BATF and Arkansas Law

Carl Wilson was no paragon of virtue. He was well-known to local Arkansas authorities, through convictions for crimes that occurred in the 1960s. Wilson did time for burglary, robbery, and car theft. He served 5 years in Oklahoma and Arkansas prisons and was paroled in 1968. Wilson had been dubbed a "reformed outlaw" by one Pulaski County prosecutor.

Wilson had been involved in three shootings. One ruled accidental, one ruled in self-defense, and one, an apparent case of spousal abuse, although his wife refused to press charges. Wilson was a heavy drinker and a dope-smoker. He had testified that he had few visitors to his out-of-the-way home. "I just try to stay off up there by myself," he testified. "Even got a sign down there where you come in across the cattle guard: u2018Leave Me Alone.' "

Carl Wilson was shot dead by Faulkner County deputies and a Conway police SWAT team, acting under the direction of BATF supervisor Bill Buford. Under the cover of a federal warrant to seize a 30-.30 Winchester rifle, owned by Wilson for more than thirty years, the combined team of federal and state agents performed a "dynamic entry" (more commonly known as a "no-knock" raid) during the pre-dawn hours, expecting Wilson and his family to be fast asleep.

The raid was lauded as a model of efficiency by the usual suspects. Lt. Bob Berry of the Conway Regional Drug Task Force opined: "I don't see anything that could have possibly been done differently. We put long hours into planning this before carrying it out." Recently, an officer who chose to remain anonymous added, "Be advised, folks, we knew he slept with a gun. We knew this was a big deal for him with the federal sentencing guidelines, and at his age, it was fight to the death or die in prison." In other words, local authorities, under the command of a federal jackboot, knew that they were invading Wilson's home as possible assassins. They broke in via battering ram, armed to the teeth, ready and willing to kill Carl Wilson.

As often happens, Wilson didn't conform to the plan. Dazed and confused by SWAT flash bang grenades, Wilson retained enough presence of mind to seize a .44 magnum single-action revolver from his bedside table and make an attempt to defend his home from the unknown intruders. According to testimony from his wife, Wilson never made it out of bed. He was gut shot by the black-masked home invaders. He bled to death that very morning in his Mayflower, Arkansas, bedroom.

Carl Wilson was no paragon of virtue. I doubt he was someone that most of us would enjoy being in company with. He lead an unsavory life and died an unsavory death.

The overriding question remains: Is owning a gun now a death-penalty offense in the United States? I suppose that the question must now be answered in the affirmative.

With breathy justification by the hordes of federal, state, and local jackboots, no-knock raids are more and more becoming the norm rather than the unusual. Hardly a day goes by where you can't read about a so-called dynamic entry (the preferred term of art by our militarized law enforcement community) being performed somewhere. And with greater frequency, these raids terminate with someone being killed. Usually a suspect, but sometimes a law enforcement officer, which only serves to increase their paranoia and increase the cycle of federalization and militarization of the police forces.

Carl Wilson needn't have died on that chilly morning of January 12th, 2001. In fact, Wilson was a cooperative individual when dealing with the law. As at Waco or Ruby Ridge, a warrant could have been served by a peace officer in the light of day, sans black masks, grenades, and battering rams. But that's not the preferred method of the current standing army our Founding Fathers warned us against. They are the dealers of death and consider themselves our masters, rather than our servants.

    May 3, 2001