I don’t know what your views are on the military, but, frankly, those views shouldn’t change your opinion of what happened to a decorated military veteran. Why? Because, simply put, what happened to this veteran was wrong.
Here’s the scenario: Imagine that you are a gun collector, and you find a rare rifle. So, you bought it. Forty years ago. But, the ATF decides to raid your home about it now. Never mind, that no one has ever seen it out of it’s case. Never mind that they could advise you to remove the firing pin to make it legal to own this firearm. No, they raid your home today.
And it gets worse. Matt Agorist writes,
Because the raid and arrest came just two weeks after his wife died of cancer, agents also found her cannabis that she used as medicine. This was tacked on as another charge [against silver star recipient and former p.o.w. alfred pick].
This week, for having a rifle similar to the one he actually “defended your freedoms” with in Vietnam, Pick was sentenced to 87 months in prison by a judge. This, after he’d already spent the last year in a cage.
“He’s a really remarkable man to be honest,” said [pick’s attorney ryne] Sandel. “I do think it’s unfortunate for a gentleman like Alfred that’s had such an outstanding life to have it mired at the age of 70 by this federal felony.”
In the land of the free, you can be issued a rifle to kill people in foreign countries at the direction of American politicians. However, if you come home and purchase this same gun to display to your friends and family, you will be sentenced to die in prison. And we still have the audacity to call this “freedom.”
“The man is a Silver Star winner, he saved lives, he took care of his wife, he’s been in custody for a year, I would think that when a man turned 70 and is an American hero you don’t destroy the rest of his life for one mistake,” said [pick’s friend mark] Shackelford.
What happened to Alfred Pick is simply ridiculous. There is no indication that he had any record of using violence to harm people or any indication of intent to injure people with his firearms, and he owned this particular rifle for 40 years.
Yet, our government threw him into prison after living an exemplary life for what was very likely a simple mistake. Why didn’t they simply give him a warning and advise him how to make this particular piece of his gun collection legal?
I can’t say. All I can say is that, from what we know of this case, it appears that this is a frightening and infuriating case of government overreach and abuse, and another example of the war against our 2nd Amendment rights.
I think this is totally abhorrent. I am also a combat-decorated, purple heart Vietnam vet and am totally supportive of my Constitutional rights, especially the 2nd Amendment. What they did to this guy is why we should be armed, to fend off an overbearing government. Our history is ripe with government overreach: Waco, Ruby ridge, et al. ‘Nuff said.
Another case of guilty with not even a chance to be proven or present his side of innocence .
Why don’t these idio’s leave us Veterans alone. Why don’t you leave these people go over to fight now and take these peoples weapon, while you are dodging IED’s sniper, s and what ever else. Does any body, besides the people that came into this Silver Stars home, know where this happened. I gave 32 + years, and I want to know when are you coming my way, Leave us 2nd amendment people alone! This veteran has gone through enough, Leave him,alone, and give him the respect he has earned and deserves.
Is there somebody that knows how to contact president. Someone should makes sure he knows and this man’s congressman. There is great injustice done here. It sounds like something that would happen in a communist country. Not the United States of America. Be sure to vote Republican on the 6th. Let’s keep our freedoms. If they lose then we all lose, even the people that NOW think the other side is right.
The people who put this hero behind bars are the ones who deserve to be there Put them where they belong. Gary
Sorry to have to tell ya’ll this, but I read up on this veteran, and there’s a LOT more to this story. First, he admitted to others that he STOLE the FULL AUTO M-14 from the military, and the serial number was scratched off. He was in possession of cocaine and marijuana, and used both. He had mental instability issues. He had threatened health care facilities, doctors and nurses with bodily harm, and had been picked up by law enforcement on more than one occasion for this. He threatened a Federal Judge, and law enforcement officials. His daughter was sexually abused by him. She turned him in when she found the drugs and weapons, after his wife died, knowing that he was unstable and didn’t want to live with it on her conscience if he harmed others. The sentence was for the being in possession of firearms while under the influence of illegal substances, the illegal weapons charges were dropped.
The Voice of reason speaks out! Thank you!
If he has had it for over 40 years and no one has ever seen it, how did they know that he had it? And what kind of legal help did he have that allowed a verdict like that that is going to cost him the rest of his life? Being awarded a Silver Star is no small matter, the only award higher than that is the Medal of Honor, and that part should be of great concern to the military services as well as the general public when they hear of this kind of situation that a decorated veteran in mired in, and while I feel as though there has been a huge injustice done here, I don’t get why the veterans associations and the firearms associations should also be looking at this one. There must be a lot more to the story than is presented here, and one commented that there were a lot more issues that were in play, not just the firearms.
As I previously commented, I read up on this veteran, and there is a LOT more to this story. The editor should have done his due diligence BEFORE submitting this article! Please folks, look this guy up on Google, and read about him and the case against him, it is very telling. I’m sorry it happened to him, but it’s due to his own actions and he made the decisions himself.
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