Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Posted on 04/07/2005 8:48:12 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Thanks for this post. I have many of Rands books, fiction and nonfiction. Atlas Shrugged is a classic. She has her faults, but no doubt, she was brilliant, correct on the "virtue" of Capitalism. Having been born in Russia, she viewed firsthand the tyranny of government. She was unforgiving in her belief of government being tyrannical in nature. As I get older, I see that her passionate distrust of government is correct.
When 1918 German .50 caliber machine guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have 1918 German .50 caliber machine guns.
Anyone who REALLY wants the low-down on ATFE should visit
http://www.nfa.org and download the document available under "resources".
They are large PDF files, so may be a challenge for dial-up users.
In truth ATFE cannot say for certain if the gun in this article ever was, or was not, properly registered.
Congress appropriated $1,000,000 for ATFE to "fix" the NFRTR, but they never did.
ATFE was directed to conduct an audit of their records , but aborted it when some of ATFE's duties were transferred to DOJ.
ATFE still shows something like 100,000 NFA weapons as still registered to the same people who registered them during "amnesty" of 1968.\
ATFE's mandate is to keep an ACCURATE accounting of all NFA items, they have and continue to fail in this task!
There was a thread around here about it. I'll find it later.
L
Well, that's why I never leave the house without stuffing one in my pants...
Geaorge bush the "small goverment conservative" can eliminate them tomorrow with an executive order and curb thier outright abuses of the american citizens but in almost 5 years he hasnt even tryedto get the most dangerous rogue agents suspended whats that tell you aboutt him
The two party system is destroying the liberties of America. Of course you can only blame the citizens who elect them into office.
I agree with you. Our Republic is weakening. As Jefferson so eloquently stated, "The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield."
Agreed. Not even Reagan was a leader with the spirit of our Founders. They all are afraid to touch the Federal monster. I sometimes wonder if they wish inside they could, but they know quite well that the left and the MSM would endlessly accuse them of terrible deeds "that threaten our Liberty." The government schools have our citizens exactly where they want them-- sheep worshiping the state. I have no idea how to change where our Republic is headed. Most of us on FreeRepublic understand the problems, but the vast majority of Americans could care less.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
The saddest aspect of the recent confiscation of the Maxim possessed by the VFW is the loss of another small connection to the great cataclysm that was the Great War. It would be sad enough if this was just one more example of wasted expense and manpower in pursuit of nothing but it is worse--a loss of a piece of history.
The Great War, or WW1 as we came to call it once the second world war occurred, was a devastating illumination of the impact of technology on political and social order. Innovations including poison gas, military aircraft, massive artillery pieces, tanks, and the machine gun caught tacticians without suitable tactics and made the soldiers pay in carnage.
To best understand and make a connection with history, one should talk to those who were there or touch real examples of the things that characterized the events. However, there are almost no veterans left to interview. We are left with a few surviving machines to give us a direct connection with those long-ago events Most WW1 technology was destroyed or scrapped during, or just after, the war. Of what remains, no one is going to rob a 7-11 with an 80 pound Maxim gun. But because it is an OMG!! “machine gun” it has been under tight government control since the 1930’s when the image of gangsters and tommy guns, mostly in the movies, led to strict controls. Few, if any, original Maxims or other WW1-era guns not yet destroyed or under strict control (such as the MP18 or Lewis) remain to be discovered. Those in museums are often disabled or in poor condition making research on their design, manufacture, and operation imperfect. Access to these touchstones to history is likely to escape most people their whole lives.
Legally, the BATFE could register and therefore protect for future generations any few WW1 machine guns that might still turn up. However, despite the legal mechanisms in place to do so, the BATFE has for decades had a public policy of never allowing registration and any guns that turn up are “demilled”. That requires torch-cutting the core of the gun into several pieces that renders them impossible to study for function and makes it very difficult to even reconstruct them into a faux display piece. It is a tragedy of our heritage that any so prominent a symbol of an important historical event, let alone the Great War, should be so destroyed, especially given its implausible relationship with any crime or harm in the 21st century. This is not so tragic as the loss of the statue in Afghanistan to the Taliban’s crazy edicts but we shouldn’t be doing it regardless.
Please take steps to see that these artifacts of history are preserved for future generations. I may be a small voice in an irrational world but I would also like to see the BATFE merely allow the registration of WW1-era arms as already allowed by law. However, I pride myself on being rational. If anyone can explain why we need to keep destroying these WW1 Maxims, Lewis guns, and other arms from that time period, I am open to the argument. It may be a mute matter, however, as there may not be any left to argue about.
I have contacted the NRA and others about this over the past five years and have received little interest. They seem caught up in fighting other fires and, like most Americans, seem resigned to the impossibility of protecting this kind of history in our political and social times. I would still like to hear from Freepers and anyone else who thinks there might be a politician or group that might be willing to work toward stopping the destruction and the waste of taxpayer dollars on chasing the VFW. Thanks for reading!
good luck & FReegards
This Hady fellow sounds like a pompous a-hole. With the right lawyer, they could get the weapon back. "Concealed" in a warrant does not mean "located" no matter what SA Hady says. And low-balling the value at $10 was just done as a "flip the bird" gesture IMO.VFW post won't get seized machine gun back, agents say
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
MARCELLUS -- On folding chairs sat the veterans, some in plaid shirts and jeans, all with medals on their VFW post caps from terrors and glory years ago.Before them stood federal agents in suits and ties.
On Monday, the two sides argued about a rare 1918 German machine gun the veterans acquired to display in their museum. Unbeknownst to the veterans, it was illegal and evidence in a criminal case.
The gun was seized in February by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The veterans were told Monday they probably won't get it back.
"Am I satisfied? No," Wilber Breseman, a Vietnam veteran and Marcellus Veterans of Foreign Wars museum curator, said after the meeting.
It's hard to miss VFW Post 4054 just south of town.
A military lookout tower, draped in camouflage with a uniformed mannequin looking out on M-40, has a sign that reads, "MARCELLUS VFW. FOOD. DRINK. FIRE COVER PROVIDED."
A 52-ton M-60 battle tank sits on the edge of the parking lot where pancake breakfasts and community fund-raisers often fill a spacious brick hall. A Huey helicopter hovers overhead on a pole, lights blinking.
Two years ago VFW members built a $135,000 museum adjacent to the hall, doing most of the work themselves. They started it a few years ago and opened it initially in an old semitrailer. Now in several rooms, memorabilia from the Revolutionary War to the present are on display, including old letters, uniforms, medals and guns.
The water-cooled, .50-caliber German machine gun was donated to the museum by a Three Rivers-area veteran, whom museum officials have declined to name. When the donor was arrested for illegally bringing guns into the state through an Indiana flea market, the machine gun became part of the investigation, ATF agent Mike Hady said.
"Because that guy was arrested, that particular gun became evidence against him, which left us no choice," Hady said. "Our hands were tied. ... Maybe we didn't do a good job of explaining."
The veterans complained about the ATF raid on the museum, in which four ATF agents and a state trooper came to seize the gun.
"This is how you would treat terrorist cells," Breseman, who identified himself as a "PDF: Pretty Dumb Farmer," told Hady. "That violated our dignity. And why did you describe it as concealed?" "That was just legal talk for 'located,'" Hady said. "And if I believed it was a terror cell, we would have brought 40 agents. Five is a small number."
The ATF also had told post members their museum wasn't "certified."
Breseman asked what a certified museum was, saying his research showed there was no such thing.
Hady said a museum must be a "government-certified entity" to keep guns listed under the National Firearms Act and that the guns must be registered. The problem with the machine gun was that it was fully functional, he said, and had never been registered.
The ATF found other guns it examined at the museum to be legal. But post members are concerned they could be in a similar predicament with future weapons given to the museum.
The ATF listed the machine gun's value at $10, "another insult," said Breseman, who said it was worth $15,000. "It would have been better if you had listed the value at zero."
Veterans said they're unhappy they are not getting the gun back, but Hady said he had no choice.
"Take it up with your congressman," he said.
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