From: schuetzen - RKBA! 
Subject: SNET: (fwd) : ATF Confiscations Continue!!
Date: 1 Nov 2000 21:40:25 -0500
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Subject: ATF Confiscations Continue!!
From: "KeepAndBearArms.com" 
Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 09:42:01 (GMT)


ATF RIPS OFF ANOTHER ARIZONA GUN DEALER!
ATF RIPS OFF ANOTHER ARIZONA GUN DEALER!
ATF RIPS OFF ANOTHER ARIZONA GUN DEALER!

* Confiscates 274 guns and 3,000 Form 4473's
* No official arrest, no charges filed

by Angel Shamaya
Director, KeepAndBearArms.com
November 1, 2000

http://www.keepandbeararms.com/newsarchives/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=834

"They were throwing vintage collector's items in 
mint condition through the air and into a trashcan 
10 feet away," said Jerry Michel, licensed gun dealer, 
after being assaulted and pillaged by the ATF. "I felt 
like I was going to throw up."

And so might you before you're done reading this 
report.

On October 25, 2000, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco 
and Firearms sent approximately 30 federal and local 
agents in stormtrooper attire to confiscate firearms 
from a dealer who, according to what they told him, 
"did not have his papers in order."  Jerry's Guns & 
Ammo d.b.a. Specialty Firearms of Mesa, Arizona was 
the latest in a long list of gun dealers who've been 
paid a visit by people who, when rightly told, "You're 
not supposed to do that" respond by saying things like: 

"We're the ATF. We can do whatever we want."

According to Jerry Michel, that's what they said to 
him when he confronted them as they threw a 1960's 
Winchester Model 94 Antique into a trashcan that 
already contained a few dozen of his guns. Though the 
classic, mint condition gun was still in its original 
box, they removed it from the box and tossed it into 
the growing pile of firearms ranging in value from a 
few hundred to several thousand dollars -- metal 
slamming against metal, metal gouging wood, etc. 
-- like one might toss so much kindling onto a campfire.

These government operatives also confiscated guns Jerry 
held on consignment for several customers, and they also 
took his personally-owned firearms along with guns he'd 
been storing for an ailing friend.

When I called ATF today to find out if it is standard 
operating procedure to wantonly damage collector's 
items when they are stealing them, Larry X said, 

"They didn't do that. They don't do things like that." 

"Were you there, Larry?" 

"No, I wasn't." 

"Then how do you know they didn't do that, Larry?"

His response made me laugh:
 "Who am I speaking with again?"

You should be able to see the above actions on color 
video. Jerry installed video surveillance equipment 
at Specialty Firearms some time ago and uses it 
consistently during hours of operation, too. He'd only 
been open for three minutes when he was lured out the 
front door under false pretenses and surrounded by 
heavily armed and body-armored gun confiscators, so 
there was a new tape in the player and the tape was 
rolling. But ATF confiscated the tape that shows them 
unnecessarily and irreparably damaging Jerry's property
 -- and broke his VCR in the process.

I am sitting here reading -- for the third time -- the 
search warrant, given to me by Jerry himself, and I 
can't seem to locate the words "video tape" anywhere 
on the warrant.

The video tape will be subpoenaed to prove damages, 
we pray, in a class action lawsuit against ATF. Will 
it mysteriously disappear?

(Was ATF afraid to let people see what abusive and 
disrespectful people they are? Why else would they 
cover their tracks like common hoodlums? Maybe 
Special Agent in Charge and Group Supervisor Marvin 
G. Richardson or Assistant SAIC, Joe M. Gordon 
- overseers in this outrageous act of violence - can 
answer those questions. Or perhaps Robert C. Gantt, 
the agent who secured the search warrant from U.S. 
Magistrate Judge Lawrence O. Anderson -- the judge 
who presided over Bob Stewart's preposterous hearings
 -- can help shed some light on how a tape can be 
stolen when it's not on the search warrant.)

The Mesa police assisted in this raid, as well, 
earning themselves a demotion in the eyes of every 
gun owner in Arizona. Congratulations, officers. 
You helped assault a Good Guy and alienated a whole 
segment of the society you are supposed to protect 
and serve. Nice goin'.

Jerry's crime? Apparently, in Mesa, the city has an 
ordinance requiring gun dealers to have a "pawn 
permit" if they sell used firearms -- or so he was 
told while a team of armed and consistently 
disrespectful "men" busied themselves stealing 274 
guns with an estimated value of approximately 
$300,000.

"How much is the pawn permit," you ask?  

$100.

Jerry Michel's Federal Firearms License (FFL) is 
current by way of a 6 month extension, so he is in 
fact a legal gun dealer. In fact, he's had his FFL 
since 1986, continuously.  He does business with 
approximately 285 other gun dealers around the 
nation, and his reputation is one of integrity 
and lawfulness. No arrests or prior convictions, 
at all. Not even a speeding ticket to his name.  
Jerry is a "by the book" kinda guy.

Except for that little permit said to be required 
in Mesa. And that is only if the ATF was telling 
the truth. (Some of them are incorrigible liars, 
you know. ATF sends super-secret special agents 
who impersonate other people's identities into 
gun dealers' businesses to attempt to trick them 
into committing technical violations, so they are 
not only liars, they are entrapping imposters, as 
well.)

Jerry Michel had two guns on his person at the time 
of the assault. Both were returned to him after his 
business and personal quarters were trashed entirely, 
all drawers emptied as if the place had been looted. 
(It had.) When he asked if he was "out of business," 
he was told he could conduct business as usual. When 
he asked what he was supposed to sell, one agent's 
response tells all about the ATF. "You can sell some 
of this ammo," he said with a mean, sneering chuckle. 
"Heh heh."  The fact that Jerry's gun business profits 
are helping to take care of his ailing mother -- who 
just got out of the hospital and is on expensive 
medications -- is of little importance to ATF. They 
strip people of their possessions and livelihood for 
insignificant, petty technical violations as a way of 
life. It's who they are.

With an unusual October rain pouring down on a cool 
desert night, the battered gun dealer began to open 
up about the event. We were sitting in my vehicle in 
a parking lot of an auto parts store in Mesa as Jerry 
was feeling a bit uncomfortable in his home and 
business.  John Arbon of CPHV.com was with us.  Having 
been a personal friend of Jerry's for nearly 4 years, 
he helped set up the meeting.  (During the two and a 
half hours we talked, several unmarked vehicles u-turned 
at the median directly in front of where we were parked, 
some of them two and three times, and every time we 
noticed that the vehicles had two to four antennas 
sticking out of them -- and the passengers kept hiding 
their faces. Coincidence?)

"I have operated my business by the book to the very 
best of my ability since day one," Jerry stated 
matter-of-factly.  "In fact, I have sold many guns to 
police officers over the years, and I've worked on a 
lot of cops' guns, for quite some time. I've even had 
cops ask me to build machineguns for them and to show 
them how to convert guns to full auto, and I have 
refused every time. I respect the law. I have a lot of 
friends who are good cops, and I respect them, too."

But the law no longer respects gun dealers like they 
once did, a fact Mr. Jerry Michel now fully and very 
personally understands.

"I don't have anything to hide," he said quite clearly, 
exasperated. "I am not a criminal. I just got my FFL 
extension in mid May. Why would they extend my license 
if I was under suspicion?" he asked, reaching for 
understanding as to why he was targeted. "And why 
wouldn't they simply call me up and tell me I need to 
come down and pay for some $100 permit? That is what 
an aboveboard and citizen-supportive organization would 
do."

During the course of this atrocity, Mr. Michel's 
fingerprints were taken, on the premises. His mugshots 
were also taken, right out in front of his store with 
35-40 people looking on, including one or two of his 
own customers. "I was humiliated and outraged, and I 
still am," he says. "I did nothing at all to deserve 
this, and they treated me like I was a criminal right 
out in front of my own store."

Angel Shamaya:  Jerry, this type of assault is being 
perpetrated against lawful, peaceable gun dealers all 
across America -- and has been going on for many years. 
We consistently hear from dealers how they were 
mistreated during the ordeal of watching their 
possessions stolen and their quarters ransacked. What 
are some other things you'd like to let people know 
about this event?

Jerry Michel:  Angel, it was disgusting to see them 
damaging gun after gun. I literally felt dizzy and 
sick. And when I told them to please at least take 
decent care of my guns, one of them said "Shut up!" 
I continued to complain, and he said, again, "I told 
you to SHUT UP!" That was the theme. They destroy my 
life's work, my prize collection, my customers' custom 
made guns, and I was just supposed to bend over and 
take it with a smile. It was a nightmare! And these 
guys took things they couldn't possibly have a reason 
to take. For example, they took a black powder firearm. 
Now why in heaven's name would they do that?!

AS:  Because they can. Nobody is stopping them, and 
they show up with 30 armed people to commit their 
crimes, so resistance means sure death, unless...  
Honestly, the ATF are traitors to the Constitution 
(that countless guys died for) who engage in such 
lowly and unnecessary tactics because they are an 
integral part of the tyrannical anti-gun, anti-freedom 
movement that seeks to destroy firearms freedom 
completely, as quickly as they can. And they do it 
because they are an unregulated agency with unbridled 
power run and manned by men who routinely disrespect 
the foundational American individual right to keep 
and bear arms. In other words, they are hired 
anti-American thugs.

JM:  You know, before this happened, I thought the 
ATF was getting a bad rap in the gun community. I've 
only ever had them be polite to me. I used to welcome 
them in and we'd actually chew the fat, you know, 
talk like people. But after this experience, I can 
see why you say that. What they did to me and to my 
property is wrong. And you're right about their 
perspective on the right to keep and bear arms, too.  
One of them asked me, "Are you one of those constitution 
fanatics?" I said, "Well, I believe in the Constitution, 
don't you?" He ignored me and continued trashing my place 
while I sat helpless, handcuffed and with guys behind me 
holding guns on me.

AS:  Happens every week in America, Jerry. Gun owners 
in America are now, far too often, like the Jews under 
Hitler.  Scorned, abused, jailed and killed by the 
government gestapo, and ours goes by the name of the 
BATF.  So what else did they do that makes you see red?

JM:  Well, let's see. Oh, they took a flare launcher 
and called it a grenade launcher. And they told me I 
sold two guns to straw purchasers. When they said that, 
I actually raised my voice and said, "That is a LIE!"  
They then tried to tell me they had proof that I sold 
to straw purchasers.  I told them to show me the person 
and the gun and I would prove they were lying, and they 
just laughed at me and kept throwing my guns into a 
plastic trashcan on top of each other like they were 
enjoying it.  Not only have I never knowingly sold a 
gun to someone that was intended for someone else, I've 
kicked people out of my store who were engaging in 
conversations that even remotely seemed like that was 
their intention, and I have plenty of witnesses to such 
oustings, too. They also took two Colt Custom Single 
Action Army's with real mother-of-pearl grips out of 
their boxes and threw them into the trashcan they were 
filling. They also took guns I've had since I was 10 or 
11 years old that were made before serial numbers were 
required.

AS:  We hear this one a lot from gun owners. ATF sends 
an agents in, under cover, who behave like one is buying 
a gun for another, in hopes of catching a dealer who is 
not paying attention. Do you have any suggestions for 
other dealers who will be reading this message, Jerry?

JM:  Boy do I! Tell them this: "Any guy who has a Federal 
Firearms License, don't think this couldn't happen to you. 
Every bad thing you've heard about the ATF, I'm sorry to 
say, is true. They entrap you on some asinine technicality 
and destroy your property while you're cuffed, and they 
point loaded guns pointed at you. They steal your entire 
life's collection and throw it into a heap like it was 
trash. They belittle you, degrade you, and they attempt 
to get you to admit to things you did not say or do, and 
they enjoy it. Be careful, and follow every little tiny 
detail of the increasing red-tape regulations, and they 
still find a way to justify assaulting you. So watch your 
back, and be careful who you are willing to trust, because 
these guys look just like some of your customers, and they 
act like them too. In retrospect, I wonder now if I should 
have asked every single customer except those I knew well 
if they were government agents before I ever sold them 
anything at all, and it might be a good idea if you do 
that, too."

AS:  You seem like you're holding back from saying more, 
Jerry. I get a sense you're not really saying all that 
you feel like saying. Care to comment?

JM:  Angel, listen, my mother just got out of the hospital 
again, and the slim margins from my gun business have been 
helping me and my sister take care of her. They've just 
stripped me of my retirement. That's right, MY RETIREMENT. 
I had planned on selling much of my collection some time in 
the next few years and retiring, and now it's all gone, 
supposedly because of some $100 "pawn permit." They trashed 
custom guns that used to make people do a double-take when 
they saw them. My customers would say things like, "I didn't 
know a gun could look so perfect." And they threw those 
perfect guns of amazingly high personal and financial value 
into a trashcan. Am I angry?  You bet I am.  I don't even 
want to sleep at home, and my home is behind my shop, so it's 
all one big ugly mess now. They've not only successfully run 
me out of business, my mom called me today and told me she 
felt like she was having a heart attack just thinking about 
what they've done to me.  I know the ATF has killed innocent 
people over their guns, and now they have compromised the 
privacy of over 3,000 of my customers by confiscating my 
sales records from the last 15 years.  
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!! They even threw the business 
proprietor next door up against the wall when he walked 
outside to see what was going on -- and patted him down, 
when he did nothing, and that is an illegal search, isn't 
it?
~~~
Jerry has every right to be livid. I read through the 
23-page list of guns the ATF took from him. When I 
called ATF today, I was told he's not even been charged 
with anything, nor would they disclose their justification 
for committing such an offensive operation against a man 
who bends over backwards to comply with laws. A phone call 
would have yielded their supposed $100 "pawn permit." And, 
the search warrant -- in my possession -- does not name some 
of what was taken, nor is the list (of confiscated guns ATF 
agents left with Jerry) a complete list.
~~~
John Arbon (being threatened with lawsuit by HCI/CPHV for 
the domain name CPHV.com) alerted me to this mess through 
his having posted a personal account on TheFiringLine.com, 
an exceptional message board for gun owners. John visited 
his friend's gun shop during the ATF assault. In John's own 
words, written just after witnessing the thieves in action:

I just got home from the most disturbing sight I have ever 
witnessed. Earlier today I tried calling the gun dealer that 
I have known and purchased from for 4 years now. The phone 
was busy for hours, and when I did get through all I got was 
his answering machine. Very unusual. I drove over to his 
shop and found the parking lot jammed with unmarked, tinted 
windowed cars, along with an SUV pulling a Mesa City Police 
trailer. The shop door was propped open, not usual. Three 
men were standing outside the door, one black, one oriental, 
one white. All had 'ATF' stitched over their left breast side 
of their shirts.

I parked, got out and walked through the door as though 
I knew what I was doing. Inside I saw 10-12 more ATF 
maggots handling the guns, writing things down and pulling 
things off of the shelves.

"What are you doing in here?" the voice from behind me 
asked.

"Where's Jerry?" I asked, stunned.

"He's not here. What do you want?"

"I came by to pick up a gun. Is he alright?"

"He's fine. You can pick it up tomorrow."

"He'll be open then?"

"He should be," was the response.
~~~
John saw firsthand what many of us have known was 
happening for quite some time.

We will procure the search warrant affidavit as 
soon as possible and post it on KeepAndBearArms.com. 
These guys are going to need some hard evidence to get 
away with this, and they don't have any, so they'll have 
to make it up -- again. Shouldn't be too terribly difficult 
for the ATF...we think inventing and tampering with evidence 
might even be part of their training.

Many questions in this case remain as yet unanswered. Those 
that stand out like a sore thumb include:  

Why are there no charges when 30 armed-to-the-teeth "men" 
assaulted a man, confiscated 274 guns and over 3,000 records 
that show private information of 3,000 Americans?  Where are 
the charges? 

Jerry Michel asked more than once if he was being 
arrested, and he was told "NO, you're being detained."  
If this man wasn't even arrested, why were prints and 
mugshots taken?  And why was the video tape taken from 
Mr. Michel's surveillance equipment?  Inquiring minds 
want to know. Surely someone has an answer, but it sure 
as Hell isn't Jerry Michel. He's dumbfounded.

Jerry Michel gets the closing statement today, as follows:  

"If these guys will do this to me over some $100 permit when 
I was already licensed to sell firearms, I shudder to think 
of what they would do to someone over a $10,000 violation."

If you wish to contact Jerry Michel of Specialty Firearms, 
here is how you do so: (480) 962-0913  1055 N. Mesa Drive, 
Mesa Arizona 85201.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reprint permissions granted in any and all formats
as long as the following statement is included: 

"Reprinted with permission from KeepAndBearArms.com,
a member-supported organization that loves freedom."

Spread the word. 

And remember that Al Gore wants to hire 1,000 more of
these history-ignorant gestapo agents, so do the right
thing for your country on Super Tuesday!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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--
chas chasm@schuetzenmeister.org (Houston,TX)
The 2d Amendment protects your Freedom of Speech - RKBA!
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