Friend in need.

When I lived in Southern California, I began to get into long range target shooting. Through this hobby I met Tom Miller and Don Anderson, two of the nicest people you will ever meet. Tom is a retired ATF agent and FFL dealer. I bought my EDM Arms Windrunner through Tom as well as both of the Nightforce scopes that I own. His prices and most of all his friendly service are second to none.

Don was his right hand man, helping out at gun shows, but more than this, he was a regular at the monthly .50 cal shoot at Angeles Ranges. He allowed anyone interested to shoot his .50 cal, .408 CheyTac or .338 Lapua for free, just to promote interest in the sport. He invested in all the best equipment to reload .50 cal ammunition and would sell it to anyone at his cost to shoot in their own rifles. This of course represented a considerable amount of time he was giving away, just to help promote the sport.

About 2 years ago, a while after I left California, I found out that Don’s house had been raided by SWAT teams, the ATF and LA County Sheriffs. All his semi-automatic firearms were taken away. This was followed by two years of silence. Don had done nothing illegal and we all assumed that the DA and others were hoping they would be able to let it die without admitting they were wrong.

Turns out we were the ones who were wrong. The DA is apparently trumping up charges and charging him ex post facto with 5 felonies when not a single law was broken.

Don is a personal friend of mine and I will be contributing to his defense fund. I am posting this to make others aware of the situation, not to solicit donations. However, if you think this can’t happen to you, think again. I built AR15’s to the letter of the law while I lived in California. This sets a precedent that all guns not built by a major manufacturer can be considered a ‘Zip Gun’.

Don’t live in California? If this goes through, believe it or not, it will make its way to wherever you may be living. All gun owners need to stand up as one and come to our mutual defense. Don’t let this be the case that breaks us! California’s budget is 16 Billion in the RED, they leave the borders open but go after law abiding working class citizens.

Please take the time to read the original post on BiggerHammer.net below. This has also been posted by mutual friends (Don has many many friends because of the wonderful person that he is) on calguns.net, ar15.com and other forums, so if you see this elsewhere, please be sure to leave comments of support there as well.
Read the original post by Tom here
calguns.net post

Tom Miller’s original post

When I retired in 2000, I was in a battle for my life against lymphoma cancer. I had been fighting it for three years when I met Don Anderson. He was always there for me like no other friend I had. Only God helped me more than Don. I was very sick. Many times I couldn’t walk or eat, but Donnie was always there for me.
Ever since those days, Don Anderson and I have remained good friends representing EDM Arms as field reps, shooting together, working gun-shows together and organizing .50 caliber matches in Southern California. He is an upstanding person like no other perspn I know. Many of you know and love him like I do.

Donnie is now in for the fight of his life with a corrupt system in Los Angeles. I am very much aware of the facts in the LAPD’s “Gun Squad” criminal investigation of Don Anderson. It began in 2006 when an incomppetent, over zealous detective of the “gun squad” embellished, stated untrue information and provided “stale” information in his affidavit for a state search warrant for Don’s residence in Harbor City, an area with-in Los Angeles. This detective even used California’s DOJ’s .50 BMG registration information on Don Anderson to support his probable cause requirement in the affidavit.

The search warrant was executed on September 19, 2006 early in the morning by the LAPD “SWAT” team and “gun squad”. They entered Don’s residence with full force pointing MP-5’s and shotguns at Don and his wife. The “gun squad” led by the rogue case detective seized every semi-auto firearm on the premises. These firearms included a home built semi-autto M2 .50 BMG, a home built semi-auto M3 .50 BMG and a homebuilt 1919A4 semi-auto caliber and some other items. Don had properly registered the M2 and M3 with DOJ as required by the 2004 .50 BMG ban in California.

Don was not arrested or charged with any crime at that time. Don retained NRA recommended attorney Chuck Michel of Trutanich Michel LLP law firm. Two years passed by without hearing anything from the LAPD “gun squad”. Then, on the early morning of December 4, 2008 the LAPD “Fugitive Squad” arrested Anderson at his residence in front of his wife. They transported him to the 77th Division jail. His bail had been set by the case detective and DA at $125,000 which required giving the bail/bond company $9500 non-refundable dollars to get Don out of custody. This wasn’t possible, so Don spent the night in jail.

On December 5, 2008 late in the afternoon, the attorneys were able to get the bail reduced to $37,000 requiring about $3000 tothe bail/bond company.

When the bail was reduced, Don was informed by the court that he was being charged with five felonies. Even though the “gun squad” case detective and DA’s office had agreed with Chuck Michel back around the time after the search warrant was exeuted, that Don would be able to just turn himself in in the event he was charged with any criminal acts resulting from he warrant. This certainly didn’t happen, as Don was arrested by the “Fugitive squad” on December 4th.

Regarding the five felonies that Don faces. Two or three of them relate to the registered M2 and M3, and the 1919A4 semi-auto rifles. These guns were all “home built” by Don as semi-autos in strict compliance with state and federal law. The M2 and M3 were registered with DOJ as I previously stated. They were legally built and possessed by Don, but in all their wisdom the case detective and DA are charging the guns as, get this, “ZIP GUNS” under the Californa penal code.

Don is also being charged with having large capacity feeding devices as there were several linked belts of more than ten rounds of .308 ammo in his garage. I am aware that Don had these links prior to the end of 2000 which makes it completely legal for Don to link more than ten rounds together. At this point these linked belts are being charged as a felony. Anothe felony being charged is relating to a Walther P22 .22LR semi-auto pistol that I as a FFL dealer had legally sold to Don. Some time thereafter, DOJ determined that the Walther P22 pistols were manufactured with a threaded barrel, therefore making them an “Assault Pistol”, and were required to be sent back to the manufactuer for a barrel change. It looks like I’m out of room to finish this, so I’ll do it with a second posting to follow.

Donnie did not receive any notification from DOJ mandating the return of the P22 pistol to the factory for a barrel change. Therefore, it never got sent back and now he is being charged with the “felony possession of an unregistered assault pistol under California penal code”. Finally, he had a .50 BMG shark bang stick device that divers would use in the event of a shark attack. Don was using this thing as a paper weight. It did not have a stick so the DA is charging felony possession of an “Exotic Weapon”.
My take on all this is that the case is the worst I have ever seen. It should be dismissed for a number of reasons. But, it won’t be. In this state any chance they have to prosecute a gun case they go after it 100%. It is going to be very costly to defend. The attorneys have informed Don that it could cost $20,000-$50,000 to finish the case with no guarantee about the outcome. Don is in big troule here and we need to help him. John Burtt of the FCSA is going to run a nation wide raffle in the name of the “Don Aderson Defense fund”. I am giving him a new .50 cal EDM Arms “Windrunner” for the raffle. The raffle won’t be up and running for at least a month. And, it still needs to be approved by the FCSA Board of Directors.

In the mean time and right now, I am asking for every one’s help in sending me a check made out to the attorneys Trutanich Michel LLP for whatever you can afford to help with the attorney fees for Don. Please do this for Don. My address is Tom S. Miller, 3938 Stanford Drive, Oceanside, CA 92056 tel 760-757-6823. Also, please help me get this around on the appropriate boards and web-sites or whatever else the inter-net offers. Thanks so much. God Bless. Tom