Year: 2008

In honor of this, I have upgraded to a life membership in the NRA (well, and because they were offering it for half price at the Annual Meeting).  I have blogged little about the Olofson case.  I knew my views on this were going to piss a lot of people off, because while I think it represents the ATF at its worst, it also represents our side at its worst as well.  Everyone needs to read the entire thread on AR-15.com.  Olofson is Bladerunner2347.  Some comments:

• When served with a federal search warrant, the smart thing to do is shut up and get a good lawyer.  Posting about your case for the world to see is not a wise idea when the federales come knocking down your door.
• It’s rarely a winning strategy to represent yourself, and using a disbarred lawyer to help you doesn’t sound like one either.  This is probably a big reason why NRA didn’t get involved.  Most competent attorneys who practice gun law are able to get that kind of help, but NRA has to be asked.
• Ignoring advice of real lawyers who say a legal argument that challenges jurisdiction of the federal argument to charge you won’t do anything except piss off the judge strikes me as a bad idea as well.
• The kid he lent the AR to made a sworn statement that Olafson had told him not to move the selector into the unmarked burst mode setting because it was missing “some type of thing.”  That type of thing would likely be a drop in auto sear.
• Why would you lend an AR that has been partially converted to someone, when you can probably bet they are going to actually try pushing the selector past fire?
• Olofson’s AR contained numerous M16 parts.  As far as I know, some manufacturers in the 70s and 80s used some M16 parts in their AR-15s, like bolt carriers and hammers, until the ATF issued a ruling that the practice be stopped.  Olofson’s AR had an M16 trigger, disconnector, selector, and hammer.  As far as I know, there weren’t any manufacturers that used this many M16 parts in their ARs.  The agent who examined the parts, correctly in my view, stated that this did not constitute a machine gun, but ATF has long held M16 parts in an AR to be a no no.
• Implying that the ATF broke into your house and planted evidence is not going to work with a jury unless you have other evidence to back this up.  Admitting you disposed of evidence doesn’t seem like a good idea either, especially when the evidence in question was the one part in question that would make the AR a fully working machine gun.

This isn’t to say the ATF have been angels in this case.  Most of the criticisms I’ve seen leveled at ATF have been on the money.  ATF pretty clearly deserves to be raked over the coals for:

• Not having any standardized testing procedures for determining if a firearm is a machine gun.
• Not having any standard for determining if the requesite parts in possession constitute “readily convertible”
• Not allowing the defense access to evidence against them so that it may be examined by their own experts.
• The ruling that any M16 parts constitute a machine gun is bogus, and deserves to be rebuked in court.  ATF should have the burden to prove that the arm, or combination of parts in question, is a functioning machine gun, or can be readily made into a functioning machine gun.  Basically, if they didn’t find the auto-sear, they shouldn’t have a case.

If you’re going to challenge the ATF on these matters, you need to have competent legal counsel that’s experienced in firearms laws.  It is not the time to play legal expert.  If you lose your case, you’re not just hurting yourself, you’re hurting every gun owner out there, because now ATF has winning precedent they can use to screw everybody else.

I don’t blame NRA for not getting involved in this case, because a) they were never asked, and b) the case is a bloody mess, with a poor defendant and a poor circumstances.  The case was very likely from the get go to result in a loss that would actually harm gun owners, rather than help them.  That’s why I get pissy when guys like this do stupid shit that gets them in trouble and then pile more stupid shit on top of that when they get caught and go to trial.  If we’re going to challenge them in court, we have to have our A game on, and I don’t see any evidence that this was the case here.

That said, I believe Americans have a right to own an M16, and I don’t think the public safety is enhanced one iota by putting Mr. Olofson in prison.  But ATF went ahead with this, and it won.  Now some are turning it into one more reason to bash the NRA.  Sorry, but you don’t get to douse yourself with gasoline, light yourself on fire, and then run around bitching that no one is helping you put out the fire.  I call bullshit on that one.  We have to choose our battles carefully, and this isn’t a case I’d want to use to challenge ATF.

From UC Davis.  This will hopefully be some good ammunition for Tom King, who is currently under fire from the Governor of New York, who is pushing the technology hard.

Well, they are old enough to tote fully automatic M4s around Iraq and Afghanistan, I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to buy a pistol when they come home.  Thank you South Carolina Supreme Court for correctly ruling that 18 year olds are adults.