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utah-firearms-digest     Tuesday, October 13 1998     Volume 02 : Number 105




----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 10:39:24 -0600
From: [e-mail] (Charles Hardy)
Subject: [[e-mail]: Oct. 14 column - gun letter]

- ----BEGIN FORWARDED MESSGE----


    FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED OCT. 14, 1998
    THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
    Opening the October mailbag

    Though I usually distrust mail written under pseudonyms, the author of
a letter which poured in recently in response to one of my columns on
firearms rights is probably correct to worry that his musings might attract
the unwanted attention of sundry G-men.

  So I withhold his name while reproducing the following, sobering missive:


    #   #   #

  Vin -- Your Oct. 2 commentary "And every other terrible implement of the
soldier" hit home with me.

  I am deeply bothered by the felony penalties hinging on trivial features
of a rifle. I am currently assembling an StG58, an obsolete and beautiful
Austrian rifle that is a member of the FAL family. Austria no longer has
use for the things, and is selling them off to U.S. importers. I bought a
complete rifle, minus the receiver, which had been sawed off prior to
importation as required by the BATF. Its stub was left attached to the
barrel. I bought a brand new U.S.-made receiver in compliance with all
local, state and federal laws.

  So far, so good.  But it gets complicated once I mate the receiver to the
rest of the rifle.  here is a minefield of laws and regulations, and my
future well-being hinges on their trivialities.

  I must remove the flash hider. And then I must either saw the threaded
end off the barrel, or cover it with a "muzzle brake"... but only if I
solder the muzzle brake in place with solder having a melting point of 1100
degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If I use solder with a melting point of 1000
degrees F, for example, it's off to jail with me. Or, I could pin the
muzzle brake in place. But only if the pin is in a "blind" hole that
doesn't reach through to the other side. And only if the pin is strong
enough to withstand the shearing torque specified by the BATF, who will try
to unscrew the muzzle brake to see if it is attached in a "legal" manner.
If it unscrews with 120 foot-pounds of torque, I'm a felon. If it unscrews
with 130 foot-pounds, I'm free. (I made up the torque numbers - I haven't
been able to find out what the real ones are. They weren't in the "assault
weapon" ban that Clinton signed. Nor was anything about muzzle brake
attachment methods).

  Also, the muzzle brake must have a diameter greater than 22 millimeters.

  Why, you may ask?  Because back when Austria used this rifle, they had
grenades that would slide over the flash hider. A blank cartridge was then
fired in the rifle, launching the grenade. So, depending on the diameter of
my muzzle brake, I may, or may not, have replaced the original "grenade
launcher" with a brand new "grenade launcher." Please don't ask where I
might possibly obtain an obsolete Austrian grenade. And please don't ask
why I am allowed to put a muzzle brake of "grenade launcher" diameter on
any other rifle but the StG58.

  And I must replace many of the original, authentic and beautifully-made
parts on the rifle with U.S.-made equivalents that look and operate just
like the old ones. Why? Because if I don't, I will have assembled a
"non-sporting" (start ital)imported(end ital) rifle and could be thrown in
jail. By substituting enough U.S.-made parts, it becomes a "non-sporting"
(start ital)U.S.-made(end ital) rifle and is perfectly legal. How do I tell
if this rifle, or any other, is "non-sporting?" Simple. According to the
law, if it is "not particularly suited for sporting purposes." No
ambiguities there.

  The list of issues goes on and on. I am in communication with other
collectors and shooters who are in similar fixes. We agonize over the legal
details, sharing hearsay and rumors in valiant attempts to remain in
compliance with the BATF's shifting and largely undocumented
interpretations of the laws. What constitutes a pistol grip that "protrudes
prominently" from the gun? What counts as a "thumbhole stock" and what
doesn't? What if I put a plain, unthreaded barrel on the rifle, and its
(outside) diameter happens to be the same as that of the illegal "grenade
launcher"? We don't know.

  My opinion is that we are fools. The only reason I wade through the
morass of obscure legalities is that everyone else does so, too. If we all
simply ignored the absurdities, we would be free. They can't jail us all.

  For that matter, I wish they (start ital)would(end ital) try to jail
someone.  But they  never do. Given a feeble excuse of the sort mentioned,
the BATF will break into your home and confiscate anything resembling a
firearm, firearm accessory, and probably your computer and filing cabinet
to boot. But they will press no charges. They (start ital)know(end ital)
the laws are absurd.

  They (start ital)know(end ital) there is no jury in the country that will
send you to jail because one part on your rifle was attached with 1000 F
solder instead of 1100 F solder, or because the rifle had one too few
U.S.-made parts on it. They'll just ransack your house, seize your
property, and ruin your life. You will not get your day in court.

  We should ignore them, but who will be the first to show up at the rifle
range with a "flash hider"/"grenade launcher" on his rifle? Not me. I could
lose my property and my life could be destroyed. Who, then, will lead the
way? No one. What are the odds of (start ital)everyone(end ital) defying
the laws, en masse, starting on a pre-arranged date? Zero.

  And that is the beauty of the system. The screws are tightened gradually,
so people are pushed over the edge and into defiance one at a time, and are
thus easily vanquished.

  We see the news items in the paper. "Illegal weapons cache seized."
Perhaps he was the guy that had a muzzle brake with the wrong diameter, and
lost everything. "Assault Weapon Found in Home." Was he the poor guy who
had a bayonet lug on a rifle whose serial number implied that it was
probably built the day (start ital)after(end ital) Clinton signed the
celebrated Feinstein "assault weapon" ban?  His neighbor, whose rifle was
built the day before, was left unmolested, being a fine law-abiding
citizen, you see.

  It's more than the technicalities of gun regulations. Think of
"standoffs." One person hits the limit of tolerance for bull and quits
playing the game. He starts living in defiance of the crushing burden of
the laws and regulations under which we are all groaning. Now he's a
"criminal" and his place is surrounded by the thin blue line for a few days
until he's hauled off, shot, or burned. Each person has a different limit,
and we hit them at different times, easily taken out by  the authorities
singly or in tiny groups. There will never be widespread open revolt.
Modern bureaucracies have learned how to avoid that.

  I have never spoken my mind in public on this subject. I don't talk about
this on Internet bulletin boards, or in e-mail. I am afraid to. I'm worried
about sending this letter to you, even under a pseudonym. I'm not a
newspaper editor. If my words attract the attention of the wrong people I
could be the next faceless owner of an "illegal arms cache" that ends up as
a news item at the bottom page 31. ...

  Please feel free to use any of this material in any way you see fit.

  "Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them
of their arms."

  -- Aristotle, "Politics"


Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at [e-mail].

***



Vin Suprynowicz,   [e-mail]

The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. -- John
Hay, 1872

The most difficult struggle of all is the one within ourselves. Let us not
get accustomed and adjusted to these conditions. The one who adjusts ceases
to discriminate between good and evil.  He becomes a slave in body and
soul. Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt
against the reality! -- Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw, 1943

* * *



- ----END FORWARDED MESSAGE----

- --

Charles C. Hardy        | If my employer has an opinion on
<[e-mail]>            | these things I'm fairly certain
801.588.7200 (work)        | I'm not the one he'd have express it.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not infringed; a
 well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free
 country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be
 compelled to render military service in person." - [This was Madison's
 original proposal for the "Second Amendment" -- James Madison, I Annuals
 of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789).

- -

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 11:25:01 -0600
From: [e-mail] (Charles Hardy)
Subject: [[e-mail]: Oct 2 column - take them shooting]

- ----BEGIN FORWARDED MESSGE----


    FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED OCT. 2, 1998
    THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
    'And every other terrible implement of the soldier'

    One of the great pleasures of collecting and restoring old firearms is
hauling them out to the range and letting a visitor find out just how good
some of our grandfathers' military engineering really was.

  It can be an even greater pleasure to introduce someone who's previously
been a "Second Amendment agnostic" to the exhilaration that comes with
learning how to safely and effectively handle these historic tools of
freedom. Suddenly some appreciation dawns of what it must have been like to
stand with the Minutemen on that town green in Lexington, or to dig the mud
or snow out of your action, slam in a clip, and carefully squeeze off eight
aimed rounds of 30.06 from the unstoppable Garand.

  These old-timers aren't dainty target rifles. You slam them closed with
the butt of your hand. The weight of steel across your arms, the crack of
bullets breaking the sound barrier (even through modern ear protection) are
sobering. Then, once the newcomer develops that cake-eating grin that comes
when you confirm it was him -- not the wind -- that really knocked down
those cans at 60 yards, you point waaaay down the wash, and explain that
the average infantryman was expected to hit a man-sized target over there,
at 300 yards ... that a marksman was expected to do so at 800.

  "You mean you can hit something out (start ital)there(end ital)? I can't
even (start ital)see(end ital) what's out there."

  "Yes. And I also mean that any trained soldier out there ... can hit you."

  Suddenly all this talk about banning "assault rifles" with "magazines
that hold more than 10 rounds," or rifles with bayonet lugs or flash hiders
(yes, that's why that collector's piece you're holding has been emasculated
with a hacksaw, like an antique table imported with only three legs) start
to come into focus.

  "They made them import this SKS without a bayonet? But they're obviously
designed to carry the folding bayonet, like this older one here. Without it
the cleaning rod rattles around and falls out. And how the heck does taking
off the bayonet make the weapon any less deadly in a shoot-out? Who thinks
up this stuff?"

  Any American can still learn to shoot safely, and then teach one more
person, and then another. It's wonderfully subversive.

  Recently, a fellow who I took out was moved to recall that his father had
qualified as a marksman in the army, but had died before he was able to
teach his son that skill. So pleased was he to start re-learning his
father's skill that he insisted on buying me dinner, to compensate me for
my ammo costs. Two weeks later, the lad who grew up without a father won
the Republican primary, and now stands a good chance of becoming our next
congressman. Good luck selling your victim-disarmament bill of goods to him
now, Ms. Feinstein, Mr. Schumer.


  #   #   #

  Of course, the downside of hauling a collection of arms out to the range
always faced you that evening, when a half-dozen rifles leaned waiting
against the wall, and you started figuring how long you were about to spend
with cleaning rods, powder solvent, jags and patches.

  (And if you find a woman who loves the smell of Hoppe's powder solvent in
her living room, fellows, marry her straight off.)

  Since this has been the fate of the rifleman for centuries, I will admit
it was with the standard "Yeah, right" that I first noticed an ad in one of
the firearms tabloids a few months back for a new product modestly named
the "World's Fastest Gun Bore Cleaner," a patented rayon pull-through cord
with phosphor-bronze bristles braided right into the front. Everyone knows
the only way to clean a rifle barrel is to brush it out with a cleaning
rod, run through cotton patches soaked in solvent, and then run through dry
patches to remove the black soot, repeating again and again in a
semi-hypnotic ritual of devotional labor. Pull some fancy cord once through
the gun and rack it away? Ha!

  Then I dropped by the Soldier of Fortune Expo here in Las Vegas last
month, and spotted a table full of these things, manned by the inventor,
who explained how he got to wondering -- as he was clearing out some
varmints in the frozen wilds of Idaho, cold enough to freeze your fingers
to the barrel -- why in this day of space-age materials no one had invented
a device that would clean a rifle barrel with one pull, no bent or broken
steel rods to haul around, no gouging of the rifle's delicate crown, no
chemicals.

  I bought one of the things -- which you can roll up and carry in your
shirt pocket -- and Bruce Hedge made me a gift of a second one to fit my
pistols (the Bore Cleaner is sized precisely by caliber), my total
"compensation" for this rare and unsolicited product endorsement.

  Because, you see, they work. After that precision-sized brush stutters
through (you want it to stutter -- that means the bristles aren't lying
over sideways because they're too long), the braided cord swipes your lands
and grooves with a surface area equivalent to 160 cotton patches. And when
the cord is dirty, you just wash it out in soapy water, to the tune of 200
to 500 uses.

  Mr. Hedge's biggest problem? Other than finding enough salesmen to move
his product, and butting up against some out-of-date military specs that
are so far keeping our men in uniform from capitalizing on this
breakthrough, that would be "setting aside the $100,000 we figure we're
going to need to protect the patent."

  As the man said, "This changes everything."

  The "World's Fastest Gun Bore Cleaner" is from National Tech-Labs, 5200
Sawyer, Suite H, Boise, Idaho 83714; tel. [phone]. If you shoot, you
want some.

   #   #   #

"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, (start
ital)and every other terrible implement of the soldier(end ital), are the
birth-right of an American." -- Tench Coxe, prominent Federalist and friend
of James Madison, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.


Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at [e-mail].

***



Vin Suprynowicz,   [e-mail]

The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. -- John
Hay, 1872

The most difficult struggle of all is the one within ourselves. Let us not
get accustomed and adjusted to these conditions. The one who adjusts ceases
to discriminate between good and evil.  He becomes a slave in body and
soul. Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt
against the reality! -- Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw, 1943

* * *



- ----END FORWARDED MESSAGE----

- --

Charles C. Hardy        | If my employer has an opinion on
<[e-mail]>            | these things I'm fairly certain
801.588.7200 (work)        | I'm not the one he'd have express it.

"The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect
 the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate,
 which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law
 that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but
 not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their
 wills."
    -- Thomas Jefferson- October 1776



- -

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 17:22:07 -0600
From: "David Sagers" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Fwd: Official Petition to Impeach

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From: "Grubb, Ken" <[e-mail]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[e-mail]>
Subject: Official Petition to Impeach
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You may add your name to The Official Petition to Impeach the President on
Tuesday, November 3, 1998.  Please note this on your calendars.

Ken Grubb
Miami, FL



- -

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 09 Oct 98 20:57:00 -0700
From: [e-mail] (SCOTT BERGESON)
Subject: Man shot to death at Taft gun shop

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 10:45:20 -0700
From: American Patriot Friends Network <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Man shot to death at Taft gun shop

http://www.bakersfield.com/top/i--1304325052.asp

The Bakersfield Californian

Man shot to death at Taft gun shop

Filed: October 7, 1998

By FRED LUDWIG
Californian staff writer
e-mail: [e-mail]

Kern County sheriff's officials refused to release details about a gun
shop owner apparently killed Wednesday in Taft by police.

Taft residents contacted by The Californian identified the victim as
Darryl Howell, although that could not be confirmed. Law enforcement
officials refused to confirm the identification.

The fatal shooting was connected with an attempt by U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents to serve a search warrant, said
Sheriff Carl Sparks. The Sheriff's Department is the lead agency
investigating the shooting, Sparks said.

Sparks said officials were withholding comment because details of the
incident were unclear. Police officials typically release preliminary
conclusions and available facts while investigations are ongoing.

"There will be enough suspicion about this incident without releasing
information that was not really correct," Sparks said.

A press conference will be held at 2 p.m. today to provide details of
the incident, Sparks said.

"ATF is bringing in some of (its) high-level people," Sparks said. "They
want to be there when the press conference is done."

Eunice Howell, Howell's mother, said about 7:30 p.m. she was
disappointed because officials had given her no official notice of the
incident.

"I just know my son is dead," she said.

Taft resident Doug Benc said he has been a customer of Howell's store,
and has known him informally for about a year and a half.

Benc said he didn't know what happened Wednesday, but Howell seemed like
a nice, law-abiding man.

Bakersfield resident Kerry Bulls teaches corrections and firearms
classes for Taft College and refers students to the gun shop. Bulls said
he has seen Howell check firearms regulations if not sure about their
provisions.

"He was the type of person that was very meticulous on regulations
regarding the sale of firearms," Bulls said.

###

**COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any
copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without
profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml



- -

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 09 Oct 98 20:57:00 -0700
From: [e-mail] (SCOTT BERGESON)
Subject: BATF RAID IN TAFT, CA

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 07:14:26 -0700
From: BRENDALYLES <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: UPDATE ON BATF RAID

UPDATE ON OCTOBER 7, BATF RAID IN TAFT, CA.: In a news conference held
at 2 PM on October 8, 1998, the Kern County Sheriff's Department stated
that they had entered the gun shop of Taft resident Darryl Howell to
serve a search warrant. They were trying to restrain Howell when he
broke free, got a .45 revolver from his counter and put it in his mouth
and committed suicide. Thereupon, Taft Policeman (?) Whiting shot Howell
three times. NO ILLEGAL GUNS AND CERTAINLY NO MACHINE GUN WAS FOUND.

SO, we are to believe tha Howell was just waiting for them to raid his
shop so he could commit suicide?????? IF YOU BELIEVE THAT ONE, THEN
YOU MUST BELIEVE THAT LEE HARVEY OSWALD SHOT KENNEDY ALL BY HIMSELF.

Howell had patriotic signs and bumper stickers displayed in his shop.
Please don't let his death be in vain. Call and write to everyone that
you can, where will we draw the line???

Blockbuster Video has an old film starring Spencer Tracy, called "THE
SEVENTH CROSS" about a pamphleteer who escapes from a concentration camp
in 1937 0r 38. He goes back to his neighborhood to tell the people what's
going on and no one wants to hear or believe that the impending tragedy
of the NAZIs is coming.......does this sound like us patriots???

GOD BLESS THE REPUBLIC, DEATH TO THE NEW WORLD ODOR
BRENDA LYLES

Bakersfield Californian
http://www.bakersfield.com/

Friends skeptical of official account October 8, 1998
http://www.bakersfield.com/top/i--1304241419.asp

By CHRISTINE L. PETERSON
Californian staff writer
e-mail: [e-mail]

Disbelief permeated the tight-knit communities of Taft and Ford City
Thursday as residents and friends of Darryl Howell questioned law
enforcement's account of his death in his gun shop.

The Kern County Sheriff Department's version of the events -- that the gun
shop owner grabbed a loaded .45-caliber handgun Wednesday, struggled
with officers and then placed the barrel in his mouth and pulled the
trigger -- just didn't fit with what they knew of the father of two.

Sheriff's officials said a Taft police officer, not knowing where the
expended round went, immediately fired three rounds that struck Howell,
45, on the right side of his body. He died at the scene.

"Everyone in Taft knows this is stupid," said Shannon Ong, 34, Howell's
niece. "They think the police officers are trying to make it seem like he
was a criminal."

Ong believes there could be nothing further from the truth -- that the
man who grew up in Taft and graduated from Taft Union High School where
yearbooks say he played football and was in the band was a wonderful man
who ran an upstanding business.

While at least one family member and friends said Howell was vocal in
support of gun rights, they did not believe he would condone any illegal
behavior or sell illegal firearms.

"The way that press release makes him sound, well, he just would have
never done anything like that," Ong said after reading a copy of a
sheriff's news release on the incident.

ATF agents went to Alpha Omega Surplus and Supplies Store as part of a
four-year firearms trafficking investigation, said ATF special agent
Tracy Hite.

She said ATF was assisted in serving a warrant by the Taft Police
Department and Kern County Sheriff's Department.

"This was a lengthy investigation that led us to several locations,"
Hite said, explaining that there were search warrants for five locations
and arrest warrants for three people in Kern County.

Ong estimated her uncle had the business for 15 to 20 years, first
within Taft city limits and then in the county.

At the business Thursday, some family members and friends gathered at the
shop. A bumper sticker on a window bore the message: "Only tyrants and
criminals fear honest armed citizens." Recorded programs blared from
speakers outside the shop.

"I just don't understand it," said friend Jamie Walchock.

She said that while she didn't share Howell's support of guns, she
respected him because he looked on the bright side of life, listened
to and worked with people on their problems and was satisfied with
making ends meet. She said Howell talked about moving.

"In the 12 years I have known him, I have never seen him upset,"
Walchock said.

To her, Howell was a law-abiding citizen; she said he didn't like helmets
so he stopped riding his motorcycle when the helmet law went into effect.

"I know in a million years he wouldn't ever shoot himself or lunge at
a police officer," Walchock said.

Ken Bishop, who would sometimes visit Howell at his shop, said Howell
was "somewhat of a patriot" and would share his opinions about guns. He
said that law enforcement's statement that Howell had illegal firearms
seems "off the wall."

Mike Hodges, the publisher of Golden Empire Review, said Howell asked to
have a column printed in the paper titled, "Notes from Moron."

Taft was called Moron in 1908, according to "Kern County Place Names."
The city changed its name to Taft in 1909.

In the column, Howell quotes several passages from the Bible.

The column Hodges attributed to Howell states, "It is not an honor to
be in the Militia! It is our God-given duty! We are commanded to be
his soldiers. It is time to lay aside our 'daily' jobs and return to
duty! R&R is over! To arms, to arms! Where are His soldiers?

"Right now, where are your squad members? Right now can you honestly
state that you are aware of their location and their ability to
respond to duty?"

Hodges said after Howell died, he reread the column.

"It gave me an eerie, shaky feeling," Hodges said.

He said he didn't believe Howell would ever resist arrest. While Howell
didn't agree with some gun legislation, he abided by it, Hodges said.

"I know Darryl wouldn't kill himself and he wouldn't hurt someone else,"
Hodges said.

"My personal experience is he was a real giving person."

10/07/98 Article
Man shot to death at Taft gun shop
http://www.bakersfield.com/top/i--1304325052.asp

More info on ATF RADID: 10/08/98
Gun shop owner dead after ATF raid
http://www.msnbc.com/local/KGET/16560.asp

Without Justice, there is JUST_US!
American Patriot Friends Network (APFN HOME PAGE)
http://www.freeyellow.com/members5/apfn/
APFN EMAIL LIST SUBSCRIBE/UNSCBSCRIBE IN SUBJECT LINE TO
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American Patriot Friends Chat Room - Message board preview:
http://forums.delphi.com/preview/main.asp?sigdir=apfnchat

[APFN] MEDIA & PATRIOT WEB PAGES:
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The congressional switchboard phone number is [phone].
For e-mail addresses of Members of Congress, see the Electronic
Activist at: (This URL also gives State email contacts)
http://www.berkshire.net/~ifas/activist/.

**COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any
copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without
profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml



- -

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 10 Oct 98 18:03:00 -0700
From: [e-mail] (SCOTT BERGESON)
Subject: Dying For Our Rights - Howell Update

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 00:24:22 -0700
From: Ed Wolfe <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]

Support your local gun store owner - with arms. -Ed

3-year gun probe led to Taft shooting

Filed: October 9, 1998

By JONATHAN NELSON
Californian staff writer
e-mail: [e-mail]

Dana Lee, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms, sat across from Mark L. Reed Feb. 2, 1995, and stared down
the barrel of a Beretta .22-caliber pistol.

"The Israeli Mossad carries the same weapon," Reed reportedly told
the undercover agent. "With light subsonic ammunition and with a
rag or pillow over the barrel you can't hear the muzzle report."

The weapon lowered and Lee eventually walked from Reed's photo shop
in Bakersfield with a $400 FEG 9-mm pistol he had just purchased
illegally.

The exchange three years ago began a long and detailed investigation
into three gun enthusiasts who bought, sold, and built illegal guns,
according to documents filed against the men in federal court.

The investigation ended Wednesday and so did the life of 45-year-old
Darryl Howell, owner of Alpha Omega Surplus and Supplies Store in Taft.

As ATF agents wrestled with Howell, the gun dealer grabbed a
.45-caliber handgun and fired a single fatal shot into his mouth,
according to a report from the Kern County Coroner's office.

Sgt. Ed Whiting of the Taft Police Department fired three more shots
into Howell, an act that has angered the Taft community and drew
comparisons to other ATF operations, such as Waco, Texas, and Ruby
Ridge, Idaho.

Whiting is on administrative leave and declined to comment.

Police Chief Bert Pumphrey was out of the office Friday and
unavailable for comment on Whiting's actions.

A sheriff's official confirmed that Whiting did not pass a one-year
probationary period to be a deputy with the Kern County Sheriff's
Department in 1983. He joined the Taft department in 1985.

Howell's shooting occurred as ATF and local police departments
were serving several search warrants in Kern County.

The investigation began with Reed and widened to include Howell
and Richard M. Spielman.

All three men are charged in federal court on a variety of weapon violations.

The investigation began in August 1994 when an informant contacted
ATF officials and claimed Reed was violating several gun laws, the
documents state.

The informant and Lee met several times with Reed to arrange the
purchase of machine guns.

Lee states in court papers how he bought a machine gun from Reed
in 1996 and how the informant purchased two machine guns in 1995.

During a meeting at Reed's photo laboratory on July 3, 1995
between the informant and Reed, Howell was also present.

Reed told the informant he didn't need to worry about Howell.

The investigation then expanded to include Howell and eventually Spielman.

Between 1995 and 1998, an informant purchased two machine guns
and several handguns from Howell, the federal documents state.

The handgun sales were done without Howell filing the proper federal
and state paperwork or the informant observing the required five-day
waiting period after buying a handgun.

Spielman's charges stemmed from his use of illegal gun dealer
documents to buy 20 cases of Chinese ammunition and his purchase of
a machine gun kit from 52-year-old Alvin Seal, court papers allege.
Spielman then built the machine gun and sold it to the informant.

Seal, who owns the War Bunker memorabilia and gun store in Oildale, was
arrested in September for investigation of several weapon violations
when ATF agents raided his store and seized more than 250 firearms.

Along with the specifics of when gun sales occurred, the federal
documents portrayed a world where guns are easily bought and
sold by people who often espoused anti-government statements.

During one conversation with informants and Lee, Howell called himself
a militia member and Reed complained about a ban on assault weapons and
the actions of President Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno and U.S.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Californian staff writer Christine L. Peterson contributed to this story.




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Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 13:34:53 -0600
From: [e-mail] (Charles Hardy)
Subject: [Forwarded mail]

A little humorous, and downright good advice all in one...

- ----BEGIN FORWARDED MESSGE----
>
> Facts of Life
>
> 1.  Big companies don't do business via chain letter.  Bill Gates is
> not giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation.
> There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks.  You can
> relax; there is no need to pass it on "just in case it's true."
> Furthermore, just because someone said in the message, four
> generations back, that "we checked it out and it's legit," does not
> actually make it true.
>
> 2.  There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans.  No one is waking
> up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it
> happened to their cousin.  If you are hellbent on believing the
> kidney-theft ring stories, please see:
>
>       http://urbanlegends.tqn.com/library/weekly/aa062997.htm
>
> And I quote:  "The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly issued
> requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come forward and tell
> their stories. None have."  That's "none" as in "zero."  Not even your
> friend's cousin.
>
> 3.  Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even
> if they do, we all have it.  And even if you don't, you can get a
> copy at:
>
>       http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html
> Then, if you make the recipe, decide the cookies are that awesome,
>   feel free to pass the recipe on - sans the Neiman Marcus story.
>
> 4.  We all know all 500 ways to drive your roommates crazy, irritate
> co-workers and creep out people on an elevator.  We also know exactly
> how many engineers, college students, usenet posters, and people from
> each and every world ethnicity it takes to change a lightbulb.
>
> 5.  Even if the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium
> that went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY
> think this information would reach the public via an AOL chain-letter?
>
> 6.  There is no "Good Times" virus.  In fact, you should never, ever,
> ever forward any email containing any virus warning unless you first
> confirm it at an actual site of an actual company that actually deals
> with virii. Try:
>
>      http://www.norton.com or
>      http://www.nai.com/services/support/hoax/hoax.asp
>
> And even then, don't forward it.  We don't care.[* Check out my
>  personal favorite at:*]
>
>      http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html
>
> 7.  If you're using Outlook, IE, or Netscape to write email, turn off
> the "HTML encoding."  Those of us on unix shells can't read it, and
> don't care enough to save the attachment and then view it with a web
> browser, since you're probably forwarding us a copy of the Neiman
> Marcus Cookie Recipe anyway.
>
> 8.  If you still absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation message
> from a friend, at least have the decency to trim the eight miles of
> headers showing everyone else who's received it over the last 6
> months.  It sure wouldn't hurt to get rid of all the ">'s" that begin
> each line.  Besides, if it has gone around that many times - I've
> probably already seen it.
>
> 9.  Craig Shergold in England is not dying of cancer or anything else
> at this time and would like everyone to stop sending him their
> business cards, Christmas cards, post cards and anything your version
> of this story asks for. He apparently is also no longer a "little
> boy" either, I think he's about 21 or 22 now.
>


- ----END FORWARDED MESSAGE----

- --

Charles C. Hardy        | If my employer has an opinion on
<[e-mail]>            | these things I'm fairly certain
801.588.7200 (work)        | I'm not the one he'd have express it.

"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other
 bastard die for his." -- General George S. Patton

- -

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 Oct 98 22:58:00 -0700
From: [e-mail] (SCOTT BERGESON)
Subject: Today's real victims

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 22:46:52 -0400
From: Leroy Crenshaw <[e-mail]>
Subject: Today's real victims

MONDAY OCTOBER 12, 1998

WorldNetDaily

file:///D|/eudora/attach/Geoff Metcalf's' weekly column in WorldNetDaily.htm

Today's real victims
by Geoff Metcalf

Alexis de Tocqueville once observed, "Americans are so enamored of equality,
they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom." Gee, was
the man a mere observer of contemporary 18th century values, or a prophet?

With the pending impeachment of a United States president, global economic
catastrophe, crises in the Mideast, Korea, Russia, Y2K threats around the
corner and a myriad of other assorted annoyances looming, it is easy to
overlook the impact of incrementalism and government abuse of power under
the color of authority on we the people. It is far too easy to focus on the
macro-disorders and overlook the impact of bad/unconstitutional policy on
individuals. In other words, the individuals--people, like you and yours, me
and mine--are vulnerable to the myopia of those to whom we entrust our safety.

Saturday morning I received an email from a victim of incrementalism.
He noted, "Up until this week, I was only an observer as the government
turned the Constitution on its head in its effort to crack down on what
it perceives to be dangerous weapons. Now, this insanity has caught up
and engulfed me."

This self-described "average hard working stiff" who has been married to the
same woman for 28 years and raised two sons to adulthood, now finds the same
government he and his sons served, says he should be labeled a criminal--a
felon. He is at risk of a year in state prison. He could be denied the
right to vote, to possess a firearm, or have his wife own a firearm.

What did this husband and father do to become entangled in the criminal
justice morass? He broke the law. First, he failed to buckle his seat belt.
That started the chain of events which put him in handcuffs and earned him
a court date. The young female California Highway Patrol officer who stopped
him saw and seized what she said was a "billy club" from inside his car. He
tried (unsuccessfully) to explain it was a "Tire Thumper." In fact the name
of the tool was stamped on the handle. He told the young officer that 32
years ago he had driven trucks and had kept his tire thumper as "both a
still useful tool and a reminder of my experiences."

"The officer claimed that unless I possessed a valid class A truck driver's
license, that it was a felony to carry such a tool."

I need to search the criminal code for that exemption. When he asked her if
it would be a felony to carry a hammer instead, it approached absurdity. "She
replied that, yes, if I wasn't a carpenter (apparently without sufficient
documentation of trade), I would have some serious explaining to do!"


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End of utah-firearms-digest V2 #105
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