By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
For those seeking to add some flair to their man cave, inert or nonfiring Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launchers may satisfy your needs.
GunBroker.com offers inert RPG-2 rockets for $120.00, a nonfiring RPG-7 replica for $395.00, or an inert Russian RPG-2 rocket launcher package with rocket, firing pin and hard case for $1,200.00. Spare ammo, inert RPG-7 HEAT rockets, run around $229.00.
None of these inert rocket launchers require a Federal Firearm License for the purchase because they’re not firearms. They are not real. Many have had their internal parts stripped. To be clear, these are non-firearms, which are perfectly legal for anyone to buy or own … unless you’re Patrick “Tate” Adamiak.
Adamiak is about to start the third year of his 20-year federal prison sentence because the ATF reworked his legal inert RPGs until they were capable of firing a single 7.62x39mm round.
In other words, the ATF turned his inert RPGs into live illegal weapons, which they called “destructive devices.” It shouldn’t come as any surprise. The same ATF technician who reworked the RPGs doctored Adamiak’s toy STEN submachinegun – legally a toy and still available for sale online – until it could fire a single round. Officially, he even labeled it a machinegun.
If it wasn’t for the federal RPG charges, Adamiak would have already finished his prison sentence. As to the fact that the ATF illegally turned his inert RPGs into live destructive devices, no government official seems to care.
“The two RPGs are what added the most amount of time to my prison sentence. Even if all of my other charges were legitimate – which they are not – I would have already completed more than the average sentence for possession of a fully functional machinegun, which I did not have – not even close,” Adamiak said this week from his federal prison in New Jersey.
United States Attorneys Jessica Aber and Victoria Liu were able to convince Adamiak’s jury that the 100% legal inert RPGs he owned were the equivalent of an anti-tank or an anti-aircraft missile system, even though he bought them openly and legally at a military surplus convention and gun show when he was only 19 years old.
“Doing so qualified me for a sentencing enhancement for possession of a missile launcher, effectively pushing up my recommended sentence to life in prison,” Adamiak said. “This particular sentencing enhancement has only been applied to defendants a couple of times in U.S. history, one being me. If it weren’t for this enhancement, I would already be out of prison.”
Background
Adamiak was an active duty Navy E-6 who was about to enter Naval Special Warfare. He also operated a website that offered militaria, which was all legal.
“I collected all types of military memorabilia but had a particular interest in historic weaponry. I had dozens of inert or replica grenade launchers, rocket launchers, mines, artillery shells, and various other inert munitions in my collection. The RPGs were the centerpiece of my collection. They are a piece of iconic military history,” Adamiak explained.
To be clear, the RPGs were inert and nonfunctional. They were marked “Inert” and “Training aid dummy” in bold letters that were professionally engraved and painted.
The serial numbers on Adamiak’s inert RPGs told the real story. Both numbers began with “TAD” for “Training Aid Device.”
“This indicates that they were actually manufactured to be a training aids and not weapons. Also, data plates from legitimate RPG’s always have Cyrillic or Russian letters written on them, which mine did not. This reinforced my belief that they were inert,” he said.
Perhaps the biggest factor that demonstrated that Adamiak’s RPGs were not weapons but training aids were massive holes drilled in the high-pressure area of the tubes – right where an operator’s face would be when firing them.
Even one of the government’s witnesses – Gregory Pruess, a criminal informant who was paid $8,000 for his participation in the case and was told that felony gun charges he faced would be dropped if he helped that ATF secure a conviction against Adamiak – testified that the hole would “blow your head off” if anyone attempted to fire a live rocket from the launcher.
Perhaps most telling was that Adamiak’s inert RPGs were missing all of the critical fire control components, which were never found in his possession. As a result, case law was on Adamiak’s side.
According to United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Douglas Blackburn, Defendant-appellant, 940 F.2d 107 (4th Cir. 1991), a defendant “may be penalized for only the number of destructive devices which may be ‘readily assembled’ from the parts in his possession. A defendant must possess every essential part necessary to construct a destructive device.”
Adamiak had none of the essential parts needed to turn his RPGs into actual weapons.
ATF misconduct
ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Jeffrey Bodell, who turned Adamiak’s toy STEN into a machinegun, was the prosecution’s main witness for the RPGs.
Bodell took the inert rocket launchers to the ATF’s lab and added missing fire-control components including a firing pin from a functional RPG from the ATF’s collection. The agent also added a sub-caliber training device, which can fire 7.62x39mm rounds on its own without even loading it into an RPG.
“He fired a 7.62x39mm rifle cartridge through it utilizing the sub-caliber training device, which is a standalone rifle that can be fired independently on its own,” Adamiak said.
Bodell falsely testified that the missing parts didn’t matter, legally.
“It doesn’t matter whether it fires or not, and if it’s missing some component parts, it wouldn’t be relevant to the classification of a destructive device,” Bodell told the court, which is not what the statute or case law state.
Bodell even made a video of him and an assistant firing one rifle round from Adamiak’s heavily converted RPG.
“An RPG is a very simple and crude device,” Adamiak said. “Taking a piece of metal pipe and hose clamping a fire control mechanism to it would effectively duplicate what Bodell did in his testing.”
Truth vs. absurdity
Adamiak is firmly convinced both RPGs were high-quality replicas made for training. When he transferred from California to the East Coast he flew commercially with them in his luggage, and the TSA never questioned him.
The launchers were displayed openly in his home for nearly a decade. Adamiak never even considered them to be illegal.
His former trial attorneys actually told Adamiak that they were happy he was charged with the RPGs because it was such a ridiculous claim that it would damage the ATF’s credibility and no reasonable jury would convict him for the “toys.”
Said Adamiak: “Over the years, I had several guests pose for photo opportunities with the iconic RPGs, including myself. To me, this proves that I viewed them as toys. No reasonable person that has illegal and highly regulated devices would pose for photos with something that will land you in prison. I even posted these photos publicly because they’re toys, not destructive devices.”
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