress must step in before the next tragedy,” the AP quoted him as saying.

A pro-gun voice could have pointed out Feinblatt’s dual anti-gun roles, or that millions of riders have safely carried firearms aboard Amtrak for years, or that Congress has far more important things to occupy its time than turning trains into yet another anti-gun zone.

Funk, who was evidently the lead reporter, did not return emails seeking to interview him about his story. Unfortunately, that was expected, since the AP is not nearly what it used to be.

Since the mid-19th century, the AP served a vital role for newspapers, but not anymore. Print readership has tanked. The two largest newspaper chains in the country, Gannett and McClatchy, both dropped AP in 2024. The third largest newspaper firm, Lee Enterprises, announced it will be dropping AP at the end of this year.

Just last month the AP announced it was offering buyouts to a large number of its U.S. staff. They did not publish the number of staffers who would be losing their jobs.

Takeaways

One thing is certain: There will always be a market for factual and accurate journalism, but by publishing only one side of an important issue with layoffs looming, the Associated Press may get what it certainly deserves.

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by Lee Williams

Last year, the parents of a 16-year-old boy alleged in a lawsuit that ChatGPT encouraged their son to kill himself.

In October 2004, a New York AI system falsely told business owners they could steal tips, fire anyone who complained about sexual harassment and serve food even after it was chewed by rats.

In August 2005, a 56-year-old man killed his 83-year-old mother in her home and then committed suicide. He believed his mother was a secret agent who was poisoning him with psychedelic drugs, and his chatbot agreed and supported his delusions.

In July 2005, an AI system told a user how to break into an attorney’s home and to bring “lock picks, gloves, a flashlight and lube.”

Now, Everytown for Gun Safety is using AI to help them further erode our Second Amendment rights.

What could possibly go wrong?

On Monday, Everytown announced they had created the Everytown Evidence Engine, or E³, an AI system they claimed would help them “harness AI policy to identify gun safety solutions.”

They made the move to AI because “efficient systems for analysis can lead to new questions and new answers in the field of gun violence prevention research.”

How reliable is Everytown’s new AI?

You can judge for yourself.

Claude

Everytown admitted its new E³ AI system was built using Claude, an AI system designed by the firm Anthropic. Both Claude and Anthropic have had significant problems.

Just four days ago, in a story titled “Anthropic Admitted Claude Code Broke. We Were Right,” a reporter at Medium announced he had found issues with the system.

The reporter’s hard work forced Anthropic to admit that Claude had major problems.

In a story titled “An update on recent Claude Code quality reports,” Anthropic claimed they had fixed everything.

“Over the past month, we’ve been looking into reports that Claude’s responses have worsened for some users. We’ve traced these reports to three separate changes that affected Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, and Claude Cowork. The API was not impacted,” Anthropic claimed.

The firm also promised they would “do things differently to avoid these issues,” and that more of their staff would use the public version of the software.

Sky News recently released a damning YouTube video about public interactions with Claude.

The British report discusses how the chatbot tells users what they want to hear.

“What happens when AI starts pulling people away from reality and even encourages them to act on distorted beliefs?” the reporter asked.

The video discusses a recent Canadian research paper that found one of every 1,000 conversations with Claude has the “potential for severe reality distortions.”

“We don’t know why Claude responds as it does consistently,” an expert said.

The researchers also discovered that the number of potentially harmful discussions with Claude was actually growing over time. An Anthropic spokesman admitted they knew that Claude had problems, but they didn’t know why.

“LIMITATIONS”

When Everytown addresses everything that its new E³ tool cannot do, you have to wonder why anyone would use it.

Even Everytown admits E^3’s limitations are simply breathtaking.

“For example, at this time, E³ does not currently weigh all of the factors that could be influencing gun violence such as gun ownership, employment and earnings, strength of policy implementation and enforcement, law-enforcement practices, and many other relevant and granular socioeconomic and demographic characteristics particularly at the county and/or neighborhood-levels,” Everytown wrote.

So, despite its long list of limitations, how does Everytown intend to use its new E³ tool?

They don’t really say.

“[T]his new tool can provide users with important directions regarding policy effectiveness that can be used for critical decision-making. And it is the hope that future iterations of the E³ will incorporate these kinds of variables and, ultimately, increase its ability to conduct additional types of analyses,” Everytown wrote.

Takeaways

So far, all of Everytown’s critical decision-making has involved how to strip guns from the hands of gun owners. They spend millions annually trying to create more local, state and federal anti-gun laws. Whether their new E³ system will help them remains to be seen.

Alan Gottlieb founded the Second Amendment Foundation more than 50 years ago and serves as its executive vice president. He was struck but not surprised by the problems with Everytown’s new AI system.

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

Just minutes after the third attempt to kill President Donald J. Trump, in addition to senior members of his staff, CNN’s Idiot-in-Chief Brian Stelter was calling for more gun control.

“As CNN anchor Victor Blackwell put it when I joined him on air this morning, ‘The people in that room were confronted with what schoolchildren and moviegoers and congregants and people at grocery stores have been confronted with, and that is the threat of gun violence.’” Stelter wrote in an analysis piece titled: “An extraordinary moment for America’s media elite is all too ordinary in America.”

Ah, the poor media elite felt confronted. Really? The bad guy didn’t even enter their room. Many media elites never even heard any gunshots.

Stelter quoted another CNN hack, Jim Sciutto, whose comments you can probably already imagine.

“One thing we know is that there will be a lot of discussion afterwards about security measures. (A discussion about) rhetoric, perhaps, as well. There won’t be any substantive discussion about access to weapons, right? There just won’t,” Sciutto reportedly said.

Stelter cited his own reply in his column.

“I told him that Americans skip that part of the conversation, and then the rest of the world looks at us and thinks we’re crazy,” he said.

The suspect hadn’t even been booked yet, much less made his first court appearance, but Stelter was calling for more gun control, and we’re crazy?

Stelter, who is only 40, cohosted CNN’s “Reliable Sources” for nearly 10 years until it was cancelled in 2022 because its ratings were abysmal. Stelter wasn’t pleased to be unemployed, but he defended his role at the highly partisan show.

“It’s not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue,” he reportedly said in defiance.

Sure.

CNN brought Stelter back in 2024, but only part time. His role was extremely reduced. He wrote a newsletter for CNN’s website and appeared on air occasionally, but he no longer hosted his own show. He had no show to host.

Nowadays CNN is dying. Its ratings are terrible. According to Adweek, in March FOX News had almost 3 million primetime viewers while CNN only managed 898,000 total viewers, and their ratings actually increased because of the war.

CNN didn’t have one show in the Top 15 news programs. FOX News had 13 and MS NOW had two.

Evidently, this didn’t bother Stelter, who used the assassination attempt to increase his own personal ratings. Just minutes after the suspect had been hauled away, Stelter appeared on dozens of websites and social media accounts, not saying much of substance since he didn’t see anything, but blasting guns and our gun rights.

Stelter joined the media right after college. In other words, he’s never done much of anything substantive. I doubt he’s ever even fired a gun. I doubt he knows the difference between an AR and an AK. So, how does he disparage our Second Amendment rights? The answer is simple. He works for CNN.

Every single time CNN covers a gun-related issue it fails. Remember their graphic of what they claimed was a bump stock?

Every gun-related story the network produces has a simple overall message: Guns are bad and must all be banned.

That’s how rubes like Stelter keeps their small roles at the network. If he keeps telling his dwindling viewers that guns are bad, he’ll keep his job.

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by Lee Williams

Chip Brownlee’s recent story about Emergency Risk Protection Orders, known as ERPOs, which was published online by the Trace is actually well written. It’s completely wrong and chock-full of anti-gun propaganda, but it is well written.

Brownlee’s story is a great example of how the Trace operates and why its claim to be “the only newsroom dedicated to reporting on gun violence” is so deeply flawed.

To be clear, the Trace is paid to produce anti-gun propaganda. They’re propagandists not journalists, and as we’ll show, they’ve certainly never had a real newsroom.

The Trace is funded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. It’s always cashed Bloomberg’s checks and it always will, but there’s a much bigger issue.

John Feinblatt is president of both the Trace and the largest anti-gun organization in the country—Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. Everytown calls itself “the largest gun violence prevention organization in America.”

To say that’s a conflict of interest is obvious. After all, you’ve got the Trace, which claims to be “the only newsroom dedicated to reporting on gun violence” overseen and paid for by “the largest gun violence prevention organization in America.”

As a result, the Trace’s stories will always be propaganda rather than journalism. That’s what they’re paid for by the country’s largest anti-gun organization, which claims to be comprised of “more than 11 million mayors, teachers, survivors, gun owners, students, and everyday Americans.”

Feinblatt even admitted he came up with the idea of the Trace after Everytown had problems obtaining access to government data. After discussing his idea with Bloomberg, the Trace was launched in 2015, and Everytown was its largest donor.

The money is still flowing. According to the Trace’s 2024 IRS for 990, the Editor-in-Chief was paid more than $280,000. A staff writer made more than $170,000.

Despite the high pay, if you look at the editorial content of their stories, the Trace certainly has never produced any real journalism. Another factor explains this very well.

The Trace claims to be a newsroom. I’ve worked in four newsrooms. The staffing was always the same: There were always far more reporters than editors. When I became an editor, I supervised six reporters. That’s why.

The Trace is the exact opposite. According to its own data, the Trace has twice as many editors than it does reporters: 14 editors but only seven reporters.

The reason for this irregularity is simple: the Trace is far more concerned with its anti-gun mission than what its staffers may have actually found. In other words, the Trace pays more attention to how something is sold to its readers, rather than what is actually sold. It’s propaganda, after all, so they need more propagandists than they do reporters.

Mr. Brownlee’s recent story is a great example. It fits a pattern. It begins with a horrible shooting, and then the first quote is always given to a staunch anti-gunner.

“We’re very concerned about the trajectory of anti-ERPO laws, both in the rise in the number of states passing these laws and the escalations within the laws themselves,” said Emily Walsh, a law and policy adviser at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Clearly, anyone working at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions is going to have an anti-gun opinion, right? The entire group hopes to ban privately owned firearms.

Mr. Brownlee, or perhaps the more than a dozen members of the Trace’s editorial team, also castigates all pro-gun sources mentioned in the story. In this case it was Kyle Rittenhouse, who the author noted testified last year against ERPO legislation.

“Rittenhouse — wearing a pin in the shape of an assault-style rifle on his lapel — portrayed ERPOs as a means to ‘weaponize’ false accusations. In 2020, during racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he shot three people, killing two. A jury acquitted him of homicide, but he still faces lawsuits for negligence and wrongful death brought by the man he wounded and the family of 26-year-old Anthony Huber, one of the two men Rittenhouse killed,” Brownlee wrote.

The Trace has never published anything this negative about any anti-gun source—not once.

Takeaways

At its base level, the Trace is just like its parent organization, Everytown for Gun Safety. It’s just another anti-gun group. That’s all it will ever be.

Most gun owners have known this since the day the Trace was founded 11 years ago. That’s why no one who knows the difference between an AR and an AK pays too much attention to what it publishes.

Besides, any point the Trace makes in its stories should be taken about as seriously as its mailing address, which is actually just a UPS store in Brooklyn. I’m sure that was done for security and not economic reasons, right?

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By Lee Williams

Things are moving very well in our efforts to free Patrick “Tate” Adamiak from prison, but we need your help.

We need letters—tons of letters—that explain why President Donald J. Trump should pardon Adamiak.

The letters will be included in a package we hope will soon be delivered to the White House.

The letters can come from individuals as well as pro-gun organizations, hopefully both.

Here’s the two addresses to send them to:

Mr. David Warrington

White House Counsel

Office of White House Counsel

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

_________________________

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of the Pardon Attorney

950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington DC 20530

Some quick facts about Adamiak’s case:

• 1. He was investigated and prosecuted by Joe Biden’s ATF.

• 2. He did nothing wrong.

• 3. Nothing ATF found in his home was illegal.

• 4. He had no criminal record.

• 5. He was an active-duty U.S. Navy sailor.

• 6. He had orders to report to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) school.

• 7. He remains extremely patriotic and wants to continue serving his country.

• 8. There were no “victims” in his case.

• 9. None of the evidence in his case was functional or even complete.

• 10. Every item of evidence is still legally sold online.

If you need more information, here’s a list of the 40 stories I have written about Tate Adamiak.

If you need additional help, my cell is 941-284-8553.

Thanks!

Lee

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by Lee Williams

California Attorney General Rob Bonta must be tired of seeing his name listed as a defendant in so many civil-rights lawsuits. It’s now his wife’s turn, California State Assemblymember Mia Bonta, who appears to have the same disdain and lack of respect for Californians’ civil rights as her frequently sued husband.

Assemblymember Bonta recently introduced a state bill, AB 2624, which nearly everyone sees as a response to the iconic reporting of YouTuber Nick Shirley, who gained international fame for exposing how Democrats in Minnesota poured billions of tax-payer dollars into the Somali Community.

Assemblymember Bonta certainly doesn’t want anyone like Mr. Shirley to investigate anything in California, so she wants to criminalize such reporting regardless of its First Amendment protections.

“Individuals who provide immigrant support services including legal aid, humanitarian relief, case management, and advocacy are facing targeted harassment. This is not hypothetical,” Bonta said at an April 7 hearing, according to the New York Post.

Mr. Shirley’s response was quick and succinct.

“The enemy truly is within,” Shirley said in a press release Monday. “When our politicians would rather protect fraudsters and illegal migrants, it’s time for us to stand up or face mass oppression from the traitors who ‘rule’ over us.”

Assemblymember Bonta’s bill includes criminal penalties of up to a $50,000 fine and a year in a county jail or even longer sentences in a state prison if the published information results in “bodily harm.”

One of her few critics, California State Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican representing state District 75, which includes San Diego, dubbed AB 2624 the Stop Nick Shirley Act, because of “the chilling effect it will have on free speech.”

Takeaways

It does not take a legal expert to determine whether California Assemblymembers would pass a state law that directly violates the U.S. Constitution. Just look at how many current California laws violate the Second Amendment.

It’s likely there are very few mainstream journalists willing to publicly oppose Ms. Bonta’s new bill. It also doubtful they would ever take any legal action if it became law. It’s an expensive process and journalists aren’t exactly swimming in cash. Besides, most journalists will likely support the legislation because of their politics.

What should concern everyone is what will follow AB 2624—what industry will California Democrats decide to shield next from public scrutiny, and what states will follow with their own similar legislation.

California’s massive anti-gun industry certainly comes to mind.

Can you imagine a similar state law banning reporting about San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention or the state chapters of Demanding Moms, Brady or Giffords? Once AB 2624 is signed into law it’s almost guaranteed, as are similarly unconstitutional state laws in other blue states.

Assemblymember Bonta’s bill is unconstitutional on its face but once passed will become the first of many unjust decrees designed to stop the public from scrutinizing whatever the Dems want to keep secret.

Perhaps the Danish physicist, Niels Bohr, said it best: “The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.”

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by Lee Williams

Patrick “Tate” Adamiak is serving 20 years in federal prison even though the ATF found nothing illegal during a search of his home. All Adamiak possessed were legal guns, gun parts and collectibles.

Prosecutors originally sought a 30-year federal prison sentence by introducing questionable evidence—977 uncut pieces of flat sheet metal they claimed were 977 machineguns. Thankfully, one of Adamiak’s experts was able to shoot this down.

Every single item the ATF and federal prosecutors alleged was illegal are still sold online: Inert RPGs, toy STENs, open-bolt semi-autos and inert M79s and M203 launchers. Most do not even require any paperwork for the sale.

Our 40 investigative stories have examined nearly every aspect of ATF’s “investigation” of Adamiak, but until now we’ve never compared his 20-year sentence to others.

Why an active-duty U.S. Navy E-6 with orders to report to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, who had zero criminal history, who had nothing illegal in his possession, was sentenced to two decades in federal prison certainly seems like an important question to ask.

Unfortunately, no one at the ATF or the Justice Department was willing to talk about Adamiak’s case, much less his two-decade sentence, which all happened when Joe Biden was in the White House, when the ATF focused on Adamiak and several unlucky others to keep Biden’s handlers happy.

When you look at how Adamiak’s case compares to others who are doing time for gun crimes, the results are shocking, just like everything else about this twisted and convoluted case.

Here are parts of 10 case summaries that were written by the Department of Justice. After you read them, you can judge for yourself whether Adamiak got a fair sentence or a raw deal.

Please note that federal sentences are based on months, not years. Adamiak is serving 240 months behind bars.

Alfredo Gonzalez-Diaz—175 months

Alfredo Gonzalez-Diaz, a 42-year-old Mexican citizen illegally residing in Houston, was charged with drug trafficking on U.S. streets and unlawfully possessing a rocket launcher, rocket-propelled grenades, guns and ammunition, according to U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

“A rocket launcher, two rocket propelled grenades, 8.5 kilos of heroin, and lots, and lots, of cash,” said Hamdani. “These are the tools of terror of the Mexican cartels. Cartels like Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) Cartel threaten our communities and our families. This U.S. Attorney’s Office will not rest until we seize the cartel’s weapons, drugs and cash, and welcome those, like Gonzalez-Diaz, to the inside of a prison cell.”

Alfredo Gonzalez-Diaz pleaded guilty May 26, 2022, to conspiracy to distribute kilograms of heroin and cocaine and illegal possession of a firearm.

U.S. District Judge Alfred H Bennett sentenced Gonzalez-Diaz to serve a total of 175 months in federal prison.

Timothy Lawrence Carll—120 months possible

Timothy Lawrence Carll, 67, possessed four fully automatic machine guns, including an AK-style rifle, a Thompson M1 submachine gun, a Sterling submachine gun, and a PPSh-41 submachine gun. Carll also possessed four metal tubes that he knew were designed and intended for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun, specifically for use as part of Sten submachine guns of various models. Carll did not have a valid Federal Firearms License or a Special Occupational Tax when he possessed these machine guns.

Carll is scheduled to be sentenced on April 19. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Carll has not yet been sentenced, but he can receive no more than 120 months.

Daniel Matthew Kittson—27 months

Daniel Matthew Kittson, 61. According to court documents, in December 2019, a special agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) learned that Kittson was attempting to sell a Russian PPSh-41, a machine gun capable of firing approximately 900 rounds per minute. Investigators learned that he had prior felony convictions for attempted murder, first degree manslaughter, and felon in possession of a weapon, making it illegal for him to possess any type of firearm.

In early January 2020, investigators communicated with Kittson on two separate occasions to arrange a controlled purchase of the machine gun and, on January 10, 2020, completed the transaction. Following their purchase, investigators tested the firearm and confirmed that it was indeed a functional machine gun.

On August 24, 2023, a jury found Kittson guilty of illegally transferring a machinegun.

He was sentenced to serve 27 months in a federal prison.

Howard Neil Martin—90 months

Howard Neil Martin, 46, was sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison for possession with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking offense, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Court documents reflect that Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a report about a burglary in progress. When they arrived, the defendant was parked in the driveway of the residence and in a verbal dispute with someone watching the residence for the homeowner. Officers could see a firearm in plain view inside the defendant’s truck and upon running his criminal history, learned that he was a convicted felon. Officers ultimately searched the truck and located approximately half a pound of crystal methamphetamine.

He was sentenced to 90 months in a federal prison.

Frank Guereca—97 months

Frank Guereca, 24, was sentenced for stealing 41 firearms from a gun store in Raytown, Mo., and for transporting child pornography on his cell phone into the United States from Mexico.

Guereca was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark to 97 months in prison without parole for stealing firearms from a federal firearms licensee and for transportation of child pornography.

On June 16, 2023, Guereca and two others backed a stolen U-Haul truck into the store of a federally licensed firearms dealer, located in Raytown, Mo., creating a hole in the front of the business. Thereafter, Guereca and the two others entered through the hole and took 41 firearms from the business. One of the stolen pistols from the gun store was recovered in Tracy, Calif., on Nov. 14, 2023. A second stolen pistol was recovered in Chihuahua, Mexico, on Dec. 19, 2023. A third stolen pistol was recovered in Juarez, Mexico, on Feb. 6, 2024.

Guereca was arrested on April 25, 2024, as he attempted to cross back into the United States from Mexico. Guereca had in his possession a Samsung Galaxy cell phone, which was seized by law enforcement. Subsequent review of the contents of the phone pursuant to a federal search warrant revealed at least 250 images and 70 videos depicting child pornography, which Guereca transported into the United States from Mexico.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection records, Guereca had previously crossed the border approximately 20 times since the burglary and theft on June 16, 2023.

Idella Gardner—180 months

Idella Gardner, 37, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Kays to 15 years in federal prison without parole for her role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and using a communication facility to facilitate a drug trafficking offense.

On Oct. 9, 2024, Gardner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and use of a communication facility to facilitate a drug trafficking crime.

Between January 2019 and July 2022, Gardner was an armed drug dealer who actively participated in the purchase and distribution of cocaine. The investigation established that Gardner aided members of a street gang and other members of the conspiracy on at last forty occasions where she took part in coordinating drug transactions. When law enforcement officers arrested Gardner on Mar. 9, 2022, she was found in possession of cocaine, cell phones, firearm magazines, and live ammunition. The investigation relied on court-authorized wire intercepts of co-defendant’s telephones, physical surveillance, interviews, and text message evidence documenting the defendant’s involvement in drug trafficking.

At the sentencing hearing, the Government also presented evidence regarding Gardner’s involvement in a 2021 homicide. The evidence established that on Apr. 22, 2021, Gardner discharged a firearm into an occupied apartment near the intersection of Lockridge Avenue and Benton Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri, intending to target another individual.

She will serve 180 months in prison.

Marcos Esteban Arredondo—123 months

Pedro Galicia-Hernandez Jr—151 months

Daequan Rayton—60 months

Elijah Eugene Wilson—45 months

A partnership of federal and local law enforcement taking part in “Operation Sob Story,” an investigation by the Homeland Security Task Force, resulted in prison sentences for four Topeka area gang members for offenses such as drug trafficking and illegal firearms trafficking.

Marcos Arredondo pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Arredondo sold cocaine, fentanyl, and a firearm to a confidential source acting on behalf of law enforcement. He was sentenced to 123 months in prison.

Pedro Galicia-Hernandez Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. He was sentenced to 151 months in prison. A confidential source made multiple controlled buys of fentanyl from Galicia-Hernandez in amounts of between 500 and 1,500 pills. Law enforcement received a tip that Galicia-Hernandez was returning to Kansas after a trip out of state and informed the Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP). During a traffic stop, a state trooper found a bag in the vehicle Galicia-Hernadez was in with what was later determined be 16,246 fentanyl pills.

Daequan Rayton pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of a machine gun and two counts of illegal possession and transfer of machine guns. He was sentenced to 60 months in prison.

Elijah Wilson pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession and transfer of machine guns, two counts of failure to register as a dealer and manufacturer of machine guns, and one count of unlawful trafficking in firearms. He was sentenced to 45 months in prison.

Takeaways

Here are 10 real criminals armed with real guns who were charged with real crimes, but not a single one received a sentence that was even close to the 20 years or 240 months Adamiak is currently serving.

• Gonzalez-Diaz had a live RPG with two rocket propelled grenades, 8.5 kilos of heroin and “lots and lots of cash.”

• Carll was caught with real, functional machineguns.

• Kittson had a Russian PPSh-41machinegun, as well as prior convictions for attempted murder and manslaughter.

• Martin, a convicted felon, was caught with a firearm during a drug-trafficking offense.

• Guereca stole 41 firearms from a gun store and had child pornography on his cell phone.

• Gardner was caught with a handgun, and police say she helped facilitate more than 40 illegal drug sales.

• Arredondo, Galicia-Hernandez, Rayton and Wilson are hardcore documented gang members who were caught with guns, drugs and money.

Legal experts will always bring up the problems of comparing one criminal case to another, but here are 10 ATF cases involving real criminals, real crimes and real guns. You can judge for yourself how they compare to the treatment Adamiak received from the ATF and federal prosecutors.

As we have said before, nothing illegal was even found in Adamiak’s home or his gun safe, yet he is serving much more time than any of these 10 real criminals.

“It’s simply disgusting that real criminals with real guns committing real crimes got a lot less time behind bars than I did,” Adamiak said Monday morning from federal prison. “When a person like me who is a collector and gun enthusiast gets decades of my life taken away, and the ATF acts like they took it easy on me, it’s insane. I don’t even get it.”

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by Lee Williams

Attorneys representing the wife of one of two men killed last year during a mass shooting at Florida State University, which was allegedly committed by 21-year-old Phoenix Ikner, say that they will soon file a civil lawsuit against ChatGPT and its parent company OpenAI, after learning that the chatbot allegedly helped Ikner plan his mass killings and aided him throughout the commission of his crimes.

Attempts at contacting the two civil attorneys Thursday were not successful.

Attempts at contacting ChatGPT or its parent company OpenAI were also unsuccessful. However, OpenAI did send a statement to the Guardian—a British newspaper that covered the possible lawsuit story.

“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this devastating tragedy. We built ChatGPT to understand people’s intent and respond in a safe and appropriate way, and we continue improving our technology,” OpenAI said in its statement.

Ikner was charged with murdering Tiru Chabba, 45, and Robert Morales, 57, a former high school football coach who was working as FSU’s dining program manager on the day he was killed. The coming lawsuit will be brought by his widow, Betty Morales, who has a GoFundMe page which has raised more than $169,000.

According to law enforcement, Ikner holds both American and Norwegian citizenship. One of the firearms Ikner allegedly used belonged to his stepmother, who is a Leon County (Florida) Sheriff’s Deputy.

Ikner, who was born Christian Gunnar Eriksen and later changed his name, allegedly had a troubled youth. His biological mother was charged with kidnapping him and she fought constantly with his biological father, which included an $80,000 lawsuit.

Ikner was reportedly fascinated with Adolph Hitler, Nazism and the Third Reich, as well as online gaming. He named one online gaming account after the Nazi SS.

Tallahassee Police said there was no connection between Ikner and any of his victims.

Ikner pleaded not guilty to all nine charges. His trial has been delayed but is scheduled to start in October. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.

It is not known whether the civil lawsuit could affect the criminal case.

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Friends,

Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was arrested four years ago this week. More than 40 officers led by ATF Agents kicked down his doors and ripped apart his home.

They found nothing illegal—not a thing—yet he’s starting the fourth year of his 20-year federal prison sentence.

Bottom line: He is completely innocent.

For those of you who have asked, here’s Tate’s address:

Patrick Tate Adamiak
#95252-509
Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix
PO Box 2000
Joint Base MDL NJ, 08640

We’ve written 38 stories about Tate, his family and what they are facing.

Here they are:

It’s been four long years since ATF arrested Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak, Apr 08, 2026

An interview with The AK Guy, GOP candidate for U.S. House, Brandon Herrera, Apr 01, 2026

How President Trump’s ATF can help Tate Adamiak, Mar 12, 2026

Adamiak remains behind bars, guiltless but ignored by the Trump Administration, Feb 17, 2026

Behind bars: A day in the life of Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak, Dec 11, 2025

Expert firearm witness criticizes ATF’s treatment of Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, Nov 18, 2025

Even the ATF now admits inert RPGs—including Adamiak’s—are not firearms, Nov 11, 2025

How Adamiak received 20 years in prison for semi-auto Uzis and other legal guns, gun parts, Nov 04, 2025

Adamiak’s attorney strikes back at his criminal charges, Nov 01, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s criminal case now depends on his appellate attorney, Oct 21, 2025

BREAKING: Appellate Court finds one of Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s convictions violated Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, Oct 14, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s appeal was quick, inconclusive, Sep 12, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s appeal relies solely on the truth, Sep 09, 2025

While gun owners strongly support Adamiak, politicians don’t, Sep 04, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s appeal will be heard in 10 days, Sep 02, 2025

Hey, ATF! Nothing you found in Tate Adamiak’s home is illegal, Aug 19, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s asks President Trump for a pardon, July 30, 2025

Adamiak: ATF’s machinegun charges are complete fiction, July 8, 2025

Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak: ‘Thanks for the help, New Jersey!’ July 1, 2025

Former ATF official: ‘Adamiak should not be in prison’ Jun 26, 2025

ATF prepping the same untruths, toy guns for Adamiak’s appeal, Jun 24, 2025

Judge unknowingly admits Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak’s inert RPGs were legal Jun 10, 2025

How Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak received a 20-year prison sentence May 20, 2025

How ATF falsely charged former sailor with possessing destructive devices May 13, 2025

Former sailor should be pardoned, ATF agents should be charged Apr 29, 2025

Meet the man whose lies put an innocent sailor in prison for 20 years Apr 25, 2025

How ATF used inert RPGs to imprison American sailor for two decades Apr 22, 2025

ATF wanted former sailor to serve an additional 10 years in prison for 100% legal MAC flats Apr 15, 2025

Q&A: Former sailor discusses his 20-year prison sentence, the ATF and his hope for the future Apr 08, 2025

Federal prosecutors now using ATF’s lies and fake evidence to harm former sailor’s legal appeal Apr 01, 2025

Trump should pardon innocent sailor jailed by Biden administration for 20 years Mar 18, 2025

One of the worst things ATF has ever done Feb 24, 2025

Sailor serving 20-years in prison for legal semi-auto collectibles Feb 18, 2025

How a replica STEN gun led to a sailor’s 20-year prison sentence Feb 14, 2025

Free Patrick Tate Adamiak Jan 31, 2025

ATF lied to convict sailor now serving 20 years in prison for selling legal gun parts — A SPECIAL REPORT Jan 29, 2025

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by Lee Williams

Dave Adamiak got a call four years ago from an active-duty Navy Chief Petty Officer, or CPO, who knew his son, Patrick “Tate” Adamiak. Unfortunately, he cannot ever forget the horror of that call.

He was told that more than 40 law enforcement officers, mostly ATF and other federal agents, had kicked down the doors, searched Tate’s home and taken him into custody.

For Dave Adamiak, a retired K-12 shop teacher, it was cataclysmic.

“It derailed everything I’d been doing,” he said this week. “It still has.”

For his wife Senga, Tate’s mother, the results were much worse. She had been battling a serious illness. She died 30 days after her son’s arrest. She and Dave had been married for more than 41 years.

“It contributed to her death,” Dave Adamiak said. “It definitely did.”

For Tate’s father, one thing was certain: He knew his son did absolutely nothing wrong.

It became his mission and that of Tate’s friends and family to help clear his name and get the federal charges against him thrown out. Unfortunately for Tate and the entire Adamiak family, they had never dealt with the ATF before.

We have written more than 40 stories describing the ATF’s case. We’ve examined each piece of evidence, from two DEWAT grenade launchers to several toy machineguns, which ATF’s own expert claimed were real.

Our stories have been examined by a bevy of experts at multiple levels, and a vital point became crystal clear: Tate should not be behind bars. In fact, he should never have been charged much less sentenced to serve 20 years in prison. Until the ATF kicked down his doors, he had never been charged with a single crime.

Tate Adamiak was a gun collector who only sold legal gun parts until a paid ATF informant—who was facing his own felony charges—falsely reported that he had a Mk-19 grenade launcher. The informant’s lies led to the search warrant and ridiculous charges.

Adamiak is currently housed in a decaying federal prison at Fort Dix, New Jersey. FCI Fort Dix has both low and medium security federal inmates

Tate was also thinking about his mother on Tuesday.

Joe Biden’s ATF is long gone, thankfully. As we have said before, it is time to see what, if anything, ATF’s new leadership is willing to do for Patrick “Tate” Adamiak.

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by Lee Williams

Brandon Herrera, the GOP’s official candidate for Texas’ 23^rd Congressional District, may know more about guns and gun rights than any member of Congress.

Herrera, who’s known as “The AK Guy,” has millions of followers on X, YouTube, and Instagram, who tune him in regularly for two reasons: He knows what he’s talking about and he’s entertaining as hell.

Perhaps President Donald J. Trump said it best in his recent endorsement:

Recently, Herrera took some time answering questions about his life, candidacy and the Second Amendment.

Here’s the Q & A:

The AK Guy, gun dealer, constitutionalist, pro-gun advocate, political candidate—how do you describe yourself?

Herrera: “I’m a business owner who lives in my district who was unhappy with my congressman. I’ve been a constitutional advocate and activist for years now. This is very different, but it’s the same cause I’ve been doing for a very long time.”

How would you describe your firearms knowledge?

Herrera: “Fairly intimate. I’ve always been a firearms person. I’ve been a firearms manufacturer for well over 10 years now, specializing in the AK platform but providing a long list of other firearms and kit builds.

How did you get started as a Second Amendment expert?

Herrera: “It just took over. I’ve used my comedy to entertain, but as my platform grew, my voice became greater and I got the ability to speak about an incredibly important issue: The Second Amendment.”

Are you aware of any other federal elected official with greater firearm knowledge than you?

Herrera: “The only ones who might come close or maybe give me a run for my money are Pat Harrigan from North Carolina or Andrew Clyde from Georgia. They both owned or own FFLs and firearm manufacturing businesses.

Are you willing to instruct, teach or somehow guide other politicians about guns, gun rights?

Herrera: “I would love to whenever possible. I’d like to think I’d be a resource if there are any questions or technical issues, or if passing legislation that the majority of the Second Amendment crowd thinks is okay, but it could hurt our gun rights. I want pro-gun legislation to stay entirely pro-gun. I would also be willing to be a resource if anyone on either side of the aisle wants more information. A lot of the anti-gun sentiment usually comes from a lack of education.”

What is the worst thing anti-gunners don’t know?

Herrera: “There is a majority of Democrats—but a few Republicans too—who voted to enhance background checks where they thought it would stop firearm deaths. It’s completely misguided. Look at the bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It was a piece of Democratic legislation. It had Tony Gonzales, who I just replaced, and John Cornyn, who both fell into the trap of ‘common sense gun laws.’ There’s no common-sense thing in that bill that would have changed a thing that would have affected the outcome at Uvalde. They passed it to feel good to make it look to their voters like they were doing something.”

Tell me your opinion about Patrick “Tate” Adamiak’s incarceration?

Herrera: “It’s f--king bulls--t.”

Did Adamiak do anything illegal?

Herrera: “It depends on what lens you use. According to the ATF, which is my functional problem with this, he possessed demilled parts kits, and no law has changed since they were imported. There was no change of law. They had been previously approved by the ATF, which led to this young service member’s incarceration.”

What do you think about Adamiak’s 20-year prison sentence?

Herrera: “I disagree with the NFA fundamentally in general, but playing the devil’s advocate, as unconstitutional as the law may be, to choose to throw the book at Tate is notorious even if he was a gang member. I’ve bought hundreds of these kits over the years. To throw the book at Tate was abhorrent—flat out abuse of the law.”

What was your reaction when you received President Trump’s endorsement?

Herrera: “Obviously, I’m very grateful to the President for the endorsement. I think now, while I may have some things I don’t see eye to eye on with leadership in the past, all of us have the same goal for November, to keep the Texas 23^rd red.

Do you have any congressional committee interest?

Herrera: “We just had a couple meetings about this in particular. Tony (Gonzalez) was in an Appropriations seat. Tony got it as a freshman. There’s an open seat on that committee. Perhaps Judiciary as well as Veterans’ Affairs. Those are the three that come to the top of my head.”

Tell me about Texas’ 23rd Congressional District

Herrera: “It’s the biggest district in all of Texas. I can leave my house in San Antonio and drive west for seven hours. It’s the biggest border district in the entire country. It shares more border with Mexico than any other district. We really were Ground Zero for Biden’s border crisis. It’s very important for me and my district to make sure the border stays secure.”

Why did you take the “No New Taxes” pledge?

Herrera: “Because I believe the average American is radically overtaxed. Government is a terrible steward of our money. They’re not only stealing our money but stealing the value of our money.”

Tell me how you will defend our gun rights?

Herrera: “I think it’s a multi-level system—combined arms. There’s the federal level, of course. For states, some states are getting worse, but a few are getting better. The third element is the judiciary. That’s where we have the potential to get the most pressure done. The Supreme Court is only as good as the cases they take. There’s no excuse for them not to take these items. We came incredibly close to having suppressors and short-barreled rifles removed from the NFA. I never thought I’d see that in my lifetime.”

What have you found is the best way to communicate with potential voters?

Herrera: “I have my online audience, but a lot of it is going out and talking. I have 27 counties in my district, and I have visited all of them. You actually go out and talk to them. I rarely leave a room without having a good experience.”

How is your money doing?

Herrera: “I have a donation link, but unfortunately, because of the scandal Tony (Gonzalez) was in, while this is a safe Republican seat, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Democrats drop a few million to try to take it. So far, I’ve personally put in more than a half-million dollars.”

Has Trump’s election hurt gun dealers financially—has business slowed?

Herrera: “Unfortunately, a lot of times people slow down on their gun-buying when they’re not afraid of losing their rights. We saw panic buying under the Democrats. That’s scary. It’s good that we’re in a position where we’re not afraid of that, and it’s good we don’t have to worry about it. If gun dealers suffer, it’s temporary. I would prefer to have a slow buying season rather than a panic buy because rights are being stripped away from us.”

What are your takeaways on Tony Gonzalez’s failed candidacy?

Herrera: “Well, I didn’t originally run because I wanted to be in Congress. Frankly, I originally ran because I didn’t like Tony’s voting record. He was weak on the Second Amendment, but no one in the race could beat him. I assessed my ability to fundraise and whether I thought I could give it a good run. Last cycle, as a total newcomer, I took him to a runoff and lost by only 400 votes. He was hoping he could get better. He certainly didn’t. I’m just a business owner in the district, but I was able to rally the grassroots enough that we were able to take down a Goliath. That should be reassuring to everyone out there.”

How has the pushback been from the left?

Herrera: “It’s been hilarious. They’re like ‘look, this guy is a radical.’ They went hard for that right out of the gate. It hasn’t affected our numbers at all.”

What haven’t I asked you about?

Herrera: “The big this is that it’s important just to show up. We need to do a better job showing up. If every single gun owner showed up to every single election, we would have a supermajority. We need to rally our base and get out there. We also have a responsibility to write good legislation to do the job for the people who put us there. It’s a two-sided responsibility.”

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By Lee Williams

The National Rifle Association and its former president, Marion Hammer, have reached a joint settlement agreement that will end the federal lawsuit Hammer filed last year against her former employer, according to the website Law 360.

According to a story published last week, the NRA accused Hammer of using profanity and becoming somewhat combative—throwing water—during a recent hearing. Hammer denied the claims.

The NRA’s legal team asked the court to dismiss Hammer’s lawsuit because of her alleged misconduct.

In a previous interview, Hammer told the Second Amendment Foundation that she never threw water at anyone.

“They worked me to death and didn’t pay me,” she said last week. “They promised to pay me and didn’t, so I am suing for payment. I have two lawsuits: one in Florida and one in Virginia. They cancelled my non-cancellable contract. I’m 87 years old.”

Hammer did not return calls or texts Monday. The NRA did not respond to media inquiries sent through its website. Calls to the attorneys representing Hammer and the NRA were not returned.

According to the Law 360 story, both the NRA and Hammer now have 30 days to finalize their agreement before the case is jointly dismissed.

In her lawsuit, Hammer claimed the NRA mistreated her after decades of service.

“In May 2025, Hammer filed a seven-count lawsuit against the NRA, alleging breach of contract, unjust enrichment and unauthorized use of name, image and likeness, among other counts. In 2018, according to filings, Hammer informed the NRA that the Brady gun control group offered her $5 million if she ceased working for the NRA, but instead she agreed to extend her NRA consulting agreement for 10 more years. In 2024, Hammer said, the NRA unilaterally canceled her contract and stopped paying her,” according to the Law 360 story.

Hammer served as the first female president of the NRA from 1995 to 1998. She is best known for creating the Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program for young children, and for Florida’s concealed-carry licensing initiative.

Please check back for more updates about this breaking-news story.

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