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Patrick Tate Adamiak is starting his fourth year of a 20-year federal prison sentence, even though he broke no law and committed no crime. That sad fact leads almost every discussion about the 31-year-old who had no prior criminal history. The public’s attention has been rightfully focused on freeing him from his undeserved incarceration, not on the ATF agents who wrongfully put him in a prison cell for two decades.
As most of you know, Joe Biden’s ATF lied about what their confidential informant had purchased from Adamiak. They lied again to obtain a search warrant of Adamiak’s property. They found nothing illegal while executing their search warrant, so they lied yet again about the legal items they found in order to obtain a conviction.
These untruths, in my humble opinion, were made for three reasons: in order to stave off any claim that Adamiak’s civil rights were violated, to shield the ATF agents from how poorly they conducted the investigation, and to keep secret the fact that they simply can’t work a confidential informant.
The ATF’s lies were so profound they actually turned gun parts into machineguns. Their firearms “experts” even classified a toy as a machinegun—a toy! They misclassified two DEWAT RPGs as actual grenade launchers, which added 15 years to Adamiak’s sentence. An ATF expert even classified seven legal semi-auto handguns, which fire from an open bolt, as machineguns.
To be clear, this was a massively flawed investigation. It was fraudulent in more than a hundred different ways. And it was fraudulent from the very beginning.
This entire monstrosity started when the ATF sent a confidential informant to buy machineguns from Adamiak, who never sold any machineguns, of course. Adamiak never had any machineguns. Instead, Adamiak sold the informant barrel shrouds, which were even cut up into pieces.
Barrel shrouds surround a machinegun barrel. They’re meant to keep a young soldier from burning their hands on a hot machinegun barrel. The weapon can fire full-auto with or without a shroud. They certainly aren’t vital parts. They definitely are not a “machinegun.”
Anyone who misclassifies cut up barrel shrouds as machineguns shouldn’t be working for the ATF, but that’s exactly what ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Ronald K. Davis did. He put this deception into a report, which ATF Agent William S. Harston, Jr., quickly used as evidence to obtain a search warrant of Adamiak’s home. Hairston, the ATF’s lead case agent, even held up a toy during Adamiak’s trial, which of course was also classified as a machinegun.
“If they never lied about those shrouds, they never would have gotten a search warrant,” Adamiak said Wednesday.
During his trial, Adamiak’s defense team tried to argue that the barrel shrouds weren’t machineguns, so the search warrant was flawed, and the ATF’s entire investigation was based on lies…but the judge cut them right off.
Adamiak was calm when I asked about his years of mistreatment by the ATF. He pointed to what the new ATF director, Rob Cekada, recently said during a congressional hearing. He agrees with Cekada’s comments.
“There is ambiguity in the law, and I think it’s important for people to be able to follow the law, to understand to law, and when federal agents don’t understand the law themselves, that leaves all of us at risk, and there shouldn’t be any room there,” Cekada told Congressman Eli Crane, who chaired the hearing.
I asked Adamiak what he thinks should happen to the ATF staffers whose misdeeds got him arrested, which led to his 20-year sentence. “That’s a good question,” he said. “They should be immediately fired, and I think they should be investigated for perjury.”
If the ATF kicked down my door for no reason, seized all my guns for no reason, lied under oath and sent me to prison for two decades, I would want more—much more—than perjury charges.
I truly believe Adamiak will be released, hopefully soon. He has a hearing next month and his new legal team is incredible. The public has mailed hundreds of “Free Tate” letters to the White House and other recipients. There are also other machinations occurring almost daily that could also lead to his release. Unfortunately, nothing happening now will hold anyone accountable for the more than 1,500 days Adamiak has spent behind bars or the 5,840 days he has left to serve.
As a result, the ATF agents who were involved with the Adamiak investigation believe they got away with it. They committed a massive civil rights violation solely to ingratiate themselves with the Biden administration, and are all still gainfully employed. These agents go to work every day as if they did nothing wrong.
In a perfect world, once Adamiak is freed, these agents will be held accountable. The current ATF leadership doesn’t get to simply ignore this group of miscreants. They need to be made an example of, so that their extreme misconduct never happens again. Trust me, unless these ATF staffers are held accountable for their misdeeds it all will happen again, especially when there’s another Democrat at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
What these agents did needs to be dissected. Those responsible need to be severely disciplined. It must not be overlooked by the current ATF leadership. The entire organization needs to look at this incident as it really is—a massive civil rights violation that merits penalties. No one who made a single decision about the case should ever receive another taxpayer dollar.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the ATF itself need to take a close, serious look at what they did to Patrick Tate Adamiak or it will happen again, especially when there’s another Dem calling the shots at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Once was enough.
Bottom line: If the ATF doesn’t hold itself fully accountable, we need to ask whether we even need the ATF.
The M1A has an impressive lineage. Based on a design dating back to the 1930s and born from the prodigious mind of John C. Garand, the M1A has many of the hallmarks of his M1 Garand rifle. However, it is even more closely tied to the M14, the rifle developed as the successor to Garand’s classic military rifle.
And while the M14’s reign as the U.S. military service rifle may have technically been short, its influence and capabilities have carried on well beyond its official role as a front-line military rifle. In fact, the spirit of this select-fire combat rifle carried on in the semi-automatic-only M1A rifle from Geneseo, Illinois’ Springfield Armory, which has continuously produced the rifle since 1974.
But how does the M1A stand up to the original M14 rifle? Does it have the capabilities and — possibly even more important — the durability of its military sibling? As the M14 came from an era of rugged strength and durability, as well as the use of wood and steel, the M1A has a lot to live up to.
A Fascinating Find
Recently, I had a chance to chat with Jason Chambless of the Research & Development Department at Springfield Amory. Jason (or “JC” as he is known), has been with the company for nearly 30 years and has worked with practically every gun the company produces, as well as some interesting ones from Springfield Armory’s past.
He worked with the M1A for many years, as well as the company’s SAR-8 (a G3-based semi-auto rifle) and the SAR-4800 (a FAL-based semi-auto rifle). He also worked on the S.A.S.S. (a fascinating 1911-based single-shot pistol that chambered rounds such as the .44 Mag. as well as the 7mm-08), the popular M6 Scout and M1 Garand rifles. It was his transition over to 1911 pistols that led him to Springfield Armory Custom, and he later was inducted into the American Pistolsmiths Guild. He has been with the R&D department for the last several years..
While I was chatting with him, I noticed an M1A sitting on a table that looked like it had been put through the wringer. The gun appeared to be fully functional, but it had clearly had some rounds put through it. And it did not look like it had been babied during the process. I asked Jason what the story was with that gun, and he smiled.
“We’ve put a lot of rounds through that gun,” he told me. I noticed a certain emphasis on the words “a lot.”
As I asked questions about the gun — and the process — I learned that they regularly put Springfield Armory firearms through endurance tests to check for irregularities or malfunctions. Sure, spot-checking here and there can be effective, as can be shooting for groups to ensure performance. But nothing tests the mettle of a firearm like round-intensive endurance test. And this tells me that Springfield cares about the quality of its products.
“So how many rounds are we talking about, here?”, I asked him. When he told me the number, I was impressed. Very impressed. What was that number? 15,000 rounds. Through a single gun. Fired over the course of five days. And I was holding the result of that test in my hands as we talked.
“Two other members of the R&D team and I have been running that gun as part of the test in our climate-controlled indoor ready range here,” JC told me. With that kind of volume of fire, it is simply too much for just one shooter to handle on their own. He explained that they do it to test the gun for function, as well as check the mechanics of the rifle and also the durability of its parts. Basically, it’s a stress test for the rifle to find out what most shooters would never see during regular shooting sessions.
The Nuts & Bolts
Obviously, I was interested in how the testing went. The gun was still in one piece, so it clearly had survived. The rifle was an M1A Standard Issue with a synthetic stock. No special models here, no special treatment. Just a basic, stock model of the classic M1A design. In fact, it was a random rifle pulled from inventory, that just happened to be a synthetic stocked model rather than a walnut one.
As I rolled the rifle over in my hands, noting the brass impact marks on the operating rod, I could tell it had been run hard. But what exactly had happened during the test? As I dug deeper with JC on it, I learned that the testing was broken up into strings of fire of 200 rounds each, fed by ten 20-round magazines. The ammo used was Federal/American Eagle 150-gr. FMJ loads.
Interestingly, he told me they removed the handguard for the testing. This was done to help the cool more easily and not retain any more heat than necessary. This obviously required some care on their part when handling the gun during the test, as the barrel got very, very hot. Also, the rifle was purposely run semi-dry with minimal lubrication to the bolt and operating rod to monitor any premature mechanical issues. The only cleaning of the M1A done was to run a bore snake through the barrel every 1,000 rounds.
As they ran these 200-round strings, they would monitor the feeding, ejection, last-round lock back, potential parts failures, headspace deviation, and more. After each string of these 200 rounds, the rifle was positioned in a fixed support and force cooled to allow them to be able to check headspacing and critical inspections including the fitment of the operating rod in the receiver, any irregular wear on bolt and firing pin/camming areas, hammer/sear wear, etc. and parts.
String after string of 200 rounds was run through the rifle, with the above process held to rigidly. As they reached 1,000 rounds, there were no problems. At 2,000 rounds? Still running fine. At 3,000? Same story. That carried through 4,000, 5,000, and more. It was at 9,000 rounds that the first hiccup appeared.
The Fly in the Ointment
What was it that happened just over the 9,000-round mark? JC explained that they noticed a few short strokes of the action. They were sporadic, but they were happening. They stopped the test, cooled the rifle and did a close inspection of the rifle.
A detailed inspection of the piston revealed fouling inside the gas cylinder. It was quickly determined that this was the source of the short strokes with the rifle. The piston was removed, cleaned and reinstalled, and the test began again.
The rifle at 10,000 rounds? Running smoothly. At 11,000? Still running. In fact, the rifle ran without a hitch all the way up to its pre-determined stopping point of 15,000 rounds. When I asked JC why 15,000 rounds were chosen for the text, he explained that this amount provides a good “window” for them to observe any irregularities in any of the products. Sounds like a pretty successful test, doesn’t it?
The Results
Obviously, this was a very severe test to put the M1A through, far beyond what most if not all normal shooters would ever subject their rifle to. Clearly, it had made it through the test with flying colors. Heck, the fact it was still in one piece — no rattle, no looseness, etc. — was impressive enough.
JC explained to me that at the end of the test, they cooled the rifle and gave it a thorough cleaning, followed by a detailed inspection and headspace check. Apart from some wear and tear to the stock as well as the phosphate finish on the steel, the rifle came through it in quite good shape. They found no parts failures, and the headspacing held strong (at 1.633).
Yep, a pretty successful test. I was already a fan of the M1A (and have been since my teenage years when I got my first one), but I was blown away by its endurance. When I asked JC his thoughts on it, he simply said “I would expect nothing less of these rifles.” Works for me!