The Merc Follies - #390

#390 GARY JACKSON
CEO OF THE COMPANY FORMERLY KNOWN AS BLACKWATER

People kept thinking that Erik Prince, Blackwater's owner, was the source of all evil in the company. But then the focus began shifting towards President Gary Jackson.

People started noticing stuff like this:

1. (From TPM Muckraker) "The company formerly known as Blackwater financed the

purchase of 17 AK-47 rifles and 17 Bushmaster XM15 E2S rifles for the sheriff in the county where the company's headquarters is located and gave the sheriff "unlimited access to those rifles for training and qualification, and state of emergency use" -- but stored the weapons in Blackwater's own armory."

[So these are the COUNTY'S guns, but BLACKWATER stores 'em. The sheriff of the
North Carolina county seat sez they needed all this firepower because they were setting up a SWAT team. The Raleigh News-Observer promptly pointed out that the executive director of the national organization of SWAT teams said the AK-47 was a lousy weapon-of-choice for SWAT teams. Which would mean this sounds like an effort to get around the law that says it is illegal for private individuals to receive or possess an automatic weapon that isn't registered to that person. ]

Here's another for the gun nuts who say, "So what?":

2. Jackson gets his ass indicted on conspiracy to violate firearms laws, false statements and possession of an unregistered firearm.

THAT'S 'So what?'

Oh, here's another:

3. Jackson tries to gift Glocks, an M4 rifle, a shotgun and several other weapons that WE paid for as taxpayers. But realizes he has to account for the guns. What does he do? He falsifies forms submitted to BATF and tries to pass them off as privately purchased.

With thanks to the Raleigh News-Observer, the Associated Press and TPM Muckraker.

S. Olson