Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, the former Navy sailor whose federal firearms prosecution resulted in a 20-year prison sentence, has received a presidential pardon.
The pardon comes just months after the National Association for Gun Rights — Texas Gun Rights’ national affiliate — joined the Right to Bear Association and Palmetto State Armory in filing an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Adamiak’s case. The Supreme Court docket confirms the brief was filed May 11, 2026.
Adamiak’s prosecution became a major point of controversy among gun-rights organizations over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ classification of firearms parts, demilled military items, and other equipment under federal law.
President Donald Trump pardoned Adamiak on September 4, bringing his imprisonment to an end.
How the ATF Built Its Case
According to federal prosecutors, ATF used a confidential source to purchase eight items from Adamiak that the government classified as machine guns. Agents later executed a search warrant at his home and recovered additional items the government classified as unregistered machine guns and destructive devices. Adamiak was convicted and ultimately sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
But Adamiak and gun-rights groups sharply disputed the government’s classifications.
The Supreme Court filings described some of the items as inert training devices, cut or disassembled components requiring substantial work before they could function, and surplus military items with lawful collector uses. NAGR and its fellow amici argued that Adamiak’s case raised serious questions about how broadly federal firearms statutes could be applied to objects that were not themselves operable firearms.
For Texas Gun Rights, the case illustrates the broader dispute over how much authority federal agencies should have to determine whether firearms, parts, or related items fall under the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act.
NAGR Took the Fight to the Supreme Court
Adamiak petitioned the Supreme Court for review on April 10, 2026.
On May 11, the National Association for Gun Rights, Right to Bear Association, and Palmetto State Armory filed an amicus brief supporting his petition. The groups argued that the lower courts had failed to adequately address the Second Amendment issues raised by the case.
The Supreme Court denied Adamiak’s petition on May 18.
That denial left the lower-court judgment intact, but it did not establish a new Supreme Court precedent resolving the firearms-classification and constitutional questions raised in the case.
Less than four months later, Adamiak received his pardon.
A Pardon Ends the Sentence — Not the Policy Fight
Adamiak is now free, but the statutes and regulatory system at the center of his prosecution remain in place.
Texas Gun Rights has argued that cases involving disputed firearm classifications demonstrate why simply changing agency leadership is not enough to resolve the broader debate over federal firearms enforcement.
TXGR supports abolishing the ATF and repealing the National Firearms Act, arguing that Congress should remove the underlying statutory and enforcement framework rather than relying on future administrations to exercise that authority differently.
Adamiak’s pardon changes the outcome for one individual.
It does not change the laws under which he was prosecuted.
