Before I start quoting, it would be the right thing to do to keep in mind this information was acquired through *honest* BATF agents risking their jobs and their careers. All parties, therefor, please keep a proper perspective in other words. By this admonition I do not mean to detract, in any way, from the legitimate, heated criticism that has caused even BATF Director John Magaw to admit, before Congress, "We have lost the trust of the American people." Article name: FOIA Produces Evidence of BATF Institutional Perjury By: James H. Jeffries III He is a retired US Department of Justice lawyer, retired colonel US Marine Corp Reserve. He holds BATF in "minimum high regard". THE NEW GUN WEEK, September 10, 1996, pg 4. "On Oct. 18, 1995, Thomas A. Busey, then chief of the National Firearms Act Branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobbacco and Firearms (BATF), made a videotaped training presentation to BATF headquarters personnel during a roll-call training session... "Busey's National Firearms Act Branch administers the National Firearms Act of 1934 (1), the taxation and regulatory scheme governing machineguns, silencers, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, destructive devices, etc. In his capacity as NFA branch chief, Busey was the official custodian of the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record system (NFR &TR), mandated by 26 U.S.C. §5841.... "Every prosecution and forfeiture action brought by the United States and involving an allegedly unregistered NFA firearm requires testimony under oath by a duly-authorized custodian of the NFR & TR, that after a diligent search of the official records of which he/she is custodian, no record of the registration of the firearm in question was found (or was found but showed a different registrant than the person being prosecuted [2]). An alternative method of proving the same facts is by admission into evidence of a certified copy under official Treaury Department seal of a similar written declaration of the custodian [3]. This is a critical element of the government's proof... "Busey began his roll-call presentation by acknowledging that, "Our first and main responsibility is to make accurate entries and to maintain accuracy of the NFR & TR... when we testify in court, we testify that the data base is 100% accurate. That's what we testify to, and we will always testify to that. As you probably well know, that may not be 100% true".... "So the information... that are in the data base has to be 100% accurate. Like I told you before, we testify in court and, of course, our certifications testify to that, too, when we're not physically there to testify, that we are 100% accurate." The article goes on, "How bad was the error rate in the NFR & TR? Busey again: "...when I first came in a year ago, our error rate was between 49 and 50%, so you can imagine what the accuracy of the NFR & TR could be, if your error rate's 49 to 50%."... "Consider this matter in its starkest terms: a senior BATF official lecturing other senior BATF officials at BATF national headquarters in Washington, DC, declares openly and without apparent embarassment or hesitation that BATF officers testifying under oath in federal (and state) courts have routinely perjured themselves about the accuracy of official government records in order to send gun-owning citizens to prison and/or deprive them of their property... "All this was too brazen for even some BATF officials to stomach. Acting on tips from several BATF officials (there are honest men and women in government, even in BATF), I promptly filed a Freedom of Information Act demand precisely describing the Busey tape. After reviewing the incriminating tape, BATF officials discussed whether they could get away with destroying it. Wiser heads prevailed;... "...a transcript of the Busey tape was sent to me in February 1996. The Department of Justice was dismayed because the Busey tape was clearly BRADY material. Every defence lawyer knows that under the Supreme Court's 1963 decision in BRADY v. MARYLAND, 373 U.S. 83, the government is required in all criminal prosecutions to provide the defence, in advance of trial, with any evidence tending to show the defendant's innocence. Failure to do so can result in dismissal of an indictment, reversal of a conviction, or other sanctions. Willful failure to produce BRADY material can constitute contempt of court, professional misconduct, or even a crime. "The Busey tape was clearly exculpatory and clearly implicated every National Firearms Act prosecution and forfeiture in living memory. Worse yet, Busey was only the tip of the iceberg. When the fog had cleared Justice learned that the NFR & TR inaccuracy problem had been the subject of internal BATF discussion since at least 1979. BATF's files were replet with minutes of meetings, sttistical studies, memoranda, correspondence, etc., admitting the problem. The only thing missing was any attempt to correct the problem, or to reveal it to anyone outside the agency. "The Justice Department has now commenced the painful chore of advising every NFA defendant in the country of the situation... "The indirect consequences of BATF's conduct will not be so readily apparent but are potentially devastating. All across the country Assistant US Attorneys, US District Judges, and other federal and local law enforcement officials are going to learn what most defense lawyers and gun dealers have known for years and what the aftermath of Waco and Ruby Ridge starkly illustrated: BATF officers and agents lie, disemble and cover-up on an institutionalized basis. These are not aberrations; they are an institutionalized ethic, an organizational way of life. Just who is the criminal in these cases?" He goes on to say he is informally acting as a clearing house for lawyers and defendants in NFA cases. Any who have not received the Brady masterial may contact him at (910) 282-6024.