Ares Armor security camera caught this image of BATF agents entering the Oceanside store Saturday, March 15, according to Ares CEO Dimitrios Karras. He told TGM that when advised the store camera was on, agents asked that it be shut off.
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The CEO of a Southern California shooting accessories and parts supply store told TGM that the company is open for business and will be shipping orders this week, following a Saturday raid on his business sites by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“We are operational as of Sunday; Oceanside and National City (stores) are up and running, and we will be shipping orders out of the store as of Monday,” said Ares Armor CEO Dimitrios Karras in a telephone interview late Saturday evening (March 15) with TGM.
In a follow-up interview Monday morning, Karras confirmed that the company’s stores are both open and that computer equipment seized in the raids had been replaced.
He said federal agents “took almost 6,000 lowers,” which are unfinished, so-called “80 percent” polymer components of AR-15 rifles that house the firing controls when finished. These polymer parts must be machined and/or drilled in order to install the actual firing mechanisms, he said.
Ares Armor is not a gun store, Karras confirmed. It is a parts supplier, and it also sells all kinds of shooting supplies and accessories.
“We do not have an FFL,” he said. “We do not sell firearms. The reason I do not want to get an FFL (is) I love my Fourth Amendment and do not intend to give it up for any reason whatsoever.”
Ares had obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) that initially had stopped BATF from seizing what it considered contraband gun parts, along with files that reportedly contained the names of some 5,000 Ares customers. Karras made headlines earlier in the week, insisting that he would not voluntarily turn over that client list. He also maintained that the polymer parts now seized by BATF were not firearms, as defined by regulation.
They are also not serialized, leading to speculation that they could be used to build untraceable, illegal firearms. But in their raw state, as sold by Ares, they are essentially paper weights, Karras observed. BATF, however, considers them to be firearms.
Karras contacted TGM and Examiner.com via telephone from outside his Oceanside facility. He said he had been meeting with store staff about the day’s events. No arrests of any Ares Armor employees were made, he added. In Monday’s follow-up conversation, Karras added details including that attorneys from one firm were on site at three of the locations being searched, including the Oceanside retail store, an Ares manufacturing facility where various shooting accessories are put together, and a customer service outlet. There was not a monitor at the National City retail shop, which is about 45 minutes’ drive from Oceanside, he said. Oceanside store security cameras caught the first moments of BATF’s entry, but Karras asserted to TGM that the cameras were shut off after the agents were advised they were recording.
The BATF “raid” came less than 24 hours after U.S. District Judge Janis Lynn Sammartino clarified the TRO that was issued earlier in the week did not prevent ATF from legally seizing the items. The new order, issued Friday after BATF had filed an ex parte request, explained, “the Court’s March 11, 2014 TRO DOES NOT ENJOIN lawful criminal proceedings, including the application for or lawfully executed seizure of evidence and contraband pursuant to a search warrant issued by a sworn United States Magistrate Judge…”
The raid at Ares’ National City store was captured on video and posted on YouTube March 15. That video was widely circulated. Karras said that, by coincidence, a protest in support of the store was taking place across the street, but none of the participants had any indication that they would be witnessing the raid when they gathered. That had been an event put together by Ares supporters, not by the store staff, he said in a follow-up interview.
In her order issued March 14, U.S. District Judge Janis Lynn Sammartino told Ares Armor not to “destroy, transfer, sell, or otherwise divest themselves” of inventory and ordered BATF to file a response to the store’s motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) before 9 a.m. Monday, while the company fights to keep its customer files confidential. She also ordered Ares Armor to respond to ATF’s Monday response by Tuesday before noon.
A hearing on the requested injunction is scheduled Thursday, March 20.
