From firearms-alert-owner Sat Jul 2 15:27:36 1994 Received: from localhost (chan@localhost) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.5) id PAA25853 for firearms-alert-outgoing; Sat, 2 Jul 1994 15:16:51 -0700 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.5) with ESMTP id PAA25800 for ; Sat, 2 Jul 1994 15:16:41 -0700 Received: from gatekeeper.nra.org ([192.156.97.62]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.7/8.6.5) with SMTP id WAA24034 for ; Fri, 1 Jul 1994 22:22:14 -0700 Received: by gatekeeper.nra.org (5.65/DEC-Ultrix/4.3) id AA01876; Sat, 2 Jul 1994 01:20:36 -0400 Date: Sat, 2 Jul 1994 01:20:36 -0400 Message-Id: <9407020520.AA01876@gatekeeper.nra.org> Reply-To: alerts@gatekeeper.nra.org Originator: rkba-alert@nra.org From: alerts@gatekeeper.nra.org (NRA Alerts) To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com Subject: BATF BUST IN BOONE, NORTH CAROLINA X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: NRA Alerts list Sender: firearms-alert-owner@shell.portal.com Precedence: bulk Status: RO July 1, 1994 BATF BUST IN BOONE, NORTH CAROLINA The curator of the North Carolina Military Museum was the target of a BATF raid Tuesday, June 28. With search warrants in hand, ATF agents seized about 20 fully automatic firearms -- all legally registered to the curator -- inert artillery shells on display and about 100,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, according to the curator. Agents claimed the shells contain powder residue -- yet were clearly labeled "EOD INERT." Agents also claimed that the ammunition could have been stolen from the military. Curator Greg Pruess told NRA Public Affairs that he holds a Class III and a destructive device manufacturing license. Pruess noted that ATF's computer print-out of the Class III firearms he had registered was inaccurate and said the agents did not know how to identify some of the firearms in question. The small arms ammo was stored in a storage building adjacent to the museum. Once the agents noted the extent of the ammo, they called the press. Parroting comments made by the agents, local reporters said an explosion of the ammo cache could have cau sed a crater a half-mile wide. (Later news reports expanded the crater porential to a mile-wide.) The agents came across an RPG launcher (inert, with operating devices welded-over) and allowed a member of the news crew to shoulder it while videotaping. "This is the kind of communist bloc weaponry" that prompted the raid, an agent told the press. The seizure was the result of "an ongoing investigation for three years" involving an informant, Pruess said. -- This information is presented as a service to the Internet community by the NRA/ILA. Many files are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.nra.org and via WWW at http://www.nra.org Be sure to subscribe to rkba-alert by sending: subscribe rkba-alert Your Full Name as the body of a message to rkba-alert-request@NRA.org Information can also be obtained by connecting to the NRA-ILA GUN-TALK BBS at (703) 719-6406.