Gun Club Sends Letter to Hegseth Over Ft. Deven’s Shenanigans

Last month, I wrote about how Fort Devens, an Army base with a range they are supposed to have open to the public for reasonable fees, has been stonewalling a gun club despite losing a lawsuit. They were ordered to get their crap together and they just flat out refused to do it.

I thought that maybe the issue was that this was a Massachusetts National Guard facility, but they reached out to me to tell me that no, it isn’t them, they have nothing to do with it, and please not to rain down holy hellfire upon them.

I may have made that last bit up, but the rest was true.

No, this is a regular Army, so they should know better. They just don’t.

I figured that we’d need to get Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth involved. It seems the gun club feels the same way.

The Ft. Devens Rifle & Pistol Club, Inc., warned Fort Devens officials multiple times that if they didn’t let the civilian club shoot, they would take official action.

Act they did.

On Tuesday, the gun club sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, notifying him of the five-year history of problems that the gun club has had with Fort officials. The letter was written by the club’s treasurer, James Gettens, an attorney and Iraq War veteran.

“On instructions issued by bent DoD civilian lawyer John Hollis, Fort Devens chain of command has, since the March 20, 2025, Judgment and Order entered in the action referred to above, employed multiple stratagems to evade implementing that Judgment and Order and thus has prevented the Club and its members from using Fort Devens,” Gettens wrote. “That dishonesty and obstructionism forced the Club to file its Motion for a Finding and Order of Contempt, with supporting documents.”

Copies of the letter were also sent to LTG Omar J. Jones, IV, the three-star general in charge of U.S. Army Installation Management Command, Stephen Miller, Esq., the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, the Second Amendment Foundation and the National Rifle Association.

They also called out the civilian DOD attorney who stonewalled them on a FOIA request. They dropped over $1,000 for documents, only to receive nothing in return, because of John Hollis’s actions.

Look, this shouldn’t be a thing. They went to court and lost. That’s supposed to be the end of it. The base commander doesn’t have to like it, but he doesn’t have a leg to stand on legally. This was a federal court that actually does have jurisdiction over the military in a matter like this, which means the CO is wrong here.

Honestly, if the CO ended up in jail for contempt of court, I’d laugh hysterically.

The truth, though, is that Hegseth could deal with this with a simple phone call or two. Either they get their stuff in gear, or they seek employment opportunities in the fast-food industry. If the commander refuses to do so, then court-martial him for failure to obey a lawful order and hit him the the most severe penalties possible. That’ll make it so the fast-food industry is about all he’ll have available after his discharge, and hopefully, he’ll have trouble there, too.

Hegseth can at least start that in motion, and he should.

This is beyond ridiculous.