Years ago, at a scouting function at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, I got to handle an M16 equipped with an M203 grenade launcher. It was the single coolest thing I ever did as a child. I didn’t get to shoot it, unfortunately, but it was there and it was cool. I suspect it wasn’t actually functional, but I didn’t think of that until decades later.

I’ve always wanted to clone that weapon with an AR-15.

The problem is that M203s are destructive devices, and I don’t want to go through the hassle of getting one. Flare launchers are a popular alternative for those who want the look without the paperwork. It’s the route I intend to go should I ever build the clone I want.

Or, it’s the route I planned to go. I’m not sure that’s a good idea after what happened to Patrick “Tate” Adamiak.

We’ve outlined his saga a bit, all built from the work of Lee Williams at The Gun Writer, where he’s done an amazing job bringing the details of this story to light.

And the latest involves the supposed destructive devices in Adamiak’s possession that weren’t anything of the sort.

The list of false claims and fake charges used to convict former sailor Patrick “Tate” Adamiak is nearly as lengthy as the 20-year prison sentence he received.

Federal prosecutors aided by the ATF got a jury to find the former U.S. Navy E-6 guilty of possessing two inert and nonfunctional RPGs, a toy submachinegun their ATF “expert” claimed was a real submachinegun after he got it to fire one round by using a real submachinegun barrel and receiver, and five very expensive and very legal handguns, which fired only semi-automatically from an open bolt, even though the ATF “expert” classified them as machineguns.

The jury was never told that all of these supposedly “illegal” arms are still sold online today, or that most don’t even require any paperwork to buy or sell.

But perhaps the prosecution’s greatest false claim were the two federal charges for what prosecutors falsely labeled as “unregistered destructive devices,” which Adamiak was convicted of possessing without the required federal registration.

However, these two “unregistered destructive devices” were in reality legal flare launchers, one an M79-style launcher and the other an M203-style launcher, which are sold online today without any paperwork. Each launcher had a legal 37mm barrel, which were not attached. Each of these launchers, according to ATF rules, is exempt from being classified as a destructive device as long as their owner had no anti-personnel ammunition. Adamiak had none.

Of all the false charges of which he was convicted, these were the worst and made for political reasons, Adamiak said.

All of what prosecutors and the ATF insisted were illegal items are still sold legally online: Inert RPGs, toy STENs, open-bolt semi-autos and especially inert M79s and M203s.

Go and read the whole thing over at Lee’s Substack. He deserves your attention and, frankly, your subscription, because he’s doing good work over there.

This is one that, when the story first dropped about the conviction, I simply assumed that it was legit. After all, a jury of his peers decided he was guilty, right?

The problem was that we know the jury heard lies from the ATF and nothing else. The testifying agent, Firearms Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R. Bodell, simply failed to note that the launchers were legal in the state they were discovered.

This, coupled with allegations of live RPG launchers that were, in face, demilled and unuseable, as well as claims that a replica Sten gun was a live machine gun after the ATF did extensive modifications to make it fire a single round, and that collectible semi-auto MAC-10s were actually machine guns, and you have a sailor with a promising career get 20 years in prison.

This is wrong. Nothing about this is justice.

Justice would be Adamiak walking free and clear, with all of his gun rights restored and his property returned, as Bodell finds himself in prison for his own crimes.

The laws he was prosecuted under are wrong, to be sure, but even if they were perfectly acceptable, he didn’t break them. The evidence that he did was all nonsense and lies by an ATF agent eager to make a name for himself, it seems.

Nothing like this should be allowed to stand.

Nothing at all.