Newsgroups: alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.politics.usa.misc,talk.politics.misc,soc.rights.human
From: [j k p] at [cs.HUT.FI] (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: BATF of USA
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1993 08:27:06 GMT

> Well, when the nice federal officers come to my house to check out my
> extensive weapons cache, I'll just be sure not to shoot at them.
> "Tea, ladies and gentlemen?"

Just maybe you won't be home.  Then you can come home to something 
like this:

    "Well, it's been a rough month," begins Johnnie Lawmaster.  "I
 just get laid off, and my divorce became final.  But I just wasn't
 ready for what happened this particular Monday."

    That particular Monday was was December 16, the first day of the
 Bill of Rights' third century, the day when federal agents and local
 law enforcement officer broke into the house in Tulsa that always flew
 the U.S. flag.  When Lawmaster drove into the driveway that bleak
 afternoon, one of his neighbors had some news.

    "'Ohmigod, John, you are in big trouble!' my neighbor tells me.
 'Sixty police, federal agents and the bomb squad busted in you house,
 kicked down the door, cut locks off your gun safe.'  I couldn't
 believe it.  Then I walked inside.  What a nightmare."

    It was no nightmare; it was horribly real life.  Apparently acting
 on information the Lawmaster possessed an illegal firearm, some thirty
 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) teamed up
 with state and Tulsa police authorities, search warrant in hand, to
 search for a "Colt, AR-15, .223 caliber machine gun, unknown serial
 number."  The warrant, issued by U.S. Magistrate John Leo Wagner, also
 authorized agents to seize "any tools used in the alteration or
 modification of firearms, such as files or drills; documents, papers,
 books, records, and other tangible properties which identify occupants
 or owners of the property to be searched...."

    Reports vary, but according to neighbors, the joint task force
 operation aimed at the unemployed warehouseman from a nearby hospital
 involved some 60 agents and local law enforcement personnel against
 Lawmaster.  They cordoned off the street; took station with weapons
 drawn in the back yard; used a battering ram to break through the
 front door; kicked in the back door; broke into his gun safe; threw
 personal papers around the house; spilled boxes of ammunition on the
 floor; broke into a small, locked box that contained precious coins;
 stood on a table to peer through the ceiling tiles, breaking the table
 in the process.  Then, they left.  The doors were closed but not
 latched, much less locked.  The ammo and guns were left unsecured.

    "My front and back doors were pulled shut, but they were busted
 through and couldn't latch.  Anybody could have waltzed in there and
 stolen everything I own.  A child could have taken a gun.  The guns,
 the safe -- everything was open and laying around.  I keep all my
 magazines empty, but someone had loaded them.  While I was looking
 around in amazement, the gas, electric and water companies show up to
 turn the power off.  They said they were told to shut things down.
 Then I found the note.  "Nothing Found - ATF."

    "They didn't make any attempt to notify me.  I've lived in Tulsa
 all my life and never got more than a traffic ticket.  How come they
 can't look that up, realize I've been law-abiding my whole life, then
 come to the door when I'm home?  They didn't leave someone here to
 watch over my private property.  They didn't even come by to explain
 what happened.  They just raided my home, ransaked it, left it wide
 open and left."

    Lawmaster placed a phone call to the local BATF agent.  "I asked,
 'Are you gonna' arrest me?' and he said, 'No.'  I asken him, "Who is
 going to repair and clean up my house?'  And he said, "If you're going
 to talk to me, come down to my office.'

    "'I can't come down!' I said.  'My doors are broken!'  If I had
 been on vacation and I didn't have friendly neighbors, I would have
 lost everything I own.  Here I am a competent, responsible firearms
 owner, and the government leaves them open, unlocked, with ammo strewn
 around."

    Lawmaster said the agent advised him, "If you want your door to
 lock and your gun safe to lock, you're gonna' have to pay for it
 yourself."

    "'Oh, I'll come right down, alright,' I told him.  'I'll come
 down, but I'll bring my attorney.'  And he said, 'Well, you bring
 your attorney, and we won't talk to you.'"


So if you don't want your tea party to be held in awkward silence, make
sure your lawyer isn't there, there's a good chap.


> It's very sad all those people died, especially the kids, but that's going
> to happen in a free society whenever psychologically needy people hook up
> with a charismatic nutcase.

What a repulsive outlook on society.  "Followers of unusual religions
may be killed by the government -- it simply can't be helped in a free
society."

You and I have two different concepts of "free."
-- 

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