Vickers also allegedly had let his SOT lapse. He’s been very tight-lipped about this since this began but I read a comment from an acquaintance of his who claimed that there were “complications” with Vicker’s SOT renewal, implying that the ATF was impeding the renewal and/or Vickers attempts to divest himself of the NFA devices he no longer would have been in lawful possession of once his SOT had expired.
ATF has a lot of “open-ended” laws, same as the IRS, meaning the laws are written over-broad and non-specific and the agency is given WIDE latitude in its interpretation of them. These charges to me come down to an interpretation of “intent,” and just like IRS, once ATF has decided to steamroll you, there’s not much you can do to stop it.
Vickers was a key player in the SpecWar community in a period when Delta Force was growing into a much more mature, professional, capable, and fear-inspiring organization. It would be a shame if a man who played such a vital role in America’s security for so much of his life were to get sent to jail because he has an affinity for the tools of the trade he plied so ably on our nation’s behalf.
Vickers may very well have had issues with the ATF in renewing his SOT, as he was probably under investigation for submitting so many Law Letters (demonstration letters) from one department with 7 officers (53 Law Letters requesting demonstration of a total of 92 firearms,) and another department with the Chief being the only sworn officer (32 Law Letters requesting demonstration of a total of 73 firearms.)
That many Law Letters from two tiny police departments requesting demonstrations of so many different NFA firearms (that they could never afford) that then were used by Larry to acquire and import the firearms no doubt raised a whole lot of red flags at ATF years ago.