Posted on 11/11/2006 7:29:21 AM PST by Firefigher NC
FAYETTEVILLE — A Fayetteville militia member was arrested Wednesday by teams of special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other federal and state agencies and local police in connection with illegal firearms.
Fayetteville police Lt. Mike Reynolds said 14 search warrants were executed Wednesday in Fort Smith and Fayetteville and one of the warrants was for a lieutenant commander of the Militia of Washington County, Hollis “Wayne” Fincher, of 16085 East Black Oak Road. “We assisted ATF and several other agencies in arresting Fincher. I don’t believe he has a criminal history with us. That’s all I can tell you,” Reynolds said.
Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder said he couldn’t comment on the arrest or Fincher.
Fincher was arrested without incident at his residence, according to an ATF news release.
Senior ATF Special Agent Austin R. Banks said he was restricted to releasing anything beyond the news release. He did confirm Fincher has no criminal record and he was the only person arrested.
The arrest and search warrants were the result of an eight-month investigation relating to the unlawful manufacture, possession and transfer of machine guns, Banks said.
A machine gun that can fire 550 rounds a minute and assorted 9 mm Sten submachine guns are stored in the Washington County militia’s concrete and steel vault, according to information gathered from an interview conducted by The Morning News in March. Each weapon is stamped with the word “non-commercial” to prove the group holds the arms for militia purchases only and not for trade or sale.
Owners of automatic weapons must pay $200 to license each automatic weapon they own. Militia members avoided that by re-building government-destroyed automatic weapons for their own use, Paul Smith, militia commander said in March.
Fincher said in the March interview he believes Americans should proudly uphold the right to bear arms, stand up for land rights and not always accept the federal government as the supreme law of the land.
“What we’ve got to do today is hold our ground,” Fincher said in March.
According to the militia’s Web site, the headquarters is down the road from Fincher’s address at 15566 E. Black Oak Road. The militia was formed July 4, 1994.
Thirteen additional federal search warrants were executed at different places in the Fort Smith-Fayetteville area, Banks said. The warrants are under seal at the direction of the U.S. Attorney for the Western Judicial District of Arkansas. All evidence seized during the execution of the warrants will be submitted to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the preparation of indictments in this investigation.
ATF, FBI, Washington County Sheriff’s Department, Fayetteville Police Department, Springdale Police Department, Arkansas State Police, Arkansas State Bomb Squad and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department participated in the investigation.
The investigation was conducted under Project Safe Neighborhoods, the U.S. Department of Justice initiative that combines federal, state and local resources to combat violent gun crime. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas will prosecute the case.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Thought police are back!
Thanks Nancy!
I bet that this case will reach the appeals courts, and possibly the SCOTUS.
Then why did they stop NOLA from confiscating weapons after Katrina???
I realize it just fine. I don't like it a bit.
I'm also a realist, and trying to fight something from 25 years ago, in the way these guys did, is just stupid.
Like I say, give me a ping when you post your vanity prior to going out in a blaze of "glory".
Why? -- Perhaps they had a moment of temporary sanity?
Definitely so, and I wish them good luck. The NRA should have challenged it long ago.
I informed the batf once of illegal gun possesions and loopholes through divorces. and they said it were a civilian problem... the guys getting the guns were foreign muzlims paid by my ex with my guns for work... nah, it's a girl thing the batf lady told me.
These people working for the gov have procedures and brainwash workshops which distorts their targets... you bring an issue they are not specifically trained in, they won't do crap
Correction - definitely NOT on the NFA. And was that their intent?
It's worse than that Elmer... and you'd know that if you weren't so hell bent on being a 'tard about this. The NFA of '34 needs to go, not just the GCA of '68 or the "sporting purpose" clause of the FOPA. The only way for it to "go away", in todays political climate, is to break it and get a "clean" 2A case before the court.
None of these guys caught in this sweep have priors. The ONLY "crime" is possession of an "arm" the current government doesn't want us to "keep" or "bear" which is an unConstitutional "infringment" of our "Right".
So, instead of wading in with the insults for gun owners who are fed up with the abuse of our RKBA, who about you pull your head out of the dank smelly place and realize THIS is the good fight.
The NRA has a long history of 'going along to get along', -- with the feds.
Ping.
DC, I dont think freedomPoster is being a tard about this, I just think FP may be missing the bigger picture.
Hollis Fincher is 60 years old, and the head of a militia in Northwest Arkansas. Mr. Fincher has been flaunting his possession of weapons that our beloved gooberment has deemed as bad for us.
DC you are correct with this statement... "THIS is the good fight." There will be no better time in our lives for this to hit the S.C.
I do not know Mr. Fincher, so I can not speak for him. Based on what I've read so far, I think Mr. Hollis "Wayne" Fincher may be looking to take this one all the way to the top, and I for one hopes he does and wins.
Lurker 50001-(due to technical difficulties)-b
Keep your powder dry.
I wonder if the German Jews had chosen to "go out in a blaze of glory" could they not at least have taken out a few hundred thousand Nazis?
An evil man's best weapon is a good man's disbelief in the existence of evil.
+1
As always.
"Project Safe Neighborhoods - I feel safer already. /sarc"
I'd feel safer if they were actually trying to stop illegal immigration rather than terrorizing old men with homemade guns.
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