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Wis. man doing prison time for malfunctioning AR
JackBwr
Member Posts: 1,756 ✭✭✭
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80701
I saw this story on Lou Dobbs tonight and was absolutely enraged. Have you guys seen this!
This guy let someone borrow his AR-15 and they took it to the range. The rifle misfired and caused a 3 round burst before jamming. It was never altered in any way to make it automatic.
The 3 round burst caught the attention of authorities and the court found him guilty. He is now serving 30 months of prison time for a malfunctioning AR-15, based on the premise that the definition of an automatic weapon (made up by the court) is anything that fires multiple rounds NO MATTER THE CAUSE!!
So good luck at the range guys! I really hope nobody here has a misfire or this case will be cited and off to prison you go!
GOA is helping him fight this. It was stated that the NRA has not gotten involved at all, sadly.
I saw this story on Lou Dobbs tonight and was absolutely enraged. Have you guys seen this!
This guy let someone borrow his AR-15 and they took it to the range. The rifle misfired and caused a 3 round burst before jamming. It was never altered in any way to make it automatic.
The 3 round burst caught the attention of authorities and the court found him guilty. He is now serving 30 months of prison time for a malfunctioning AR-15, based on the premise that the definition of an automatic weapon (made up by the court) is anything that fires multiple rounds NO MATTER THE CAUSE!!
So good luck at the range guys! I really hope nobody here has a misfire or this case will be cited and off to prison you go!
GOA is helping him fight this. It was stated that the NRA has not gotten involved at all, sadly.
Comments
[The court case in which this happened is US v. Olofson; trial transcipts are now available at http://www.jpfo.org/pdf02/olofson-trial-tran-2-0f-3.pdf and http://www.jpfo.org/pdf02/olofson-trial-tran-3-0f-3.pdf. You may also want to listen to Len Savage discussing related legal issues on "Talkin' to America"].
"Judge Clevert (I am told) stated that it does not matter what ammunition, or what error rate ATF testing has, or that a malfunction occurred, or even if it required ATF to modify the firearm, just that more than one round be fired per function of the trigger.
"Every firearm in possession of your membership is a 'machine gun' under this narrow interpretation. This is scientific fact, not my opinion. For example:
* A double barrel shotgun firing both barrels with a single trigger pull;
* A Colt single action loaded with thin-primer ammo (the pierced primer will 'fan' the hammer with gas pressure). Look up Georgia machine gun statute, they exempted it by stating a machine gun must fire more than 6 shots per function of the trigger;
* The ATF Firearms Technology Branch can test a rifle 100 different times; if they can manipulate it just once out of 100, you're indicted.
"The NRA's Jason Ouimet has been aware of this situation at ATF since before the congressional hearings on 'the Virginia gun show incident'. I was supposed to testify at the hearings about the ATF testing issues at that time. Much to my frustration, the hearing I was supposed to testify at was canceled. According to Jason, it was [the] NRA who pulled the plug on me.
"Now that the whole of the NRA membership is in jeopardy just by owning a firearm, [are] Wayne LaPierre, Chris Cox, and the NRA board going to do something about this during this week's convention?
"Please pass this on to them:
* Words will not be sufficient. If this gets "unplugged", [if] the NRA refuses to address this issue, I will [have] no choice but to go to the media with documents and e-mails from [the] NRA that were generated during the last round of hearings. I will pull back the rug and show the world where [the] NRA swept this mess under [it] to hide it.
"Please forgive my abrupt and obtuse attitude. It is born of frustration [with the] deaf ears of the NRA leadership. I am there if I can to help the NRA, thus to date the NRA have refused to address this.
"My question to NRA leadership:
"Is this weekend's convention going to be your finest hour, or will this be noted in history as the beginning of the end of the NRA?
"Respectfully,
"Len Savage "Historic Arms LLC"
So if your weapon is poorly maintained enough to rattle off a burst, the law must serve the public trust by erring on the side of practical reality -- meaning any every-day gun owner could be one of those "stupid criminals" you always see on TruTV re-runs who are certain they are mastermind enough to put one over on the law -- local, state, and/or federal -- with a supposedly undetectable salute to civil disobedience -- in this case, maybe a select-fire modification. Moral? Replace worn or altered parts on your weapons while you still can.
This is probably an excellent example (among many) of why not to loan out your guns to anyone to fire in public when you can't be present to supervise your property.