Thursday, July 10, 2008

Duct Tape, Plastic Ties and Chains...


Hey, if a shoestring can be a machine gun...

Here's some correspondence between the BATFU Firearms Technology Branch and Len Savage. In addition to going through contortions to declare his property a machine gun and then refusing to return it, they've assigned his design submissions to an agent whose testimony Savage challenged.

Here's a recent email:

From: "fire_tech"
To: Len Savage
Subject: Reference Urgent Request / Phone Calls
Date: Monday, July 07, 2008 5:50:51 PM

Mr. Savage,

FTB’s response to your last written request concerning letter #3311/2008-472 is being reviewed.

FTB has been instructed to hold your property until proper registration has been completed by you with the National Firearms Act Branch.

Please contact NFA at (304) 616-4500.

Mr. Spencer will provide you with FTB’s response once the review process has been completed.

Thanks for contacting FTB!
Savage's reply:

From: lensavage
To: fire_tech...
CC: [Suppressed]
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 14:28:24 +0000

Acting Director Sullivan
Chief John Spencer
Asst. Chief Rick Vasquez

Your e-mail of July 7th has been received. I am glad your are reviewing my correspondence outlining a gross error in guidance document #3311/2008-472.

Your e-mail communication also states “FTB has been instructed to hold your property until proper registration has been completed by you with the National Firearms Act Branch.”

This statement has me gravely concerned on two levels. First, FTB is not recognizing the fact that an error may have occurred at FTB. Secondly, FTB is ignoring the fact that this firearm was properly registered with the NFA branch of the ATF.

I must point out that the above statement is clear and reliable proof that you refuse to even consider human error occurs at FTB. There were far more errors in the guidance document #3311/2008-472 than were addressed in my correspondence. I had wrote them off to Firearms Enforcement Officer Max Kingery’s inexperience with firearms. In order to be more specific:

*The firearm was made from sections of a destroyed semiautomatic PKM receiver made by “Wise Lite Arms”, not a machinegun PKM receiver.
*The document claims parts and portions have been removed when in fact this was a ground up construction, nothing was removed at anytime from this firearm, only added by me the manufacturer.
*The document hints at but fails to note that other than the feed device, no other PKM part or component will fit on or in the submitted firearm.
*The document contains photos on pages three and four show clearly that the submitted firearm receiver design is unique from the PKM machinegun receiver, but fail to note that fact in the text.
*Although a photograph of the “Calico Upper”, [classified a non firearm by FTB] was supplied with the submitted firearm, no comparative analysis was ever noted in the document.

Since you are being instructed to hold my property, and fail to explain who is instructing you, I would respectfully ask that you share the following information with those persons “instructing you”:

*Firearms Enforcement Officer Max Kingery was assigned to a position of authority over me five months after testifying against him in US v. Olofson. This appearance of impropriety is clear to anyone, the onus is on FTB at this point.
*There is a prior pattern of FTB actions that is supported by clear and reliable documentation that after or during my participation in the Federal District Court cases that FTB/ATF should consider 18 USC, section 242. “Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States,”
*My submitted firearm was properly registered with the NFA Branch of the ATF. FTB is “holding” my property. I have demanded my property back, under the “color of authority” FTB is refusing to return my property claiming it is “not properly registered”, when if fact you could instruct the NFA branch to put a “hold” on any lawful transfer, and return my property immediately. This would prevent any sales at the moment while the noted errors by FTB are addressed administratively by the acting Director of the BATFE.
*When the FTB guidance document #3311/2008-472 is compared to FTB guidance document #3311/2004-379 there is clear and reliable evidence that FTB did not comply with “Agency Good Guidance Practices” set forth by Office of the President of the United States, and mandated by him in signed executive orders.
*It appears that FTB is not aware of the “2007 Courtroom Security Act”, I was a witness in Federal District Court.

In summary, 1.) The submitted firearm was not made from a machinegun, is not a machinegun, and is my property, that I want returned immediately. 2.) Assignment of Max Kingery after a very heated and public trial less than six months post trial appears improper. 3.) The choice of FTB to install several versions of a “conversion device” in order to induce full auto fire are clear and reliable evidence that they were contrived to deny my constitutional rights as evidenced by the document #3311/2004-379 as well as the other “shoestring letters” by FTB. 4.) FTB is clearly in violation of 18 USC, section 242 as documents by FTB have clearly and reliably proven. 5.) FTB is clearly violating the mandates of the Office of President of the United States Agency Good Guidance Practices as evidenced by FTB documents.

I look forward to your continued communication.

Respectfully,

Len Savage
To find out what all this has to do with duct tape, plastic ties and chains, follow this link. They are bound and determined to have no standards so they can arbitrarily make them up and "getcha!"

We're the Only Ones "Happy Motoring" Enough

A Dallas police officer was arrested Wednesday, after authorities identified him as the man who shot at a woman's vehicle in Garland.
So much for the theory that you don't need a gun because the "Only Ones" will protect you...

[Via Tony G]

If it Quacks Like a Doc...

The New England Journal of Medicine Stumps for Gun Control post-Heller...
Yeah, but they're using BS data and techniques to reach a predesignated conclusion.

I need to see if I can post sound files on esnips--then every time I reference NEJM or some gunbashing medical fraud, I can hyperlink to a medley of quacking.

[Via Less]

"Keeping Wiltshire Safe"

A pensioner who used a piece of wood to chase away a gang of teenagers who had been throwing stones at his home is facing a jail term after being arrested and charged with possessing an offensive weapon.
Over two hours to get a police response?

Ah, yes, those are the chaps with the motto "Keeping Wiltshire Safe." They just neglected to say for whom.

[Via Brian F]

The Few, the Proud...

Military prosecutors claim Weemer, of Hindsboro, Ill., fatally shot an Iraqi after his squad leader grew irate that AK-47 rifles were found in a house the detainees claimed was free of weapons.
Thank goodness speculation about this is unfounded.

It is, isn't it?

We're the Only Ones Correct Enough

Multnomah County deputies arrested a counselor with the county's corrections office Tuesday.

Authorities booked Dennis Allen, 57, into jail on charges of coercion, custodial sexual misconduct, official misconduct and supplying contraband.
Hey, maybe he was The "Only One" for her...

[Via Jeffersonian]

We're the Only Ones Exercising Our "Authoritah" Enough

She was initially stopped for not making a complete stop when exiting the parking lot. Stokes second offense was that her current address was not on her Texas driver's license. However, she said she never dreamed that those two minor offenses would result in her being cuffed and stuffed into the backend of a squad car.
Both were ridiculous physically abusive overreactions by the Irving "Only Ones" Daniels and McPherson, who correctly judge manhandling women to be a safer career move than, say, going after these guys.

Here's the way to deal with this: Tell the Irving Chamber of Commerce you're going to tell everyone you know to avoid their punk town and their businesses until they rein in their street thugs and start treating citizens with respect.

Might as well take a minute and do it now: chamber@irvingchamber.com

[Via Tony G]

Like a GFW Neighbor, State Farm is There

About 2,000 employees spent almost two hours Thursday afternoon in the lower level of the company’s corporate headquarters at Veterans Parkway and Washington Street after a passer-by reported seeing a man with a “long gun” outside the building.

Police eventually determined the person actually saw a custodian holding what probably was a pipe.
See, he probably wasn't wearing an official-looking uniform, because then the cattle wouldn't have stampeded...

[Via RCB]

The Historical Works of John Litel

Yesterday I read about a short historical drama called Give Me Liberty at The War On Guns. Is was a 1936 dramatization of Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. Patrick Henry is my favorite of what we have come to call our "founding fathers," if you can consider him that, so I was immediately interested and intrigued. The commenter had seen it on Turner Classic Movies, but noted that it is not available on DVD. Never being one to accept anything as truth until I have verified it myself, I began doing some research.

AlanDP prospects for nuggets and finds a vein.

Collective Rights Bleg

I would like to create a consolidated list of all judicial decisions which adopted the "collective rights" theory. It would be nice to supplement the list with statements from legislators, journalists, academics, etc., claiming that "collective rights" is the only valid meaning of the Second Amendment. So I encourage commenters to supply as many citations as they would like. It would be ideal if the citations followed conventional Bluebook format, and included a brief parenthetical quote from the source.
Dave Kopel posting at The Volokh Conspiracy is looking for some help here...

This is what I submitted.

[Via Peter G]

Deleriously Exciting...Electrifying...

A man repeatedly shocked while in handcuffs at the Henderson County jail died from “excited delirium” because of physical restraint and cocaine toxicity, according to a state autopsy.
Yeah, I'm sure the repeated electro-shock behavior modification had nothing to do with it.

CSI Akron said it, i believe it, that settles it.

[Via Plug Nickel Times]

Annie Get Your Gun

We have provided this class before, and we are getting more requests to do it again. The purpose is to let women become familiar with guns they might use for self protection."

He said many women want to know more about guns for that purpose and many lack knowledge of firearms.

"The class teaches women how to use a gun and not be afraid of it," the sheriff said.
This is something that deserves encouragement. Now if the sheriff would only muster volunteers once a month for long gun training and tactics, he'd have a ready-made, well regulated citizen militia to count on in times of disaster.

Kind of like the way things oughtta be.

[Via Carl S]

Rate My Only One Redux

For most people, making a mistake on the job is tough enough. But imagine the whole world finding out about it and then judging you on the Internet.

That's happening to many police officers across the country.
We've visited this issue before, so I'll not make the same points again. What I will do is point out the comments at the NBC10.com site maintaining this is something bad.

Getting news from gun blogs has a hidden cost in terms of reaching outside "the choir": That's usually the only reach your comments will have, and the general public--who we need to get our message to, particulary about RKBA and/or The "Only Ones"--will too often be left in the dark as to "our" side of things.I suggest that we all make it a practice when commenting on stories on blogs to also post the same comment on the originating site. Yes, it will take an extra moment, but surely everyone can see the outreach benefit of making this a regular practice...

[Via Jon Soderberg]

We're the Only Ones Parking Our Pieces Enough

A mother and her children discovered a police officer’s loaded gun while visiting a South Austin park, department officials said.
A video report is here.

Glad to see the "Only One" "remains on the force." That way, if one of us does the same thing, he can arrest us, probably on several charges. But take heart: Internal Affairs is looking into whether any department policies were violated.

[Via Tony G]

Frankly Ironic

A federal grand jury has indicted Jackson Mayor Frank Melton and his two police bodyguards on charges related to damage caused to an alleged drug house on Ridgeway Street on Aug. 26, 2006.
That's too rich. "Mayor Against Guns" Frankie "charged with using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime."

What is it with violent anti-gunners? Projection?

[Via Stephen S]

National Parks Comments Extended

The goal of their strategy is clear. Extending the public comment period amounts to a blatant and intentional stalling tactic; further pushing back resolution on this matter, possibly until after the election, into a new Administration. This needless extension will also allow opponents of carrying guns in national parks (like the Humane Society of the U.S. and the National Parks Conservation Association) to rally their troops to express their opposition to this commonsense proposal.
The antis are trying to stack the deck, and they need an extension to mobilize. Regular readers know I've been bugging them to weigh in on this for months.

Please: Click on the title link, read it and and follow the instructions to submit your own comment. This is important.

Blog of the Week

Armed and Safe.

If he has one fault he needs correction on, 45superman is too modest. Ideologically, it is a place I always feel at home, and he manages to find stories of interest and get to the heart of the matter with insightful appraisals.

If you live in Illinois, this blog is an essential read, as he's on top of what's happening there like few others. And if you live anywhere else, you'll find much in terms of information, news and commentary that affect us all no matter where we live.

This certainly deserves to be a daily stop.

This Day in History: July 10

I find the Army in general and particularly the Troops raised in Massachusetts Bay very difficient in necessary Clothing: Upon Inquiry it appears there is no Probability of Obtaining any supplies in this Quarter; upon the best consideration of this matter, I am able to form, I am of Opinion that a number of hunting Shirts, not less than 10,000, would in a great Degree remove the difficulty in the cheapest and quickest manner. I know nothing so trivial in a speculative View, that in Practice would have a happy Tendency to unite the men and abolish those Provincial distinctions which lead to Jealousy and Dissatisfaction. . . . Upon the Article of Ammunition, I must re-echo the former complaints on this Subject; we are so exceedingly destitute that our Artillery will be of little use without a supply both large and seasonable; what we have, must be reserved for the small Arms and that managed with the utmost Frugality.