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Well he reports to prision today...who else of us will follow?

3K views 30 replies 24 participants last post by  Kerbouchard 
#1 ·
Owner of broken rifle surrenders for 30-month sentence

Owner of broken rifle surrenders for 30-month sentence

'The conviction of David Olofson is a gross miscarriage of justice'

A Wisconsin man today surrendered to federal authorities to begin serving a 30-month prison term for
having a broken rifle, prompting the Gun Owners of America to issue a warning about the owner's
liability should any semi-automatic weapon ever misfire.

"A gun that malfunctions is not a machine gun," Larry Pratt, executive director of GOA, said. "What
the [federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] has done in the [David] Olofson
case has set a precedent that could make any of the millions of Americans that own semi-automatic
firearms suddenly the owner [of] an unregistered machine gun at the moment the gun malfunctions."

Officials with Gun Owners of America told WND they met with Olofson today before he surrendered to
federal authorities for his prison term. U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert had imposed the
sentence after the gun in question let loose three shots at a firing range.

"It didn't matter the rifle in question had not been intentionally modified for select fire, or that
it did not have an M16 bolt carrier . that it did not show any signs of machining or drilling, or
that that model had even been recalled a few years back," said a commentary in Guns Magazine on the
case against Olofson, of Berlin, Wis.


"It didn't matter the government had repeatedly failed to replicate automatic fire until they
replaced the ammunition with a softer primer type. It didn't even matter that the prosecution
admitted it was not important to prove the gun would do it again if the test were conducted today,"
the magazine said. "What mattered was the government's position that none of the above was relevant
because '[T]here's no indication it makes any difference under the statute. If you pull the trigger
once and it fires more than one round, no matter what the cause it's a machine gun.'

"No matter what the cause."

"David Olofson is a victim of BATFE abuse," Pratt said. "He has been railroaded by an agency that is
out-of-control."

An appeal is being assembled by a legal team at the William J. Olson, P.C., law firm, supplemented
by attorney Bob Sanders, whose career stretches from being assistant director of criminal
investigations at BATFE to many years in private trial law, officials said.

Constitutional expert Herb Titus also is counsel to the Olson law firm.

WND reported earlier when Olofson, a drill instructor in the National Guard, was convicted in a
federal court for illegally transferring a machine gun.

The verdict came in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

An expert witness said then the decision was filled with problems.

"If your semiautomatic rifle breaks or malfunctions you are now subject to prosecution. That is now
a sad FACT," wrote Len Savage, a weaponry expert who runs Historic Arms LLC.

"To those in the sporting culture who have derided 'black guns' and so-called 'assault weapons';
Your double barreled shotgun is now next up to be seized and you could possibly be prosecuted if the
ATF can get it to 'fire more than once,'" he wrote in a blog run by Red's Trading Post.

"Hey, but don't worry," Savage said. "The people testing it have no procedures in writing and the
testing will be in secret."

He said during an interview with Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership that Olofson had
been instructing a man in the use of guns, and the student asked to borrow a rifle for some shooting
practice.

"Mr. Olofson was nice enough to accommodate him," Savage said. So the student, Robert Kiernicki,
went to a range and fired about 120 rounds. "He went to put in another magazine and the rifle shot
three times, then jammed."

He said the rifle, which was subject to a manufacturer's recall because of mechanical problems at
one point, malfunctioned because of the way it was made.

Savage said once the government confiscated the gun, things got worse.

"They examined and test fired the rifle; then declared it to be 'just a rifle,'" Savage said. "You
would think it would all be resolved at this point, this was merely the beginning."

He said the Special Agent in Charge, Jody Keeku, asked for a re-test and specified that the tests
use "soft primered commercial ammunition."

"FTB has no standardized testing procedures, in fact it has no written procedures at all for testing
firearms," Savage said. "They had no standard to stick to, and gleefully tried again. The results
this time...'a machinegun.' ATF with a self-admitted 50 percent error rate pursued an indictment and
Mr. Olofson was charged with 'Unlawful transfer of a machinegun.'. Not possession, not even Robert
Kiernicki was charged with possession (who actually possessed the rifle), though the ATF paid Mr.
Kiernicki 'an undisclosed amount of money' to testify against Mr. Olofson at trial," Savage said.
 
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#4 ·
WOW!

"We think you have an evil weapon, although we have no way to scientifically validate it, so we're gonna put you away for a while with real BG; hope all works out for ya."

"But there is a recall on this firearm, that proves it wasn't me and how it was manufactured."

"So. What size jump suit do you wear?"
 
#5 ·
Strange how not all felons are bad people isnt it ? Ill submit as a long time LE that not all the bad folk i ever knew were felons . I wont speak to the Miscarriage of justice ( in this case ) on this forum .
 
#7 ·
Something is telling me that there is a little more to this story than is being told. The ATF OBVIOUSLY had it out for this guy. Why else would they have paid someone to testify against him. Speaking of that, isn't that tampering with a witness/testimony? I hope he sues, and when he does I hope he wins an amount of money that is as ridiculous as the charges he is facing.
 
#8 ·
Here is a link to 88 page thread from the start till today. Court docs and all. This also has been on CNN. The ATF had the judge rule some of the information the defense wanted could not be presented as the were part of the treasury and as such the info was confidional information as part of the IRS.

AR15.COM :: Forums :: Update on Berlin BATFE Raid
 
#9 ·
Scary.

I'd probably consider making a donation to his appeal funds.

Sounds like a classic witch hunt of the old days.
 
#10 ·
GOA (Gun Owners of America) is helping to cover his cost. CNN's Lou Dobbs has ran a bunch of articles on it also....
 
#11 ·
...and we don't need weapons because we can trust the government?:aargh4:
:cuss:
:grrr:
:eek:hmann:

Stay armed...for obvious reasons...stay safe!
 
#12 ·
I think with a little juju and a secret testing facility I can get any semi automatic firearm to fire more than 1 shot with each pull of the trigger.I think we need to write our senators and congressmen and tell them this is the most outrageous thing we have ever heard also the agent in charge should be fired
 
#13 ·
someone's trying to make a name for themselves at this guy's expense.
 
#14 ·
Is Janet Reno back carrying a badge? This is so stupid.
 
#15 ·
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!!! Whats up with our government

:screams: :hand1:
 
#18 ·
You know, when I was active duty, I had a my M16 double fire twice due to a malfunction. Does that make me a felon? I guess so.


(Yes I know the M16 has a burst mode, but it was in semi. I actually got dropped from the range detail due to the malfunction)

Nate
 
#19 ·
This is the worst example of judicial insanity I have ever seen!

On the bright side, it's a lot safer and less expensive to imprison a decent man who happened to own a malfunctioning piece of equipment than it is to catch and prosecute actual bad guys.
 
#20 ·
THe BATFE is trying SOOOO hard to justify its existence. This really burns me up. Hopefully this guy can appeal and reverse the sentence.

No procedures for testing?? In ANY other industry or field of science their "test" would be discarded as jibberish. I can't believe a judge bought that.....shameful:hand1:
 
#24 ·
You know the old saying about absolute power.

A stark example of why weapons in the hands of the People is a good thing.
 
#28 ·
+1
Pathetic and downright criminal of the Feds.
 
#27 ·
i remember seeing an nbc or abc news special on this guy, he's a family man who owns a couple guns, not some crazy. I even remember Lou Dobbs on CNN calling out to the NRA and asking why they weren't helping this man. unbelieveable
There's an easy answer for that. The NRA of today isn't the NRA of yesterday, hence why they don't get my money anymore and never will until they shape up.
 
#31 ·
Most of post #5 is garbage. It does shed new light, but when most of the 'evidence' that was presented was 'paid for', and half of the items aren't crimes in the first place, I fail to see how it changes much...

If ownership of a spreadsheet with parts, the willingness to help people put together weapons that they purchased, having several thousand rounds of ammo, not having an FFL, and owning a file, screwdrivers, pliers and a hammer make us machine gun manufacturers, then I'm in trouble.

If you continue reading the thread that you posted here, there are many people who dispute the affidavit.

I'm not saying this guy was completely innocent of wrong-doing, but this is from the BATFE, who has no written policy of testing and conducts those tests in secrecy.

I'm also interested in how the alleged 3-round burst ability turned into firing all 20 rounds 'automatically'.
 
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