Is "reform" of BATFE possible, would "reform" prove adequate?

A

alan

New member
Those who can might look at the 10 Oct. issue of Gun Week, in particular the lower half of page 15, for an interesting/disturbing article.

If what was printed is correct, it appears to me from reading the piece, that agents of the U.S. Government (BATFE) are guilty of tampering with physical evidence, in a criminal case, there is a large problem at hand, with this case. Albert Kwan is the accused, the charge is possession of an illegal machinegun.

I'm not an attorney, nor did I ever play one on television, not on radio either, but my understanding of things, perhaps incorrect, is that tampering with evidence, like tampering with jurors is a NO-NO, in the case of evidence, sufficient to, at the very least, cause the evidence to be surpressed. Given such activity by what is sometimes described as a law enforcement agency, is mere reform of the agency remotely possible, or anywhere adequate? I doubt it, but I've been wrong before.

BTW, re this article, it has not, so far as I can tell, appeared in the on-line version of Gun Week, which can be found at www.gunweek.com.
 
In my original post, I referenced an article from 10 Oct. Gun Week, page 15, under the by-line of Dave Workman. For the convenience of those not previously able to read this article, please see below.

Bellevue, WA, Man Arrested On Weapons Charge by ATF

by Dave Workman Senior Editor

A Bellevue, WA, man has been arrested by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on weapons charges, and it did not take long for Seattle's two daily newspapers to revive his tenuous link with the slaying of an anti-gun federal prosecutor in Seattle five years ago.

The suspect, Albert Kwan, had once been held as a material witness in the assassination of Thomas Wales, a federal prosecutor who was also the president of Washington CeaseFire, the Northwest's most active anti-gun organization. For months after Wales was murdered, anti-gunners tried to link his death to his gun control activities.

But Kwan's arrest, according to The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer (P-I), is not related to his connection to the Wales case. Instead, this case alleges that Kwan, a former licensed firearms dealer who is now a collector, had an M-14 rifle that the government claims is an illegal machinegun. However, defense attorney Joseph Conte read an ATF document to the court during a preliminary hearing that the gun had to be modified by government firearms technicians before it would fire as a full auto, the P-I reported.

Gun Week obtained a copy of that document, in which the technician stated, "I examined (the firearm) and determined that it was originally manufactured as a machinegun by the Winchester Company in New Haven, Connecticut. (The rifle) can accept machinegun components and has machinegun components installed, but the engagement surface of the sear release has been removed, and the sear release has been welded to the selector shaft. In this condition, (the rifle) is functional as a semi-automatic firearm, but the machinegun parts have been locked in place by the welded sear release/selector shaft.

"To determine if (the rifle) could be readily restored to shoot in an automatic manner, I used a multipurpose rotary tool with a cutting wheel to cut through the sear release. I then removed the sear release, selector shaft, and selector-shaft lock from (the rifle) and installed a sear release, selector shaft, selector spring, and selector from an M-14 machinegun."

The technician did not modify the receiver during all of reassembly, and then fired the gun to see if it would fire full auto. At that point, he wrote, "I discovered that the sear ... did not have an engagement surface for the sear release." So, he replaced the trigger group of the rifle with another trigger group which contained the sear with an engagement surface and eventually got the rifle to fire three rounds with a single press of the trigger.

Kwan's arrest came after a federal grand jury handed down an indictment, and more than 18 months after federal agents had confiscated 16 firearms from his home in January 2005, The Times reported.

Kwan's connection to the Wales murder investigation appears circumstan tial at best. As Gun Week first reported almost three years ago, the FBI has been conducting a nationwide search for a Makarov pistol with a replacement barrel sold by a firm in Minneapolis, MN. Kwan allegedly had purchased two such replacement barrels, one of which was traced to him. He was arrested as a material witness in January of last year.

Kwan is not a suspect in the Wales murder. The authorities have actually focused more attention on a former commercial pilot, also living in Bellevue, who had once been prosecuted by Wales. That pilot also happened to be a gun enthusiast, but there is no indication that had anything to do with Wales' prosecution of the man and his business partners.

The pilot had unsuccessfully tried to sue the government. He has not been charged, or even labeled publicly as a suspect.

Immediately after Kwan's arrest was publicized by both Seattle newspapers, and The Tacoma News Tribune, gun rights activists in Washington complained that the papers were trying to show him guilty by association with firearms.

Meanwhile, the FBI is continuing its search for the Makarov and its replacement barrel. Complicating matters, Gun Week learned when it originally broke the story of that search, is that the killer used the wrong caliber ammunition. The result is that bullets recovered at the scene have unusual rifling marks that, said two ballistics experts at the time, might be impossible to duplicate, even if the right barrel is ever found. The New GUN WEEK, October 10, 2006
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As to that grand jury indicting Kwan, did you ever hear the old saying about how any competent prosecutor could get a grand jury to indite a ham sandwich?
 
IMNSHO - there is absolutely no reason for the BATmen (Jeff Coopers' reference to the BATFE) to exist. Maybe during prohibition, there might have been, but that was repealed in 1933. Like all "temporary" government programs and agencies, nothing is so permanent. Nothing they do could not be handled - probably better legally and more efficiently - than the BATFE does.

I don't see the proposed "reform" changing anything and they seem to get more out of hand doing questionably legal things every year. Ruby Ridge affairs as well as Waco hasn't seemed to sober them up much and not much is being done to correct either of those atrocities or prevent future happenings of the same kind.

:barf: :mad:
 
and installed a sear release, selector shaft, selector spring, and selector from an M-14 machinegun."

The technician did not modify the receiver during all of reassembly, and then fired the gun to see if it would fire full auto. At that point, he wrote, "I discovered that the sear ... did not have an engagement surface for the sear release." So, he replaced the trigger group of the rifle with another trigger group which contained the sear with an engagement surface and eventually got the rifle to fire three rounds with a single press of the trigger.
Click to expand...

Are those parts Kwan had? or were they supplied by the BATFE?
 
rick_reno:

As to "whose parts", given that the rifle was in possession of BATFE, who executed what read like signification modifications, you may have one guess. Please do not waste it.

By the way, as I recall readings and references to the statute, there was something said about "readily restorable ....". Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.

Respecting the work done, including installation of an entirely different trigger group than Kwan's rifle had been equipped with, when he had control of the rifle, this whole operation seems a very far cry from "readily restorable ...". Seems much more like a situation where, in order to "make a case", BATFE took a semi-automatic rifle and "messed" with it until they got it to, perhaps one time, fire multiple shots with a single actuation of the trigger. In other words, BATFE created this so-called machinegun.

By the way, re semi's going full auto, once upon a time, a 1911 type pistol I had went full auto on me. As a result of a not quite properly done trigger job, which left insufficient sear engagment, this semi-automatic pistol fired 6 or 7 rounds with a single actuation of the trigger.I was impressed, let me tell you.

Fortunately no harm of any kind was done, it cost me a few dollars to have the trigger redone properly, this was at least 20 years ago. My 1911 pistol was perhaps unsafe to fire in that condition, but it was hardly a machinegun.

By the way, if you are interested in additional information on the BATFE and "illegal machineguns", by their lights, I suggest that you look up the Glover case. You can start at jpfo.org, or try googling.
 
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