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Correction. Jeff is not a jerk. And he did not automatically assume anything. He is a peaceful citizen, citizen being a keyword here. When the attention was being focused unfairly (another keyword) on law-abiding citizens who bought their firearms as much as ten years ago, and completed all federally mandated (de facto registration) paperwork Jeff did the prudent thing. He told them after talking with them for a period of time, that they would have to come back later, after he spoke with his lawyer. We still do have a right to speak with a lawyer, don't we, when a capital offense investigation is aimed our way?

He spoke with a lawyer, and also with several other brilliant legal minds within the mainstream RKBA community who shall remain nameless (it's not my place to name those names, they may wish to remain in the background); and he acted on legal advice... which was spot-on, in my "radical, individual rights is paramount" opinion. The media that was there was the right kind of media, and it was enough to give the investigators pause to consider their approach to any further activities focusing on the legal gun owners of Maryland.

We (peaceful law-abiding gun owners in Maryland) have been grabbing our ankles for years (please excuse the off-color remark), and Jeff was bold enough and smart enough to check out his options and exercise his rights as a free citizen of the "Free State," and major kudos go to him!

Sure, it's a terrible thing that there was a sniper on the loose in our back yards. But he was on the loose in our back yards. We were the ones living with the threat of being shot while we went about our daily lives. We were also the ones who were unfairly profiled as being somehow connected or even responsible for the cowardly acts of the snipers.

It was easy and safe for the investigators to come after us. We are peaceful folks. The investigators got their overtime paychecks no matter who they interviewed. The tougher job was to hunt down the real killer. And that job was done by the snipers themselves and a regular citizen who had his eyes open at the right time. I'm happy that it's over, but it could happen again; and I don't like the idea that the investigators might again come after us, the peaceful folks who obey the laws.

I think Jeff's actions will give the investigators some small pause before they try to intimidate us into handing over our legal firearms for "testing."

For many good reasons, I will not go into the many unintended consequences that could result from having our legal, legally used firearms test-fired so that the LEOs can have a "fingerprint" on file for future crimes; but there are many, and every gun owner probably knows them already. If you own a firearm and don't pick up every piece of spent brass when you shoot, for fun or food, your "fingerprint" could be picked up by anyone and placed at almost any scene. Next thing you know, you might be the latest "angry white male" suspect. Think about it.

the REAL problems with this whole thing are as follows:

1.the agents had NO PROBABLE CAUSE &

2. they had NO REASONABLE SUSPICION &

3.they had NO LEGITIMATE REASON to invade Jeff's privacy &

4.it was a FISHING EXPEDITION!

5. the request to search (that is what this ACTUALLY was - a search w/o warrant) was WITHOUT LEGITIMATE CAUSE, i.e. they had NO reason to believe that Jeff had committed ANY offense.

other than that, it was A-OK to do what the FB&I did!

free dixie,sw