Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 29, 1994 TAG: 9407290073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``This is all about intimidation on the part of the government,'' said Dublin resident William Stump II. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is trying to "neutralize the political influence we're beginning to muster,'' he said.
Federal agents arrested two men Wednesday that they say were involved in a group that hoped to avoid firearm laws by disguising the identity of gun buyers.
James Ray Mullins, 40, of Pulaski, and Paul David Peterson, 25, a Blacksburg gun dealer, were charged with numerous violations of federal firearms regulations. Neither was charged with a violent crime.
A special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Mullins was the organizer of a group formed to illegally stockpile weapons.
Agent T.S. Fairburn said in an affidavit that the group is ``to be armed and trained in military fashion, in preparation for armed conflict with government authorities.''
Court documents listed Stump, who works at Pulaski Furniture, as one of the members of the group.
The 34-year-old Dublin man said that the group, which has met three times, is organizing to protest gun control laws, but that the members have talked about doing it through the political process.
ATF agents have one of Mullins' computer disks, which tells a different story.
``Hit-and-run tactics will be our method of fighting,'' it said. ``We destroy targets such as telephone relay centers, bridges, fuel storage tanks ...''
Stump discounted that evidence.
``Just because James wrote something on a computer disk don't mean a thing,'' he said. ``Everyone wants to say he's crazy, he's a radical. Well, he's not crazy and he's not dangerous to anyone.''
Mullins made his initial appearance in court Thursday and Magistrate Glen Conrad ordered him held without bond. A pretrial hearing was set for Aug.9 and Conrad said he may set bond that day.
Conrad said Peterson could be released if he agreed to use his mother's Christiansburg home as bond, as long as the property was worth at least $50,000. He was still in jail Thursday.
Stump said he has known Mullins for a only few months, and that they share some of the same political views.
But Stump does not necessarily believe violence is the answer to the country's problems.
``I think we need a revolution of ideas,'' he said. ``I have two possessions that I prize more than anything else: my books and my guns.'' He regularly reads John Locke, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, he said.
Stump said he has been campaigning against gun control for about seven years and that he thinks the ATF included his name in the affidavit to hurt his political standing.
``It's an attack against my ability to influence the political process,'' he said. ``Do you think I'm ever going to be out from under the eye of the ATF for the rest of my life?''
by CNB