Of all the branches of the federal government, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives has the worst reputation. Like the IRS they seem to be a law unto themselves. This is the group that once decided a piece of string was a machine gun and convicted someone because of it. They have a tough job to do, but many folks in the gun world see them as jack booted thugs. The news about the conviction of David Olofson seems to bear this out. Worse, Olofson is being utterly slandered by the media, who are doing their best to make him appear as some kind of gun crazy terrorist.
The rest of this post might get a little technical, and it’s pretty long, so if you aren’t a gun enthusiast you can stop here. Just be aware that BATFE is out of control, and has the power to muscle the court system to get whatever convictions they want. Mr. Olofson is appealing, and I hope he wins. BATFE should be disbanded, or severely curtailed at the least.
A bit of background: The weapon in question here is an Olympic Arms AR-15. Olympic mistakenly used some wrong parts when they assembled some of these rifles; they were built using some M-16 internals. Usually the safety switch on an AR-15 has only two positions (Safe and Fire), while the same switch on an M-16 has three (Safe, Fire, Burst). This entire case hinges on that fact because the rifle in question was built with the wrong parts, and when tested it was found that it could fire automatically - enough to meet the definition of “automatic”, which is “more than once” - when the switch was forcibly jammed into the 3rd position (that it didn’t actually have), and fired hundreds of times without cleaning, and using ammunition know for being extra sensitive. What we have here is really a situation of “slam fire” caused by a condition called “hammer follow”.
Aside from a gross miscarriage of justice, the reason I’m posting this is because just about any semi-auto firearm can accidently become fully automatic in this way if some of the parts become worn and excessively dirty. So this could happen to you. Keep your guns clean and in good repair!
More background on this bullshit:
The Accidental Felon
By Jeff Knox
(January 29, 2008) There are several ways for a person to unintentionally commit a felony, but most of them are looked at by prosecutors, judges, and juries as the accidents they are and dealt with accordingly. Such is not always the case however, especially when firearms are involved; for the past 2 years David Olofson has been learning that the hard way. Olofson is a regular guy who happens to be fond of AR15 style sport-utility rifles. He loaned a rifle to a friend. While the friend was shooting it he moved the safety switch to a point beyond the Fire position. The rifle fired a couple of short bursts and jammed. Someone at or near the club called the police to complain about machinegun fire. The police notified the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and David Olofson was subsequently charged and convicted of illegally transferring a machinegun.
Neither Olofson nor his friend was charged with possession of an unregistered machinegun or with illegally manufacturing, modifying, or otherwise making a machinegun. Obviously ATF did not believe they could convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Olofson or his friend had intentionally altered the rifle to fire full-auto so they prosecuted on the easier charge of transferring. Everyone agreed that the gun belonged to Olofson and that he had loaned it to his friend. That meant that the only issue in question in the case was whether the gun was a machinegun. Since ATF is the final arbiter in determining whether a gun is a machinegun, and the law defining machineguns tends to be selectively interpreted by them, the government had a distinct advantage.
As a matter of fact, when the ATF Firearms Technical Branch (FTB) examined the rifle they concluded that it was not a machinegun. They did find that if the Safety switch was moved beyond its normal range of motion, the gun would fire once and jam, leaving a loaded round in the chamber. They determined that moving the Safety in such a way interfered with the trigger disconnector causing the hammer to follow the bolt as it returned to battery rather than being stopped by the sear; a fairly common malfunction known as hammer-follow.
At the request of the local ATF agent, the FTB tested the gun a second time using a brand of .223 ammunition known for having sensitive primers. Those tests resulted in intermittent, unregulated, automatic fire and jamming due to hammer-follow, but this time the FTB concluded that, under strict interpretation of the law, the gun’s malfunction did make it a machinegun.
The cornerstone of this charge is the government’s contention that it doesn’t matter whether a gun fires multiple shots as a result of malfunction or modification because the law defines a machinegun as; “… any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” While on the witness stand, firearms expert Len Savage asked the Assistant US Attorney prosecuting the case if that would make his grandfather’s old double-gun a machinegun if it malfunctioned and fired both barrels with one pull of the trigger. The AUSA responded by paraphrasing the legal definition of a machinegun with emphasis placed on “any weapon which shoots… more than one shot… by a single function of the trigger.”
Anyone experienced with semi-automatic firearms knows that hammer-follow is a relatively common malfunction which usually does not result in a sharp enough blow to the primer to result in ignition. When it is enough to trigger the primer, the resulting fire is very dangerous for the shooter. Semi-auto firearms are not designed to withstand the stresses of full-automatic fire, particularly unregulated automatic fire. A true machinegun has mechanical systems in place to control the gun’s rate of fire, literally pausing momentarily between shots. A gun firing by hammer-follow does not have these controls and will fire as fast as the bolt spring can cycle the action.
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At the government’s insistence, the court refused to allow Olofson’s firearms expert to physically examine the gun; he was only allowed to observe as an ATF employee took the gun through a function check and opened the action to his view. What he saw were standard, unaltered components of the same type and configuration that were included in this particular brand of rifle from the factory over two decades ago; parts that are known by ATF to produce exactly the type of malfunction noted and in response to which ATF had once ordered a safety recall.
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In another recent case, ATF removed a gun from the machinegun registration rolls because the gun was manufactured as an AR15 and had been intentionally modified to fire in full-auto mode using the hammer-follow method. ATF ruled that such a gun was not a machinegun, but a semi-auto in need of repair. By removing the gun from the NFA rolls ATF devalued the gun from a market value of around $20,000.00 to about $1,500.
Olofson’s judge and jury were not allowed to learn about either the ATF ordered recall or the reclassification of a rifle like Olofson’s as not being a machinegun, because ATF and the US Attorney claimed that such information was prohibited from disclosure by tax privacy laws.
Which is total bullshit.
Here’s more:
“If you pull the trigger once and it fires more than one round, no matter what the cause it’s a machine gun.”
At 2:15 PM on January 8 of this year, the Milwaukee jury in the trial of United States vs. David R. Olofson convened. Forty minutes later they emerged, returning a unanimous verdict against the veteran and National Guardsman: “Guilty.”
Olofson, you see, had loaned one of his rifles, and it malfunctioned at a range, firing off short bursts before jamming. This was called to the attention of local authorities who seized the rifle, an Olympic Arms AR-15. They in turn called BATFE, who decided to make a federal case out of it, charging Olofson with illegally transferring a machinegun.
Enter Len Savage (See “Failing the test,” July 2005), President of Historic Arms, LLC, brought in by Olofson’s defense to testify the automatic fire was not by design or intent, but rather by mechanical failure, and that the firearm in question was simply a semiautomatic rifle that needed to be repaired.
The opposition would have none of that. Savage was not permitted to personally examine the rifle — not even to touch it. He was required to observe as the ATF officer opened it for inspection. His professional credentials were challenged by the prosecution, who wanted his testimony excluded, even though Savage is a firearm designer by profession, and the government’s expert witness received all of his training in the 2-1/2 years he’d been with the bureau. Then the prosecution reneged on its pledge not to sequester witnesses, and had Savage removed from the courtroom so he could not hear the government’s testimony.
So in the end, it didn’t matter this was merely a case of a “hammer follow.”
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 or sear, that it did not show any signs of machining or drilling, or that that model had even been recalled a few years back.
It didn’t matter that, when asked if he’d test fired the gun, Savage testified “From my examination and from what I saw on the [ATF test] video I wouldn’t want to attempt it … the video shows the guy who was shooting it was so afraid to fire it from the shoulder he had to hold it out in front of him. So he knew it was dangerous.”
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.
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.
Think about if your semiauto ever malfunctions. Because that’s how close you could be to becoming a convicted “gun felon.”
The Firearms Coalition writes a bit further on this case, and provides links to some excellent video coverage from CNN on the Lou Dobbs program. Video Clip 1 and Video Clip 2.
You should be aware that, at the time of his conviction, Olofson had no other convictions, and had served 16 years in the Army and the Reserves. According to CNN, who aren’t famous for loving guns or the military.
When sentencing came down, this is how it got written up. Bias much, on the part of the judge and the newspaper?
A Wisconsin man whose federal conviction for illegally transferring a machine gun drew national attention on CNN and the Internet was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison.
David R. Olofson, 36, of Berlin, who remains a member of the Army Reserve until his felony conviction becomes official, was convicted by a jury in January.
Olofson, whose case has been reported several times on Lou Dobbs’ show on CNN, faced up to 10 years in prison, Federal sentencing guidelines called for 27 to 33 months.
U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert said Olofson knew or should have known the gun in question fired automatically.
Recall that the guy Olofson loaned the gun to had to fire it more than 800 times before it went automatic. For 2 shots. 800 rounds is an awful lot of shooting, far more than most of us could do in an entire weekend. PS - and anybody putting 800+ rounds through a gun they’re only thinking of buying is a douchebag. That’s 10 years of wear and tear on the barrel for most rifles.
”This was a man who has considerable knowledge of weapons, considerable knowledge of machine guns,” Clevert said. “Mr. Olofson, in this court’s view, has shown he was ignoring the law.”
So because this guy was in the Army he gets held to a higher standard?
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Haanstad noted that Olofson had two previous gun-related convictions, including carrying a concealed weapon with his children trick-or-treating. He also noted that Olofson was reprimanded for corrupting Army computers and perhaps providing militia groups access to sensitive information.
Where did this come from? And what bearing does the computer bit have on this case? The guy was honorably discharged.
Olofson’s attorney, Brian Fahl, who had asked for probation, promised a swift appeal with help from the National Rifle Association. He argued that Olofson’s rifle malfunctioned because of the way it was manufactured. Fahl said the case is being watched nationally because some believe it allows for criminal charges whenever a weapon accidentally fires more than once.
“If you have a multiple firing, it looks like you can be prosecuted,” Fahl said.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
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According to court records, Kiernicki turned the rifle’s firing selector to the third position, pulled the trigger, and three bullets fired with each pull. Then the weapon jammed. Except that an AR-15 doesn’t even HAVE a third position. So not only does douchey wear the gun out, he tries to break it by forcing the safety lever. What a fuckhead.
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Olofson contended an ATF document showed that the company that made his AR-15 used M-16 automatic parts in some of them, including his, which would explain that it malfunctioned. Clevert reviewed the document and found it wouldn’t exonerate Olofson. Judicial bias? Prior ATF ruling actually declassified the exact same kind of rifle from being categorized as a machine gun, and this document showed that. This judge should be shit canned immediately.
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Kiernicki testified Olofson told him the third position was for automatic firing, but it jammed, court records indicate. He also testified Olofson told him he had fired the weapon on the automatic setting at that same range without a problem, according to the records.Sounds like coerced testimony to me. Wanna bet BATFE threatened the guy with possession if he didn’t turn on his “friend”? Hell, I almost guarantee they did. But seeing how Kiernicki behaved at the firing range, I’d almost wonder if he wasn’t an BATFE plant to begin with.
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Haanstad said Olofson had provided weapons and ammunition to so many people he couldn’t keep track. A search of his home turned up books on converting rifles to fully automatic, and e-mail on his computer showed he bought M-16 parts, records show.
Olofson had contact with vigilante groups and professed to be part of the sovereign movement, which doesn’t acknowledge federal laws as applying to them, Haanstad said.
Ok, I’m not thrilled with this part. While there is no law against being stupid, neither is there a law about daydreaming. And neither the books nor the parts are illegal. And the rest is just painting the guy to be one of those “crazy militia people”, which, while not popular, is also not against the law. And it also looks like they’re trying to make the guy look either really irresponsible, or that he’s some kind of gun runner.
So there you go. Our government’s finest, working in the best Janet Reno traditions. Better make sure your guns are clean and in proper working order. And don’t lend them to assholes, ever.
CLOSE IT UP ...
Thursday - May 15, 2008 
on 05/15/2008 at 08:55 AM
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