San Diego pay attention! ATF raided Blackwater’s North Carolina mercenary base and seized 34 machine guns. The backstory is involves yet another example of Blackwater using third parties to get around regulations they don’t think they need to follow. In this case, they paid for 34 automatic weapons via having them registered to the Camden County Sheriff’s Department to skirt federal law. Interestingly, there are only 19 deputies to which Blackwater CEO Gary Jackson answered, “They are very well equipped.”

The weapons in question are 17 Romanian AK-47s and 17 Bushmasters. I’ve been unable to find info on which model of Bushmasters are involved, only that they automatic. This should be of particular interest for Californians as Blackwater’s website notes their San Diego base offers a “Bushmasters Weapons Course” that is open to the public ($450 for two days, includes lunch). As for the AK-47’s which have zero law enforcement value, Blackwater justifies the purchase by claiming:

Jackson and Erik Prince, Blackwater’s owner, said Blackwater used the AK-47s in training to familiarize police officers or members of the military with a foreign weapon that they might come across while making an arrest or on a battlefield.

On the “battlefield” known as Camden County, the last decade has seen two murders and three robberies.