Patrick “Tate” Adamiak by no means offered a single actual firearm—not one—regardless that he offered $10,000 per thirty days of navy gear and gun elements legally as certainly one of Gun Dealer’s high 500 sellers. That’s till the ATF determined to focus on him personally, body him and lie below oath in regards to the details of his case. Now, except somebody shortly rights this unconstitutional improper, Adamiak can be held in federal jail till 2042.
Adamiak, clearly, is the kind of American most individuals admire.
“I’m extraordinarily patriotic. My complete life has been that method,” he informed the Second Modification Basis by telephone from a federal jail in New Jersey. “I’m nonetheless proud to be American, pleased with our flag and proud to be on this nation. I’ve all the time had a robust want to succeed.”
Adamiak enlisted within the Navy when he was 17, and ultimately turned an E-6 Grasp-at-Arms. He has a bachelor’s diploma and was engaged on a grasp’s till his arrest. He was on observe for an officer’s fee inside Naval Particular Warfare.
“I used to be pursuing turning into a SEAL officer,” he stated. “I went to California for the primary section. A couple of months after that I used to be arrested, after a decade of working my ass off.”
He has all the time been “into weapons.”
“My dad began educating firearm security,” he stated. “I had BB-guns, after which I acquired my first rifle after I was eight. Since then, I’ve been hooked. I began gathering navy gear and weapons till I had an unlimited assortment. This was our interest collectively – me and my dad. We had been constructing a group collectively. I’ve about 150 firearms in my assortment,” Adamiak stated.
By 2016, his private assortment was gaining severe momentum.
“I used to be shopping for weapons, navy surplus and reproduction firearms,” he stated. “My thought was to construct a navy show museum. I began shopping for, promoting and buying and selling to start out my enterprise, whereas I used to be within the Navy.”
Adamiak’s interest shortly became a side-hustle – a interest or pastime that pays for itself.
“I began specializing in that,” he stated. “I acquired an LLC, a enterprise license and a tax quantity. I began promoting on Gun Dealer. I turned one of many high 500 sellers of area of interest gun elements. I’d purchase in bulk and unload a pair objects. That’s how my enterprise began, and it actually took off.”
Adamiak was contacted by one other massive supplier who had related pursuits and owns a navy surplus museum.
“Mainly, I put in a giant checklist – a bulk order,” he stated. “He began delivery to me each two or three weeks. I might purchase at wholesale costs. It was utterly authorized – a giant bunch of gun stuff. I obtained a duplicate Mark 19 grenade launcher and a duplicate M240 machinegun, which they later lied about at my trial.”
Confidential Informant
The confidential informant, or CI, that introduced Adamiak’s freedom to an finish was cooperating with the ATF to work off prices of his personal.
“He used to personal a machinegun store,” Adamiak stated. “The ATF raided his home, discovered a gun and charged him with felon in possession. He stored asking me for a machinegun, which I by no means acquired him. I acquired him a shroud off of Gun Dealer. The ATF paid him round $8,000 for my case alone.”
“To be clear, I by no means offered a single merchandise that qualifies as a firearm or requires an FFL (Federal Firearm License). Solely non-regulated gun elements,” Adamiak stated.
Whereas dropping off gear at Adamiak’s residence, the CI noticed the reproduction grenade launcher and belt-fed machinegun replicas. He requested Adamiak if he had an SOT (Class 3 FFL).
“No, they’re replicas,” Adamiak replied. “That was the tip of the dialog. We completed buying and selling and bartering and he left.”
From this level ahead, Adamiak stated he turned the goal of a “fishing expedition by the ATF.”
“I used to be repeatedly requested by varied individuals if I had machineguns on the market, and my reply by no means modified: No!” he stated. “They tried over and over to have me supply or put collectively a machinegun for them, however as a law-abiding citizen, I refused. I even cited NFA guidelines on a number of events in writing. I wouldn’t even bend a MAC-10 flat for them, which they requested me to do many instances.”
Adamiak did conform to dealer the acquisition of a PPSh-41 barrel shroud for a consumer. The half doesn’t qualify as a firearm.
“It was actually bought in open commerce, with a enterprise test, from a confirmed FFL as an unregulated half instantly off of Gun Dealer,” he stated. “Evidently, the ATF should have realized this was the closest factor they may get from me to a firearm, however what they actually wished was to get in my home to see the Mark 19 and the M240 replicas that their CI was boasting about.”
“When making use of for his or her search warrant the ATF informed the decide in a prison grievance that at concern was the PPSh-41 barrel shroud that they stated was a machinegun, however that was not even shut, legally,” Adamiak stated.
Present Trial
Greater than 40 federal brokers and law enforcement officials raided Adamiak’s residence and a rental property he owned. Brokers got here from the ATF, FBI, HIS, NCIS, SWAT, Bomb Squad and native police.
“They turned my home upside-down, however didn’t discover a single practical machinegun or damaging machine,” Adamiak stated.
The brokers seized about 35 reproduction firearms and elements from Adamiak’s private assortment and labeled them “suspected machineguns and damaging gadgets.”
Most worrisome, the brokers seized cash and silver Adamiak collected as “proceeds of criminality,” together with his vintage foreign money assortment, which was price hundreds of {dollars}. Ultimately, hiring an lawyer was tough for Adamiak as a result of legislation enforcement took all of his financial savings.
“It’s my opinion and that of my household’s that the ATF realized that they had tousled after they didn’t discover a single unlawful weapon,” Adamiak stated. “So, they utterly reinterpreted the statutes and carried out a brand new rule to spin the jury and get me convicted. They manufactured crime to convict me.”
The ATF’s first indictment charged Adamiak with possessing 33 machineguns. There have been no damaging gadgets talked about. To counter, Adamiak and his attorneys employed former ATF senior official Dan O’Kelly as a protection witness.
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.
The prosecutors knew that O’Kelly would make mincemeat of their prices, in order that they reindicted Adamiak, charging him with possession of 1 machinegun and 4 damaging gadgets.
“They knew we’d make them appear to be fools at trial with Dan’s testimony, so the AUSA filed motions to dam his knowledgeable testimony saying, ‘Any testimony in regards to the definition of a body or receiver of a machinegun can be each irrelevant and complicated to the jury.’” Adamiak defined.
His trial, he stated, was “actually theatrical.”
“The AUSA completely twisted each reality, cherry-picked messages to utterly change the entire narrative, and blatantly lied about the whole lot to make me look unhealthy,” he stated.
She claimed the down cost for Adamiak’s home had been income of unlawful gun trafficking. Adamiak purchased his home a yr earlier than he began his interest enterprise utilizing his Navy pay.
She claimed Gun dealer is the darkish net.
She used his navy coaching in opposition to him.
She claimed he stole elements from the navy, even supposing he had detailed data for each single half.
She claimed his sincere enterprise technique of shopping for low and promoting for revenue was “greed.”
She tried to make Adamiak appear to be a neo-Nazi as a result of he had his grandfather’s WWII conflict trophies saved in his secure, a few of which had German markings on them.
All through the trial, the ATF claimed that their CI had warned Adamiak in regards to the “unlawful weapons.” Most worrisome was the reproduction M249, which can not even chamber a dwell spherical.
“The ATF even admitted within the report that it’s a duplicate,” Adamiak stated. “The decide even introduced this up in my sentencing order which signifies that she nonetheless thinks it’s actual. It’s faux!”
The entire counts in opposition to him had been virtually laughable. None made any authorized sense.
Counts 1 and a pair of involved the PPSh-41 receiver, which isn’t a firearm below present federal legislation.
Counts 3 and 4 involved his M203 and M79, that are Title 1 firearms that had been legally transferred by an FFL. Neither had a 40mm barrel affixed. Adamiak had 37mm barrels for each, that are authorized and never topic to Nationwide Firearms Act (NFA) regulation.
Depend 5 involved two inert RPGs, which had been lacking the entire elements to make them practical and had holes drilled instantly into their chambers.
“My legal professionals stated that they had been virtually comfortable that I used to be charged with these RPGs as a result of it was so ridiculous that it could harm the ATF’s creditability and made the jury query their logic,” Adamiak stated. “Sadly, the ATF determined to take my inert RPGs to their lab, utterly rebuild them with elements off certainly one of their very own actual RPGs and show that they might work by taking pictures a .30 caliber coaching spherical in a self-contained firing mechanism. They primarily inserted a bolt-action rifle into the tube that appears like a rocket, fired one shot after which stated it’s a damaging machine.”
Continued Lies
All through the trial, the ATF’s attorneys confirmed jurors photos of Adamiak’s in depth private assortment, together with random elements, barrel shrouds and MAC-10 flats.
“They informed the jury these had been all machineguns,” he stated. “The worst was the M240. They displayed a photograph of the ATF case agent holding the belt-fed M240 reproduction and testified that it was a machinegun, and likewise made filings saying the identical factor, even supposing the ATF’s personal report says it’s a duplicate and never a firearm in any respect.”
Quite than successful the trial as his attorneys had claimed they might do, Adamiak was discovered responsible and sentenced to 20-years imprisonment. His attorneys by no means even known as O’Kelly to testify, whom Adamiak had paid hundreds of {dollars} simply to be there.
O’Kelly was not impressed by the prosecution, which he believes was unfair.
“This was a prosecution by individuals who don’t know sufficient about weapons, who don’t understand that what they’re taking a look at doesn’t fulfill the statutory definition,” O’Kelly informed the Second Modification Basis. “When ATF encounters a few of these gadgets, they are saying a pressured reset set off is a machinegun or a brace is a shoulder inventory once they’re not. Then, armed with not sufficient data, they take it to a federal prosecutor, who takes them at face worth. The following factor is somebody is indicted, and their total life is over.”
Takeaways
The ATF didn’t return calls or emails for this story. Nonetheless, they may not wait to inform the world about Adamiak’s 20-year sentence.
“NORFOLK, Va. – A Virginia Seaside man was sentenced yesterday to twenty years in jail for possessing and promoting unregistered machineguns and possessing unregistered damaging gadgets,” a press launch despatched out in June 2023 falsely claims.
“Based on court docket data and proof introduced at trial, between roughly October 2021 and April 2022, Patrick Tate Adamiak, 28, was acquiring unlawful machine weapons that weren’t registered and he was promoting these machine weapons on-line. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) bought eight machine weapons from him by way of a confidential supply. They then executed a search warrant at Adamiak’s residence and recovered 25 further unregistered firearms. A search warrant at his residence discovered that Adamiak was in possession of two grenade launchers and two antitank missile launchers. Adamiak is a Grasp at Arms within the U.S. Navy,” the Justice Division press launch states.
Fortunately, the Navy by no means believed any of those false allegations. They by no means prosecuted Adamiak. In actual fact, the Navy by no means even despatched him a letter.
Quite than demoting him, they let him burn by way of his private depart whereas in jail. Often, as soon as a sailor goes to jail, they’re thought of as an Unauthorized Absence (UA in navy parlance), however with Adamiak, issues had been completely different.
The Navy continued to pay him as an E-6 on the first and fifteenth of each month. As soon as he ran out of depart, he obtained a DD214 with an honorable discharge.
Sadly, Adamiak’s mom died a few month after his arrest, in accordance with his father, David Adamiak.
“It was horrible. What scumbags the ATF are,” his father stated. “They arrested him on my spouse’s birthday and he or she died a few month later. They put her within the grave.”
Stated David Adamiak: “I’m at my wit’s finish. I can’t focus. I can’t imagine this may occur to such a patriot. He’s been round weapons since he was very younger. I taught him easy methods to shoot, and it was all used in opposition to him in court docket. The ATF took this mannequin Sten – it’s only a Sten mannequin. They took it again to their lab, however they couldn’t even get it to fireplace, however they stated now that’s a machinegun. That was just about like their total case.”
A GiveSendGo account has been established to assist Adamiak increase funds for his authorized battles.
He could be contacted at [email protected] or by mail at:
Patrick Tate Adamiak, #95252-509
Federal Correctional Establishment Fort Dix
PO Field 2000
Joint Base MDL NJ, 08640
This story is courtesy of the Second Modification Basis’s Investigative Journalism Mission. Click on right here to make a tax-deductible donation to assist the undertaking.
