Category: Gun Rights

Thirdpower reports some problems with how the Brady Campaign is representing the Illinois FOID card.  The gun control crowd would be happy to pass licensing in other states, and will tell you it’s a “reasonable measure” and is “common sense.”  Illinois already has it, but apparently it’s not enough.  Is it any wonder we think the goal is just to make owning a gun so difficult that no one bothers?  Then, it’ll be “common sense” and “reasonable” to just ban them altogether.

Mayor Miller of Toronto thinks it’s an idea who’s time has come.  But you know, we’re just a bunch of paranoid gun nuts.  What do we know about slippery slopes?

Michael Bane argues that the regulations applied to short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, and suppressors, are worse than stupid.  I couldn’t agree more.  Even most European countries don’t regulate suppressors, and regulating barrel lengths has never made much sense. Suppressors particularly, with more and more shooting ranges under threat from noise ordinances, would be particularly useful for ranges in keeping friendly relations with neighbors.  But suppressors aren’t common in the US like they are in Europe, because of their excessive regulation in this country.

I think it’s politically feasible to create a movement against these aspects of the National Firearms Act, but if Obama ends up in the White House, we’ll be two decades just undoing that damage, if we ever manage at all.  If gun owners don’t win elections, we don’t win.  Michael also isn’t too happy about the candidacy of Bob Barr on the Libertarian ticket.  I agree with him that it’s no time for a feel good vote.  If Governor Richardson had gotten the nod, I might feel better about telling the GOP to go to hell, but the idea of an Obama presidency scares the ever living crap out of me.

Word from Dave Hardy is that there’s a major shakeup at ATF.  Hopefully they can clean this mess up before we’re looking at President Obama.  Also, Dave points to an article that talks about the kinds of justices that Obama would likely nominate.

I’m glad to see that Red’s Trading Post will continue to operate, but it sucks that it appears removing his blog was part of the settlement.  Maybe not though, and it just comes down to it being a good will gesture.  Either way, we really need to get some momentum going on HR 4900.

UPDATE: According to comments at Joe’s, this was not the case.  That doesn’t mean HR 4900 isn’t still important.  No doubt this legal fight has cost Ryan a hefty chunk of change.

It’s in the comments, but I thought it deserved to be elevated to a post.

I’ve been pretty busy lately so I have not been doing much in the way of posting corrections, but it was whispered that it was important to keep the facts straight here. I personally was hoping with all the information I put out there it would help keep the mythology to a minimum. I see in this case you have fallen for some of the hearsay out there.

• “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. “

That is the prevailing wisdom of attorneys. I take a differing viewpoint in situation like I find myself in. That is when you are innocent of any crime people will not know of the injustice unless you put information out there. If I had not keep people up to date on a day by day basis you would not know of this now. What good does it do Americans if they don’t know what their government is doing?

• “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. “

You will not find anywhere that in THIS case I represented myself. Nor did I ever hire or use a disbarred attorney. What did transpire is my first attorney got removed from federal practice (State practice was allowed to my understanding) over what the first judge in this case (Stadmuller (Ph)) called gross incompetence in missing filing dates and the like. As for the NRA they have been invited in and according to my current attorneys have accepted. They are not alone in this as other organizations are helping out as well, to include the second amendment sisters, the GOA, LEAA, and JPFO.

• “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 jurisdictional challenges of interstate commerce were not issued in this case at any point.

• “The kid he lent the AR to made a sworn statement that Olofson 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. “

While that could be inferred it is untrue. Check the affidavits I posted, they tell a much more detailed story. Also I don’t believe this weapon would take a DIAS, but having never tried it can’t say for sure; maybe Len Savage got a good enough look at it to make that determination.

• “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?“

You wouldn’t. I didn’t either.

• “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. “

If you review trial transcripts you will find they were made that way. For ease of reference I’ll post some of the transcripts here.
Testimony of ATF Agent Max Kingery:
Q. In your training and experience as an expert on AR-15 weapons, you’re aware, of course, that many AR-15 weapons, especially those manufactured in the ’80s, were manufactured with some M-16 internal parts?
A. I’m aware that some were, yes.
Q. Did you ever contact SGW/Olympic Arms about this particular rifle?
A. No, sir, I did not.
Q. Are you aware that SGW has recalled this particular rifle?
A. No, sir.
RECROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR. FAHL:
Q. Now, going to Mr. Haanstad’s questions about firing three rounds and jamming. Why would somebody design a gun to fire three rounds and then jam, have to eject the bolt, start all over, fire three rounds, jam, and do that?
A. They would not do so, sir.
Questioning of Len Savage:
Q. And which fire control components would be used generally when manufacturing this type of rifle?
A. When that particular firearm was manufactured in the serial number range?
Q. Yes.
A. They would have used an M-16 trigger, disconnector, hammer. Sometimes a selector, sometimes not.
Q. And when you did your visual inspection what did that reveal?
A.That it was standard for the firearm that was built in that era. It also revealed that it had an AR-15 bolt carrier, not an M-16 bolt carrier.

• “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. “

I myself did not say they did. But I find there are some interesting coincidences.

“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. “

I believe A was already addressed, as for b I couldn’t agree more.

“We have to choose our battles carefully, and this isn’t a case I’d want to use to challenge ATF.” I for one plan on pursuing this to the ends of the earth, and not just for my own benefit. If you continue to let evil go on its merry way what reason do you ever give it to change? Your personal opinion of me aside; do you really think we can afford to let a ruling that makes all guns MG’s in the eyes of the law stand?

Hope this clears up your misconceptions of the case. Please read the postings on arfcom for details and follow my posts to avoid the hearsay.