Agent Points Gun at Man's Head in Tavern

As reported in the Milwaukee Sentinal, Milwaukee, Wi. on March 9, 1995:

An agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was assigned to administrative duty Wednesday pending the outcome of an internal investigation into allegations he held a gun to the head of a man in a downtown tavern, an ATF spokesman said.

The 43 year-old agent appeared in the district attourney's office Tuesday, but no charges had been issued Wednesday.

The agent allegedly threatened a man at the Gas-Lite tavern, 775 N. Jackson St., Monday evening. The agent was not arrested.

The agency's Office of inspection is investigating the incident, said Jim Kuboushek, an ATF spokesman in St. Paul, Minn.

Background Check Charges

From: lvc@cbvox1.att.com
Subject: The PROponent, March 1994
Message-ID: <9403140254.AA23871@ig1.att.att.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 1994 02:45:36 GMT

{{Discussion of actions by Ohio Attorney general Lee Fisher.}}

"Also without any tax legislation being passed and at the encouragement of the BATF Lee Fisher simply slapped a fifteen dollar charge on gun buyers for doing the check. No study to determine real costs. No legislative oversight. Just old plain and simple taxation without representation."

Agents Play Russian Roulette

Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: kmitchel@netcom.com (Kenneth C. Mitchell)
Subject: BATF agent kills another BATF agent
Message-ID:
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 19:49:19 GMT

{{Summary of news articles about a fatal game of Russian Roulette on the part of two BATF agents.}}

Agents Harass non-FFL Surplus Store

{{excerpted}}
From: atfurman@cup.portal.com (A T Furman)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: BATF harasses non-FFL surplus store.
Message-ID: <101446@cup.portal.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 03:50:21 PST

"Stephen Grant writes:

>I just heard an interesting story.

>There is a local army/navy surplus store that sells ammo and various
>non-PC items like folding SKS stocks.
>Last week, the BATF came into the store and told the owner that if
>they "didn't get rid of" the SKS stocks and some non-PC literature
>(10/22 exotic weapon system-like books) that they would "shut them down".

>They also had the owner pull all inert grenade shells so they
>could be inspected/inventoried.
>I wasn't aware that selling SKS stocks was illegal. Nor was I
>aware that the first amendment was repealed.  What next?"

BATF Raid on Auto Parts Store in Atlanta

From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond)
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 93 06:29:10 GMT

On the BATF front, they've been at it again here in Atlanta. Friday night the BATF led an armed assault on a car parts store here in Atlanta to recover some allegedly stolen TIRES. That's right, automobile tires. The raid involved over 75 BATF goons. This time they were in full gestapo uniform including the black uniforms and helmets that were dead ringers for the WWII German NAZI helmets. I couldn't tell from the TV coverage whether they had their SS arm bands. One of the TV reporters asked a BATF spokesman why the obvious excessive use of force was necessary. He replied "Better safe than sorry." Gotta watch out for those evil assault white sidewalls! Still unanswered was why the BATF was involved in what could at most be a Treasury and/or an FBI matter. I guess the BATF has become Comendante Reno's dirty tricks squad.

John De Armond, WD4OQC                | For a free sample magazine, send
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Marietta, Ga     "Love America"       | (Domestic) to PO Box 669728
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BATF Abuses From the 70s

BATF Abuses From the 70s

Georgia Man Bankrupted

       -a man in Georgia who applied for a Federal Firearms License
        (FFL) because he wanted to sell one or two guns at gun-shows
        per year. BATF told him IN WRITING that he didn't need such
        a license; the next time he sold a gun at a gun show, it
        was to a BATF officer who arrested him for "dealing in
        firearms without a license". It took a few years and
        literally all the money he had to get to a Federal court,
        where the judge threw the case out of court with prejudice
        and publicly reprimanded the BATF. He won, but was
        bankrupt.

BATF Abuses From the 70s

Man Shot in Bathtub

       -a no-knock raid in Michigan, based on an anonymous tip,
        in which BATF and other law-enforcement officials burst
        into a house WITHOUT ANY IDENTIFICATION and shot a 
        man in his bathtub. The "tip", claiming illegal manufacture
        of firearms, proved to be false. The householder remained
        in intensive care for some time and never fully recovered
        from being shot by Federal and local law enforcement 
        officials.

BATF Abuses From the 70s

BATF Raid of California Gun Show

       -a BATF 'raid' of a California gun show (San Jose, I believe)
        during which every single person at the show was ordered
        to line up against a wall to be photographed. Some were 
        searched and pushed around; no arrests were made.

BATF Abuses From the 70s

DeConcini BATF Hearings

       As a result of these and other flagrent abuses of power,
       Senator DeConcini of Arizona (yes, the same one who wants
       to ban rifles...) called hearings in which BATF was grilled
       on some of these cases. Of course, all the abuses were
       "isolated incidents"; but some changes were made in
       the organization (and some personnel transferred).
       Specifically, I believe that BATF officers were forbidden
       to enter gun shows, among other things. Obviously, it
       isn't enough.

BATF Abuses From the 70s

GOA Defends Pennsylvania State Trooper

Gun Owners of America takes on individual cases, depending on the situation.

GOA successfully defended a Pennsylvania State Trooper, in the last 4 years, against absurd BATF claims of "illegal possession of a machinegun".

The police officer consulted with BATF in reference to sending his legally-owned AR-15 back to Colt, because the rifle "doubled" from time to time. (Doubling is when a firearm fires two shots with one operation of the trigger; it indicates wear in the trigger group and/or disconnector.)

Following BATF's advice, the officer shipped it to Colt. BATF intercepted the package, tested the rifle until it fired two shots as a result of one operation of the trigger and then arrested the officer for "illegal possession of an unregistered machinegun".

GOA members provided money to get a legal team on the case; once again, a Federal judge threw a BATF case out with prejudice and lectured the Federal officials from the bench on the gross inappropriateness of their behavior.

El Rukn Convictions Overthrown

{Excerpted}
From page 1 of the Tuesday September 21, 1993 Chicago Tribune:

"More Rukn convictions fall" by Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writer

Callng the decision his "most painful" in 22 years on the bench, a federal judge Monday threw out the racketeering convctions of former Chicago businessman Noa Robinson and six heigh-ranking El Rukn leaders and ordered retrials because of government misconduct.

In a detailed, hard=hitting ruling, U.S. District Judge Marvin Aspen became the third federal judge since June to conclude that the government tainted the Runk convictions by deliberately concealing drug use in jail by two of its star witnesses.

In what has become an unprecedented scandal for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, the convictions of 13 defendants from three Rukn trials have been overturned. Lawyers for another 24 convicted Rukns are seeking new trials, and some of the 16 other Rukns who pleaded guilty are trying to back out of the deals.

"I think the house of cards has tumbled, and it may be impossible to reconstruct," said Ronald J. Clark, one of the defense lawyers in Aspen's trial, in reaction to the judge's ruling.

With three judges agreeing prosecutors committed misconduct, the U.S. attorney's office may find it difficult to appeal the adverse rulings, said Allan Ackerman, Robinson's attorney, and other lawyers. Prosecutors also may be unable to retry many of the Rukns because the credibility of certain key government witnesses has been damaged by evidence of their drug use in jail and other wrongdoing.

In his 181-page opinion, Aspen said the evidence was "overwhelming" that some members of the prosecution team knew of illegal drug use by Henry Leon Harris and Harry Evans, two Rukn coooperating witnesses, while they were incarcerated in the Metropolitan Correctinal Center. In addition, Aspen concluded prosecutors "had knowledge of or condoned" sexual contact between at least four Rukn cooperators and their wives or girlfriends during visits in the U.S. attorney's office and a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in the Kluczynski Federal Building.

"Even more significantly, such contact visits coupled with shamefully lax security afforded the cooperating witnesses an uninhibited avenue for the flow of narcotics," the judge wrote.