by Lee Williams
Patrick “Tate” Adamiak had been a longtime collector of semi-automatic MACs earlier than the ATF raided his dwelling, discovered nothing unlawful however imprisoned him for 20 years anyway.
Adamiak had been an active-duty E-6 within the Navy and was about to enter Naval Particular Warfare till his arrest. He additionally operated an internet site that bought authorized gun components, till the ATF raided his dwelling. After his present trial, he was sentenced to serve 20 years in jail though nothing ATF brokers discovered was unlawful.
Adamiak collected Cobray, SWD and RPB fashion pistols and carbines. All of them have been semi-automatic and 100% authorized, after all. Not one was able to full-auto fireplace. He had practically a dozen MACs, together with 5 that fired semi-automatically from an open bolt. As we speak, these stay completely authorized, very costly and extremely wanted by collectors.
Adamiak additionally collected MAC-style merchandise, reminiscent of MAC knives, advertising and marketing merchandise, literature together with MAC manuals, and build-at-home MAC kits referred to as “MAC flats.”
A MAC flat is a pre-cut piece of flat sheet steel, which is designed to be bent in a jig or welded to kind the decrease receiver of a MAC-style pistol or carbine. However turning a flat piece of steel right into a firearm will not be simple, and requires welding, bending the steel in a hydraulic press and utilizing jigs and different tooling. In different phrases, making a semi-automatic pistol out of a pre-cut piece of flat steel will not be a simple process.
“I by no means truly accomplished or constructed a MAC package, regardless of it being authorized to take action,” Adamiak stated. “They require a excessive diploma of talent and tools that I didn’t have.”
Adamiak identified that each one of his flats have been for semi-automatic builds. He ordered them with out the full-automatic holes as a result of he rigidly adopted federal regulation. He even put a warning on his web site, which advised his clients to stick to all Nationwide Firearms Act guidelines.
The MAC flats have been fashionable on his former web site, the place he bought gun components to a big record of shoppers. He additionally bought them on different web sites and at gun exhibits.
“I bought them for years,” he stated. “I had zero points.”
As a testomony to their legality, when the ATF raided Adamiak’s dwelling, they didn’t seize a single MAC flat throughout their search warrant. As an alternative, they left all of them the place they have been, and Adamiak had tons of of the flats.
To this present day, MAC flats stay fully authorized and are bought on-line to anybody on many web sites – with out the necessity for any paperwork, together with an ATF Type 4473.
Gun Dealer.com affords one on the market in the present day for round $50, with none paperwork.
Prosecutorial Misconduct
Prosecutors used the MAC flats throughout Adamiak’s show-trial. They painted him as a “brazen machinegun trafficker,” by claiming the flats have been unlawful machinegun receivers, and that he had bought 1000’s of them into unsuspecting communities.
Lead prosecutor, Assistant United States Lawyer Jessica D. Aber, who was discovered useless in her dwelling final month from epilepsy, tried to attribute an extra 977 MAC flats to Adamiak, which she described as “machineguns.” She sought so as to add an extra 10 years to his 20-year sentence for a complete of 30 years in jail.
In response to courtroom transcripts, Aber and AUSA Victoria Liu argued that “every of the (flat) receivers constitutes a machinegun underneath the (Nationwide Firearms Act.)”
AUSA Liu advised the courtroom Adamiak had 977 of the MAC flats, a quantity which Adamiak strongly disputes. She highlighted the federal government’s star witness, ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Jeffrey Bodell, who had claimed {that a} toy submachinegun discovered at Adamiak’s residence in the course of the search was an actual machinegun.
Liu allowed Bodell to inform the courtroom, and the jurors, that the flats – which he by no means even touched – have been actually machineguns.
The 2 prosecutors and the ATF’s Bodell tried to penalize Adamiak for the flats, regardless of a 15-year-old ruling that claims the flats aren’t firearms. The decide in that case even dominated, “The courtroom finds that the promoting of a flat will not be the equal of a receiver or body to qualify as a firearm, as a result of the courtroom finds that flats aren’t firearms, promoting flats will not be unlawful conduct.”
Adamiak’s Witness
Adamiak’s protection witness was former ATF senior official Daniel G. O’Kelly.
O’Kelly joined the ATF as a Particular Agent in 1988 after serving 10 years as a sworn police officer. He turned a legend inside the company, together with a stint because the lead teacher of Firearm Expertise on employees on the ATF Nationwide Academy. O’Kelly has taught internationally and co-wrote this system establishing the Licensed Firearm Specialist for the ATF, whereas he was on the U.S. Navy Academy at West Level.
O’Kelly is personally devoted to stopping ATF’s abuses and making the company higher. Prosecutors blocked him from testifying on practically each different situation, however Adamiak’s protection attorneys have been capable of get him on the stand to cease ATF’s untruths involving the MAC flats.
O’Kelly broke down the federal guidelines as they utilized to the case and was capable of show that the items of stamped steel didn’t legally qualify as firearm receivers.
After prolonged testimony from each Bodell and O’Kelly, the decide sided with O’Kelly, and denied the prosecutors’ try and penalize Adamiak for the “machineguns,” which have been legally simply flats. The extra 10 years prosecutors needed for the flats weren’t added to Adamiak’s 20-year sentence.
Adamiak needs O’Kelly might have testified in regards to the different false claims prosecutors lodged towards him.
“If the decide would have been prepared to listen to O’Kelly’s testimony in regards to the different 31 alleged machinegun receivers that I’m in jail for, I won’t be behind bars within the first place as none of those qualify as receivers both,” Adamiak stated. “It’s actually unhappy to expertise firsthand what the DOJ will do to maintain a conviction, even when deep down, beneath the politics, they know what they’re doing is unsuitable. Just about each reality in my case was smeared or straight up lied about, equally to the entire MAC flat scenario. Sadly, as a result of sheer quantity of bogus claims, misrepresented info, and lies, I used to be not capable of get the reality out at trial.”
Adamiak’s 20-year sentence nonetheless bothers O’Kelly. He identified that when ATF brokers like Bodell testify, they typically miss the info, particularly when testifying about advanced points.
Mentioned O’Kelly: “On the day of Adamiak’s sentencing, prosecutors have been nonetheless calling items of steel and different gun components as frames and receivers, which solely happy a fraction of their very own definition. ATF wrote the definition, however ATF by no means glided by their very own definition. In Adamiak’s case and others, they did it numerous occasions, for many years, they usually put individuals in jail or it, they usually ran individuals out of enterprise for it. How do you get extra unjust than that?”
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