by Matt Beauchamp
[email protected]

Yes, the crusade against Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan and Dick Devine is in its 15th month and the liberals have just about painted themselves into a corner. Some of you are new to this, so I'll bring you up to date. For any of you who despise the latest fad of taxpayer-funded gun buybacks, please read carefully for tips on how to stick it to the local gun grabbers in YOUR state or locality.

Cast of Characters:

Michael Sheahan -- Cook County Sheriff (Democrat) and "brains" behind the "Safe Streets 2000" -- a Sept 1999 program that cost over $200,000 in tax dollars and netted approximately 5,400 guns during its 3 week enactment. He claims exemption from state and federal firearms statutes but refuses to cite the state or federal codicils that grant him this unusual power.

Dick Devine -- Cook County State's Attorney (Democrat) and lackey of Sheahan. An avowed anti-gunner, he recently threw several pro-gun citizens out of an anti-gun press conference in blatant violation of 1st Amendment. Flatly refused my request to investigate claims of egregious violations of state firearms laws (430 ILCS 65/3 -- no person my knowingly transfer, or cause to be transferred, any firearm to any person in this State, unless the transferee with whom he deals displays a currently valid Firearms Owners Identification Card....).

Jim Ryan -- Illinois State's Attorney (Democrat) and FOIA disclosure agent for the Sheriff's department. Has denied release of buyback information in direct violation of Illinois State Freedom of Information Act statutes. Repeatedly erected barricades to information gathering including charging $1 per page to copy the 5000 pages of gun buyback information (serial numbers, make and model of collected guns) and forbidding the videotaping and/or digital imaging of same information. Flatly refused my request to investigate claims of egregious violations of state firearms laws (including receiving firearms without proof of Firearms Owners Identification and neglecting to keep records for 10 years after transaction, as required by Illinois state law 430 ILCS 65/3).

Scott Lassar -- Federal District Attorney (Democrat) who flatly refused my request to investigate claims of egregious violations of federal firearms laws, including 18 U.S.C. 922 (k) -- to knowingly have, ship or receive a firearm that has its serial number missing or changed, or deal in firearms without a Federal Firearms License (FFL). According to documents now in my possession (thanks to BATF), approximately half of the firearms received had no serial numbers.

Mike Quigley -- Cook County Commissioner (Democrat) who intervened on my behalf to demand information about the buyback from Sheahan. 

Pete Chisholm -- Disclosure agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the D.C. office. Very friendly -- provided previously mentioned 5000 pages of gun information FREE OF CHARGE. Denied all knowledge of gun buyback outside of tracing firearms for theft (information on how many of these guns were stolen will not be available for 1 year, according to ATF). ATF makes allusions to ANOTHER lawsuit pending concerning the same buyback. Would not comment on this mystery lawsuit.

Ed Carik -- Director of Cook County Intergovernmental Affairs (Democrat) who acted as liaison between the Sheriff's Dept and Mike Quigley. Stated in letter that ATF handled all guns, classified some as "antiques" and distributed to museum around the country. Claimed ATF took possession of and destroyed the rest of the guns. ATF denies this story -- says they never had the guns. Carik refuses to answer further questions at the orders of Sheahan who claims they are involved in a lawsuit with me. There is currently no lawsuit against the county.

Austin Bartlett -- Attorney for Beauchamp (replaced the molasses-like Pete Bustamante)

THE STORY LINE AND THE CURRENT SITUATION

Sept 1999 -- Sheahan collects approximately 5400 guns using $50 as a cash incentive to get criminals to turn over guns worth 10 times that amount. Unlikely. Instead, my trip to the buyback reveals sly gun owners dumping their worthless junk for cash and little old ladies selling valuable rifles and shotguns from their attic that once belonged to their dead husbands. I see no guns that look viable for street crime. I see deputies violating basic gun safety while handling weapons. I see a hoodlum deputy attempt to throw me off public property when I urge little old ladies to bring their guns to a gun show taking place the next day. The head Sheriff goon makes a big show of protecting my 1st Amendment rights while there are little old ladies in line. This act ends abruptly when the crowd thins for a while. I am threatened with arrest for "disorderly conduct". They admit that they have orders from on high to get rid of anyone who doesn't agree with the program. 

LESSON ONE -- Bring a tape recorder and, if possible, have friend just off premises videotaping event.

Oct 1999 -- I file suit in federal court claiming local authorities have been dealing firearms without an FFL (federal firearms license) as required by law. Federal judge Elaine Bucklo, in a decision worthy of framing, states that "Mr. Beauchamp's only concern is seeing that public officials comply with the law. That is an insufficient basis." She also adds several choice insults. The screed seems to suggest I am barking up the wrong tree and should sic county prosecutors on these criminals. 

LESSON TWO -- If we poor taxpayers could sue every time our money was used illegally, the whole system would come crashing down from the sheer volume of transgressions. Better to just let 'em get away with it -- governmental immunity. 

Nov and Dec 1999 -- I send letters to Dick Devine, Jim Ryan, Scott Lassar, Senator Peter Fitzgerald and Senator Dick Durbin urging an investigation and citing specific laws that were broken (Durbin is our senior senator and an anti-gun Democrat while Fitzgerald the Republican gives the thumbs up to gun owners on one hand while signing anti-gun legislation with the other). I am told that, "sorry" they either have no authority or feel there is no evidence of wrongdoing. I need to get more info from the Sheriff's Dept.

Dec and Jan 1999 and 2000 -- Sheriff's Department continues to avoid answering my request under Freedom of Information Act. I am forced to appeal my case to the departmental authority (Jim Ryan). On the eve of suing them in court for documents, they release a half-assed compilation of about 30% of my requested information. They refuse to provide info on each gun's serial number, make and model (necessary to show dealing in arms without serial numbers). They imply that they pretty much turned everything over to the BATF. They tell me I can have the gun documentation if I pay $1 per page for photocopying costs. 

Feb 2000 -- Mike Quigley contacts the department and his liaison Ed Carik gets info from Sheriff Dept (in writing!) that they turned everything over to ATF. They also mention for the first time that "10 guns were classified as antique by the ATF and distributed to museums around the country". The Sheriff's Department had not mentioned this in their FOIA disclosure. Concurrently, I have been reading in the newspaper that "some of the guns were going to be kept for training purposes". I have strong suspicions that many of these guns were being swiped by cops -- an act made easy by their crappy records keeping.

April 2000 -- After continual badgering, I am granted permission to view documents rather than pay the $1 per page. I am granted this privilege during the convenient hours of 10am and noon on a weekday and the convenient location of 30 miles outside the city. I am treated with total contempt at the Sheriff's Department by everyone from the secretary (who merely announces "he's here!" when I arrive) to the pricks in uniform. I immediately attempt to take images of these thousands of pages with my digital camera and video camera. I am stopped from doing so. My attorney demands to speak with Jim Ryan about this abomination. Ryan, by sheer coincidence, has just left work for the day -- it is 10:15am. I spend the next 2 hours furiously copying by hand all information possible. Using rough statistical methods, I determine that at least half of all guns collected have no serial number. It becomes apparent that the Sheriff's Dept has been spending tax money to dispose of weapons that were either stolen or used in a crime! Perhaps they should next hold a corpse buyback.

May - July 2000 -- Repeated calls to Chicago and D.C. ATF finally yield a conclusive answer (in writing!). The ATF traced the weapons to see if any were stolen. They will not release this information for a year. They did NOT take possession, destroy, classify as antique, give away to museums or do anything else with these guns. More FOIA's are again dispatched. Basically we ask the Sheriff's Dept "Hey, you said the ATF took care of these things. They say they didn't. Please explain this to us and we are again officially requesting information on these 10 antique guns and all others."

November 2000 -- I call Ed Carik and ask him where he got his information about the 10 antique guns. I also want to know the appraised value of all other guns. Ed says he has been given orders not to talk about the buyback as they are currently involved in a lawsuit pertaining to same buyback. 

December 2000 -- My new and improved attorney, Austin Bartlett, dispatches final FOIA's to the Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff's Department asking for the final time where in the hell these guns are, why everybody's story is confused, and what they plan to do about it. They have 7 working days to respond. The clock will be running out right about December 22nd. I expect to know the next legal move by after Christmas. Meanwhile, I am still in the process of analyzing the document pertaining to the 5400 guns (I'm trying to determine the exact number and percentage without serial numbers, the exact number and percentage of long guns vs. handguns, and any other stats that will show this to be a total waste of money and completely ineffective in terms of crime stopping, as well as proof that due to sheer number of suspicious guns, the Dept should have known it was trafficking in stolen guns or guns used in crimes.

THE GOOD NEWS

Despite promises that the gun buyback was a huge success and would be held again in 2000, it has been very quiet here in Cook County as far as more buybacks are concerned. They announced one for a few months back at the public housing projects. We called for information so we could nail their asses correctly this time. That was the last anyone heard of it. Maybe we had an effect. 

With George Bush in the White House, Senator Peter Fitzgerald will be pulling Scott Lassar out of his highchair and hopefully appointing someone with enough stones to look into this. I will have my request to investigate with my piles of evidence on his desk the day he takes office. If all of these turds refuse to investigate, there are still legal methods to compel them to investigate (writ of mandamus, etc) through court action.

SO, WHY THE HELL DO YOU CARE ABOUT THIS?

Because, over the past 15 months I have received some great ideas from a lot of you out there and I don't want to miss anything. Please add your 2 cents. Perhaps you can think of another firearms law I overlooked or another aspect of this operation that sounds suspicious. I can't think of everything and I'm no lawyer. This is also kind of new territory for my lawyer. 

Please email me with anything you think I missed!

Thanks

Matt Beauchamp, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Chicago
2506 North Clark #306, Chicago, IL 60614
Phone: (312) 409-2223
Email: [email protected] 
http://www.LPChicago.org

Story submitted with Mr.Beauchamp's permission by Melissa [email protected]. (Thank you, Melissa. We appreciate when our members bring goodies to us to share with others. Hats off to Matt; send him our regards.)