No one is safe from the ATF’s tyrannical actions. Not even America’s bravest warfighters are shielded from this unconstitutional agency’s dastardly deeds. 

Just ask Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, who will be stuck in federal prison until 2042. 

Adamiak joined the Navy when he was 17, and rose to the ranks of E-6 Master-at-Arms. He obtained a bachelor’s degree and was in the middle of pursuing a master’s degree. “I was pursuing becoming a SEAL officer,” he noted. “I went to California for the first phase. A few months after that I was arrested, after a decade of working my ass off.”

Adamiak had great ambitions of not just serving his country faithfully but to also grow his side business “Black Dog Arsenal” and eventually establish a military museum. Adamiak was an avid collector of historic documents during key military conflicts, demilitarized World War II antique firearms, inactive ordnance displays, and firearms that gained historical fame in popular culture. 

The sailor grew his business to the point that it became one of Gun Broker’s top 500 dealers. However, all of Adamiak’s dreams came to a crashing halt when the ATF arrested him and later convicted him of selling a machine gun and being in possession of destructive devices in late 2022. 

According to a pro-gun writer Lee Williams, the ATF used a confidential informant (CI) to deprive Adamiak of his Second Amendment liberties. The CI inquisition was working with the ATF to commute his very own gun charges. 

“He used to own a machinegun shop,” Adamiak asserted. “The ATF raided his house, found a gun and charged him with felon in possession. He kept asking me for a machinegun, which I never got him. I got him a shroud off of Gun Broker. The ATF paid him around $8,000 for my case alone.”

“To be clear, I never sold a single item that qualifies as a firearm or requires an FFL (Federal Firearm License). Only non-regulated gun parts,” Adamiak added.

As he left gear at Adamiak’s residence, the CI saw replicas of a grenade launcher and a belt-fed machinegun. He then asked Adamiak if he possessed  a SOT (Class 3 FFL).

“No, they’re replicas,” Adamiak responded. “That was the end of the conversation. We finished trading and bartering and he left.”

Since then, Adamiak claims that the ATF launched a pressure campaign to entrap him. “I was repeatedly asked by various people if I had machineguns for sale, and my answer never changed: No!” he stated. “They attempted over and over again to have me source or put together a machinegun for them, but as a law-abiding citizen, I refused.”

Adamiak ended up selling a PPSh-41 barrel shroud to a client, which is technically not a firearm.  

“It was literally purchased in open commerce, with a business check, from a confirmed FFL as an unregulated part directly off of Gun Broker,” he stressed. “Evidently, the ATF must have realized this was the closest thing they could get from me to a firearm, but what they really wanted was to get in my house to see the Mark 19 and the M240 replicas that their CI was boasting about.”

“When applying for their search warrant the ATF told the judge in a criminal complaint that at issue was the PPSh-41 barrel shroud that they said was a machinegun, but that was not even close, legally,” Adamiak highlighted.

Over 40 federal agents and police officers from law enforcement bodies such as the ATF, FBI, HIS, NCIS, SWAT, and local enforcement raided Adamiak’s home on Apr. 7, 2022. 

“They turned my house upside-down, but did not find a single functional machinegun or destructive device,” Adamiak said.

The agents confiscated roughly 35 replica guns and parts from Adamiak’s personal collection and deemed them as “suspected machineguns and destructive devices.”

When he was released, Adamiak was accused of selling firearms without a federal firearms license, several counts of transferring and possessing of machineguns, possession of  25 additional machineguns, and allegedly possessing several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at his residence.

To add insult to injury, the agents confiscated money and silver Adamiak was in possession of. The agents contended these precious metals were “proceeds of illegal activity.” 

Adamiak was adamant that none of the replicas he had in his possession were firearms by any stretch of the imagination. “It’s my opinion and that of my family’s that the ATF realized they had messed up after they didn’t find a single illegal weapon,” Adamiak firmly maintained. “So, they completely reinterpreted the statutes and implemented a new rule to spin the jury and get me convicted. They manufactured crime to convict me.”

The ATF’s first indictment levied against Adamiak charged him with possessing 33 machineguns. Curiously, no explosive devices were mentioned. Adamiak and his legal counsel responded in kind by hiring former ATF official Dan O’Kelly to serve as a witness for the defense. 

To counter O’Kelly’s presence on the defense, prosecutors reindicted Adamiak, and charged him with possessing one machinegun and four destructive devices.

“They knew we’d make them look like fools at trial with Dan’s testimony, so the AUSA filed motions to block his expert testimony saying, ‘Any testimony about the definition of a frame or receiver of a machinegun would be both irrelevant and confusing to the jury.’” Adamiak recounted.

“The ATF even admitted in the report that it’s a replica,” Adamiak revealed. “The judge even brought this up in my sentencing order which indicates that she still thinks it’s real. It’s fake!”

Adamiak ended up being found guilty and received a  20-year jail sentence. 

O’Kelly viewed the prosecution as a mockery of justice.

“This was a prosecution by people who don’t know enough about guns, who don’t realize that what they’re looking at doesn’t satisfy the statutory definition,” O’Kelly said to the Second Amendment Foundation. “When ATF encounters some of these devices, they say a forced reset trigger is a machinegun or a brace is a shoulder stock when they’re not. Then, armed with not enough information, they take it to a federal prosecutor, who takes them at face value. The next thing you know is someone is indicted, and their entire life is over.”

Adamiak’s case shows how depraved the ATF can be. No individual, even service members are safe from this unconstitutional agency’s transgressions. 

Thankfully, there are elected officials like Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) who are standing up to this unconstitutional agency and introducing legislation to abolish it. The longer the ATF exists and operates with impunity there more individuals like Adamiak will be unjustly persecuted by it.

Join the fight to protect your Second Amendment rights.