Supreme Court Urged To Hear Gun Rights Case of Navy Vet Convicted of Selling Replicas and Relics

A coalition of gun rights groups wants the Supreme Court to hear the case of a former Navy sailor who is serving a 20-year federal sentence for violations of the National Firearms Act.The groups, including the National Rifle Association, say Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was wrongly convicted based on the possession of nonfunctional relics. In an amicus brief filing on Monday, the NRA says the items that were used to convict Adamiak had been rendered inoperable or were incomplete parts that could not fire.The groups say President Biden’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Justice Department treated the gun parts as fully-functional, regulated firearms under an expansive interpretation of the statute.The NRA brief says the facts of the case are “outrageous” and argues that Adamiak’s prosecution reflects a fundamental misapplication of both the National Firearms Act and the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment Foundation has produced a series of reports on Adamiak’s case. He enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 and eventually became an E-6 Master-at-Arms. He has a bachelor’s degree and was working on a master’s degree and was on track for an officer’s commission before his arrest.“I was pursuing becoming a SEAL officer,” Adamiak told the gun rights group. “I went to California for the first phase. A few months after that I was arrested.”Adamiak says he has always been interested in firearms and started building a collection that included guns, military surplus, and replica weapons. He says he planned to open a museum after retiring from the Navy. The hobby turned into a side job after he got a business license and started selling niche gun parts.Along the way, Adamiak says he obtained a replica MK 19 grenade launcher and a replica M240 machine gun. Then, a paid confidential informant working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives started asking him to sell him a machine gun after the informant saw the replica weapons at his home. Amamiak says that is when his troubles began.“To be clear, I never sold a single item that qualifies as a firearm,” Adamiak told the foundation. ATF agents obtained a search warrant to Adamiak’s house and seized about 35 replica firearms and parts from his collection. Adamiak says agents also seized all of his money, which made it difficult for him to hire a lawyer.Adamiak was charged with possessing 33 machine guns. The Justice Department ended up dropping those charges but re-indicted Adamiak on charges of possession of a single machine gun and four destructive devices.Throughout Adamiak’s trial, the ATF claimed that the informant had warned Adamiak about owning “illegal weapons.” The defense claimed the devices were not operable and could not be considered weapons.Adamiak says the ATF took his inert grenade launchers to a lab and rebuilt them with components off of an operating weapon. That was enough for a jury to convict him and a judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison.Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the 2022 ATF rule that classified certain products as firearms under the Gun Control Act of 1968. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit then used that decision to affirm Adamiak’s conviction.The appeals court vacated one of Adamiak’s convictions and resentencing is scheduled for June. Now the push is on for the Supreme Court to take up Admiak’s case and clear him of all of the convictions.Another effort underway by Adamiak’s supporters is to get President Trump to issue a pardon. That push started when Pam Bondi was the attorney general. The effort is now under the auspices of the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche.

Supreme Court Urged To Hear Gun Rights Case of Navy Vet Convicted of Selling Replicas and Relics

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