Prometheus 6

P6, I'm a bit rushed but don't take this story as straight up.BATF is the crookedest (probably not a word, but hey, it's catchy) federal agency there is. The list of things they've done is rather large considering they've only been around since about '72. I'll dig up some links for ya.Anyway, here's how it goes. BATF sets up a guy in questionable (or even unquestionable bu unprovable) circumstances. They offer him a deal : do 7 to 10 & never owns a firearm again or roll over on this guy for us. Well, some people roll over on their friends or aquaintences or strangers when faced with an offer like that. So they use these 'informants' & 'close friends' to make high profile busts. They kind of things that make the paper & along with the press make for some factually inaccurate yet sensational sound bytes.Fact is it's legal to own a lot of high power weapons, even if you believe that registration & such are consttitutionally permisable. Short scoop: you pay a $200 tax, get fingerprinted & gte your sheriff to sign off for you in states that allow it. That makes silencers, short barrelled shotguns, submachine guns, belt fed machine guns, even cannons & other artillery legal.The bad part is the BATF's records are screwed. Soemthing like a 50 to 60 % rate of missing records. So they frequently bust people & ask questions about accuracy later.In short everything looks like a typical BATF/press hit piece on someone they can throw the militia tag on.besides, aside from the "anti-aircraft" gun (the press & feds know as much about the tech side of guns as most 5 year olds - I give you the stories of the automatic revolver as a prime example) there are a lot of serious, peaceful gun owners who have what the press would call an arsenal in a heart beat.Notice how they said he was arrested peaceably? All the evidence of his violent tendencies were either hear say or things that could have been taken out of context? & they weren't specific on the drug & weapons charges. He could've had a roach in the ashtray of his ride & a pistol that violated a local ordinance.Thousands of rounds of ammo? puh-lease. Most competitive shooters go through tens of thousands per year. & those are the ametuers. You'd hate to see the pro's ammo bills.So they might be onto something, but given the presses & the BATF's history I'd be real wary of believing them on anything firearms related.

i'm no fan of the ATF, but just to play devil's advocate, dave neiwert over at orcinus has a slightly different angle on this.don't kill the messenger please.

I blogged Dave Neiwert's take myself.