Wednesday, May 21, 2008

David Olofson on CNN's Lou Dobbs

UPDATED 1/23/09:
Transcript for the recent video is here.
As of now, that is all that is available. AFAIK. If you find a video, please put it in the comments.

UPDATED 5/21/08: In an effort to support David Olofson's fight, I began absorbing all the information on this case that I could. As I did, I found myself distracted by the boneheaded, and downright stupid moves Olofson made in the execution of his case. Being stupid will not get you tossed in jail, but if you do it enough during your case, it WILL count against you. It also became obvious Olofson wasn't exactly pure as the driven snow. I was conflicted because while it is obvious the BATFE's procedures were seriously (possibly criminally) flawed, Olofson mismanaged his case as though it was what he was trying to do all along. I still don't think he should go to prison for any length of time, but I don't think anyone should go to prison for a crime without a victim. While Olofson's failures were his own, the cost goes to us all. Now the BATFE has legal precedence that a malfunctioning semi-automatic rifle is legally considered a machine gun. This affects us all. However, I maintain that if this kind of case goes before a judge again, and the case is handled properly, I don't see a conviction. Or, at least I see success on appeal. This is not the case to get worried about, or draw conclusions from. It was deeply flawed from both sides.

I was struggling on a post explaining this, when I found Sebastian wrote it for me! Go read it before or after you read the below, but read it.

UPDATED 5/14/08: It's official. You can be sent to federal prison for owning a malfunctioning firearm. Any gun owner with an autoloading firearm can be put in federal prison if the F-Troop can make it fire more than once per trigger pull by means, action, or inaction of their choosing. They only need a reason.

UPDATED: Added part two of the story.

CNN's Lou Dobbs covers David Olofson's story of government abuse.
First part of the video here.
Part two here.

To readers unfamiliar with this case, David Olofson, an Army Vet and gun owner, leant a 20 year old AR to (supposedly) a prospective buyer. The buyer took it to the range, and after firing approximately 800 rounds through it, the gun malfunctioned, fired two rounds, and jammed. Law enforcement took note, and called the gun a machine gun (because it fired more than one round per trigger pull), and charged Olofson with illegal transfer of a machine gun.

There is little dispute about the above. The government is knowingly making a felon out of this veteran because his gun malfunctioned.

For clarity; the full-auto and the semi-auto versions of the AR rifle have different internals. Even if one were to modify a semi-auto rifle to fire full auto, there would be additional internal parts to accomplish this. The BATFE knows this, but doesn't care.

It's a good video, watch it, and catch the rest when I post the link.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

need a link to part two please.