As for the sixth and last set—well, I guess it will make one fine barter item.
“Now, I’m also giving you some advice along with these marvels of innovative machining. Number one: don’t think that just because you have the potential to rock-’n-roll that you’re an instant Rambo. That’s a mistake that could be fatal. Remember that the best practical use of full auto is at very close range, versus multiple opponents. Even then, don’t use it like a garden hose. If you do, you’ll just be wasting precious ammo, and probably missing more than you are hitting. Stick with short, controlled bursts. Three to five rounds at the most.”
After a brief pause for his last statement to sink in, Dan continued, “Number two: Don’t even think about switching to the ‘group therapy’ mode unless your targets are at thirty yards or less. Beyond that range, well aimed semi-auto shots will be much more effective. One more thing: If you are in a large-scale firefight and start shooting full auto, guess who the bad guys are going to concentrate their fire on?” Dan tilted his head and raised an eyebrow for emphasis. Then he concluded, “Well, that’s basically it. I’ll get together with each of you individually on how to swap out the lower-receiver parts and install the auto-sears.”
After they had cracked a few jokes, Lisa, Mary, and T.K. walked out of the back bedroom, Ziploc bags in hand, wearing conspiratorial grins.
Aside from the term “group standard,” the other term used most often at group meetings was “case lot.” Before the Crunch, the group bought as many items as it could in bulk, and in many cases directly from their packagers and manufacturers. This included not just storage food but also many others, including ammunition, bandages, and nickel cadmium (“ni-cad”) rechargeable batteries.
In the long run, buying items in case lots instead of in “onesies and twosies” saved the group thousands of dollars. Gun and ammunition purchases were handled by Dan Fong, who had obtained a Federal Firearms License (FFL) as soon as he turned twenty-one. The FFL allowed Dan to order guns through the mail from distributors at dealer’s cost. This too saved the group a lot of money, as it eliminated the 30 to 60 percent markup normally charged by gun dealers with storefront operations.
Most large quantity purchases were coordinated by Terry Layton. Often, the Laytons’ garage looked more like a warehouse than a place to park their cars. At one point, nearly half the garage was stacked from floor to ceiling with cases of military MRE field rations. Terry wondered what the neighbors thought of all of these goings-on, but she was never questioned by them.
Like many survivalist groups, Todd’s group was faced with a seemingly insolvable quandary. Nearly all of the group members wanted to move to a safe haven, but there were virtually no prospects of finding work in their chosen professions in a remote, agrarian area like north central Idaho. Eventually, only the Grays and Kevin Lendel were able to make the move. In their cases, this was only possible because they were able to work at home with an out-of-state income. The rest of the group members kept their G.O.O.D. backpacks packed, and their jerry cans of gasoline full and frequently rotated. They also took advantage of the Grays’ offer to “pre-position” most of their survival supplies at the retreat. Todd and Mary had left most of the basement of their farmhouse largely empty for just this purpose.
During the course of the first two years after they bought their home near Bovill, the basement was gradually filled. Aside from the bulkier items such as five-gallon plastic buckets filled with grain, rice, beans, and powdered milk, most of the group members’ supplies were stored in G.I. surplus wall lockers that Mike Nelson found on sale at Ruvel’s Surplus on West Belmont Avenue in Chicago. Todd gave all of the group members the option of putting padlocks on their lockers if they preferred. By the turn of the century, all of the outer walls of the basement were lined with wall lockers. Much of the center of the basement was tiled with wooden pallets and heaped with the more bulky supplies such as five-gallon grain buckets, camouflage nets, and tan plastic five-gallon G.I. water cans. Each container was marked with an Avery label with the owner’s name, date of purchase, and the anticipated expiration.
Having to traverse nearly sixteen hundred miles to get to their retreat was a less than ideal situation for the members of the Group. Under the circumstances, however, it was the best that they could do. All that they could do was hope for the best, and watch the newspapers very carefully.
CHAPTER 6
Lawyers, Guns, and Money
“The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it.”
Matt and Chase Keane made their way back to eastern Washington shortly after the dollar collapsed. Unlike most other Americans, the Crunch was a relief to them. The anarchy spreading across the nation was their chance to go home with little fear of arrest. Four years earlier, the Keanes had a shoot-out with a North Carolina state trooper and a Randolph County sheriff’s deputy, and only minutes after, another one with an Asheboro police officer. Those events would irreparably change their lives.
Before the shoot-outs, the Keanes had made their living as traveling gun show dealers and day laborers. They were both intelligent and hard-working young men. They could have made good salaries in Spokane Valley industry, but they refused to apply for Social Security numbers. This limited them to self-employment or occasional short-term jobs where they could work for cash.
Between gun shows they built stock fences, cut and hauled firewood, worked at a brickyard, ran combines at harvest time, and bucked hay.
Matt and Chase were dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. Like many other conservatives, they felt that the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents were nothing short of government massacres of law-abiding Christians who just wanted to be left alone. They thought that the Brady Law requiring a waiting period on handguns was a farce. They considered the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994—which banned the manufacture of so-called “assault rifles” and magazines over ten-round capacity—absolutely unconstitutional. They were relieved when the law “sunsetted” in 2004, but were then horrified by the election of Barack Obama, and the threat of the onerous law being reinstated.
The Keanes derided the unconstitutional policies and legislation that came out of Washington, D.C. They referred to D.C. as “the District of Criminals” or “the District of Chaldeans.” The Keanes hated Washington, D.C. career politicians. They also hated the BATFE and the FBI. They had grown up admiring the FBI, but eventually despised it. The agency had been totally politicized, corrupted, and purged of any agents not loyal to the D.C. careerists.
Even its world-famous crime lab was caught fabricating evidence, as in the Lockerbie bombing case. They were convinced that the Oklahoma City bombing was a government setup. There was too much evidence pointing to two bomb blasts in rapid succession, one of which must have been inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. There was also strong evidence that the ATF had prior knowledge that the explosions were going to occur.
The Keanes concluded that the OKC bombing was a government sting operation, much like the previous World Trade Center bombing. In that incident, an undercover agent gave the terrorists detailed instructions on how to construct the bomb, helped supply materials, and even gave driving lessons to the recently immigrated terrorists, so that they could get the truck to its target.
The Keanes were convinced that in the Oklahoma City case, FBI undercover agents were again co-conspirators. For some reason, just as in the World Trade Center case, they did not make their arrests until after the bombing. The Keanes concluded that the FBI had become so politicized and so ruthless that it was willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of citizens for the political “big score.” They considered Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols “little fish” and patsies. They knew that the Federal government had intentionally avoided tracking down and convicting “John Does” number two through seven, and had quickly ordered the demolition of what was left of the Murrah building to destroy evidence of bomb blasts inside the building. At least one of those John Does, they concluded, was on the Federal payroll.