Wisconsin man gets 30 months over transfer of gun

[JoshieDoom]

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, Wis., 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.

"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."

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.

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.

Olofson, a stay-at-home father of three, made no statement in court and left without speaking to reporters.

Prosectors argued it is a straightforward case of someone knowing a gun fired automatically and giving it to someone else.

In July 2006, Olofson lent an Olympic Arms AR-15 rifle to Robert Kiernicki, who took it to a shooting range in Berlin, according to court documents. Kiernicki was responding to an ad posted by Olofson to sell an AR-15.

AR-15s are semiautomatic rifles that fire a bullet each time the trigger is pulled. Federal law classifies a weapon that fires more than one bullet with a single trigger pull as a machine gun.

People can legally own fully automatic, military-type M-16 rifles, but they must have a federal license and cannot transfer it to someone else.

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. The automatic gunfire was reported to police, who contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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.

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.

Clevert said the key was not what parts were in the weapon but whether it operated in automatic mode. He played a video used at trial showing ATF agents firing Olofson's weapon in automatic mode. He also noted that in one ATF test, the rifle didn't fire automatically when military-grade ammunition was used.

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.

Olofson's order to report to prison will take several weeks. In the meantime, Fahl said he would rush an appeal to stay the sentence to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.



You know what joshiedoom has to say about that??!?!?!?!


http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoID=22061551

[CamaroDMD]

He deserves to go to jail if he illegally built an AR-15 that could fire in full auto mode. Its guys like this who make gun owners (like me) look bad.

[JoshieDoom]

They did the tests on the rifle and it didnt have an auto sear and it jammed every time it was fired.. the whole case is a mess

[ztrouble]

i read over alot of this stuff last night and it seems that the ATF's case had a whole slew of holes in it.

[Mike Hawk]

why would it matter if the guy carried a concealed weapon with his children while they were trick or treating? i guess he didnt have the license or something

[Bigrus]

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.


This is why. They knew what he was doing but he is hiding behind the "I let a friend borrow it" BS.

[91Z28]

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.


This is why. They knew what he was doing but he is hiding behind the "I let a friend borrow it" BS.

You obviously know little about this case or the firearm in question just like the prosecutors. The "M16" parts consist of the bolt carrier assembly and are standard in many manufactuers AR15s, notably Colt. Having an M16 bolt carrier does not a machine gun make. If you follow the case you'll see that when the ATF test fired the weapon the first time they could not reproduce the malfunction, so sent it to get retested with a different ammo that used non mil spec (.223 Remington vs 5.56mm NATO) ammunition with a softer primer. AR15s have floating firing pins and this is evident if you ever chamber a round and then eject it. More than likely you'll see a small dimple in the primer. Because of this, military 5.56 ammunition use primers with a very hard cup. It is not unusual for an AR15 (especially an old one) to slamfire with soft primers. This is such a stupid case, how cany anyone honestly believe this guy tried to convert this gun to full auto? He did not have an M16 fire control group nor did he even drill the lower receiver to accept an auto sear. Without an auto sear you will not have a real select fire weapon, period. If he had a book showing how to make a real M16 from an AR15 you think he might have put the parts that mattered in the gun, like the auto sear and the FCG. The gun didn't even fire full auto, it would occasionally double and triple and then jam. Machine gun my ass, this is just more evidence of how out of control the ATF really is. Here is the full story on this case:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=6&t=507483

[91Z28]

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, Wis., 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.

"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."

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.

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.

Olofson, a stay-at-home father of three, made no statement in court and left without speaking to reporters.

Prosectors argued it is a straightforward case of someone knowing a gun fired automatically and giving it to someone else.

In July 2006, Olofson lent an Olympic Arms AR-15 rifle to Robert Kiernicki, who took it to a shooting range in Berlin, according to court documents. Kiernicki was responding to an ad posted by Olofson to sell an AR-15.

AR-15s are semiautomatic rifles that fire a bullet each time the trigger is pulled. Federal law classifies a weapon that fires more than one bullet with a single trigger pull as a machine gun.

People can legally own fully automatic, military-type M-16 rifles, but they must have a federal license and cannot transfer it to someone else.

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. The automatic gunfire was reported to police, who contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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.

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.

Clevert said the key was not what parts were in the weapon but whether it operated in automatic mode. He played a video used at trial showing ATF agents firing Olofson's weapon in automatic mode. He also noted that in one ATF test, the rifle didn't fire automatically when military-grade ammunition was used.

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.

Olofson's order to report to prison will take several weeks. In the meantime, Fahl said he would rush an appeal to stay the sentence to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.



You know what joshiedoom has to say about that??!?!?!?!


http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoID=22061551

This article isn't even correct. You don't need a "federal license" to own NFA Title II weapons. You need a tax stamp so your weapon is in their NFA database. I've done the process more than a few times with sound suppressors.

[CaptainCaveMan]

You obviously know little about this case or the firearm in question just like the prosecutors. The "M16" parts consist of the bolt carrier assembly and are standard in many manufactuers AR15s, notably Colt. Having an M16 bolt carrier does not a machine gun make. If you follow the case you'll see that when the ATF test fired the weapon the first time they could not reproduce the malfunction, so sent it to get retested with a different ammo that used non mil spec (.223 Remington vs 5.56mm NATO) ammunition with a softer primer. AR15s have floating firing pins and this is evident if you ever chamber a round and then eject it. More than likely you'll see a small dimple in the primer. Because of this, military 5.56 ammunition use primers with a very hard cup. It is not unusual for an AR15 (especially an old one) to slamfire with soft primers. This is such a stupid case, how cany anyone honestly believe this guy tried to convert this gun to full auto? He did not have an M16 fire control group nor did he even drill the lower receiver to accept an auto sear. Without an auto sear you will not have a real select fire weapon, period. If he had a book showing how to make a real M16 from an AR15 you think he might have put the parts that mattered in the gun, like the auto sear and the FCG. The gun didn't even fire full auto, it would occasionally double and triple and then jam. Machine gun my ass, this is just more evidence of how out of control the ATF really is. Here is the full story on this case:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=6&t=507483

You the man.

[91Z28]

Here is a good visual on M16 vs AR15 parts:

http://www.ar15.com/content/legal/AR15-M16Parts/

An M16 bolt carrier in an AR15 is 100% legal (like I said, they come in many AR15s) and in no way can make a weapon fire more than one round at a time. The only difference is that with the M16 carrier is that it will work with a full auto lower, whereas a standard AR15 carrier will not. I have an M16 carrier in all of my AR15s.

People have written to the BATFE asking their position on the M16 carrier debate and been given the ok:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.htm...147440&page=12

[02cetransam]

he got off easy.

[Bigrus]

You obviously know little about this case or the firearm in question just like the prosecutors. The "M16" parts consist of the bolt carrier assembly and are standard in many manufactuers AR15s, notably Colt. Having an M16 bolt carrier does not a machine gun make. If you follow the case you'll see that when the ATF test fired the weapon the first time they could not reproduce the malfunction, so sent it to get retested with a different ammo that used non mil spec (.223 Remington vs 5.56mm NATO) ammunition with a softer primer. AR15s have floating firing pins and this is evident if you ever chamber a round and then eject it. More than likely you'll see a small dimple in the primer. Because of this, military 5.56 ammunition use primers with a very hard cup. It is not unusual for an AR15 (especially an old one) to slamfire with soft primers. This is such a stupid case, how cany anyone honestly believe this guy tried to convert this gun to full auto? He did not have an M16 fire control group nor did he even drill the lower receiver to accept an auto sear. Without an auto sear you will not have a real select fire weapon, period. If he had a book showing how to make a real M16 from an AR15 you think he might have put the parts that mattered in the gun, like the auto sear and the FCG. The gun didn't even fire full auto, it would occasionally double and triple and then jam. Machine gun my ass, this is just more evidence of how out of control the ATF really is. Here is the full story on this case:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=6&t=507483

Did i even mention the machine gun? In the quote it shows why they went after him so hard he had numerous weapons that he "loaned" out to friends and had zero records of. So where are all the missing weapons?


You obviously are thirsty to jump to conclusions keep trying though its funny.



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.


Really did not help him any did it?

[Bigrus]

Oh and for the record i do not care what weapon a person owns i feel its bullshit but the main point im showing is why they went after him so hard.

[JoshieDoom]

Doom

[91Z28]

he got off easy.

No he didn't. He should be a free man.

[91Z28]

Did i even mention the machine gun? In the quote it shows why they went after him so hard he had numerous weapons that he "loaned" out to friends and had zero records of. So where are all the missing weapons?


You obviously are thirsty to jump to conclusions keep trying though its funny.



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.


Really did not help him any did it?

Don't listen to the anti-gun media. The "vigilante" group was hardly that. The media loves to portray militas/minuteman groups as fringe lunatics but that doesn't make it true. Once again your lack of knowledge of the facts in this case show. He had no M16 parts except the bolt carrier which came in his gun from the factory. Follow the 66 page thread on ar15.com that I linked, it follows the case from the start. I don't feel like arguing with someone is getting all of their information from the fucking news.

[91Z28]

[B]



This is why. They knew what he was doing but he is hiding behind the "I let a friend borrow it" BS.

Also, this post sure makes it sound like you were condemning him. If that isn't the case then you're a better man than I thought.

[Bigrus]

Don't listen to the anti-gun media. The "vigilante" group was hardly that. The media loves to portray militas/minuteman groups as fringe lunatics but that doesn't make it true. Once again your lack of knowledge of the facts in this case show. He had no M16 parts except the bolt carrier which came in his gun from the factory. Follow the 66 page thread on ar15.com that I linked, it follows the case from the start. I don't feel like arguing with someone is getting all of their information from the fucking news.

Wow

So you were at the trial? Also you are missing the entire point where are all of his weapons he loaned out at? Lets try numbers.

1.) I doubt any normal person who modified their weapons would face such serious charges.

2..) regardless of how you or anyone else feels about a vigilante group once you start grouping up the govt watches you

3.) He was handing out weapons without keeping records you are ignoring the fact he just gave a stranger a weapon to take out to the range by himself.

4.) This was the opportunity someone who was watching him had to shut him down from whatever he was doing.

That thread is just as full of half truths as the media the real issue came out in court and no one will really know but the people who were there.

[Bigrus]

Also, this post sure makes it sound like you were condemning him. If that isn't the case then you're a better man than I thought.

Im condeming him for giving out his weapons and not keeping proper records. Any responsible gun owner would realize people are full of shit and not covering your ass can haunt you.

[x10-wakerider]

^ Watch this and you will have a different opinion. ^



Part 1



Part 2