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Tate Adamiak Needs a Pardon, and New Jersey Gun Owners Can Help

News2A Team
June 26, 2025
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Navy sailor Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was railroaded by the Biden ATF at trial and sentenced to become a resident of the State of New Jersey for 20 years–a fate that borders on cruel and unusual. He is being housed at the Federal Correctional Institute, Fort Dix. His crime? Possession of perfectly legal gun parts, replica firearms, and toys. The items Adamiak went to prison for possessing can be purchased by anyone with access to the internet, and there’s no need for an FFL or a federal background check.

The original case against Adamiak seemed so weak that the Department of Defense chose not to discharge him for the pendency of the trial. The normal procedure for service members accused of serious crimes is a near-immediate dishonorable discharge. In Adamiak’s case, a Navy JAG lawyer made the extremely unusual decision to place Adamiak on leave and maintain some of his pay and benefits throughout this ordeal.

The fact that Adamiak was never given a dishonorable discharge means that, if the Trump Administration rectified this sham trial with a pardon, Adamiak could return to the Navy, where, prior to his arrest, he was working to become a Naval Special Warfare Officer (colloquially, a Navy SEAL).

Lee Williams, a nationally recognized Second Amendment journalist and head of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project, has covered Adamiak’s story extensively. In his most recent publication, Williams wrote about the likelihood of Adamiak’s success in his appeal to overturn his conviction but concludes, “President Trump and Pardon Czar Alice Marie Johnson may be Adamiak’s last hope for justice, because unless some actions are taken, the ATF and prosecutors will likely victimize Adamiak once again.”

Heeding that call, Joe LoPorto, one of the directors of New Jersey Firearm Owners Syndicate, has partnered with Scott Presler’s Early Vote Action to launch a statewide campaign to gather petition signatures to ask the White House to consider a pardon for Adamiak and to free him from his forced home in the Garden State.

“Tate should be at the tip of the spear, keeping America safe, not rotting in Fort Dix FCI because he chose to collect non-operable military replicas of vintage firearms from World War II,” said LoPorto. “A rogue ATF under President Biden, that sought to expand the definition of frames and receivers and machine guns to something far beyond what Congress intended in both the NFA and the GCA, has turned Tate into a criminal when we should be thanking him for his service.”

On Saturday, June 28, 2025, LoPorto and other EVA volunteers will be at the Gun For Hire range in Woodland Park from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. to begin collecting petition signatures. Over the coming months, he and other EVA volunteers will be at gun stores and shooting ranges across the state. In July, both LoPorto and Presler will be visiting Adamiak in person at FCI Fort Dix. In September, LoPorto plans to host a rally near the prison.

Gun owners or anyone who cares about government overreach should visit Gun For Hire this Saturday to sign the petition. Future dates and locations can be announced on X. Follow @NJFOSyndicate for future dates and locations.

For a complete chronology of Lee Williams’ prior coverage of Adamiak’s story: