Our Government wouldn't ruin someones life without proof, Right?

'National Guardsman's career destroyed by ATF

In recent weeks I have focused on a variety of stupid gun laws. This week I want to look at an example of how application of these stupid laws has seriously harmed one individual.

Albert Kwan lost his small firearms business and his commercial real estate business along with his 25-year career in the National Guard, much of his extensive and extremely valuable firearms collection and all of his life savings. He currently works for a Christian mission program in China and owes his attorney something in excess of $400,000 – all in the name of stupid gun laws and over-zealous enforcement.

Kwan came to the attention of the FBI as they were investigating the 2001 murder of Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Wales. Kwan's name showed up on a shipping manifest for a company that sold a particular style of replacement barrel for Makarov pistols – an inexpensive Eastern Block pistol. The company's sales records were sketchy, but the FBI had managed to track down about 1,700 of the over 3,600 barrels the company had sold over the previous decade.

Kwan was simply one of those customers, and like many of the others, Kwan was not interested in allowing the FBI to freely dig through his gun collection looking for a needle in a haystack without a warrant. The FBI came back to Kwan's with a warrant and looked through his guns. They took one of his Makarovs for testing, but they also contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, to tell them about some of the other guns they had seen at Kwan's.

The FBI was sure that Kwan had purchased two of the Makarov barrels, but Kwan insisted that he only remembered purchasing one – nearly 10 years prior. Convinced that Kwan was holding something back and might be able to lead them to a suspect, the FBI helped ATF swear out a search warrant to search Kwan's collection for illegal firearms.

What they focused on was one M14 semi-auto rifle, a legally owned full-auto H&K machine-pistol with detachable shoulder stock, and a similar, legally owned H&K semi-auto pistol. They also confiscated a second shoulder stock for the machine-pistol.

Meanwhile the FBI arrested Kwan as a material witness and held him for 3 weeks. They announced the arrest to the media, which published information about Kwan and his "arsenal" of firearms. Kwan agreed to take a polygraph test, but the FBI said he failed the test – and released that information to the media too.

After he was finally released on the material witness charge, Kwan, who was a licensed dealer and collector of machineguns, was arrested on the grounds that the M14 the ATF had confiscated was an unregistered machinegun. They later added a charge of possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle, or SBR.

At the trial, ATF testified that they had ground away welds and replaced most of the gun's internal mechanism to finally get the gun to fire three rounds with a single pull of the trigger.

The jury didn't buy the unregistered machinegun charge in light of the lengths ATF had to go to in order to get the gun to fire full-auto, and the charge was returned "not guilty." On the question of the SBR, ATF insisted that having two shoulder stocks and two H&K pistols to which the shoulder stocks could be attached constituted possession of two SBRs. The judge blocked introduction of evidence to the contrary, and the jury returned a guilty verdict on the SBR charge.

Upon appeal the judge acknowledged that he had erred in disallowing the defense arguments about the SBR and that ATF and prosecutors had misled the court regarding standards for such a charge. The Supreme Court had previously ruled in U.S. v. Thompson Center Arms that just having parts that could be configured into a SBR did not constitute actually possessing a SBR as long as the parts were not actually put together in that configuration – especially when the parts could be otherwise assembled in a way that did not create a violation. The Court also ruled that in such ambiguous cases courts should always lean in favor of the accused, not the government.

With that acknowledgement a judge reversed Kwan's conviction and ordered a new trial. Admitting that they could not win the case with the Thompson Center case being applied, prosecutors dropped the charges against Kwan.

Even though the charges were dropped, Kwan was never publicly exonerated, and the damage to his reputation and his businesses can not be undone. His neighbors have actively petitioned to keep him from reopening his home-based firearms business, his real estate business is gone, the National Guard is resisting his resumption of service and many of his guns have simply disappeared. And with all of that, the lawyers say that even if he had the money to pursue reparations for the devastation government agents have wreaked on his life, they do not believe he could win.

In all of this, not one gun-rights organization, legal defense fund or civil rights group has provided any substantive assistance at all. The Firearms Coalition has done what we can to provide moral support and raise awareness of Kwan's plight, but we do not have the resources to do more than sound the alarm. The only bright spot in Albert Kwan's case is that at least he is alive to try to put his life back together.

Other targets of ATF's enforcement of federal gun laws have not been so lucky.

Remember that Ruby Ridge was triggered by an accusation of a shotgun barrel that was a quarter-inch too short and the Waco tragedy was triggered by an accusation of a semi-auto rifle being converted to fire automatically.

While ATF abuses have become legendary, it is to be expected that any federal agency tasked with enforcement of the current misguided and convoluted gun laws would undoubtedly follow a similar path of abuse. Bad laws make for bad enforcement, and bad enforcement destroys innocent people's lives. Written by Jeff Knox'

Not only did the FBI and ATF ruin this veterans life, The ATF admitted 'framing' him. At least that is what I would call, "At the trial, ATF testified that they had ground away welds and replaced most of the gun's internal mechanism to finally get the gun to fire three rounds with a single pull of the trigger." When a GOVERNMENT agency has to do MAJOR modifications to a weapon to make it illegal and then tries to prosecute you BECAUSE OF THEIR MODIFICATIONS, then something is very wrong.

And if the government takes your property and then 'loses' them, "and many of his guns have simply disappeared" (wanna bet they are in some ATF agents collection?), shouldn't they have to pay you for the cost of replacing them? Hell, find the last person who had access to the weapons and investigate/arrest them.

And finally, "Admitting that they could not win the case ... prosecutors dropped the charges against Kwan.", If they pressed to prosecute a case then they should be held responsible for the aftermath of doing the wrong thing.

Where is the oversight on these agencies? I mean, Any person touching an others private areas without permission is guilty of a sex crime...... Unless you work for the TSA.

"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." ~ Thomas Jefferson

Dan Emplit WBFD

What does a doctors visit got to do with Gun ownership?

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, February 22, 2011 --

'Emergency room doctors, psychiatrists and pediatricians should not be able to ask a patient whether he or she owns a gun, a panel of Florida lawmakers said Tuesday, giving the OK to a proposal that pits two of the state’s most politically powerful lobbying interests – the National Rifle Association and the Florida Medical Association – against each other.

The Senate Criminal Justice Association approved on a 4-1 vote a bill to bar doctors from asking patients whether they own guns, unless the doctor believes a patient may immediately harm him or herself with a gun. If doctors were to question a patient about gun ownership, they would face substantial fines under the bill.

“It gives patients the right to refuse to answer questions that are inappropriate,” said Florida NRA lobbyist and former National NRA President Marion Hammer.

The bill, which originally would have fined doctors $5 million for asking patients about gun ownership, was stripped of its original language and amended to create a tiered fine system for violators. An offending doctor would be charged $10,000 for the first offense, at least $25,000 for the second offense, and a minimum of $100,000 for the third offense.

Hammer said some doctors are injecting politics into medical care and that when the NRA asked the FMA to address it, no action was taken. So, it began pushing for legislation.

“It’s about politics,” she said. “Pure, raw, anti-gun politics being imposed on patients when they are most vulnerable, when they are sick or hurt and need help.”

Doctors have pushed back though, saying the restrictions the bill puts on medical personnel hampers their ability to treat and protect patients.

Dr. Vidor Friedman, the president-elect of the Florida College of Emergency Medicine, told lawmakers that doctors often need to question patients in the course of treatment to ensure they are not in danger of being further injured. Particularly in domestic abuse cases, he said, doctors are often trying to ascertain whether a patient feels safe.

“I don’t care if you own a gun or not,” Friedman said. “The question is, is the gun still a risk to you.”

With children, doctors are also worried, said Dr. Louis St. Petery, a Leon County pediatrician who is executive vice president of the Florida Chapter of American Pediatrics and a member of the FMA. The issue, he said, wasn’t whether families owned a gun, it was whether children had access to it.

“Our issue is if you have a gun, let’s talk about how to properly store that gun so that children don’t get accidentally shot and killed,” he said.

But for several members of the committee, it came down to a matter of privacy. Lawmakers largely said they couldn’t understand why doctors would need to ask about guns, even if it involved a criminal action.

Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, who has generally supported gun control legislation, said he was looking for a reason to vote against the bill, but couldn’t figure out why doctors would need to ask whether their patients own guns.

“That would be a question more for law enforcement,” Smith said. “I don’t see why the doctor has to be involved in that.”

The bill (SB 432) also must pass the Senate Health Regulation, Judiciary and Budget committees.'


This isn't about safety, but an anti-second amendment rights agenda. And an invasion of privacy.
And I'm really wary of this quote, “It gives patients the right to refuse to answer questions that are inappropriate,” ...!!!!!! Does this mean the doctor could withhold care if the patient told him, "It's none of your business"? If you are wondering what patient would say something like that, I WOULD.
"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." -Thomas Jefferson.
Actually the full quote is "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." -Thomas Jefferson

Dan Emplit WBFD

WTF?

"‘Gun’ Hand Gesture Gets Oklahoma 1st-Grader Suspended

Posted on January 21, 2011 at 5:01pm by Meredith Jessup Print

An Oklahoma 1st-grader was reportedly suspended from school earlier this month after making a gun gesture with his fingers.

The boy’s mother, Lydia Fox, says the principal at Parkview Elementary called her earlier this month to tell her that her 7-year-old son had misbehaved during a school assembly by pretending to shoot a gun. As a result, the principal said the young boy would be placed in in-school suspension and face a more harsh punishment if it happened again.

Midwest City-Del City Schools spokeswoman Stacey Boyer confirmed to the Associated Press that the incident took place and said the district’s policy is to “address the disruption of the learning environment.“ The young boy ”has repeatedly used his hands to simulate a gun,” Boyer added."


"Oklahoma 1st-grade boy makes gun gesture with fingers, lands in trouble at school

12:02 p.m. CST, January 20, 2011
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The mother of a first-grade boy disciplined after making a gun gesture with his fingers while at school says the district overreacted.

Lydia Fox says the principal at Parkview Elementary called her earlier this month to tell Fox her 7-year-old son had misbehaved during a school assembly by pretending he was shooting a gun.

Fox says the principal told her the boy would be placed in in-school suspension for the rest of that day and threatened a longer suspension if it happened again.

Midwest City-Del City Schools spokeswoman Stacey Boyer confirmed the incident and says the district's policy is to "address the disruption of the learning environment." Boyer says Fox's son "has repeatedly used his hands to simulate a gun."

Radio station KTOK in Oklahoma City initially reported the story."

Honestly, I can't believe this kind of moronic crap is going on here. I've said it before, "There is not much you can say about someone so obviously divorced from reality and any rational thought." HE'S SEVEN!!!!! What is wrong with people today? We want more action in our movies but when children 'make a gun' with their fingers we go ape $hit!!? This politically correct crap is killing our minds.

Dan Emplit WBFD