The buyback was held at "St. Anthony's Catholic Church" in south Phoenix. A somewhat run-down hispanic neighorhood (she wouldn't dare do this in tony Scottsdale, would she?) The County Supervisor's name is "Mary Rose Wilcox." She had some county type person there (who would not say if he was a sworn officer) who asked us, as we were setting up our folding table between the sidewalk and the street (public property in Phx) if we had contacted the Church. We said, "No. Never spoke with 'em." He said, "Well, I'm going to call PD." We said, "As you wish, sir."
The Phoenix PD showed up (we were not carrying openly that day since we wanted a softer media message for the Game and Fish Department). PD talked to the county folk then motioned me and another over to talk. The give away was this, the cop said, "Now, I'm not a lawyer, so I can't say if that is public property or not, but they say it is Church property. So...could you move across the street?"
Well, no, actually that would have ruined our effort. We told him that our attorney was going to show up soon to discuss the matter and has told us that it is public property. The sucker never did show. But we got offers from some of the home owners to have it in their front yards but it would have been too far away to intercept the sheeple. The cop then just said that he wanted to make sure that there were no hard feelings. We assured him that the intent was to supply Game and Fish with training rifles and conduct First Amendment media interviews. We also had an ad hoc Women's group there "Arizona Women for Rape Prevention, whose method of prevention is to be heavily armed. We were going to donate suitable pistols to that group but didn't find any worth the effort.
The cops bid us good day and left, much to the dismay of the county officials. The cops came back later to check on us. We showed one of the girl-cops our newly obtained 1898 .30-40 Krag. Very slick action.
Ya see, this was Mary Rose's third annual buyback. This was my second visit. Two years ago Mary Rose voted to over-ride the county citizen's voting down of public fianancing of the $300 million-dollar Bank One Ball Park, home of the National League Arizona Diamond Backs. Two of those County supervisors were voted out of office. And Mary Rose was voted back into her Gerrymandered district. She was then shot in the tush with a .357 magnum (all caught on the building audio/video system and played countless times on the TV) by a "deranged homeless man" who somehow got a new suit of clothes and a shiny gun for the purpose. Not that I'm a conspiracy theorist
2. Was this an action by some individuals or were you part of an organization (VFW, Elks, rifle club, etc.)
The first time I did it by myself. I did not intercept guns that time. I just conducted seven interviews. My presence changed the questions that were asked Mary Rose and my eaves-dropping changed her answers. I wore a JPFO "Gun Control is RACIST" T-shirt and told her black body guard exactly where the term "Saturday Night Special" came from.
This time I was inspired by and earlier buy back conducted by an avowed "socialist-anarchist" professor from Arizona State University. He was offering $20 restaurant certificates for trade. So a group of about seven of us went down there to show a different side of it.
A buddy of mine (my wife with camcorder in tow) were one of the first through the door. Only the print media had shown up. My buddy had his National Match M1A and I had my Argi FNFAL, empty twenty round magazines installed. The geezer professor opened the doors to Tempe City Council Chambers. He had arranged for the ASU music department to have several musicians playing throughout the day. We were greeted with a string duet and were reminded of the orchestras that played when the Jews entered the death camps. The professor glowed with out-stretched hands and said to us, "You're going to turn in those guns...God Bless You!! Here is your $20 gift certificate..."
"Hold on," we interrupted. "This is a $2,000 National Match M1...and this
is a $1,500 FAL. We'll need more than twenty bucks..."
The Tempe Policeman and his cutie public information officer helper looked up. The professor said through his aged voice box, "Oh....a couple of wise guys, eh?"
We decided to engage in a short debate and mentioned the chamber music and the Jews who were disarmed by Hitler before he murdered six million of them.
He responded, "That's not true. The Jews gave up their weapons willingly."
We quipped, "And your point is...?"
The officer babe was caught on our video tape with a very strange look on her face as if to say, "Oh...My...Gawd," as she shifted her eyes back and forth searching for an answer to an age-old question. Her dark hair and mediteranian complexion made me wonder if she were Jewish herself. I never asked.
The police asked us to leave but had no authority under Arizona law to do so, especially during a buy back. The sign on the door which said, "No Weapons Allowed -- ARS 13-3102" is only a request to check your weapons during the visit to the government building. We could have and had in the passed stood our ground....but there were board reporters waiting to interview us. We turned around and started answering questions and taking pictures. The male cop tried to bluff us into leaving. I told him that we had every right to be here and we were conducting interviews with the press, adding, "Do you have even less respect for the First amendment than you do for the Second?"
He backed off a bit, we finished our first interview. Soon the cutie-cop came up and asked us if we could just put our rifles back in our trunks (so as not to frighten the other buybackers). She was soooo sweet. I couldn't resist complying. I told her, "You know we don't have to comply but since you were polite we will put them away for the rest of the day."
We sat and had a pow-wow in the parking lot, with the odd Tempe Cop peaking around the corner to see if we had left. We went back inside and stayed for about three more hours (until the press left).
Inside some hispanic "artist" had welded gardening implements to old guns, a single shot shot gun was now a shovel, a Ruger 10-22 was a rake. A blackhawk was a hand spade... I mentioned to a reporter that one was the gun my dad gave to me, a Stevens single shot 12 guage.
I watched a few people turn in their guns. something hit me. Not one, but two old men showed up with .22 caliber rifles (and good ones), which were given to them by their fathers. One was a vintage .22 target rifle used for training WW2 draftees.
First one, then the other said something like this, "I just don't have any use for this rifle. My dad gave this to me. Do you have to destroy it? Doesn't anyone want this rifle?"
I got an idea and stood up behind him. "Take it to Arizona Game and Fish for their hunter safety program!!!" But he couldn't shift his mental gears. When the next guy came and did the same thing...turning in the same rifle my father taught me how to shoot, I knew what I had to do.
3. How did you get around the background checks (on you). Did you have to have an FFL holder there?
Background checks? For private sales? This is Arizona. Hell, Mary Rose took possession of three NFA shotguns. The cops did nothing.
4. I take it you offered the same amount of cash. How much was the buying price and where did the funds come from?
Yeah, sorta. We only had two weeks to prepare. We had planned to get our own $50 certificates from grocery stores like Mary Rose but had no time. We tried to get gun shops to give us certificates for accessories or training but, as usual, they are worthless. They refuse to engage in the fight for fear of getting in trouble with BATF. Another reason to repeal the 1968 GCA.
We found one pro-gun _outdoor_ shop that gave us one certificate. We really didn't care if we picked up any guns. We wanted to make a point, anyway. But, as luck would have it, we got on talk radio the night before and told people we would be there. We got six junker guns, broken Lorcins, etc. Well, when someone with a good rifle came up, we would tell them that if they wanted the gun destroyed, they could go to Mary Rose. If they wanted to donate to Game and Fish, we were the folks. We had no certificates, so what we did was trade our junkers for a certificate from Mary Rose. We out-numbered them at all times so they couldn't keep us straight. We would then give the Mary Rose certificate to swap for the .22 rifle. One guy showed up with a shotgun at the same time we were out of certificates. We just took his shotgun and gave him a Lorcin and told him to see Mary Rose. I hafta laff.
We did many interviews. But we were edited out of all but one of them. This is normal. Despite the fact that there was more of us than of Mary Rose, the story was still Mary Rose. As we lined up the guns (we had 15 in all) we allowed the TV crews to do the camera thing. We even stuck a few of our own to make it look like we had more.
5. I imagine you checked with the Fish and Game people first to see if they were willing to receive the guns?
Yes. They were very supportive. And we assured them that we would mind our Ps and Qs so as not to tarnish them. They even asked me where to buy a copy of the documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement." I told them to go to Amazon.com.
6. Did you have professionally-made signs or were they hand-written? Would it have made any difference?
We had no signs, and yes, we really wanted to have signs. It would have made a difference. What we did do was buy some nametag stuff from Office Depot and have some names and/or groups printed up on our computer printer. We also had lots of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership T-shirts.
7. What wording did you use?
From now on we will use the title, "No Smelter Shelter" I give you permission to use this for the above purpose.
8. Curiosity more than anything else. What ever happened to those sawed-off shotguns?
Nobody's talkin'.
9. Curiosity II -- why didn't those with the junkers sell them to the Supervisor?
I'm guessing that the question was answered. We passed up on about four or five times more guns than we took in. They were broken and of no use to us or Game and Fish. Mary Rose bought all of the junk.
That reminds me. Our original plan was to trade in BB guns that we got for (free). But Mary Rose must have heard about us because she issued a statement that she would only take working guns, no BB or pellet guns and only three guns per person. She must have assumed that I would come alone again. Not this time.
10) the Northeast and California would have you chased off or arrested.
If you are breaking no law, let them try to intimidate you. We have even had our people arrested for holding up a sign during a Janet Reno visit to Phoenix (something about Waco, or maybe comfortble shoes I suspect.) He was acting lawfully, but the servile police were under orders to clear the way of embarrassing peasants. Our man was released about 30 minutes later and went back to the "scene of the crime."
It is always nice to have a lawyer amongst your group. Go recruit him. If my actions would be against the Well, you just change your tactics. Be there to do interviews. Talk to your paper or TV news a few days before and find out who is assigned to the story. Call that person and tell her what is really going on.
One newspaper reporter actually came up with a CDC and a NIJ study showing buybacks don't do anygood. Mary Rose responded "We have to do something, anything..."
11)However, Nevada is pretty good,
Nevada? I probably don't have to tell you this but...
Vin Suprynowicz, Las Vegas Review Journal... He da man.
BTW, you asked if I was there as a group. To the cameras we were many groups. To any inquistive LE, we were unaligned.
"Who is the leader here?"
"No leader here officer."
"Do you have a permit to be here?"
"This is no organized march. We don't need no stinking permit."
"What group are you with?"
"No group, sir. I guess these concerned individuals just heard about it on the radio like me."
Fight dirty,
Rick
