Update on Bob
Stewart's Case
Motion for Suppression of
Search Warrant to be Submitted This Week
by Angel Shamaya
Director, KeepAndBearArms.com
We've had an increasing number of people
concerned with and asking about Bob Stewart of Maadi-Griffin. If you're just
tuning in to the case, Mr. Stewart was raided
by Phoenix BATF in mid June and released
on his own recognizance a few days later. At question in his initial and
followup hearings was whether or not his .50
caliber rifle kit might actually be a gun. The judge ruled
it was a gun even though the government "specialists" never fired a live round from it after 85 minutes
of professional work was done on the kit - for to do so could have blown the
shooter apart and they knew it.
Hitting the links above will bring you up to
present.
Mr. Stewart's attorneys are submitting the
'Motion for Suppression of Search Warrant' this week. The case is scheduled to
go before Judge Roslyn O. Silver on Sept. 28-29th - ironically timed as the Gun
Rights Policy Conference just outside D.C. begins. At question in the motion
is the legality (or lack thereof) of the search, seizure, arrest and
incarceration that took place. Chapter 41 of the Federal Criminal Guide
Book clearly states that the FEDS can obtain a search warrant on anyone, just on
hearsay evidence. Check
it out for yourself. It is expected that this convenient "law"
will come up when the motion is submitted. The word "law" is in
quotation marks because we liberty advocates still hold that all "laws" repugnant to the
constitution are null and void. Getting the government to acquiesce on that point
is another matter. Thomas Jefferson's words come to mind: "No tyrannical
government has ever been made to stop but by force."
From the perspective of an American Patriot,
the BATF has illegally conspired to deprive and destroy Civil Rights of citizens
many times before, and this is one such case. From where we sit, the BATF lied
to Magistrate Sitver [not Silver, but Sitver]
in a sworn affidavit and submitted false, misleading, and incomplete
information. (Lying to a judge under oath is a serious crime with stiff
penalties if it can be proven in a court of law.) In our estimation, at least
the
higher-up agents in the BATF - those who knew the full facts of the matter but
still ordered the assault without so much as approaching Stewart directly - are responsible for the immoral assault on Bob
Stewart and his family. Getting a typically
anti-self-defense, anti-gun district court to see it that way is another matter
entirely.
If Judge Silver takes the side of the BATF in
this issue, the case is scheduled to go to trial November 7th, 2000. This case
could prove to be a significant Second Amendment Case in that it could take the
agency to task on its methodologies. Because the BATF's
tactics are in question, a ruling in Mr. Stewart's favor could produce in
inquiry into the practices of an agency that is seen by many gun owners as
dangerous to our society's freedom - an inquiry many gunowners feel to be
LONG overdue. In a best case scenario, this case could help wipe the floor with
the thuglike tactics by which the BATF has become known and feared throughout America,
and that would be a welcome turnabout indeed. The rights of citizens targeted by
these folks might get a well-deserved bit of breathing room.
But we're not holding our breaths. The judge
who ruled the kit was a gun - after showing some intelligence in Stewart's first
hearing - passed down his judgment in the second hearing against a good deal of
logic and reason, suggesting his mind was made up before we set foot in the
courtroom that day. Nobody in the room would have fired that partially assembled
kit, unless they were stupid or suicidal, but he amusingly called it a gun. That
BATF had no definitions or clear delineations of exactly what constitutes a
"gun" seems to have slipped this judge's mind, as did the fact that
the "gun" was never testfired with anything but blanks. (A primer is like a
firecracker; a .50 caliber round of ammunition has a tad bit more punch to it.) If the motion to suppress the
search warrant is denied and the case does go to trial, Judge Silver could
easily follow the now standard 9th circuit court's anti-gun posture and order Bob
Stewart to serve time in a federal prison. To hell with his wife and children,
screw the fact that he's never hurt a flea, just lock this "awful gun dealer" up, and
throw away the key. That is what the BATF wants. They pushed to keep him locked
up, without bail, until his trial. Swell guys, all the way around.
Several things are worth considering if you've not yet
supported Bob Stewart's legal defense: The BATF did not have to make a Federal
Criminal Case out of this, but they did. They could have sent Maadi-Griffin Co.
a polite letter indicating their concerns about the status of the 'unfinished
receiver' in the kits. They could have sent an agent directly to the
Maadi-Griffin Co. to visit and bring the matter to his immediate attention
through civil discourse - like human beings are supposed to do when there seems
to be a differing opinion. They could have been civil
and decent. I have enjoyed two private lunches with Gentleman Bob Stewart,
and I have been in his home. I met his
lovely wife, Naomi. His
oldest son, 8, is a handsome young man, and though I didn't get to meet the two
younger children, if they are anything like their parents and their older
brother, they're wonderful human beings with tender hearts. These are decent people in every sense of the word
who've been targeted by an agency that has a hard-on to get rid of guns,
starting with gun dealers and outspoken activists who say or do the "wrong"
thing. BATF tactics are far too often to vilify, incriminate, terrorize, steal, and to
bully. Not "always". Nothing is that black and white any more. But
there are less than savory people engaging in less than becoming ways in the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Just ask the many folks who've never done harm to a living soul who are
sitting in prison while you sit here and read this message.
Now, don't get me wrong. All you BATF
"line cops" reading this message, I know you're not all bad; I trust some of you are
yourselves very decent people. Law of averages says there are some
good old home grown Americans in your ranks, and you might just be one of 'em. But let's get real with the
order-originating folks who made this raid happen,
please. You could have sent Bob Stewart a LETTER. You could have
picked up the PHONE. But you had him on your list, you singled him out,
you planted a young agent in his midst to check out his kit, without just
checking in with Bob directly though he is ultra-approachable, and you went in and trashed his place to prove something
that just isn't so. I myself was going to buy one of those fine kits, and my
first exploration into the matter was "where on Earth do I find someone I
can trust enough to do the machine work properly so I don't blow myself to smithereens
the first time I shoot the dang thing?" In other words, you head
haunchos who called the shots on this assault on Bob Stewart and his loving family are
inauthentic, entrapping cowards who prefer to put a non-violent man in prison
when a phone call would have sufficed. A man to man conversation as to the nature of Mr. Stewart's kit
would have sufficed, but apparently Bob Stewart would have been the only man
present to chat. Bob Stewart never pointed a gun at anyone, but you sent your
hired guns to point theirs at his cute little boy, probably scarring the little
tyke for life. Congratulations. You must be so so proud. No doubt you lied to
the agents you sent to do your dirty work about the facts surrounding this case,
for no self-respecting person would have been able to do what was done if they
had had the benefit of full disclosure on this case at their disposal.
The Gestapo Tactics of the BATF are not a new
thing. If you haven't done so, you might read Kevin Starrett's writeup of The
Al Woodbridge Story. The guy was ramrodded into prison and away from
his family under circumstances that make any fair-minded American see red.
If Stewart loses this case (and even if he
doesn't), the BATF can and will break into the next human target's home and
search and confiscate ALL firearms, ammo and any gun-related items they may
find. They've got their next lot of targets already picked out, their snares in
place, and he's going to be in for a rude awakening, quite soon, maybe today.
They can "legally" get a search warrant on "hearsay"
evidence. That "evidence" can be made to exist by the BATF, for every
gun owner in America; it's their word against yours, and guess who wins that
game. "You didn't know you had a machine gun in your closet? Sorry sir, we
found it right behind your suitcase, and Agents X & Y will testify in court
to prove it."
And thanks to the NRA's Instant Check Registration Scheme, any
gunowner who has submitted to the "background check" is now on a
federal registry awaiting their turn with a gun to their heads - just like Bob
Stewart has now experienced TWICE. These folks read your email if they want to
and admit it openly. They've helped put innocent citizens behind bars because
they dealt in self-defense devices and were thus considered the enemy. They are
now profiling children in schools and compiling lists from the ripe young age of
10 - or younger. Blah, blah, blah.
If you don't think they know about you,
please wake up.
Helping Bob Stewart is helping yourself.
Pitch in to help this man TODAY. Please donate to: Bob Stewart Defense
Fund, 2812 N. 34th Place, Mesa, AZ 85213. [480-325-5623] [fax 480-325-5625].
Joining our organization online or by
mail assures that 20% of your membership fee will go to his defense
fund, as well, and you'll even get a ticket for a drawing where we are giving a Maadi-Griffin
.50 caliber rifle away to one lucky gun owner. It's a very fine gun. No home
of responsible citizens should be without one, and you can quote me on that;
I'll stand by those words until I die.
Our liberty depends upon exposing the tactics
of this agency at every turn, and Mr. Stewart's case is a big turn, indeed.
While you're putting a couple or a few bucks in an envelope to support this case, go ahead and stick
a prayer or two in there - for the children.
Angel Shamaya is the Executive Director of http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com.
Tour the site to see what we're up to. Lend some support if you find we're a
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include: pro gun internet access, online
shopping for things you'd have bought elsewhere, annual
memberships, tax deductible donations (pending
Uncle Slam's "approval"), web
hosting, web development,
etc. We've got some very big national projects soon to be announced that will
make the committed socialists in America soil their britches, as well they
should. We The People are going to win this nation back, and our ranks are
growing steadily every day.