Gun Control?  Or is it Human Control? 

By Don A. Bright

The past few days – beginning on Wednesday, November 8, and continuing as I write this editorial on Saturday, November 11, 2006 – have been somewhat of a roller coaster ride for me. It began with a series of phone calls on Wednesday evening (and into the night) alerting  me to the fact that a good friend of mine - and a true man of mettle - Wayne Fincher, was violently deprived of his individual right “to be secure in their (his) person(s), house(s), papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”  Wayne was put to violent abuse by federal government officials and subsequently arrested.

This violent trespass by provocateurs of the Federal Government (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms or BATF) did not consist of a gentle knock on the door and presentation of a search warrant.  It was an invasion that left Wayne’s home and wife in a state of sheer chaos for the former and utter fright for the latter.  Not only did these agents make a mess in the act of “searching” the personal effects of the Fincher home, they treated the house like a trash dump by throwing their empty drink containers around the house.Wayne was arrested for the non-crime of violating his Common Law and Constitutionally guaranteed (Second Amendment) right to “keep and bear arms”.  For definitive proof of the legitimacy of, and Government approval of Wayne’s actions go to the following internet website: www.arkansasmilitia.com/ .

You will discover, by reading the documents contained on the above website that Wayne was the victim of a witch hunt and was not guilty of any criminal act.  And yet, to this day (four days after his Wednesday mourning kidnapping) he is being held in captivity.

No information has been released from the federal troops, to my knowledge, and they will not allow any person (including his family) to ask questions regarding Wayne’s whereabouts or physical condition.  He has been and is still being kept in secret retentive quarantine by the militant application of the police powers of the United States Government. And for what?  For the existence of a gun or guns that he does not own which is in violation of no Constitutional law.  Again I refer you to www.arkansasmilitia.com/ .

There is more to this story though, and that is where I become involved.  I was a guest on the morning Insight program, hosted by Johnny Tittle, on radio station KOFC.  Johnny has a large audience of persons very knowledgeable on current trends to more government control and the Constitutional restraints that are being ignored by government at all levels and in particular at the local level.  The entire two hour program was spent on the “arrest” of Wayne Fincher.  Subject matter and discussion on Insight – indeed on most call-in shows – is primarily driven by those listeners who call the program.  Johnny and I had 31 calls that morning, all of which were on the subject of Wayne’s “arrest”.

Part of the discussion pertained to the reported fact that Wayne had been under investigation for over 8 months.  Why it took 8 months is a puzzle.  Wayne had already avowed to the people involved in the “investigation” that the militia owned the guns that were eventually stolen by the BATF.  Now some background on the importance of that:

Back in the latter part of 2005 and into the first few months of 2006 a heated political battle was in place.  This was a struggle between the citizens of Washington County and the county government (Quorum Court and County Judge) over whether the Constitutional right to own property could be trumped by willy-nilly police power imposition of the county and municipal governments.

Wayne Fincher is, in my opinion and in that of many others, the most studied and learned person in Northwest Arkansas when it comes to the purpose and meaning (Not “interpretation” since no person or persons possesses the power of this kind of legal prejudice.) of both the Federal and State Constitutions.  Because of this and his very imposing physical stature, Wayne is feared by those who try to betray the Constitutional restrictions they swore an oath to uphold.  So feared is Wayne by the County powers, they have placed a restrictive burden on Wayne that applies only to him.  A county sheriff’s deputy is assigned to Wayne and Wayne only when he exercises his right of redress and rises to speak.

This happened during the “zoning” pandemonium created by the county officials and was in close proximity to 8 months ago.

And so on the morning of my being a guest on Johnny Tittle’s Insight program much commentary was devoted to the “coincidence” of the timing of the investigation apropos the special treatment of Wayne imposed by our County government.  I believe I initiated this subject and commented on it in length.  To the best of my recollection, my comments went something like this:

I stated that I was making no accusations but that perhaps the timing of this arrest might have special meaning since it began in approximation of the period of the obvious antagonism, contempt and fear the county officials held toward Wayne.  I remarked also that this fear and contempt, in my opinion could reach to the highest offices in the county.  And again I repeated that I was not accusing anyone of anything.

I also reminded the listeners that another militia person had his home invaded by the same agents of the federal government, and while his so-called illegal guns were confiscated, he was NOT arrested.  My reason for making this apparent was that any reasonable person could and probably would conclude that a special and perhaps a personal and political antagonism by an individual or individuals initiated the Wayne Fincher witch hunt and the warrants and subsequent harassment of other militia members were used as a sort of camouflage to cover up the personal vendetta against Wayne.

Apparently my opinion (opinion is the key word here) was spread and twisted to the extent that people were being told that I had accused County Judge Jerry Hunton of being responsible for the arrest of Wayne Fincher.  All of a sudden I had a flock of calls from news reporters wanting to know about my connecting the Wayne Fincher arrest to Jerry Hunton.  Well, I’ve been around this business a long time.  Time enough to know that when eager-beaver junior reporters are trying to elevate their importance and become famous by creating a story where there isn’t one, you will never dispossess them of their version of the “big story” and get the true facts from their reportorial spin.  I did not return their calls.  I had hoped that they would leave the incident as it was…a non-event.  Alas, ego prevailed over common sense and they persisted in making up a story.

And that resulted in my confrontation Thursday night with County Judge Jerry Hunton at the Quorum Court meeting.  Before beginning the night’s business, Judge Hunton announced to the overflowing room that a radio station had that morning connected him with the “arrest” of Wayne Fincher.  At that time I lost my cool.  I did not want to let the Judge to lie (in my opinion) about my “connecting” the Judge to the arrest so I rose and told the audience the Judge Hunton was lying in order to paint me (or Johnny’s show) as the villain.  I am very upset with myself and am shameful for my baseness.  I am ashamed of not showing enough respect for the office of the County Judge if not for the person holding it and regret that I rudely placed myself in a position of interrupting the people’s business. Justifiably, the Judge had me evicted and I was escorted from the room by a sheriff’s deputy with the Sheriff looking on and two other deputies as escorts.

I had volunteered to leave in the first place and was puzzled as to why I had to be held onto by the first deputy even after we exited the courthouse.  I told them at that time that I would not be any trouble and would go to my truck and drive home.  The deputy told me he had the right to hold me and began asking questions about my name, age (now that really hurt) social security number and other things.  After my name and age I told the deputy that I felt that I did not have to respond to his questioning since I had committed no crime.  His response was very courteous and professional but it remained the same – that he could make me answer the questions and was lawfully obligated to.  At that point I held my hands out and asked him to arrest me.  This went back and forth with more questions and more requests that they arrest me since I would not answer any more questions.  After about twenty or thirty minutes of this give and take the officer doing the questioning went to his Sheriff’s car. (I made that assumption since he went to the parking lot.)  I believe he returned once but walked back to his car a second time.

Finally he returned and told me that he could not, in good conscience arrest me, because he would be arresting a man who really didn’t need arresting and graciously wrote me a warning ticket.

I must say this before I end this commentary:  The courtesy, professionalism and sincerity that I was shown by all the deputies was something that all citizens should know.  We can all be confident in and should respect the job the Sheriff and his deputies do.  We are very lucky!

The real exhilarating part of all this came the following morning (Friday).  Johnny asked me again to be a guest on his Insight program.  I decided to go in and take my lumps.  No lumps were administered, however. The calls came in so fast Johnny could not answer them all.  All the calls that did get through were from people who called to thank me for taking a stand.  At home I received many calls from friends and strangers alike who had seen my picture in the morning’s paper.  Every one of them was positive and full of “good for you” messages.

I won’t go into what the people were happy about but I will say that the response to my actions showed that there is still a vast and growing number of folks out there who steadfastly hold an instinctive apprehension about the heavy hand of government and its growing intrusion into our private affairs and property. 

That fear of expanding government was the basis for all the thank you calls I received.  And that bodes well for all of us. 

It may stop more Wayne Fincher abuse.