ATF Unleashed.....
 

Owner of broken rifle surrenders for 30-month sentence

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

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

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.'

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What a bunch of crap. That is ridiculous. If it was in Texas, they would not have even taken it to court as they know they would have been laughed out of the courtroom.

This is a plain case of "Make an example".

:eek:

Nothing new, ATF has been pulling this scam for years...

Almost any firearm with a worn disconector can be made to fire full auto by altering the ammo. In this case the guy was targeted because of his background with firearms. I especially like how they paid the witness. (you and I would be jailed for this)

I think their operations manual was written by Himmler.

Sorry guys, this makes no dam sense. Lotso missing data here. And they guy is an idiot or hired an idiot lawyer. Maybe Jamo can chime in. But nobody does ANY time for something like this as it is stated. Can someone say Urban Ledgend?

Crap, Martha Friggin Stewart did more damage... and only served 5 months.

Mike