Look, it's no secret I don't like the ATF. They haven't exactly given me any reason to feel the least bit of affection for them. If they focused on criminals and how they get guns, I might not have a huge issue, but they don't.

Instead, they look at all of us as if we're criminals. They seem to be convinced that anyone who wants a gun is up to no good.

But it seems you don't even need to buy a gun to get them riled up.

Over at The Gun Writer, Lee Williams has the story of a former sailor that is, to be frank, the grossest miscarriage of justice I've ever seen.

Former sailor Patrick Tate Adamiak once bought a replica STEN Mk. II submachinegun at a local gun show. He paid $75 for the non-firing Spanish replica—or toy—which was made by Denix and is still sold online for hundreds of dollars more.

At the time, Adamiak felt pretty good about his replica STEN purchase. Sure, it could not chamber a live round, was mostly made of a zinc alloy and had a smooth rather than rifled barrel, but he planned to feature it prominently in a weapons museum he dreamed of creating. He had purchased other firearm replicas for the same reason.

Unfortunately, Adamiak had no idea how badly the ATF would lie about this completely legal purchase. The STEN toy became the most tested and most written about gun of all the legal firearms parts seized by the ATF during their raid. At his trial, none of the other weapon parts received the amount of testimony as the fake STEN.

This legal toy, Adamiak believes, is one of the main reasons why he is now serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The question then becomes, how?

I mean, it's a toy, basically. It's a non-firing replica. The word "non-firing" is kind of the point here, right? How could he get 20 years for this?

Well, Williams gets into that.

To be clear, the report by ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Jeffrey Bodell about the gun parts seized during the search of Adamiak’s home was harmful but it is tainted with multiple lies and questionable processes—none were crazier than Bodell’s attempt to make the toy STEN fire a single live round.

The STEN, known legally as Exhibit 28, is the first firearm Bodell listed in his report, and his work to get the fake gun to fire produced the most ink.

“Exhibit 28 is a non-firing replica of a STEN Mk. II machinegun manufactured by Denix in Spain. The Exhibit is approximately 31 inches in overall length. Exhibit 28 has the physical appearance of a STEN machinegun and simulates a STEN machinegun’s action,” Bodell wrote in his report. “My examination revealed the receiver and magazine well of the Exhibit is comprised of a homogeneous casting of zinc alloy. The simulated barrel is a hollow tube with no chamber and thin walls. The barrel assembly of the Exhibit is simply press-fit into the receiver. The bolt of the Exhibit does not contain a firing pin or extractor. I ‘field-stripped’ the Exhibit to examine its major components. The Exhibit appears to be unmodified and in its original configuration.”

While researching the STEN, Bodell claimed there were several “previous ATF correspondences” about the gun and other “non-firing machinegun replicas manufactured by Denix.”

“However, I was unable to locate any documentation regarding prior ATF evaluation or classification of a STEN-type replica manufactured by Denix,” he wrote in his report.

Bodell went a bit crazy in his testing. He inserted a real machinegun bolt from a real STEN submachinegun and replaced the toy’s fake barrel with a real STEN barrel, which did not fit until the technician “wrapped it with a few layers of electrical tape to make a tight fit, and press fit the machinegun barrel.”

Of course, then the magazine wouldn't fit. So, he hand-fit a single round into the weapon and fired it, thus allowing him to declare it a firearm. Of course, firearms aren't illegal. Making your own isn't illegal either. However, Bodell decided that it was a machine gun by definition and used that to prosecute Adamiak.

Now, he couldn't get the thing to run full-auto. He couldn't even fire a single round from it as it was configured. Adamiak bought a replica STEN, just the same as a lot of us would since we can't afford the real thing.

Someone at the ATF modified the weapon all to hell and back, got it to fire a single round, and decided that was enough.

And the ATF wonders why gun rights advocates wouldn't urinate on them should they find themselves engulfed in flames. I mean, I wouldn't break out the marshmallows in a case like that in case the toxic stupid would get on the marshmallows and poison me.

Based on the NFA's definition of a firearm, which Williams gets into, nothing Adamiak had qualified.

The supposed modifications performed that even allowed the gun to fire were, in fact, done by the ATF themselves. They made it into a gun in the first freaking place!

Bodell is the one who should go to prison for making a machine gun if anyone.

A former ATF agent is pushing back on Bodell's description, pointing out that the replica had not been modified in any way. Hopefully, this can somehow be used to fix this absolute travesty of justice.