But We’re All Just Paranoid, Right?

I keep hearing and reading in the media that we in the gun loving community are just being irrationally paranoid about the Federal Government and its actions towards us.  We hear that the BATFE doesn’t want to harass us.  They just want to make sure we pay our NFA transfer taxes and go after people plotting agains the Government of the United States.  If you’re not a criminal, you have nothing to worry about.

Right.

Tell that to David Olofson whose semi-auto AR-15 malfunctioned, who was denied a just trial by the judge when his expert witness was not allowed to know what the prosecution’s witness (an ATF agent) had testified to so as to refute said testimony.  Mr. Olofson’s legal battle continues.

Tell that to Len Savage who was Mr. Olofson’s expert witness.  Mr. Savage is a firearms manufacturer who sent a non-firearm to the ATF for testing after his work on the Olofson case.  The ATF attached chains and duct tape to his upper receiver, manufactured other parts, and said that in their configuation the charging handle became the trigger which when actuated (released) would cause the device (again mostly their creation) to fire in full-auto mode.   Mr. Savage’s legal battle continues.

We can now add average, everyday gun buyers to the list of people being harassed and intimidated by the BATFE.

From David Codrea’s National Gun Rights Examiner column today:

As we found out yesterday, NRA has issued a statement on the GAO Mexican “crime gun” trafficking report. Their bottom line:

For American gun owners, the battle will be to make sure that politicians who see an opportunity to advance their gun ban agenda do not use Mexico as an excuse to sacrifice our Second Amendment rights.

True enough. But it was the second link in this morning’s email from their Institute for Legislative Action that really grinds my gears: “In Border States, BATFE Asks: ‘May We See Your Guns?‘”

NRA-ILA has recently received several calls from NRA members in border states who have been visited or called by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In some cases, agents have asked to enter these people’s homes, and requested serial numbers of all firearms the members possess.

Why?

[A]gents were making inquiries based on the number of firearms these NRA members had recently bought, and in some cases the agents said they were asking because the members had bought types of guns that are frequently recovered in Mexico.

Let me get this straight.  Let’s say Dad (who lives in a border state) goes out and buys an AR-15 or some other type of firearm that the BATFE claims is “frequently recovered in Mexico.”  Somehow this gives the BATFE the probable cause to set foot on his private property, to demand that he produce his legally owned private property for their inspection, to record the serial numbers, and to threaten him if he declines?

All this without a warrant???

What in the hell ever happened to the 4th and 5th Amendments???

Has the Constitution suddenly become someone’s new version of toilet paper – something to be thankful for at times, yet flushed down the toilet when it’s no longer useful?