Kentucky Militia Commander Arrested

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The commander of the Kentucky State Militia was arrested Tuesday on federal weapons charges.

The nine-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Covington, Ky., accuses Charlie Puckett (pictured, left) of Garrard County, a felon, of possessing various guns, pipe bombs, and ammunition in violation of federal law. The ammunition included almost 35,000 rounds found in Puckett's garage and business office.

Puckett was arrested Tuesday in Lexington, shortly after completing an interview in Lexington with a crew for the television show "Unsolved Mysteries."

Puckett has said that he is the commander of the Kentucky State Militia, a civilian paramilitary group.

The television crew wanted to interview Puckett about Steve Anderson, who was kicked out of the militia. Anderson is accused of shooting at a Bell County patrol car on Oct. 14 before fleeing. Police have not found him.

Puckett pleaded not guilty in his initial court appearance in Lexington before U.S. Magistrate James Todd. A detention hearing is set for Friday.

NewsChannel 32 reported in December that federal investigators seized several weapons and explosives from Puckett's home.

This is a follow-up to the raid on his residence in Dec. 2001. Here is some of that story:

Feds Investigate Kentucky Militia Leader
ATF Raid Yields Weapons, Ammunition
December 12, 2001

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The leader of the Kentucky state militia is the target of a federal investigation now that weapons have been confiscated from his home.

NewsChannel 32 has learned that Charlie Puckett is a convicted felon, but was able to get a license from the state of Kentucky to carry a concealed weapon.

NewsChannel 32's Andy Alcock reported exclusively Wednesday that Puckett can't legally possess firearms or ammunition.

Back in April, Puckett attended a national gathering of militia groups in Grayson County. Critics said that those groups had radical views about government infringement in America.

But just two weeks ago, federal agents raided Puckett's home in Lancaster, Ky., and seized the following:
----Assault weapons
----Handguns
----Sniper rifles
----Parts of explosive devices
----Booby-trap devices
----Almost 40,000 rounds of ammunition

"Unfortunately, I can't say I was shocked to find what we found," Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms spokesman Karl Stankovic told Alcock. "I've been in the business for 30 years, and I've investigated numerous cases where you find people with large amounts of weapons."

The remainder of that story can be found at this site...

The following is the story from the Kentucky militia POV, taken from the "Free Kentucky" site:

BATF Nazis arrest KSM Commander
Barry Bright----Feb. 26, 2002

Kentucky State Militia Commander Charlie Puckett has been arrested by the BATF Nazis.
He was leaving a Hilton Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky this morning following an interview with a reporter who claimed to be an employee of The Learning Channel, according to KSM Major Michael Stacner.

Stracner was with him throughout the interview which took place in the governor’s suite at the Lexington Green Hilton on Nicholasville Rd and New Circle Rd.

"The charge is emanating from the raid on his home," said Puckett’s attorney, Gatewood Galbraith of Lexington. "The grand jury has indicted him. He’s had an initial hearing in front of the court. A detention hearing is scheduled for Friday in federal court at 10:30 am in Lexington."

Galbraith is urging that everyone remain calm. "We have an opportunity to do a tremendous amount of education," he said. "We need to do a calculated spin that we believe in the system and that he is going to be exonerated. What’s going to hurt Charlie is if we go off shooting from the hip on this thing. I believe we can educate people on just how levelheaded we are. There’s going to be an opportunity to explain our situation many times."

People are not encouraged to show up for the hearing right now. "If anybody shows up with an intimation that they’re there to enforce justice the court’s going to back up. I trust we can get him bond," Galbraith said. "They waited all this time to pick him up they must not have felt he was too dangerous. I see no reason to upset that perspective."

Galbraith feels this action may have in part been precipitated by a news story on KSM that began airing on a Lexington TV station, Channel 27, last night. It was intended to be a three-part series. The second part airs tonight.

When today’s action took place the 30 or 40 BATF Nazis would not show a warrant and would not tell why, according to Stracner. "They just said we’ve got a warrant for your arrest."

"I asked them ‘what has Charlie done.’ They said ‘We’ll talk about it later.’ I thought I’d be enjoying their company for a while too," Stracner said. "Charlie never said a word."

"Let’s hurry up and get out of here before the news media shows up," Stracner said one of the BATF Nazis said.

Stracner was put up against a column and searched. One of the Nazis started to handcuff him, but only made him stand still behind the column for about 10 minutes while they loaded Puckett into a vehicle out of Stracner’s sight.

All kinds of vehicles were used by the Nazis, Blazers, jeeps, cars, Stracner said. "I was standing behind a pole. I did see some Ohio tags on some of them."

Their interview had been sited at Galbraith’s office but was changed the day before. At the end of the interview the "reporter" mentioned that a BATF agent was coming up.

"As we were leaving he told us there was a BATF agent coming up for an interview. He was trying to usher us out so we "wouldn’t cross paths," Stracner said the reporter told him.

"As soon as we walked down the front door all these vehicles pulled up," Stracner said. He thought maybe there was some kind of problem at the hotel because he had begun to feel more at ease toward the end of an interview that he felt had possibly "been a setup."

Most of the questions asked by the "reporter" had been about former KSM member Steve Anderson who is now the target of a manhunt since his involvement with a Middlesboro, Kentucky policeman last fall.

"The whole line of questioning was about Steve. The interview was over with and I asked the guy what is this infatuation with Steve? We kicked Steve out months ago. We want good publicity for KSM," Stracner said. "I think the biggest thing this boils down to is they think he knows where Anderson is."

The reporter wanted to know if Puckett thought Anderson was the type of person that would go out and blow up a federal building, according to Stracner. "Charlie did bring out that Steve is bi-polar."

The reporter told the KSM members that he was an employee of TLC and that the cameramen were independent contractors.

KSM had tried to get the Kentucky Legislature to act on the BATF Nazi presence and activity in Kentucky but were told they had adopted a "Let’s sit back and see attitude," Stracner said.

This is the final straw for any "cooperation" with the news media or rogue federal agencies.

"I’m done doing interviews with the news media," Stracner said. "I say to heck with it, no more cooperation. You see what Charlie got for it. He tried to do what he felt was the right thing and now he’s paying a penalty for it. My advice to all militias nationwide is don’t cooperate with them anymore. No more news media, no nothing."

There is a defense fund for Charlie Puckett. It can be found on the KSM website: http://www.kentuckystatemilitia.cc/
"People need to start donating hot and heavy to Charlie’s defense fund," Stracner said.

(The BATF Nazis are referred to herein as Nazis because that is the nicest term this publication can find to apply to them. The choice of terminology is an editorial decision and not a reflection on Kentucky State Militia policy or intentions. In actuality they are enforcing Communist laws, or the intentions of the American Communist Insurgency. But since most of them are too apathetic and thus stupid to understand the distinction we'll insult them with key terms and phrases from their indoctrination.)

Here is the story from another source: WYMT-TV 27

Leader of State Militia is Arrested

He is the leader of the Kentucky State Militia, but Tuesday Charlie Puckett was in federal court facing federal firearms and explosives charges. The charges are related to a raid on Puckett's property in Garrard County back on November 27th of last year.

According to an indictment, Puckett faces federal firearms and explosives charges. The indictment says the ATF found machine guns, explosives, and other items used to make pipe bombs.

Puckett is also accused of having numerous weapons shipped to his home... despite the fact that he's a convicted felon. Puckett remains in custody. He'll be back in court Friday.

Critics call the Kentucky State Militia a right wing extremist group. A national militia expert calls Puckett one of the most prominent militia leaders in the country. Puckett was convicted in 1966 of stealing food from a grocery store.

His attorney, Gatewood Galbraith, has maintained that Puckett should have legally been able to possess firearms because the 1966 conviction pre-dates a federal law passed in 1968 on firearms and felons.

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