Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Small town Iowa police chief charged

A small Iowa town of 800 residents likely has no need for a police force armed with 90 machine guns to keep the peace.

That, at least, is the view of federal prosecutors, who on Wednesday announced the indictment of Adair Chief of Police Bradley Wendt on charges of making false statements to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to obtain numerous machine guns over a four-year period on behalf of the Adair Police Department, which during Wendt's tenure has never had more than three officers.

Instead, according to prosecutors, weapons were resold for profit through Wendt's private gun store or another store owned by a friend who also is facing charges.

According to court filings and a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Wendt used his position as police chief to obtain 10 machine guns for the official use of the police department, but later resold at least six of those weapons for "significant profit."

Prosecutors say Wendt sought to purchase or demonstrate approximately 90 machine guns between July 2018 and August 2022. Some of the weapons were used for public machine gun shoots, where Wendt and Williams charged customers money to be able to fire the weapons.

The indictment describes the firearms as fully automatic weapons not legally available to the public, including an M60 machine gun, a belt-fed weapon widely used by the U.S. military since the Vietnam war that was purportedly obtained for official use by the Adair Police Department.

Wendt instead had the M60 mounted on his personally owned armored Humvee.

Wendt also sought repeatedly to obtain for the department a rotary M134 minigun capable of firing 50 rounds per second, usually mounted on military helicopters. The ATF denied the requested transfer.

"The Adair Police Department does not own a helicopter," the indictment notes.

At least some of the weapons purportedly obtained for the police department were bought with Wendt's personal funds, and it is not clear if city money was involved in the purchases.

"I love that oldtime Rock and Roll!"

It's from USA Today.

Machine Guns to them mean what?

That's a lot of machine guns. Thinking he has a financial backer. Would you think I was crazy if I suggested that financier was an ATF agent?

Wendt instead had the M60 mounted on his personally owned armored Humvee.

I'd buy that. In my mind its more likely that he had "private investors" who were illegal weapons dealers. I think this happens way more often than conservatives want to admit. It's the nature of creating a bullshiit law and then giving one group a loophole.

That's a lot of machine guns. Thinking he has a financial backer. Would you think I was crazy if I suggested that financier was an ATF agent?

You don't say.

But, the popo is special.

Sep 10, 2022

ADAIR — The police chief for the city of Adair is on leave after agents with the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) executed search warrants at the chief’s office in Adair City Hall, and four other locations on Wednesday, Aug. 31.

The five federal search warrants were executed in western and southwestern Iowa on including his office at the Adair city hall, in the 300 block of Audubon Street, Adair; the two gun shops, one located in the 300 block of Truman Road, Anita and one in the 1100 block of 4th Avenue South, Denison. One was in the 2700 block of Highway 59, Denison and the 3000 block of 370th Street and Manning. Wendt is the president of BW Outfitters, Inc., and owns gun shops in Anita and Denison.

John Ham, Public Information Officer with the ATF’s Kansas City Field Division, said there was no further information he could release at this time, as the investigation was on-going. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa would be releasing information when the investigation was complete.

BW Outfitters’ gun shops is located at 309 Truman Road, Anita and 1118 4th Avenue South, Denison. The business’s corporate address is listed as being in the 2700 block of Highway 59 in Denison.

The company’s website said the original location was at Wendt’s brother’s lumberyard and hardware business, but after three add-ons to that location, and with a 5,000 gun inventory, he added a location in Denison that opened in 2014.

Wendt said on the website, “We’re up to about a $10 million a year in business, and 80-85 percent of that is on GunBroker.com.” He said he had about 30,000 plus customers, and that he worked with distributors to find hard to get guns for customers. In addition to selling guns, the Denison location includes a four lane inside shooting range as well.

One would think the city would have taken steps to remove him long ago.