Enemy at gate? Not in this case.

[Feuer Frei!]

In a one-sided standoff, a fugitive has holed up on his land for 11 years — but lawmen don't seem to care.


TRINIDAD — On the other side of the barbed-wire fence, John Joe Gray, a "free-standing man" and fugitive from the law, is locked and loaded for the coming apocalypse or authorities - whichever shows up first.
"It's coming," he says. "It's time this country knows God is coming."
A rifle is slung across his back and a gun belt around his waist holds a revolver and extra cartridges. A knife is strapped to the other side of his lean torso. A battered felt hat frames a deeply lined face and bushy beard.
Dangling from a nearby tree, a hangman's noose strangles a weathered sign that sums up his stance: "Solution to tyranny."
Warily covering Gray's flanks are two of his six children, sons Jonathan, 39, and Timothy, 33. The dark-bearded, fit and tanned brothers are as well-armed as their 62-year-old father.
Ten feet behind her brothers and father, long-haired Ruth Gray, 31, stands solemn and silent. She, too, is armed to the teeth.
Next to her is teenager Jessica Gray, "who is old enough," according to her father, Jonathan. She has on a cowboy hat that the wind keeps blowing off, a long denim skirt, a sequined denim vest and cowboy boots. She's packing a pistol and binoculars.



For more than 11 years, John Joe Gray and his country clan have been holed up inside their own private prison, a 47-acre strip of Trinity River bottomland about 100 miles southeast of Fort Worth in Henderson County.
They've scraped out a harsh life here ever since Gray was bailed out of jail in January 2000 after he was charged with assaulting a state trooper on Christmas Eve 1999.
During a traffic stop, Gray and the driver of the car told two Department of Public Safety troopers that they were armed. When ordered to get out, the driver did but Gray wouldn't budge.
One trooper pushed Gray out, and he then lunged for the other officer's sidearm. Gray bit the trooper as they struggled for control of the weapon, according to investigators.
An Anderson County grand jury indicted him on two felony counts - assaulting a public servant and taking a peace officer's weapon.
"We're here because two highway patrolmen lied about what happened," Gray said last week. "Land of the free and home of the brave? That's a bunch of bull."
He has refused to be taken alive and in a long-ago letter to authorities, the family warned officials to "bring extra body bags," if they come for him. Authorities kept tabs on the compound for months but haven't maintained an active presence for years.
"We fear no man," John Joe Gray maintains. "We believe in an eye for an eye and a bullet for a bullet."
But nobody's storming the gate.
Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt, who is the fourth lawman in the post since 2000, says, like his predecessors, that he's not willing to risk a gunbattle just to arrest Gray.
"John Joe Gray is not worth it. Ten of him is not worth going up there and getting one of my young deputies killed," he said.



The hardscrabble compound has no phone, no refrigeration, no power.
Contact with the outside world is through a handful of "supporters" and via shortwave radio, John Joe Gray said.
Drinking water comes from springs, and Gray and his sons say they subsist by growing beans, potatoes, corn, squash, tomatoes and peppers on fields they plow with donkeys. They can vegetables and dry meat to get through the year, they said.
They also raise goats and chickens and catch catfish, carp and drum from the Trinity and hunt deer on the wooded property. Friends bring them staples they can't produce themselves. Last year, they harvested their first crop of peaches.
One supporter, who frequently visits the farm, said eight children are inside the compound. The kids are armed at an early age, she said. They are equally adept at reciting the Constitution or Scripture.
"It's sort of Wild West. It's what a traditional American family looked like 100 years ago," said Dolores McCarter of Arlington, who says she once worked for Homeland Security and now operates a small nonprofit called Dee's House that helps battered women and children.
"John is standing as a free man. He loves his family. They are prepared to live out their lives there," McCarter said. "Some people pity them and they ... pity us."



SOURCE


What the hell? Sounds like something out of a movie.

[Wolfehunter]

Good story. and Good for them. Time to kick the state in the balls. hehe.

Just another old testament nut with a gun who is in a strop, what a freak. You have to pity the kids though cooped up with that crazy old fart for years on end.

[Herr-Berbunch]

At least they live in their own 47 acres, and not sharing some apartment block!

Makes you wonder how people can live like this, I mean, come on, no refrigerator?

[Armistead]

This is good news, just arm yourself and your family and tell the law if they come expect a big shoot out, so the law leaves you alone.

The man broke the law, other men that have done less are sitting in jail. He should be arrested.

[gimpy117]

and this is why i worry about gun control.

[Freiwillige]

Originally Posted by gimpy117

and this is why i worry about gun control.

Yea because no armed government official has ever shot and killed an innocent man right? NO?

Well then no government has ever turned into a dictatorship passed laws against gun ownership and turned against its own unarmed people right? NO?

If a nut has a gun you take the gun from the nut and convict him of a felony making it illegal for him to own a gun. Problem solved while leaving legal gun owners out of the equation.

[the_tyrant]

Originally Posted by Freiwillige

Yea because no armed government official has ever shot and killed an innocent man right? NO?

Well then no government has ever turned into a dictatorship passed laws against gun ownership and turned against its own unarmed people right? NO?

If a nut has a gun you take the gun from the nut and convict him of a felony making it illegal for him to own a gun. Problem solved while leaving legal gun owners out of the equation.

shouldn't guns be limited to sane people?

[Freiwillige]

They are. If you are found mentally incapable of owning a gun your rights are voided. This man obviously has never been found mentally incapable!

You can see a problem here.

If a nut has a gun you take the gun from the nut and convict him of a felony making it illegal for him to own a gun.

How do you take the gun from the nut for a conviction when he is going to shoot anyone who tries to make him appear at court?

If you are found mentally incapable of owning a gun your rights are voided.

How does a doctor gain access to the nut to assess his mental capability if he is threatening to shoot people?

[the_tyrant]

can't the cops just start shooting towards his general direction

when he charges out with his gun, snipe him

[MH]

Hopefully its not the cat.

[Platapus]

About 30 years ago, when I was at Hill AFB, UT, I worked on the salt flats/deserts where the USAF has a bombing range. There is a mountain range that is along two sides and people live there.

We were told that even if we ran out of gas, don't go wandering near those compounds. There are people living there that like being left alone.

Really really like to be left alone.

[Feuer Frei!]

Originally Posted by Platapus

About 30 years ago, when I was at Hill AFB, UT, I worked on the salt flats/deserts where the USAF has a bombing range. There is a mountain range that is along two sides and people live there.

We were told that even if we ran out of gas, don't go wandering near those compounds. There are people living there that like being left alone.

Really really like to be left alone.

Sounds like something out of "The Hills have Eyes"