40 ATF agents v.s. one fake Russian:
Federal agents, accompanied by Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents and deputies with the sheriff’s offices in Franklin and Hart counties, raided the Royston residence of Myers. Authorities also raided on Tuesday the 60-acre farm of Lamar Myers, Kyle’s father, in Lavonia.
A person is required to obtain a federal explosives manufacturing license if they intend to engage in the business of manufacturing explosives for sale, distribution or for their own business, Coes said.
The ATF believed that Myers was violating this law.
“The claim is that he was using explosives and getting paid for it via YouTube,” Coes said.
Source – OnlineAthens
You can check out the ATF’s regulations on manufacturing binary explosives:
Mixing binary components together consti¬tutes manufacturing explosives. Persons manufacturing explosives for their own personal, non-business use only (e.g., personal target practice) are not required to have a Federal explosives license or permit. However, individuals or companies must obtain a Federal explosives manufacturing license if they intend to engage in the business of manufacturing explosives for sale or distribution, or for their own business use. Such business uses include manufacturing for use in commercial blasting applications, removing obstacles such as trees or rocks during construction, theatrical special effects, and for demonstration or product testing purposes. (Source)
I really hope nothing happens to him on this… but according to the “theatrical special effects” stipulation above, to me it seems he is in violation if he infact goes not have the proper Federal explosives license or permit. As I mentioned before my specialty is bird law, so take that assessment with a grain of salt.
The one thing I hate about “the law” is that sometimes the whole game plan seems to be to try and catch people slipping like this. If FPS knew about the requirement for a permit but ignored it, then fine throw the book at him. If he didn’t know, maybe a friendly phonecall or email from the ATF tell him “buddy we see a lot of permits and licenses here with your company name on it, but not an explosives one. Apply for one within the next __ days or else you will be in violation of federal law.” In a perfect world that would have been nice to just get a heads up from a bro.
Mattv2099 gets that youtube money when he straps the binary on on Bieber and puts finger to trigger … is he on the chopping block? What about Richard Ryan?… actually from talking to Richard I’m pretty sure he has permits and licences for things that haven’t even been invented yet.
Thoughts?
Comments
30 responses to “ATF Raids FPS Russia Hoping To Catch Him Slipping”
Guess nearly killing your camera man (and self) while using a shitty Russian accent and explosives on YouTube draws a little attention…. (death of business partner doesn’t help either however unrelated from the shenanigans it was)
BS technicality. It’s not just YouTube, it manufacturing for profit or demonstration for business use period. There are 2 basic types of licenses: Permit and manufacturer. Both have subcategory limitations from importer, transporting intrastate, limited to (example: only fireworks not including 1.1 etc) and so on.
The problem and reason why I got a manufacturing license after I had my permit for a while was the binary explosives “technicality”. If I’m a construction company and I have an explosives permit the DOJ and BAFTE have permitted me to go purchase C4, Det Cord, whatever store it, transport and use it when I need to demo. If I buy a binary I can’t legally mix it to use to demo for business even though it’s less of a RE factor than the 1.1 I’m permitted for. I have to hire a manufacturer to come in and mix it for me, then I can detonate it. Sounds ridiculous right? Apply that to YouTube. All of these channels that mix a binary target, shoot it and monetize off the video have technically manufactured for profit. Hopefully everyone will be vocal about this and get it changed. Don’t get me started on state and local licenses and permits. Just to film in California… Entertainment Firearms Permit, Dangerous Weapons Permit, 02/07/10 firearms destructive device manufacturer, High Capacity Magazine Permit (Even though 30 rounds is technically “Standard Capacity”), State Pyrotechnician’s Licenses, Firemarshall licenses, RSO’s, off duty LEO, on and on and on and on and on…. It’s an endless battle of paper work.
If anyone ever has any questions feel free to reach out to me. About ANYTHING! Always get many answers to your questions as possible. DOJ has gave many mixed answers before depending on who you I asked.
Admittedly, this isn’t in my wheelhouse so forgive me if these are stupid questions:
What is the definition of manufacturing? If you purchase Tannerite and mix the two components, is that considered the manufacture of an explosive?
This would lead me to believe anyone who has purchased Tannerite, shot a video of themselves using it on YouTube, and had the monetize videos option turned ‘on’ is in violation. Correct?
ATF slow day
My youtube channel is a “hobby.”
As long as no money is made off the videos they agree. Where do you draw the line with how much you money you make is a hobby and where is a business? The way they have explained it to me is if you make 1 cent off a video or even if you don’t monetize that video you have manufactured for a demonstration to promote for your channel or business… Even if you only make a couple bucks a year at it.
Hopefully enough blogs pick this up, people speak out about it and something gets changed. But who knows all the details at the moment? Can they find out what the warrant stated? Is that public record and does it fall under the freedom of information act since a judge would have to sign off on that?
make your youtube channel a non-profit and donate all the net profits to a charity like “600 Round Assault Clips for Orphans” or 600 RACfO as it is known commonly.
I think this case will be used for a new ruling. Hopefully ATF willgo ahead and do what they should have been doing years ago and set dollar amounts or more strict guidelines for what does and doesn’t constitute a business. On the one hand, I’m tired of seeing people buy an AR at a sporting goods outlet to flip at the gunshow the next weekend just to say “well I’m not running a business” but at the same time I don’t want peopel to have to get an FFL just because they decide to sell the Savage Model 24 they bought in the 80s for double what they paid for it.
Soem will call this a bullshit technicality, but what it boils down to is there are people abusing the system or trying to circumvent it. I’m not extremely familair with FPSRussia’s stuff, but I knwo he’s making enough money on and off youtube that he certainly should have had the proper permit.
WRT explosives, perhaps ATF could issue a ruling about hobby vs commercial, such as setting an annual poundage limit (with regards to public display/spectacle/special effects, not persona;l consumption) before one needs to get the license. Rather than adding new laws/rules, they could help by just clarifying the existing laws.
wow. I wonder why it took them so long to go up there and “raid” the guy.
I am ready to believe that the ATF is on the case only because Myers was close to someone who was murdered. For anyone working in law enforcement, this is enough incentive to go bother some guy who’s internet famous for blowing shit up with guns and tannerite.
We have to stop thinking that these traps are there by accident. These laws are written by very bright people with very specific outcomes in mind. These traps are there by design. The senators and congressmen you see on TV do NOT write the laws they pass. A bunch of lawyers working for the lobbyist do. Just take a look at the universal background check law that is being produced. It would make loaning a firearm on your own property a felony, so would leaving your firearm with your roommate for more than 7 days. Having such traps enables the establishment to selectively enforce or charge the people that they target.
Ummm. I will have to disagree with you there. Have you seen the gun laws in sates like CA? So many loopholes. I’ve always said I could write better laws that would actually restrict guns/magazines/etc. They only problem is my morality costs 1 billion dollars.
I don’t think that it has anything to do with explosives. I believe they were looking for a reason to do a search so they could gather supporting evidence in the murder case. Not trying to be a conspiracy guy here. Find a catch, get a warrant, raid and search for “explosives”, find supporting evidence for a investigation route and warrant for the murder. I could be wrong here. I’m just trying to wonder like you guys why it took so many agents? Why now? Why, like mentioned, no courtesy call?
That’s kinda iffy legally. Not that those type of things don’t happen, but they’d have to be very careful with the search or risk any evidence found being excluded. The search has to be done within the scope of the search warrant and a defense lawyer would have a field day unless the evidence they found was just laying out in the open or they managed to get a really broad warrant. Otherwise the court is going to ask why they were looking in places unlikely to have explosives. Very risky move if that’s what they’re trying.
I think it’s far more likely they’re just doing this because they can. They’ll get no complaints from the higher ups for harassing citizens with guns, so they just run with it. It’s a bureaucracy. They get promoted for looking like they’re doing something, not for being fair and level headed in applying the law. Reading the statute, it’s practically certain he broke the law and ignorance of published laws is not a valid defense. Still a raid like this seems over the top when discretion can be used. As irritating as his channel is, I seriously doubt he’s a danger to society. There have got to be dozens of other, more sensible ways this could have been handled.
Our government is fucked. We are sliding down that road. Its only a matter of time before the ATF or DHS starts showing up at our homes, looking for a technicality to get you on. If they really wanted to stop him from violating this stupid law, all they would have had to do was send a letter.
I think it’s interesting that what he’s doing isn’t technically a crime.
However, someone viewing it from thousands of miles away that generates ad-revenue through a third-party website makes the original act a crime.
Maybe we should get the IRS involved too…if he writes off enough and doesn’t technically show a profit, he’s innocent!
Somehow America survived 158 years without a single federal arms law, even up to the 1940’s one could purchase dynamite at hardware stores. 20,000 plus weapons laws and not a single reduction in crime since 1934. Lets get back to our constitutional roots and urge the pols to repeal all of this crap, shall we?
BTW, FPSRussia is a moron, but did the BATFE REALLY feel the need to send 40 barney fifes to swarm his residence? ridiculous.
I really doubt that this has anything to do with his zealous use of binary explosive. It’s a fishing expedition. Someone, somewhere is building a case with the Fed’s help. According to the article, nothing was confiscated by the ATF. Yep, something else is going on here. They may not have taken anything but I’m sure they left a lot of little spy gadgets.
The obvious possibility is that they wanted to go after him as a suspect in Keith Ratliff’s death, but didn’t have enough probably cause for a search warrant, and so pulled an unrelated charge out of their bag of tricks.
As for the 40 agents the ATF is nothing if not excessive.
How about we just let people do what ever the heck they want on their own property as long as they don’t blow someone else up? Really sick of all these petty rules, regs and licenses.
Which is sort of why the USA became no longer colonies of GB, yeah? Must we do it again?
“Predictably, if one can only appeal to the state for justice, justice will be perverted in favor of the state. Instead of resolving conflict, a monopolist of ultimate decision-making will provoke conflict in order to settle it to his own advantage.”
Of course they would rather raid your house than call you. If they catch FPS in the slightest mistake, they get to keep all of his stuff.
Well, obviously they didn’t. The “explosives for profit” must not have been sound, or they could have had him. They didn’t, so it wasn’t. This is all just governmental BS trying to scare us into ready submission.
FPSRussia sucks dick and the BATF eats them. Its a match made in heaven.
Really? Because if heaven has FPS Russia and the BATFE, Then it must be hell!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUi4BOpNnvo
What wasn’t mentioned here, was that the ATF didn’t take anything.
http://rt.com/usa/atf-raided-farm-fpsrussia-035/
Not for lack of effort.
The ATF are better at having shit stolen from them
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/200276171.html
-Lose an M4: check
-Lose two pistols: check
-lose forty grand in cash: check
Job well done BATFE! (sarc)
Everyone is on the chopping block that the government doesn’t like. Once you get famous on the Internet you could have a problem. I’m afraid of it. One day the government might come for me too.