A Tennessee judge Aug. 25 dismissed action against Nashville man, known by Tennessee liberals as the “Radnor Lake Rambo” was arrested on gun and silencer charges.

“I never committed a crime,” said Leonard Embody, who was arrested after he was stopped by police in October in down town Nashville. “I was handing-out leaflets about the Second Amendment with a cased and boxed, unloaded rifle, without a magazine, on my back.” Embody plead not-guilty to the felony possession charge and waited almost a year before a resolution.

At the hearing in mid-August before Judge Randall Wyatt, prosecutors requested that he forfeit all of his firearms to the state, even though prosecutors did not dispute the dismissal of the silencer possession charge, said Embody. “The judge agreed with my position that I did not do anything wrong and he ordered the return of my AR-15 and silencer they had seized last year.”

The registered nurse said he is glad the court ruled in his favor, but the felony arrest caused him to lose his job and file for bankruptcy.

“My employer placed me on an involuntary leave of absence – unpaid,” he said.

In addition to this case, he said he has two actions for federal civil rights violations all in an attempt to have his gun rights restored.  “To prohibit me from bearing arms even though I did not commit a crime is unconstitutional.”

Before issuing the dismissal order Embody was admonished by Judge Wyatt for not cooperating with the police, he said. “The judge told me not to do this again.” Embody said he should be able to exercise his rights during the fact, not after.

On a public sidewalk near the Davidson County courthouse, he said he was not impeding traffic, nor acting in a way that would indicate probable cause of wrong doing. Embody said he announced his Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure and Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. “I did not consent to a search. I did not consent to being detained.”

Law enforcement still searched him and found the silencer that when federally registered is legal to possess, he said. “Under federal law, unless I voluntarily show registration documents to them, they can only obtain it through a court order.”

Although the police knew he possessed the silencer legally, they continued with the arrest, said Embody. “They preferred to drag me through the system.” At the courthouse later that night and after being booked and spending overnight in jail, he said police received a search warrant to cut the lock off of the rest of the gun case, which is where officials found the registration paperwork.

“Initially the judge still said I had violated the law because I had a silencer,” he said. “The federal paperwork was right there in front of him.”

Embody said he unlawfully lost his gun permit in 2010, but oddly enough he can reside outside of Tennessee, and due to reciprocity laws, legally come into Tennessee with a permitted hand gun. “I have hand gun permits from the states of Florida, Arizona, and Utah, but as long as I am a resident of Tennessee, I cannot carry a hand gun here.”

Unlike other states such as New Hampshire, Oregon, Kentucky and Idaho who allow open carry, people from Tennessee do not approve of it, he said. “That is how I lost my hand gun permit, because I insisted on open carry and they do not like open carry here. In Tennessee the people would rather have their special, privilege permit that says they can carry a concealed gun.”