"Unintended Consequences" author under attack by BATF

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Oatka

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http://www.keepandbeararms.com/newsarchives/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=278

Letter from John Ross' Attorney to Director of BATF

We spoke to Mr. Jeffries to ascertain the validity of this letter. It is real, and he told KeepAndBearArms.com that their preference for this letter is wide distribution. ~~ KABA

JAMES H. JEFFRIES, III
ATTORNEY AT LAW
3019 LAKE FOREST DRIVE
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA 27408
TELEPHONE: (336) 282-6024

30 June, 2000

Honorable Bradley A. Buckles, Director
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
United States Department of the Treasury
650 Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest
Washington, D.C. 20226


Re: Mr. John Ross
St. Louis, Missouri

Dear Mr. Buckles:

I represent Mr. John Ross of St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Ross is an investment broker and financial adviser with a respected investment firm in St. Louis. He has degrees in English and Economics from Amherst College. Mr. Ross is very active in community and public affairs. He is the grandson of President Harry Truman's press secretary, Charles Ross, and was himself the Democratic Party candidate for the United States House of Representatives from the Second District of Missouri in 1998. In short, Mr. Ross is an upstanding and productive member of his community.

Mr. Ross has had a lifelong interest in firearms and is both a Federal Firearms Licensee and a Special Occupational Taxpayer under the National Firearms Act. Of central importance to the purpose of this letter is the fact that Mr. Ross is also the author of Unintended Consequences, a highly popular novel about the trials and tribulations of legal gun owners and dealers in the United States. Although the book is manifestly a work of fiction, it accurately depicts documented historical events in the long and sordid history of misconduct by personnel of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The book is in its fifth hardcover printing with some 50,000 copies in circulation and has become enormously popular among the gun owners of the United States. Because the book is highly critical of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, it appears that some in your agency have undertaken to suppress it and to intimidate its author.

Honorable Bradley A. Buckles - page two

For example, in 1997 the book's publisher became aware that individuals purporting to be BATF agents had threatened vendors of the book in at least three different states with "problems" if they did not cease their sales of the book. A full-page ad in Shotgun News offering a $10,000 reward for the identity of these individuals put a stop to that particular business.

Now we have learned that in late May of this year agents from your St. Louis field office have engaged in an official effort to enlist Mrs. Ross, who is amicably separated from her husband as an informant against her husband. On or about May 24 2000, at about 7:30 a.m. two agents approached Mrs. Ross on the street while she was walking her dog, identified themselves by displaying their BATF credentials, and proceeded to inquire what she thought about her husband's book. When she was noncommittal the agents terminated the conversation and departed. This contact had been preceded in previous weeks by pretext telephone calls to Mrs. Ross, by what were undoubtedly your agents, in an attempt to draw her out about her husband's book. An agent, using the pseudonym of Peter Nettleson, and pretending to be a great fan of Unintended Consequences, sought Mrs. Ross's agreement that the book was, in fact, "a manual for the murder of federal agents." [1]

I note in passing that best-selling author Tom Clancy in recent books has murdered a Director of the FBI, the President of the United States, the entire Congress, the Supreme Court, the entire cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a few lesser functionaries. I presume he has not thereby become subject to investigation by your literary critics.

1. As an experienced federal prosecutor I am fully aware of what is going on here. Disgruntled former spouses are a prime source of intelligence for law enforcement, having as they frequently do both a strong bias against the subject of the investigation and the proximity and intimacy to know many things not available to others. A structured approach such as this required, according to your manuals, formal agency approval. It required the investment of time and effort in setting up the approach: determining Mrs. Ross's new address, learning her new telephone number, physical surveillance to determine her routine so that she could be approached in a way that she could not simply shut the door and where there would be less risk of confirming witnesses, the use of a female agent to lessen any apprehension at being approached publicly by strangers, etc.

Honorable Bradley A. Buckles - page three

What kind of people are you? Is there no honor within the ranks of your agency? It has long been clear, from repeated court decisions and congressional committee reports, that your agents have no familiarity with the Second, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth
Amendments to the United States Constitution. Now it appears that they have not even been introduced to the very first Article of the Bill of Rights.

I am writing to express our outrage about this conduct and to formally demand that your agency cease and desist from this
unconstitutional abuse of power. I am contemporaneously making formal Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act demands upon BATF for the records and files pertaining to Mr. Ross, his book, and these events.

By copies of this letter I am requesting the Inspector General of the Treasury Department to formally investigate this unlawful
conduct and the Attorney General to investigate to determine whether Mr. Ross's civil rights are being violated by the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.


Sincerely yours,

[signed]
James H. Jeffries, III


cc: Attorney General of the United States
Inspector General, Department of the Treasury

Mr. Jeffries is a retired U.S. Dept. of Justice lawyer, retired colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, and currently practices firearms law in Greensboro, NC. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law, former Note Editor for its Journal, and a Life Member of the North Carolina Rifle And Pistol Association.




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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
 
Would Mr. Jeffries happen to be one of the whole slew of federal attorneys "retired" when Clinton took office?

If so, I like him even more.
 
I guess BATF miscalculated when they assumed Mrs. Ross was disgruntled. They should have done their homework before approaching her. Perhaps some illegal wiretaps?
 
I have been procrastinating, hoping to find a used copy at a discount, since $20 is, well $20, and I generally find hardcovers uncomfortable and unweildy to read... but this has stoked my fire. I will go to my local B&N (since nobody stocks this title), order this book, pay cash, and hope Mr. Ross can use my small contribution for his legal battle.

------------------
Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.
1 Peter 2:16.
 
SOOOO-EEE!

If Jeffries and Ross don't have an unfortunate accident in the next few months, no one will be more surprised than me.
 
"Unintended Consequences" is definitely worth reading. It's a bit lengthy (over 800) pages) but interesting reading.
One of the best novels I've read in a long time.
 
http://www.amazon.com will have it, discounted (but with shipping), normally shipped next day, all major credit cards accepted. Not an ad for Amazon, I bought my second copy there, the first from John.

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"

[This message has been edited by Jim V (edited July 10, 2000).]
 
I'm with Mr. Jeffries..... why are they so afraid of Mr. Ross's work of fiction and not all the others that are out there? Please don't answer that.... the answer may get you into trouble.

Seems that they don't understand that no one... I mean NO ONE is advocating what is in the story....



------------------
Richard

The debate is not about guns,
but rather who has the ultimate power to rule,
the People or Government.
RKBA!
 
Coinneach:

The only possible excuse for the vile slanders against the administration in your post is that they are all true!
 
I attended the Bob Stewart hearing today in Phoenix, so the BATF is an interesting subject to me at the moment.

I can only conclude that this is an agency that is rotten from top to bottom. While I'm sure there are many fine agents in its employ, the agency overall seems to almost have a death wish, no pun intended. That is, it appears that if they have two equal choices in a situation, and one results in decidedly bad press, they'll apparently take the bad press everytime.

It also leaves the strong impression that they see the American people as the enemy, and they see few constaints on their behavior.

One can only hope that a new administration will rein these people in, if not eliminate the agency. The BATF presents us with perhaps one of the most compelling reasons for the RKBA.

Regards from AZ
 
What bad press? Sure, the more radical/pro-second gunowners may hear what they're up to. But I don't hear anything about their abuses on the news. All I hear about the people they've killed is that they had it coming (i.e. branch Davidians).

On a related note, I saw some anti-50-cal news yesterday where they were calling single-shot 50cals "Assault Rifles" - and how the BATF, as good guys, wanted congress to let them protect us from 50cals.


Battler.
 
The attempt to set John Ross up through an ex-wife is much like the Lawmaster case in Oklahoma, some three-ish years back. (Soldier of Fortune; Pate) Lawmaster's ex-wife was rather hostile and allegedly told BATF there was a machine gun, an M16, in the safe. In Lawmaster's absence, they did a SWAT-style raid, broke the front door from the hinges, broke or torched open the safe, and after discovering an AR-15, left, with everything wide open to any stray burglar.

As far as the First Amendment, the DEA has been trying to shut down the magazine "High Times" for a number of years. It tells you how to grow Maryjane, whose grow-lights are best, world-wide pot prices, etc. (I don't know if it's still in existence. It was published in California.) But the DEA tried every trick they could think of to entrap the publisher and his staff...

I guess this time, the JBTs tried sneaking around in tennie-runners--and stepped on their own pork, big time. They messed with the wrong folks.

For those who might not know, "Jack Booted Thug" originated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Democratic Congressman John Dingell of Michigan, in debate over the Gun Control Act of 1968, worried that JBTs of the BATF would invade peoples' homes on trumped-up charges. We all know these fears were groundless, right?

:), Art
 
Hmm.

Do we have any other confirmation, say, a statement from the former Mrs Ross, to back this up?

Why are the threatened book vendors not named? And why isn't he leaping at the chance to represent said book vendors in a harrassment lawsuit against the ATF?

How does one differentiate between the phone call of a fan and a pretext phone call made by an agent? No, I'm serious. Critters and undercover agents worldwide would pay handsomely for that bit of info.

I wonder how much book sales jumped after this little jewel was released.

That's just cynical little old me.

LawDog
 
just passing this along

Neal Knox Report

Collector Crackdown Coming

By Neal Knox

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 10)-There are signs that BATF-the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms-is making, and about to make, a
major new assault against gun show sales. And, with steadily
increasing resources combined with steadily declining numbers of
Federally licensed dealers to "inspect" they're moving more into
the realm of dealer harassment than ever before.

Some of this activity is legitimate-if unwelcome-enforcement of
Federal laws that should never have been passed (which is why I
shudder every time NRA says "enforce existing gun laws," without
discriminating between laws targeting criminal misuse and gun
swaps that most states consider lawful).

But, some "dealer oversight" over-steps BATF's lawful
authority-which is anything but a new phenomenon.

For instance, BATF inspectors have no authority to copy sales
records, but licensed dealers seldom object. Few FFL's can afford
the cost-either the legal expenses or the risk of increased trace
requests and additional inspections.

I recently talked with a dealer who is ready to go to court over
unauthorized record-copying - for he wants to protect the privacy
of his customers, and is properly concerned about being subject to
a civil lawsuit from those customers if he doesn't.

In his case, the BATF agent had spent the better part of a month
copying names, addresses and serial numbers into her laptop-which
probably violates the prohibitions against registration in the
amended Gun Control Act and every BATF appropriations law since I
was NRA-ILA director.

Other dealers have told me they've been subjected to great
increases in the number of costly trace requests, including guns
bought and still possessed by law-abiding citizens.

The owner of one long-lived dealership told me he started getting
an unusual number of trace requests on old purchases. His friendly
agent suggested he could avoid digging into ancient files by
getting a new license, and sending all those old purchase records
to BATF-which he did.

The number of trace requests (without regard to sales volume) is
the phony criteria being used to identify "bad apple" dealers now
subjected to "enhanced enforcement." And traces can be used to cut
off sales under the terms of the S&W-Clinton Administration
agreement.

Just as BATF has pushed the envelope on gun law interpretation, so
have gun collectors and traders-either out of ignorance, confusion
or unwillingness to comply with pointless laws they consider
unconstitutional.

For instance, an FFL I've known for years didn't want me to bother
filling out a Form 4473 on a high-grade rifle I purchased at an
out-of-state gun show.

A resident of a northwestern state showed me a fine U.S. Switch &
Signal M1911A1 he had just bought at a Texas show. When I asked
how he had possession, he "explained" that the GCA's prohibitions
against interstate transfers no longer applied to collector
handguns-and even more think they no longer apply to long guns
bought or received as gifts from individuals.

They do.

Just how much confusion reigns among both dealers and BATF agents
is indicated by an article and editorial in the June 5 Denver
Post. It details the indictment last November of "Trader Jim"
Gowda, an Arvada, Colo., FFL accused of selling eight guns without
obtaining names and addresses, including to a felon and a Wyoming
resident.

But BATF told the newspaper he had sold "thousands" of guns
without paperwork at gun shows in various states, "hundreds" to
"suspected criminals," and completed Form 4473's and NICS checks
on only few.

Gowda says he was selling guns from his personal collection at the
shows, and didn't believe federally licensed dealers had to
document all sales.

Gowda and a partner were indicted in 1978 for dealing without a
license and selling to a non-resident. He received pre-trial
diversion after a guilty plea, and the indictment was dropped.

To "get legal" he obtained his FFL in 1980. In 1990 he was
inspected. In 1996, BATF agents raided his home, seized all but
four of 227 guns, claiming they were "improperly acquired." After
three more years selling at shows, he was indicted in November.

His attorney says Gowda is a victim of a "changing climate" since
the Columbine massacre. BATF's Denver enforcement chief says that
the agency is now focussing on gun show dealers-and,
inferentially, their buyers.

And in Illinois, the attorney general says U.S. House Speaker
Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is backing his $850,000 request for a
Federal grant for a state "special unit" to investigate and
prosecute "internet and gun show sales."

Heads up!
 
John Ross was a guest on my radio program
yesterday. I asked if he was certain those
who had "leaned on" the book vendors were,
indeed, ATF agents. He replied he was.He
did not necessarily think they were acting
on orders, but rather might have been
engaging in a little extracurricular
thuggery. He seemed more concerned about
their approach of his estranged wife.

I asked what he wanted from the ATF in terms
of redress. He declined to answer and
referred me to his attorney.

Mr. Ross says he is working on a sequel to
"Unintended Consequences", but could not say
when it will be published.
 
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