Posted on 03/09/2018 9:37:03 AM PST by Simon Green
Local media is reporting that a Democrat vying for a seat in Congress has caught the eye of federal regulators over a rifle whose barrel she publicly shortened in a protest.
Police tell area media they now have the AR-15 that Karen Mallard, a candidate for Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, on Wednesday seemingly shortened the barrel on while on Facebook Live. After the event, Mallard turned the gun over to the Virginia Beach Police Department, a spokesman of which said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is “looking into the situation.”
Mallard announced she was destroying her husband’s AR-15 in an act of solidarity with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students in Parkland, Florida, protesting for gun control in the wake of a school shooting that claimed the lives of 17 people. Using a portable saw, she removed the front several inches of the rifle’s barrel and handguard, prefaced and followed with a diatribe on gun violence.
The video, which was first pulled by “a staffer” in Mallard’s campaign and then reposted, has been viewed over 1.4 million times, and drew significant backlash in the form of thousands of comments — most pointing out that the potential lawmaker may have violated federal law regulating the production and possession of short barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act, a felony. Threads referencing the incident on popular gun forums like AR-15.com and others soon crossed over to discussion boards such as Reddit and 4Chan, then became trending. Twitter lit up as did Instagram.
Mallard contends she did nothing wrong. Her campaign website cautioned “(A) few people raised concerns that the AR-15 wasn’t rendered operational and that Karen had merely made it a short-barrel rifle. David later took the disassembled weapon to the local police station to have it properly disposed of.”
In speaking with WTKR, she implied the stunt may have been a bait-and-switch of sorts. “I knew exactly what I was doing. The gun was inoperable before I cut it. And we took it completely apart. And we didn’t put all that on video because I wanted to get the message to the students that I was standing with them,” Mallard said
It’s amazing she survived. Very few people are able to take on an AR-15 like that and come out alive (at least that’s what CNN said).
Those “full semi-automatic” rifles like to shoot up a room just for fun. It probably didn’t feel good to have part of it’s shooting tube cut off and I’d expect it to get revenge on whoever was in the room then go on a rampage through the city - if you think a wounded animal is mean, you should see a wounded AR-15.
Smart of her not to have a high capacity magazine-cartridge-clip-thingy close enough for the AR-15 to reach. It would have overpowered her to get to the high capacity thingamajig with 12 gauge shells of death and load itself. Could have killed 1000 or more people if that had happened.
Absurd. Leave the woman alone. She was making a point, destroying the gun. That is so obvious.
she sounds like a flake but it was her property and she had the right to destroy or mar it if she wished
we really really REALLY need to terminate the entire illegal ATF (at least the F part of it) and transfer those fine federal employees to constitutionally-valid functions of their choice
“May have”?
How about “In Fact committed” because it is on video.
Unless that receiver was damaged in such a manner and to such an extent that even a skilled machinist could not restore it to service, that AR was not "deactivated" in the eyes of the BATFE and Karen Mallard confessed on YouTube to committing TWO felonies, possession of an unregistered NFA and creating an SBR without paying the Class 3 SOT.
Ignorance of the law and/or BATFE regulations on minutia (such as barrel length and how to legally disable a working firearm) has landed people in federal prison before. Why should she get a pass?
While I agree her intentions were obvious she should learn that her “feel good” broadbrush criminalization of millions of legal gun owners has consequences.
And I’ll bet this dimwit still has firearms within her household perhaps even an AR-15.
I think Karen Mallard is setting a good example for all left-wing progressives. They should all get rid of their scary black rifles.
If my wife started cutting up my guns she wouldn’t be my wife much longer.
CC
A cuck duck.
CC
What kind of man lets his wife cut up his guns?
= = =
John Wayne Bobbitt
But he really didn’t LET her.
This moron better have a torch cut, properly cut lower receiver to show the Feds or she is in big trouble for manufacturing an illegal short barrel rifle
Unless you’re HRC, then the FBI Director will exonerate you publicly before the investigation...
Employing the Hillary defense, she didn’t intend to break the law...So she should be OK by this new standard...But don’t any one of us regular folks do the same; then it’s 10 years in the slam...
Sarc...OFF!
It is as if, with the ATF, shortening a gun barrel is much worse than any crime you commit using it.
I read that the designer of the gun Steve McQueen used in his series got into a little trouble with the barrel length of the rifle.
The barrel of a pistol is much shorter. I don’t understand it. (A pistol is still more easily concealed, if that is the problem.)
Where is Lon Horuchi when you need him?
5.56mm
Well - considering that she committed a felony in front of thousands of people via social media...
And she only recanted and said she “complied with ATF regulations” by “turning the gun in to local police” AFTER she was called out for her crime...
None... Or maybe one who wears his wife’s panties and dresses more often than she does...
Retired and living in the Chicago area.
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