ATF raids civilian air show, confiscates historic WWII airplanes

Over night the ATF raided the Experimental Airplane Association (EAA) annual air show and convention. EAA claims they host the largest air show in the world by running a weeklong event each July in Oshkosh Wisconsin.

One of the highlights for many going to the EAA air show is seeing vintage restored warbirds. These formerly military aircraft are now owned by civilian collectors. Most warbirds are from the World War 2 era but some collectors still fly planes from the first world war. A very few collectors have Korean war and Vietnam war are planes, and they are mostly only propeller driven, not jet engine planes.

In what the ATF called operation “D-Day”, agents made a daring late night raid on EAA grounds to confiscate all these military planes. An ATF spokes person explains.

“These air craft represent a clear danger to the American public. They are war machines built to kill many multiple people in short order. All the planes we seized had 50 caliber machine guns and/or the ability to drop bombs.”

Our reporter asked the spokes person about the fact that collectors have none-working guns and disabled bombing systems.

“These so-called collectors are usually the person doing the restoration of the planes. They are the ones to disable the weapons systems. Meaning they could re-enable the weapons at any time. Just imagine the chaos they could cause if they attacked a school with a P-51 or worse yet a B-29.”

Many of the plane confiscated are valued at close to a million dollars. Owners were stunned and dumbfounded by the raid.

“They think I can take my P-38 and attack some public location? Seriously??? Do they have any clue what it would take to get the weapons systems working… let alone get my hands on real working weapons. It would take me month and so many red flags would be triggered in NSA/CIA/FBI computers it would never work out.”

The ATF is adamant that America is safer now that these people no longer have access to military grade air weapons.