The story of Patrick "Tate" Adamiak really is more of a saga. What first looked like a bad guy being convicted of all sorts of terrible dealings turned out to be something entirely different.
Adamiak wasn't and isn't a criminal, but he's in prison for 20 years just the same.
A blatant miscarriage of justice, Tate Adamiak's case has been championed by Lee Williams at The Gun Writer. We here at Bearing Arms are trying to amplify the story as much as we can because, well, it stinks.
Williams told the story. We shared it.
But there's still more to be understood, including the latest, which is a former ATF official who has looked at the case and agrees that Adamiak shouldn't be anywhere near a jail cell.
Retired ATF Senior Special Agent Daniel O’Kelly has personally examined more than 100,000 firearms and even more ammunition during his 34 years in law enforcement — 10 years as a police officer and detective in northwest Indiana and 24 years with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
O’Kelly is a true firearm expert.
When he became an ATF Special Agent in 1988, he was responsible for investigating arson, bombings, explosives, organized crime and drug trafficking, but the agency soon realized he was capable of far more. O’Kelly was certified as an expert firearm witness in federal court in 1990. Ten year later, he was chosen to serve as ATF’s Resident Agent in Charge of the State of Delaware. He has served as the firearm instructor coordinator of ATF’s Tampa Field Division. He became the chief firearm technology instructor at ATF’s National Academy, where he wrote the firearm technology course for ATF personnel, which is still in use today. He even served undercover and arrested international gun traffickers in Europe and was later was placed in charge of ATF’s undercover training program — back when graduates would target motorcycle gangs.
...Should Adamiak be in prison?
“No. For the items brought before me, he should not be in prison. His attorney and I were not given accurate information. I had the impression at the time of the trial that the ATF had not accurately identified the items. I had the impression that some could have been ineligible. Since then, I have found out that some weren’t firearms.”
How did this event with the ATF happen?
“That’s easy to answer. The ATF needs numbers to justify its existence. Each agent has to produce cases in order to justify their existence. They’re training is ridiculous. They’re only taught about 60 percent of what they need to know: make, model and serial number. If you get into (National Firearm Act) stuff, the agents have no idea what they’re looking at. They have to bow to the Firearm Enforcement Officer, who are notorious for claiming they’re giving an expert opinion, but they are giving what the ATF said. Back in the day, one FEO would say an AR lower is a firearm, because the company line dictated by a combination of the agency’s attorneys and executive staff. The executive staff was told what it was by administrators, which was extremely anti-gun. Anything they didn’t like they called a firearm. If they could, they’d call it an NFA firearm, which you have to register, like calling them receivers when they didn’t satisfy the definition, calling cut up receivers firearms, calling receivers machineguns. The definition of a firearm frame or receiver has four requirements: It has to have a bolt or breech lock, house a hammer, house the firing mechanism, and has to receive the barrel. None of the items being held against (Adamiak) are NFA receivers, receivers, and they’re not firearms and not machineguns.”
Kelly wouldn't go so far as to agree the ATF agents committed perjury, but only because it was entirely possible they were just too ignorant about the subject to have known they were saying stuff that wasn't true. However, he also refused to pull punches regarding the ATF and its history of abuses.
People have a right to have guns.
While there are currently restrictions on firearms, whether there should be or not, people also have a right to expect they won't be prosecuted for crimes that no one committed. From everything I've seen, Patrick Adamiak didn't do anything illegal. Every gun presented at his trial as a machine gun or destructive device was no such thing. Most weren't even functioning firearms but replica pieces.
The couple of actual firearms called machine guns in court were, in fact, semi-auto only firearms that are perfectly legal to own. They're sought-after collector's pieces.
The supposed RPG he owned was clearly demilled.
None of it was a crime to possess. I can buy every single piece on the internet and have it legally shipped to my house, with the exception of the semi-auto MAC-10s.
It's one thing for someone to want to take issue with the laws they broke. Dexter Taylor was convicted of breaking the law because he actually did what they said he did. The issue there is that the law is stupid and unconstitutional.
But Tate Adamiak didn't even do that. He followed the law. He obeyed the law. He worked up a side hustle selling non-controlled gun parts and accessories as he worked toward becoming a Navy SEAL.
Now, everything is shattered, and he's rotting in prison for nothing.
He needs to be free. He needs to be free right now.
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