- David Olofson
-
David Olofson is an honorably discharged U.S. Army veteran who was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison by the U.S. Government on the charge of "transferring an unregistered machine gun" after he lent his 20-year old semi automatic Olympic Arms AR-15 style rifle to a friend, Robert Kiernicki. At the time of manufacture, this model of rifle was legally manufactured with a few M16 fire control parts because these parts by themselves will not cause automatic fire. Olofson's rifle malfunctioned at a shooting range called "The Conservation Club" as a result of the hammer not properly resetting and instead following the bolt forward, emitting multiple rounds and immediately jamming three times in a row. "Hammer follow" is a dangerous and unpredictable malfunction that can happen to semi automatic firearms when a part is worn (or excessively lubricated.) The quick multiple rounds aroused suspicion in someone at the range that the rifle was possibly an automatic weapon, which are not allowed at many public ranges. Police were called and later that day the rifle was confiscated from Robert Kiernicki at his home.[1][2] Six days after the range incident and confiscation of the malfunctioning firearm, a Green Lake county sheriff's "SWAT" team, in concert with the Berlin police department, and agents from the BATFE (20 officers in all) were sent to David Olofson's home to conduct a "dynamic entry" and arrest him, despite the lack of any violent or evasive behavior on Mr. Olofson's part.
Kiernicki testified that Olofson had told Kiernicki that the third position of the rifle's firing selector 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.[3] According to Len Savage, a weaponry expert who runs Historic Arms LLC, BATFE paid Kiernicki an undisclosed amount of money for his testimony.[4]
David Olofson began serving the 30-month sentence at the federal penitentiary at Sandstone Minnesota in July 2008. All federal courts up to the U.S. supreme court have since denied David Olofson's appeals.
Definition of "machine gun"
The prosecution advanced an argument, one that it consistently made throughout the trial, that: “a machine gun is any weapon that shoots more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of the trigger.” whether Olofson’s AR-15 shot more than one shot at the single pull of the trigger as a result of a “hammer follow” malfunction “makes no difference under the statute: If you pull the trigger of a firearm once and it fires more than one round, no matter what the cause, it’s a machine gun.”[5]
Olofson requested the court include the definition of “automatically” set forth in Staples v. United States: “that once the trigger is depressed the weapon will automatically continue to fire until its trigger is released or the ammunition is exhausted.” Refusing Olofson’s request, the trial court omitted the Staples definition, instructing the jury in the language of the statute that: “a machine gun is any weapon that shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single pull of the trigger.”[5]
References
- ^ Dobbs, Lou (2008-03-09). "Gun Rights Under Fire". CNN. http://loudobbs.tv.cnn.com/2008/05/09/gun-owner-convicted-for-malfunction/.
- ^ Knox, Jeff (2008-02-02). "The Accidental Felon". The Firearms Coalition. http://www.firearmscoalition.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=192&Itemid=37.
- ^ Diedrich, John (2008-05-13). "Automatic gun transfer nets prison sentence". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=750464.
- ^ "Owner of broken rifle surrenders for 30-month sentence". World Net Daily. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68590.
- ^ a b www.gunowners.com/Olofson-Petition-for-Certiorari.pdf
External links
Categories:- American military personnel
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
