Posted on 07/03/2009 5:41:05 AM PDT by marktwain
The government has thrown in the towel in its prosecution of Albert Kwok-Leung Kwan for possession of a short barreled rifle. A June 25 order dismisses the indictment against him "based on the government's motion."
It's been a convoluted case. The feds have been trying to pin something on the guy for years, because he acted to preserve his own legal interests instead of assisting the government with theirs. From the blog Crime, Guns and Videotape, written by a former Chicago policeman:
[The FBI] really fixed Kwan for his refusal. They obtained a search warrant, kicked his door down and seized every firearm in his home. Kwan legally owned 100 machine guns along with some run of the mill semi-automatic firearms. The Agents took one of Kwan's rifles, a...semi-automatic M-14 copy, remanufactured the receiver, and installed new parts turning it to a machine gun! Since that [rifle] was not registered as a machine gun the agents charged Kwan for the federal felony under the National Firearms Act of 1934.
Per the United States District Court, Western District of Washington at Seattle:
The jury found defendant not guilty of Count I, which charged him with unlawful possession of a machinegun, namely a...M-14 rifle. As a result of the jury verdict, Count I was dismissed.
But the feds weren't done with Kwan.
[He] possessed two pistols and two shoulder stocks. One pistol, a Heckler & Koch VP70M, is capable of firing a three-round burst and therefore falls within the legal definition of a "machinegun.”
The other pistol, a Heckler & Koch VP70Z,1 is a semi-automatic, single-shot weapon, which alone does not constitute a firearm requiring registration...
Here's where it gets really illustrative of the lengths the government will go to destroy the life of a gun owner who will not bend to their will:
The two shoulder stocks are interchangeable and can be attached to either pistol. The stocks can also be used as a holster for either pistol. To enable the VP70M to fire three-round bursts, the shoulder stock must be attached; absent the stock, the VP70M will not operate in fully automatic (machinegun) mode. When combined with the VP70Z, however, the shoulder stock will not alter the firing mode, but the resulting weapon will constitute a single-shot rifle having a barrel of less than 16 inches in length, and will therefore qualify as a firearm requiring registration...
Even though the stock was not attached to the VP70Z, the government charged Kwan with having a short-barrel rifle and the jury found him guilty--after a proposed defense instruction to them was conveniently not allowed:
The Court rejected defendant’s proposed instruction, which would have added as a fourth element that “the defendant assembled the VP70Z into a short-barrel rifle.”
Because of this, on August 15, 2007, the District Court "GRANTED defendant’s motion for a new trial."
You can read the order for yourself:
(Order at site, I could not download it from a dialup)
So where does this leave us? After years of harassment, including holding him for 23 days, confiscating his property, ordering him not to possess firearms, forcing him to surrender his passport and to post a $250,000 bond, and spending--exactly how much in legal costs for both sides?--the government simply files a motion to dismiss the indictment?
And that's supposed to be it?
Will anyone be accountable to explain to us just what the hell happened here? Based on the utter absence of any reporting on this dismissal by "Authorized Journalists"--who were more than happy to paint Kwan as some kind of domestic terrorist back when he was having his life ripped apart--I'd have to conclude that's not bloody likely.
------------
Oathkeepers announce new website
Check out their new digs here.
Then go read this article on "Threepers" and Oathkeepers by Charlie Cutshaw at Gun Digest.
Agents took one of Kwan's rifles, a...semi-automatic M-14 copy, remanufactured the receiver, and installed new parts turning it to a machine gun! Since that [rifle] was not registered as a machine gun the agents charged Kwan for the federal felony under the National Firearms Act of 1934.
He really needs to counter sue for false arrest, etc, etc, etc.
He should also personally sue the individual agents that brought that wrath down upon him. They should not be allowed to get off the hook so easily without at least paying his court costs.
He should have just gone along with them, then ratted out every Marxist he knew.
Like the man said. Not Bloody Likely.
Did you ever see the movie with Paul Newman, Absence of Malice?
Let some Rinky-Dink government agent with ten cents worth of authority get down on you and you are in a heap of trouble.
They will go one house at a time, bullying and using their badges to avoid arrest themselves.
This Kwan might need our help.
The proper technique for confronting irrationality is, oddly enough, being even more irrational.
In this case, the government wanted him as an informant, and were willing to coerce him to become one. And this is fairly common, so they are more than ready to encounter resistance, or humbled cooperation.
But what they are *not* expecting, or able to deal with, is “boisterous cooperation”. That is, he should have agreed to be an informant for the government, but not to be humble about it.
He should have held a press conference, loudly declaring himself to now be a government informant, and that in full cooperation with federal authorities, he will now inform on and implicate *anyone* they tell him to, and in any way they want.
Heck, he should even run a full page ad in a newspaper agreeing to the federals dropping charges against him, so he is now employed by the (named federal agents) as a professional criminal accuser against anyone they want to arrest for anything.
To make things extra interesting, he could even put a list of celebrities on the bottom of the ad, claiming to have met them at least once, so that they are all potential targets for indictment, with him testifying as to what he was told to say against them. Most of them, of course, should be high ranking Democrat politicians.
Aren't these 'agents' guilty of the illegal manufacture of a machine gun?
They did the same with Randy Weaver. However, it ended a lot worse for him, as he lost his wife and son, thanks to government assassins. He was awarded 3 million bucks by the court after he was found not guilty, but what good does that do a person whose wife and son are dead?
so when 'cornered', simply get the deal in writing, and as soon as they put ya on the street, more or less blow yer own cover in a very LARGE way ???
also like the celeb touch...
You jest.
Shoelaces have been declared machineguns.
I kid you not.
Sadly, I know.
Not "will go", are going. Doing it in Houston right now.(Hoplophobe spin on the story) One of their "targets" turned out to be a pastor who bought two target pistols. Other folks have been told they'd be "reported" if they didn't let the agents paw through their gun collections, without a warrant. Ostensibly this is to stop the "deluge" of guns going to the Mexican drug gangs. But of course we all know that the drug lords aren't buying their full auto ARs and AK's at US gun shops, or gun shows. They don't need to have some "mule" buy the guns illegally in Texas and haul them back to Mexico, they get 'em direct from the overseas, or second hand through corrupt members of the Mexican police and military.
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