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Ever Heard of Lawrence Michael DeStefano? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hollo Coome on it.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Friends.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: If you're just joining us, what are you been? We've
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: been at it for an hour now. It's the second
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: hour of the Morning Show with Preston Scott Show fifty
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: five twenty nine. He's ose, I am, Preston. It's great
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to be with you. You know, the holidays take it
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: take a toll on some of our regular guests, and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: this is one of them. It's been a minute, as
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the kids like to say. Since we've talked to the
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  Speaker 1: gun Writer, you can find his work at the gun
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  Speaker 1: Writer dot substack dot com. Lee Williams, Lee, how are you,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: sir good Man?
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Great to be back, boy.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: It just feels right you sent me, And of course
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  Speaker 1: I've got I get your stories all the time, but
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I asked you because there's so many and it's really
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  Speaker 1: sad that you have to write about the protection of
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  Speaker 1: the Second Amendment like you do. But I'm so grateful
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you're out there.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Lee.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I don't think many of our listeners know the full story,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: or even much of the story of Lawrence di Stefano.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Tell us about him.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: He's sixty five years old. He's a Florida resident. He
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: lived near Orlando, has a website which is still up
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: indieguns dot Com, where he would sell block kits to
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: people without a background check. He had some very very
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: covert ways that you could pay for them. He did
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: that devoid government harassment. I like his business motto, which
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: is guns are normal and normal people build guns. Now,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: these are totally legal in Florida. I made two of
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: them from a different source. You have to drill, you
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: have to put them together, you have to put all
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the parts in. It's not easy, but it gets easier
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: every time you make one. Anyway. He was held in
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: the Orange County, Florida jail for nearly ninety days subject
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: to a warrant from Latitia Ja. He's out of New
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: York and just the other day he was taken from
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  Speaker 2: New York to Rikers Island, where he is now. He
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  Speaker 2: has been charged with seventy one felonies seventy one and
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: if convicted of all of them, he's looking at more
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  Speaker 2: than five hundred years in prison. Letitia James is an
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  Speaker 2: absolute nutter. His big thing is her big thing is
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  Speaker 2: against him, as he sold these gun kits to people
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  Speaker 2: in New York, including more than a few in the
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: government and federal government. And New York has passed the
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: law saying these kids are illegal, they are guns, they
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: need to be serialized. It's a mess.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: How is it that she has reach into Florida, That.
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  Speaker 2: Sir, is the big question. I mean, that's that's the
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: huge question. She sent a letter, a letter, okay that
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: said he's facing kind of two counts of criminal sale
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: thirty nine counts of criminal sale firearm a third degree,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: and that went to Governor DeSantis. DeSantis was responded with
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a letter to all Florida sheriffs and peace officers commanding
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: them to rest the Stefano, who had already been in custody.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: So DeSantis played a huge role in this. Now he
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: has in the past ignored or not complied with these
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  Speaker 2: requests from out of state for something that's not a felony,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: not even a crime here in Florida. But for some
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: reason he and or his people helped her out.
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  Speaker 1: Has Attorney General James Uthmaier weighed in on this.
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  Speaker 2: I have not heard from the Attorney General, but we've
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  Speaker 2: got a Floridian right now, never committed a crime. Sixty
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  Speaker 2: five years old, is looking at five and twenty one
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  Speaker 2: years in a New York State prison. And by the way,
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  Speaker 2: they're going state chargers are not going federal because they
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: know O'donald Trump could issue a pardon if it was federal.
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  Speaker 1: Interesting is he has said, I would say, a very
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  Speaker 1: big fall in New York.
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  Speaker 2: He's got a public defender. Now I don't think she's
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  Speaker 2: ever touched a gun. It's not going to go well,
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  Speaker 2: my friend, it's not going to go well. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: she let loose a massive press release like three pages,
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  Speaker 2: exciting everybody in the world. Now, she had already taken
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  Speaker 2: him to court for selling a civil court for selling
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  Speaker 2: guns Floridians and got a seven point eight million dollar
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  Speaker 2: default judgment against him, but which she ignored, didn't go
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  Speaker 2: to New York. But you know, I talked to a
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  Speaker 2: lot of folks who have purchased parts kids from him.
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  Speaker 2: He's not this kind of you know, black market site.
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  Speaker 2: If you look at indie guns, you'll you'll see them
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  Speaker 2: incredibly nice block type parts kits. You would pay a
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  Speaker 2: lot more for some of these kits than you were
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  Speaker 2: just a regular block that works and you don't have
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  Speaker 2: to put together. He had some really really loyal customers
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  Speaker 2: and some incredible bargains and parts kids.
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  Speaker 1: If Lawrence Michael di Stefano had not sold any of
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  Speaker 1: these kids in New York. He could not be prosecuted
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  Speaker 1: by the state of New York. Correct, Correct? Is there
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  Speaker 1: is there a reason why he just did not? And
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  Speaker 1: I get the principal argument, and you and I are
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  Speaker 1: on the same page. Second man, blah blah blah. But
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  Speaker 1: there are realities to the broken political system that we have,
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  Speaker 1: and one of them is that there are lost states.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Illinois, New York, California, Washington, Oregon are among them.
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  Speaker 1: Why didn't he just not sell them to people in
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  Speaker 1: New York.
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  Speaker 2: Well, he has been in business for quite a while,
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  Speaker 2: and he sold to every state long before they started
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: past these laws. I think part of it has to
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: do with his personal philosophy. And he has a quote
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  Speaker 2: on his website from Joseph's Story, who is a Justice
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  Speaker 2: in the Supreme Court that says, one of the ordinary
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  Speaker 2: modes by which tyrants accomplished their purposes without resistance is
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  Speaker 2: by disarming the people and making it an offense to
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  Speaker 2: keep arms. And I got to tell you, having talked
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  Speaker 2: to Lawrence Well just the other day and numerous times
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  Speaker 2: before it, he firmly believes that and he set his
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  Speaker 2: site up so people in these states that you mentioned
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  Speaker 2: could call and have gun parts kids sent to them. Now, unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: if he would have never got to New York, he'd
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  Speaker 2: be fine. But he's there thanks to our governor or,
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  Speaker 2: at least our governor's office. Yet, I mean, he's looking
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  Speaker 2: at spending the rest of his life in prison. He's
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  Speaker 2: sixty five years old, He's got of five hundred and
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  Speaker 2: seventeen years possible. It is. I got to tell you.
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  Speaker 2: It makes me angry, so angry, I don't want to
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  Speaker 2: use I don't want to use radio words because he
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  Speaker 2: should have been taken care of by the state of Florida.
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  Speaker 1: Is there any worry because I know that he has
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  Speaker 1: gone out of his way to try to assuage any
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  Speaker 1: fears of his fifty thousand customers in New York. Are
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  Speaker 1: any of his clients worried?
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  Speaker 2: I would say most of them are worried that he
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: will release a list of names. The civil lawsuit that
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: came before the criminal lawsuit, they sued like ten indie
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  Speaker 2: parts distributors and nine of them gave them the information
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  Speaker 2: on who they sold to and got out of the
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  Speaker 2: suit no problem, no blood, and no foul. Lawrence did not,
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  Speaker 2: and I can honestly say he's not going to release anything.
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  Speaker 2: I've talked to him at length, and he is more
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  Speaker 2: than willing to go to prison for the what will
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: be the rest of his life than he is to
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  Speaker 2: release names of his customers. He actually treasures his customers
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  Speaker 2: and it's not going to release their names. And I
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  Speaker 2: believe them, Lee.
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  Speaker 1: I remember, and I'm sure you do too, the scene
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  Speaker 1: from Raiders of the Lost Dark where the Nazi interrogator
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  Speaker 1: walks into the tent and says, what shall we talk about?
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  Speaker 1: I cannot help but think that the decision to place
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  Speaker 1: him in Rikers Island is their way of engaging in
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  Speaker 1: a form of torture to try to compel him to talk.
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  Speaker 2: Riker's Island. I mean, you should hear him when when
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  Speaker 2: we're having conversations on the phone. It is a wild
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  Speaker 2: place full of real criminals, not sixty five year old
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  Speaker 2: men who have never committed one crime. Right, So he
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  Speaker 2: has some serious, serious safety concerns. My heart goes out
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  Speaker 2: to him. Brother. I totally wish him well, But in
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: all honesty, does he deserve to be there? No, he
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  Speaker 2: certainly doesn't, absolutely not.
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  Speaker 1: Lee once a month now, but we have done four
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: years personal defense segments on this program monthly where we
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: have experts come in to try to help people, whether
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it's school issues with related to active shooter and what
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: to instruct your kids to personal defense on a very
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: personal level, or at work. You just did a story
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: about what happened at Valdi and Adrian gonzales I thought
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  Speaker 1: it was a great piece. First of all, well done,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: but explain to our listeners, remind them of Uvaldi, the case,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the circumstances, and what just happened for this officer.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Well, it's twenty twenty two mass murder in Texas. This
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: maniac I won't name, shot and killed nineteen students, two
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: teachers were killed, and he wounded a bunch more. Adrian
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Gunzai Wallis was the SRO. He was a school resource officer.
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  Speaker 2: This was his school, this was his beat. Yet he's
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: captured on one of the hundreds of school videos not
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: going into the school once the killing started. He's screwed
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  Speaker 2: around and waited for minutes outside and then he goes in.
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  Speaker 2: It was pretty blatant. A lot of people will forget
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: the video. A lot of people can never forget the video.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: I can never forget it. He ran around on the
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: sidewalk trying to take cover, then he pulled people out
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  Speaker 2: of there. Ultimately, Uvaldi screwed up. They called in swat.
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  Speaker 2: They gave the murder seventy seven minutes to shoot and
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  Speaker 2: kill all these children. Well, the people in Texas charged
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: him with twenty nine counts of child abandonment or endangerment.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: These charges were for the twenty one people who were
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: murdered and each of the others who survived their wounds.
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  Speaker 2: He pleaded not guilty. They had They just had a
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  Speaker 2: two week trial about two hundred miles from Uvalde. Prosecutors
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  Speaker 2: I mean they put on a good case. But last
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: week he was found not guilty of all charges stemming
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  Speaker 2: from the twenty twenty two mass murders. There's one more trial,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: his police chief, Peter Arendondo. He faces ten counts of
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: abandoning or endangering a child. He's the one who called
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  Speaker 2: in swat and gave that mass murderer all that time
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: to kill these people. This for law enforcement is pretty simple.
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  Speaker 2: They're told if they're ever at a school, a mall,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: a public building of any kind and somebody starts shooting people,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: they have one responsibility, and that's run toward the danger
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: and shoot the murderer until he's dead. It's very simple tactically,
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  Speaker 2: Yet they haven't figured that out evidently in Texas.
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  Speaker 1: Was it a jury trial or did a judge make
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: that decision?
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  Speaker 2: Now, it was a jury trial and he got off.
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  Speaker 2: I'm told after the fact that the case that the
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: charges would have been difficult to prove. But you know,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I can't blame the prosecutors for trying to put this
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: piece of crap on the on trial. I mean, they
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: did a good job. They just they didn't have the
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: right charges. But now you know that the man retired
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: right after the shooting. Figure. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: You wrote one line in this piece at the very
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  Speaker 1: towards the beginning of it that I thought was very
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: very important. You wrote, if you can't handle this responsibility,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: don't ever raise your hand and take an oath and
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: pin on a badge.
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  Speaker 2: That's pretty much it. Brother. I mean, you have to
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: realize that if somebody is shooting children and you're armed
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: and peace officer, this is a time where when you
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: have to actually prove your worth. And he didn't. He
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: did not go in. Nowadays, you would have a cops
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  Speaker 2: streaming in from everywhere. Hopefully they've got armed teachers, an
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: armed school person. Now, now I think that's going to
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: be I mean, look at what we do here in Florida.
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  Speaker 2: We've never had one of these in Florida for the
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: last several years because of the steps the governor, the
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Santus has taken. But they have there and it just
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  Speaker 2: makes me sick. You know that this guy, he's paid,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: he's there. He could have stopped maybe at least one
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  Speaker 2: of the children from being shot and murdered, and he
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: just stood around outside and ran from cover to cover.
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  Speaker 1: You know, for all the advancements we've made here in Florida,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: we're still not doing enough on college campuses. We're not
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: allowing students to arm themselves, faculty to arm themselves. And
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: those are open cities that they have all the signs posted,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: but as you well know, they don't. Bad guys don't
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: care about signs. Yeah, I suppose the only I guess
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the reality is is that this officer, Adrian Gonzalez, is
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: going to have to live with what he did, and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: he'll have to live with that reality in his own
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: memory bank for the rest of his life.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I don't think this guy is going to be bothered
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: by that. Really, Yeah, I mean when I was a
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: police officer, I honestly don't. I don't think he has
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: any sense of honor commitment like that. I mean when
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: I was a cop in a suburb of Kansas City,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: where we had a certain type of officer who would
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: get assigned to a school. They weren't the best officers,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: they certainly weren't the most motivated, but they'd be assigned
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: to a school. Nowadays, it's it's different. I mean, they
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: should get the best ones. Dads, dads, Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: this guy should never have been an SR. I doubt
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: he should have ever been a cop.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Fair enough, Lee, thanks so much for the time. As always,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: we'll talk again next month. Thank you, sir. My pleasure
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: to take care, Lee Williams. The gun Writer dot substack
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: dot com is where you go subscribe to those newsletters
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and you will get these stories in your email box
• 15:04
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• 15:07
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