KT Ordnance Update
Via Publicola, JPFO has an interview with Richard Celata on the recent raid on KT by the ATF and some Canadians:
Richard: On June 6th we were raided by the ATF, the FBI, and the Canadian ATF. The search warrant said that they were looking for firearms and other items pertaining to the manufacturer of sale and receipt of such items. They also claimed that we were manufacturing without a license, which obviously isn’t true because we don’t make anything that requires a license. All our products are nonlicensable.
…
Aaron: … Your lawyer, Quentin Roads, has suggested that he thinks this whole raid was really a fishing expedition. Can you comment on that?
Richard: We believe that at the time because of items that they took and things that they didn’t take, questioning me more about militias and that activity, and just the records that they were after, the types of records, my client list and sales receipts to things I purchased and resold to someone else, so we think it was geared on that.
Aaron: So, they wanted to know who your customer base was?
Richard: Right.
…
Richard: Well that is what it comes down to is their interpretation. We have known from previous determination letters that they really don’t mean much even after they issue one. They have issued several letters claiming that the AR15 in such a configuration is not a firearm along with also the 1911s, yet it is arbitrary. You can send in two 80% frames to the ATF at two different times and get two different answers. One time one person will look at it and say it is a firearm and another time another person will look at it and say, no it is not, so there is not much determination on that of what constitutes that, but the general rule of thumb that they go by is that if it cannot be assembled in any manner and fire a single round, it is not a firearm. It would take a considerable amount of time, depending on your skill level; of course, my skill level is above most average people who buy these, so it would take me less time than someone else who would not have my skill level, but still the AR15 style rifle, you can’t assemble it, you can’t put a hammer trigger, you can’t put the buffer tube in, you need to drill and tap. I think it is pretty much about 18 or 20 holes in it before it will work properly and if you don’t do the hammer and trigger hole properly, it will never work. The sear will not engage. So it is not like you just buy something and assemble it and 10 minutes later, you have a working firearm. Most people take an average of between 20 hours to finish one to bring it to 100% receiver.
There’s a lot more but it looks like they are going after the DIY folks.
July 21st, 2006 at 5:35 pm
My GOD! It’s like this agency of the government who swore to PROTECT us is instead making WAR on us!
I must be confused.
July 22nd, 2006 at 3:17 am
I went to the KT event earlier this week.
There was one guy, that nobody liked, asking around for a .22 Mag and a silencer for it on Sunday when I wasn’t there. On Monday he returned, asking around for a .357 magnum off the books, complained that “the feds” shut the event down because he really wanted a gun the government didn’t know about. He then told my buddy and I how he brandished a pistol twice to scare off some black guys in Chicago (putting it on the dashboard of his car) and started to explain how only the Neo-Nazi and KKK groups publish information about blacks kiling white men, turning their wives into whores in 3 days, and selling their kids into the sex-slave trade.
The guy wasn’t dumb.
The guy wasn’t crazy.
He was clean shaven. His hair was cut nice and short. He brought no information to the table, only questions. He even had qustions about laws in IL, his home state, that were so targeted only a serious gun nut would have any idea how they worked. That was his lead-in question, actually, and I just played dumb because I could tell right away what this guy was up to.
First he checked to see what we knew about mundane state laws regarding firearms ownership where we don’t live. We played dumb.
Then he checked to see what we thought about “the feds.” We made no comment.
Then he checked to see how much we knew about inter-state transfers after mentioning he’s not an MT resident and wants to buy a pistol “off the record.” All I said to that one was, “Nope, don’t know anybody selling one. Besides, we’re from Michigan, the government already knows about all our pistols.”
Then he checked to see if we support any white supremacy groups. No comment from us on that one too.
Can you guess where this guy gets his paycheck from? If you answered “The ATF” you deserve a cookie.