Arrested development in Georgia gun case

January 28, 8:22 AMGun Rights ExaminerDavid Codrea

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An "Authorized Law Enforcement Officer" has been ordered by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, to make an arrest in a machine gun case.

Guess who they're arresting?

Wrong. Not "who."

"What."

Seriously.

Here's how the warrant reads:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff,
VS .
ONE HISTORIC ARMS MODEL 54RCCS
"7 .62X54R CALIBER CONVERSION
SYSTEM" MACHINE GUN, SERIAL NO . V1, :
Defendant .

It's similar to a modern version of a deodand, although in this case, no one's ox cart has run over anyone. Still, a piece of property has offended our overlords, and for that, it must pay!

This despite the fact that the owner of said "machine gun," Historic Firearms, LLC President Len Savage, tried doing everything by the book in submitting a conversion part to ATF:

The dispute is over a part he submitted to the agency that he is proposing for an existing line of legal machine guns in the U.S. The part would convert the weapons to operate with ammunition that costs 1 or 2 cents per shell, instead of 25 cents or more...

Savage said he submitted the part to the BATFE, even though it technically was not a gun, and was stunned to get a response that not only was his repair part a gun, it was a machine gun, and he had only hours to "register" it properly.

How'd they come to that conclusion?

[A]ll it took was some metal, a length of chain, some duct tape and some plastic wire ties for the federal inspectors to make his gun part operate in that fashion, he said he was told.

Like this:


With that criteria, given enough added parts that are not part of the submitted design, I know a lot of people who could turn a banana into a machine gun.

Why are they doing this, especially since many other caliber conversion uppers exist that are not so classified? Will this area be revisited? Or is this payback for Savage testifying on behalf of David Olofson and in other cases?

Here's Savage's statement on this latest development:

I just got of the phone with Dahil Goss, Assistant United States Attorney from Northern District of Georgia. She has informed me that a complaint against the firearm I submitted to ATF's Firearms Technology Branch, who then then seized, has been filed.

I asked if a summons with attached complaint had been mailed or served upon me. She informed me that no in fact no attempt to serve me has been made. The arrest warrant has been issued for the firearm, she explained that it would take ATF 1-2 weeks to proceed with "legal fiction" [her term, not mine] and serve the arrest warrant on the firearm. She thought the arrest would occur in Martinsburg West Virginia at FTB, I was under the understanding that the firearm was in the ATF Atlanta office. I can only hope the firearm does not evade arrest if found in one place when going to arrest it in another?

I am told a copy of the complaint is available with the court clerk, Dahil Goss offered to send me a copy of the complaint, if I promised not to file anything on the case until I am served.

I will of course forward it when I receive it, your tax dollars at work...

Len has since sent both the complaint and the warrant to me, and I present download links to them below.

This is an unfolding issue (I've been reporting on it for six months), and I'll certainly return to it as things develop, as, I suspect, will a very few others who specialize in liberty-oriented journalism. It's a pity that you probably won't hear a word of this from most "mainstream" news organizations--you know, the "authorized journalist" government watchdogs we so rely on...

I'm sure they'll be right on top of ATF happenings under the hopeful changes of an Obama adminstration...

In the mean time, I'm going to give you some .pdf documents and some background information so you can more fully understand and better follow the issues at play here:

ATF correspondence (detailed): Download
The arrest warrant: Download
The complaint: Download
WorldNetDaily:"Gunmaker to feds: Make my day!"
WorldNetDaily: "Gunmaker to feds: Give me my firearm!"