by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The owner of a Southern California shooting accessories and parts supply store is still in business, following a raid on his four sites by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Lycurgun, Inc., doing business as Ares Armor in Oceanside and National City, had sought an injunction against ATF, but following the raid, all parties agreed to put that on hold as several issues were sorted out. Ares is now represented by veteran California gun rights attorney Chuck Michel.
TGM learned from Ares CEO Dimitrios Karras that federal agents “took almost 6,000 lowers,” which are ostensibly unfinished, so-called “80 percent” components of AR-type rifles that house the firing controls when finished. These polymer parts must be machined and/or drilled in order to install the actual firing mechanisms.
Ares Armor is not a gun store, Karras stressed. It is a parts supplier, and it also sells all kinds of shooting supplies and accessories.
“We do not have an FFL,” he said. “We do not sell firearms. The reason I do not want to get an FFL (is) I love my Fourth Amendment and do not intend to give it up for any reason whatsoever.”
The components in question are actually manufactured by EP Armory, which was raided by ATF agents several days prior to their actions at the Ares Armor locations. These receiver blanks consist of two different colored polymers, and ATF acted on the belief that the receivers had been fully machined, and then certain areas had been filled in with polymer of a different color that could be used as a “guide” for home gunsmiths to show where they needed to drill and machine.
Another component of the story is an ATF concern over group parties involving several people helping one another machine and finish their receiver blanks. Said one source, “At what point do you become a manufacturing operation?”
Ares had obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) that initially had stopped ATF from seizing what it considered contraband gun parts, along with files that reportedly contained the names of some 5,000 Ares customers. Karras made headlines in March, insisting that he would not voluntarily turn over that client list. He also maintained that the polymer parts now seized by ATF were not firearms, as defined by regulation.
However, ATF says otherwise, and that’s where the two sides are in conflict.
These parts are also not serialized, leading to speculation that they could be used to build untraceable, illegal firearms. But in their raw state, as sold by Ares, they are essentially paper weights, Karras observed.
Karras contacted TGM via telephone from outside his Oceanside facility. He said he had been meeting with store staff about the day’s events. No arrests of any Ares Armor employees were made, he added.
The ATF “raid” came less than 24 hours after U.S. District Judge Janis Lynn Sammartino clarified the TRO that was issued several days prior did not prevent ATF from legally seizing the items. The new order, issued on the Friday before the raid, explained, “the Court’s March 11, 2014 TRO DOES NOT ENJOIN lawful criminal proceedings, including the application for or lawfully executed seizure of evidence and contraband pursuant to a search warrant issued by a sworn United States Magistrate Judge…”
The raid at Ares’ National City store was captured on video and posted on YouTube March 15. That video was widely circulated. Karras said that, by surprising coincidence, an antigovernment protest was taking place across the street, and that accounts for a female voice heard loudly on the video that apparently had nothing to do with the raid.
In her order issued March 14, Sammartino told Ares Armor not to “destroy, transfer, sell, or otherwise divest themselves” of inventory and ordered ATF to file a response to the store’s motion for a temporary restraining order the following Monday, but the raid essentially mooted the entire legal series of events that was to have included a March 20 injunction hearing. That hearing was cancelled.
The next step may depend upon whether the ATF’s technical branch reverses itself on its initial determination that the so-called “80-percent” polymer receiver blanks are firearms. It is not clear how long that may take, and in the meantime, there may be thousands of people who purchased one of these unfinished receivers now concerned that they may be in legal trouble.
ATF spokeswoman Jennifer Cicolani told Examiner.com that there is an ongoing investigation, and right now any further action will depend upon where that investigation leads. She acknowledged that ATF’s firearms technical office has been asked to reevaluate their initial finding that the so-called “80-percent” receivers are not firearms.
Adding to the confusion about this case is Ares’ “poke the bear” advertising in the days following the ATF raid.