Archive for the ‘BATFX’ Category

Turn Yourself In

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

I’m turning my self in to Obama’s snitch site, AbuseWatch.com.

What I posted there:

“Content of the attack or link:”

The truth. Plain and simple, the truth that Obama is an un-American traitor. Fortunately, he’s an incompetent traitor, the only thing that limits his damage.

It’s my own website, www.ricketyclick.com/blog, and I am proud to turn my self in. I consider it my patriotic duty to do so.

You cowardly bullies. Your arguments don’t work anymore, because your policies are failing, right and left. You’re left with falling back to the primary argument of progressives, socialists, and communists everywhere: “Shut Up”.
We won’t, though. We’ll never shut up.

What won’t we shut up about?

TSA. A direct frontal attack on the Fourth Amendment, offending and abusing American citizens with not a damn thing to show for itself but confiscated nail clippers and shampoo.

The War on Drugs, especially as personified by the DEA. Direct attack on the Fourth and Fifth amendments, with forays against the Second. The doctrine of “civil forfeiture” is especially vile. Shut it down, the whole shebang. Every single officer in the DEA should be arrested, tried, and jailed for treason and oath breaking.

The war on armed citizens. Direct, frontal attack on the Second Amendment. This very site bleats about “common sense gun control”, an ancient feeble wheeze belied by the thousands of onerous contradictory laws and regulations at every level of government, to say nothing of illegal actions by numerous law enforcement officers and other agents who abuse and arrest citizens exercising a basic human right. Common sense laws would not touch persons who have not been convicted of violent crimes. Personified by BATFX, another pack of oath-breaking traitors. Instantiated most recently in the murderous Gunwalker scandel.

And of course AttackWatch.com itself, trying to get Americans to inform on each other for the thought crime of speaking up about Obama.

“Let me be clear:” The above programs and agencies show the Federal government has gone rogue. Its agents no longer consider themselves bound by the Constitution or the law.

Cuts both ways, scum. If you don’t have to follow the law, neither do we.

Hey ho, you’ve got to go.

Posted in B. Hussein Obama, BATFX, Bill of Rights, Communism, Constitution, Dammit!, Democrats, Fighting Back, Government Idiocy, Gun Walker, Guns and Ammo, Liberals, Political Correctness, Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Socialism, TSA | 2 Comments »

We’re Better Than You, So We Get to Tell You What To Do

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

So those wonderful, oath-keeping, Constitution-upholding, best-of-the-best-of-the-best, testilying, batfuck crazies over at the BATFX have a guy in charge of licensing one of the two classes of tools explicitly protected by the Bill of Rights, Russell Vanderwerf.

Russ, it seems, is a hell of a nice guy and an exemplar citizen:

Saturday, December 12, 2009

ATF Gun Licensing Director Russell Vanderwerf Arrested

You might be able to make this up. But it would require a pretty disturbed mind. Where to begin. Initially being investigated for disabling the fire alarm systems in his hotel room, due to shower steam, he claimed, it was discovered he had replaced the hotel room door with a piece of plywood. The plywood contained a circular padded hole believed to be used for sexual acts. See gloryhole. Yes, it was facing the hotel hallway. It would seem he was interested in inspecting more than firearms. h/t BJ in email. And, no, I’m not making that up, either.

He serves as the director of industry operations for ATF’s Houston field office. The industry operations division is the regulatory arm of the agency, responsible for overseeing the inspection of all federal gun and explosives licensees, said ATF spokesman Drew Wade. He confirmed that Vanderwerf was in the New Orleans area on official business.

Yeah, I trust these guys to decide whether or not I’m fit to exercise my Constitutionally protected rights.

Uh huh. Sure I do.

“Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms: great convenience store, shitty government agency.”

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Posted in BATFX, Constitution, Dammit!, Government Idiocy, Guns and Ammo | Comments Off

“The Darkest of Thoughts”

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Sipsey Street Irregular Mike Vanderboegh writes to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and explains that there’s an ugly fight coming. “No more free Wacos”, says Mike, and he’s not talking about religious whackos having free reign to to rape children and kill cops; he’s talking about the Federal Government burning men, women, and children who do not toe the line, and then blocking any investigation.

The inspiration for this piece is the case of David Olofson, now rotting in prison because he was in possession of a malfunctioning semi-automatic rifle. He threatened no one, he didn’t offer to sell it, he didn’t claim it was a machine gun. The malfunction was a dangerous one that could easily injure the shooter; there is video of the BATFX technician holding it well away from his body while testing, in case it blew up in his hand.

And yet Olofson was charged and convicted with possession of an unlicensed full-auto machine gun.

- By your department’s failure to restrain [BATX Field Agent Jody] Keeku’s outrageous conduct in returning the weapon to the ATF Testing Branch after it had been found by them NOT TO BE A MACHINEGUN but simply a malfunctioning semiauto rifle, with the demand that they retest it until they came to her opinion;

- By the trial judge’s refusal to allow defense experts to even examine the weapon; and

- By the appellate court’s blind refusal to allow a new trial based on these and other prosecutorial misdeeds,

Those are issues specific to Olofson’s case. Here are the broader implications:

if we can no longer count on a fair trial in a case of obvious ATF misconduct, then rationally, we have no reasonable expectation of a fair trial at all. In that case, we then are faced, when approached by any law enforcement officer attempting to enforce any gun law, with a Hobson’s choice:

- Submit, and be railroaded unfairly into prison, or

- Resist, and endure not only the personal consequences of that defiance, but also the likely consequences of a regional or even national conflagration.

Read the whole thing, please, as you value your life of peace and freedom.

Right now there’s a debate raging about whether or not gun owners should go about openly carrying and displaying their firearms, particularly handguns in a holster, in states that allow them to do so legally.

Read that again: informed, reasonable, law abiding, gun owners, people who have up till now been strong advocates for the right to keep and bear arms, are afraid to exercise their legal, lawful right. It might upset people. It might bring them in conflict with law officers, many of whom are very unaccustomed to and nervous around unbadged law-abiding citizens who happen to be armed.

There was an incident recently where a woman was threatened with arrest or shooting for wearing an empty leather holster at a Second Amendment protest.

A right is not a right if you can’t use it. I don’t care if it upsets people “scares the white folks”, to echo the response to Negroes eating at whites-only lunch counters, and riding up front in the bus.

This isn’t about “recruitment”. Not even about “acclimatisation”.

This is about putting our government, and our fellow citizens, on notice. We’ve been pushed right up to the line, and the trench grave lies on the other side.

Not backing down. Not hiding.

Not compromising.

Especially not compromising, because we’ve been compromising since nineteen thirty four, and all we have to show for it is a single, 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that yes, the Second protects an individual right, but no, the government can infringe it pretty much any way it wants, short of a total ban.

For all that, we at least want to be able to carry our legal weapons on our hips, in public.

Our empty holsters, even.

Listening, Mr. Holder? Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers? The one hundred million angles singing? The multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum, and they’re coming for you.

You swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, Mr. Holder. Uphold that oath, live it, breath it — or wait for the day when you can no longer escape being caught out as one of those the rest of us are defending it from. Your oath is wearing pretty god damned thin.

Wake up. Listen.

You will lose if you fight us.

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Posted in Army of Davids, B. Hussein Obama, BATFX, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Dammit!, Government Idiocy, Guns and Ammo, History, Militia, Politics & Politicians, Self-defense | 1 Comment »

The Laws Are Hidden, But You Must Follow Them Anyway

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

Mike Vanderboegh provides us with a very illuminating court transcript. If I understand the situation correctly, what’s going on here is a federal agency, the BATFX (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives), tried to convict a Mr. Larry Friesen of trafficking in machine guns by selling a part (a “tube”) that might be used in a machine gun. Friesen demanded that they reveal, in court, the exact procedures used to determine that he was in violation.

…[I]n the end this was about protecting their secret documents. These documents, no matter what spin they put on them, are in the final analysis just rules, regulations, policies and testing procedures that ought to be in the public domain. They refuse to release tham because then they couldn’t change the rules to suit themselves in whatever particular case they’re running.
…
when poor old Jimmy Vann just couldn’t find his “lost” documents, I laughed so hard I almost peed myself. He used every excuse except the dog ate his homework. When they realized they would have to drop the case or reveal some of their precious documents, they cockroached, headed for the base boards and Friesen walked on a misdeamenor after they’d spent at least a million dollars and years of work trying to put him in federal prison with real criminals like MS-13.

Therefore, and tell me if I’m wrong, the real lesson here is that if you are indicted by the ATF for anything, just have your lawyers work it out to threaten the disclosure of one or more ATF “secret documents,” and you’re home free.

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Posted in BATFX, Bill of Rights, Guns and Ammo, Law | Comments Off

Need Expert Witness on Camp Perry Malfunctions

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America has put out a call for legal help:

Do you know of a reference to the Camp Perry matches where they have gunsmiths to handle malfunctions? Or any other such venue where they are used to shooters having guns that malfunction by firing a burst and then jamming? Time is of the essence on this.

Via Mike at Sipsey Street Irregulars. If you know someone, contact Mike through his email address — please don’t put someone’s name in comments here, there, or elsewhere without their very explicit permission.

I do not have the details on this case, so what follows is conjecture: There have been several incidents where people have been arrested, convicted, and jailed because a semi-auto firearm malfunctioned in such a way that it became full-auto, that is, fired several bullets with a single trigger pull. The owner is then charged with possession of an unregistered machine gun.

Camp Perry is a National Guard training camp, which hosts several important sporting matches, including the National Rifle Association Nationals. Apparently, they have gun smiths standing by at the firing line to assist competitors with malfunctions of all kinds. I’m guessing — and again this is just a guess — that somebody is standing trial for possessing a broken gun, and the defense is looking for expert testimony on how often these kinds of malfs occur.

As Mike says, “Someone’s freedom is at stake.”

This is a big time felony, five to ten in the federal pen without parole because your gun breaks. Not modified, mind, this is nothing you want to happen — I understand the malfunctions usually responsible can cause the gun to blow up in the shooter’s hand.

Think about that — a random tool malfunction makes you a felon, even if it causes no harm to anyone, or hurts only you. Your Xerox machine breaks, and instead of making the regulation one copy for each press of the button, it makes three or four, and suddenly there you are, charged with felony pamphleteering.

That’s how far things have fallen.

Posted in BATFX, Bill of Rights, Dammit!, Government Idiocy, Guns and Ammo | Comments Off

Lou Dobbs on Olofson and the BATFX

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Lou Dobbs at CNN is covering the frightening story of how feral federal agents are savaging David Olofson for loaning a broken tool to a neighbor.

[update]

Part Two,  revealing that the BATFX fraudulently kept exculpatory evidence from trial. Again, via War on Guns.

And don’t miss Kevin Baker’s excellent discussion, with many tasty links, over at The Smallest Majority.

[/update]

At the range one day, Olofson let his friend use his completely legal, semiautomatic rifle, an AR-15. (The civilian version of the full-auto rifle that is standard military issue.) The friend fired hundreds of rounds, one trigger pull at a time.

Then the 20 year old gun malfunctioned, and began firing multiple times with single trigger pulls.

Olofson was arrested, charged, and convicted of “transferring” a full-auto machine gun. The arrest was performed through a full-dress SWAT raid, including forcing Olofson’s door with a hydraulic ram. His guns, computers, and even gun books were confiscated, although nothing illegal was found. He was not shown a warrant.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, known here as the BATFX, tested his weapon and found it was not a machine gun. Unhappy with this result, they tested it again with different ammo known for having sensitive primers, and this time determined that it was.

Olofson, heretofore a law-abiding citizen, an Army veteran and Reservist with a spotless record, is now a convicted felon awaiting sentencing. He could face six years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

For possessing a malfunctioning tool, a malfunction so subtle the BATFX themselves couldn’t find it the first time they tried.

Under BATFX rules, apparently, I am myself a dangerous federal felon, as I’ve noted before, having used a malfunctioning pistol that double fired.

The CNN report notes that BATFX testing procedures are undocumented, and defendants are not allowed to witness tests. (And, if you can muddle through the orange-on-black type, Mark Knapp notes here that Olofson’s own expert, Len Savage, wasn’t even allowed to examine and test Olofson’s gun in preparation for the trial.) There are two bills before Congress, HR 4900 and HR 1791, requiring written testing procedures, and the video taping of every test.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: as the BATFX currently operates, firearms agents cannot report for duty without violating their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. They are traitors acting under color of authority, and deserve to be put up against the wall and shot, after being allowed the same due-process consideration they’ve accorded David Olofson.

Remember, folks: these are the Only Ones gun-grabbers say are fit to keep and bear arms. They, and the BATFX, want us to be docile, helpless sheep–and they themselves are not sheepdogs, but wolves.

Not at all by the way, kudos to Lou Dobbs and CNN for covering the Olofson / BATFX story. This is real speaking-truth-to-power here, not only to the BATFX, but to the generally anti-gun, pro-tyranny press as well. Thanks, Mr. Dobbs, and keep up the good work. I hope this story gets legs and wider coverage.

Via The War on Guns.

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Posted in BATFX, Bill of Rights, Dammit!, Government Idiocy, Guns and Ammo, Law, Press | 1 Comment »

Mayor Daley Speaks Out For Reasonable Gun Laws

Friday, April 4th, 2008

Video here.

My comment (April 4, 2008 07:00 PM):

“Pass common sense gun laws…Every child has to have a license to drive a car. Why is it, when you sell guns, you don’t need a license to sell guns? That is unfair.”

Mayor Daley, you do have to obtain a license to sell guns–it’s called the Federal Firearms License. Not only are you required to undergo a federal background check to obtain one, but your business must submit to annual inspections by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The BATFX demands dealers achieve an error rate far below what they themselves are able to maintain, and routinely deny and revoke FFLs for trivial errors in filling out their onerous forms. But then, what can you expect from an agency that conflates one of the two tools explicitly protected by the Constitution (the other being the printing press) with two of the most addictive and destructive drugs in popular use?

And that is nothing, NOTHING, sir, to the licensing obligation the state of Illinois places on gun owners. While many states issue licenses for concealed carry, IL is one of the few states to require owners to be licensed.

“Reasonable” laws would make it easier for Illinois citizens to arm themselves for defense of themselves and their liberty, and would indeed be an improvement.

I, for one, would be thrilled to see gun owners be licensed like car drivers: easily and ubiquitously, with minimal training offered by public schools, minimal background check, subject to revocation only after due process, and licenses from any state honored by all other states (as demanded by the full faith and credit clause in Article IV section 1 of the Constitution).

But then, you’re perfectly willing to abrogate Article II of the Bill of Rights, and Article I section 22 of the Illinois Constitution, so what’s one more little bit snipped out?

Of course, Illinois is almost as dangerous as Washington D.C., which routinely vies with Chicago for the prestigious “Murder Capitol U.S.A.” award.

[Update: see this Wiki note on Chicago's and Illinois' gun control laws. Excerpts:

Illinois has some of the most restrictive firearm laws in the country.

There is no state preemption of firearm laws, with the result that some localities have outlawed the possession of handguns.

...

Some municipalities, most notably Chicago, require that all firearms be registered with the local police department.[41] Chicago does not allow the registration of handguns, which has the effect of outlawing their possession, unless they were grandfathered in by being registered before April 16, 1982.[42][43] Additionally, Cook County has banned assault weapons and magazines that can hold more than ten rounds of ammunition.[44]

…

Lack of preemption makes it difficult to travel throughout Illinois with a firearm while being sure that no laws are being broken. [My emphasis--djm]

Illinois is one of two remaining states that have no provision for the concealed carry of firearms by citizens. Open carry is also illegal, except when hunting. When a firearm is being transported, it must be unloaded and enclosed in a case.[46]

Yeah, yeah, “reasonable”. Sure, sure. You betcha.

It’s worth noting that Chicago’s gun-control laws were enacted during the 30s, when Chicago was owned and operated by the mob. Gee, it’s heartwarming, how those wise guys were willing to forbid themselves to own guns, as opposed to rendering their victims defenseless, right? [Ack, I'm unable to confirm that these laws were passed when the Mob was in its ascendancy. Researching.]

And check out this map of Illinois counties that have passed a resolution asking for relaxed concealed carry laws. Too bad Cook County outweighs the entire rest of the state.

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Posted in BATFX, Guns and Ammo, Politics & Politicians | 1 Comment »

BATFX On The Rampage

Monday, March 17th, 2008

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFX) is working to rid America of gun stores, just like the DEA is trying to rid us of drugs.

Difference is, the DEA is trying to go after outlaws who evade the law and do not file paperwork, and they are losing. The BATFX are attacking citizens who bend over backwards to abide by the law and file correct paperwork–and they have successfully shut down over 70% of the nation’s legitimate gunshops.

Most of their victims are people who have undergone thorough background checks, and who bend over backwards trying to dot every “i” and cross every “t”. This does not protect anybody but the bureaucrats. It simply provides convenient handles for the BATFX to grab you with. They are living proof of why having to register to exercise a fundamental right is a very bad idea.

Here’s a couple of Lou Dobbs segments [part 1 : part 2] introducing the problem. The David Olofson case, in which a licensed gun dealer is being railroaded because he lent a rifle to a prospective client which occasionally (once every few hundred rounds) would fire two rounds with one trigger pull, then jam.

The fundamental issue here is that the BATFX do not have set procedures for testing firearms. They simply arrange test procedures that get the results they want–and what they want is to deprive citizens of their right to keep and bear arms. In the Olofson case, for instance, they tried different ammunition until they found a type that would cause the jams.

The firearms expert shown in part 2 is Len Savage, who’s had his own run-ins with the BATFX, including a unique video of him proving the incompetence of the BATFX technician.

Another pending case is that of Red’s Trading Post, which the ATF is trying to shut down a dealer for less than perfect paperwork. The interesting thing here is that their own paperwork is very sloppy–and yet, some years ago, Thomas Busey, Firearms branch director, stated in an ATF internal training video that despite known problems, agents would always testify in court that the Bureau’s records were “100%”.

Posted in BATFX, Guns and Ammo, Law, Media, Press, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

LGF Plays for the Wrong Side

Sunday, September 23rd, 2007

Sorry, I can’t get myself worked up over this, seeing as I believe in both the First and Second amendments.

No, wait, I can get worked up, but worked up over the response in comments, not the original article.

Folks, the instructions as given assume the hard part: possession of explosives and ordnance. If you already have the boomstuff, all this is obvious to the meanest intelligence, even jihadists. Do a search for “shaped charge”–all kinds of lovely stuff out there, even demos from the Discovery Channel on Youtube.

For example, here’s the Wikipedia instructions for preparing TNT:

TNT is synthesized in a two-step process. First, toluene is nitrated with a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acid to produce mono- and dinitrotoluene. Next, the mixture of mono- and dinitrotoluene is further nitrated with a mixture of nitric acid and oleum, a more potent nitration recipe. The waste acid from this second step can be recycled for use in the first.

This is not a recipe for preparing TNT. This is a recipe for blowing your idiot self to smithereens. The article that the LGFers are so upset about is even less useful.

A workable recipe, two pages of fine print, is found in Tenney L. Davis’ WWII classic The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives. It’s in print, and you can it buy from Amazon for $25. Hint: stock up on ice.

All you folks reporting this to the Feds: thank you ever so much for stroking the BATFX egos. Thank you for telling them you approve of suppressing this info. Thank you for playing the Zumbo card. Thank you for doing your part to make the purchase of things like nitric acid and lab glassware even more difficult than it already is. Don’t forget to vote for Giuliani.

Here’s what I want: Ahmaidjit not remotely dreaming of going to a New York where the 2nd Amendment is in effect, and where books on improvised explosives and ambush techniques are in every bookstore, because he knows he wouldn’t make it in from La Guardia. Too bad that can’t happen.

Posted in BATFX, Guns and Ammo, Political Correctness, War | 1 Comment »