Posted on 02/08/2020 10:09:01 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
(CNN) - In his 23 years with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Dan O'Kelly was one of the agency's top gun experts.
He served for five years as the lead firearms technology instructor at the ATF National Academy, where he co-wrote the curriculum for incoming agents.
These days, however, O'Kelly is using his formidable firearms expertise and institutional knowledge of the ATF to take aim at his former employer.
He's at the center of a brewing legal dispute that federal prosecutors say has the potential to upend the 1968 Gun Control Act and "seriously undermine the ATF's ability to trace and regulate firearms nationwide."
As O'Kelly sees it, the ATF has been deliberately misinterpreting a key gun control regulation for decades because officials fear that following the letter of the law would allow criminals to build AR-15s and other firearms piece by piece with unregulated parts.
He said he voiced his concerns to an ATF official two decades ago, but was rebuffed.
Now, however, his view is gaining traction in courtrooms around the country.
In December, a federal judge in Ohio dismissed weapons-related charges against two men after O'Kelly testified that the AR-15 part at issue in their case was not subject to federal law or regulation.
US District Court Judge James G. Carr for the Northern District of Ohio called the ATF's long-standing interpretation of the regulation "unreasonable and legally unacceptable."
ATF said in a statement to CNN that it was reviewing that case and others involving the issue and would have no further comment until that review is complete. The agency declined to discuss O'Kelly's testimony as an expert witness.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Google up “ATF Institutional Perjury” sometime. They’ve been doing it for decades.
L
shall not be infringed
Criminals will always be able to get guns.
The American “war on drugs” is in its 111th year. Law enforcement is being beat in every town and city I could name.
The Chinese are happy to make things for money.
"Law Enforcement" has grown and prospered with the War on Some Drugs...
The NRA should offer gun making workshops for leftist legislators so the leftists understand that “gun control” is as impossible as me flying to Richmond, Virgina by beating my arms furiously.
And,of course,any such laws passed by Congress would be subject to Constitutional scrutiny by the Federal courts as are all other laws passed by Congress.
The state I live in is bordered by two states that basically have no laws restricting firearm purchase or possession yet in my state you have to know a politician or a police chief to even possess a stun gun,let alone a firearm.
The issue is:
............
“Unfinished receivers”, also called “80 percent receivers” or “blanks”, which are partially completed receivers with no serial numbers.
...........
Purchasers must perform their own finishing work in order to make the receiver usable.
................
The finishing of receivers for sale or distribution by unlicensed persons is against US law.
............
Because an unfinished 80% receiver is not a firearm, purchasers do not need to pass a background check.
.............
There are several businesses that will sell you an 80% receiver and all the drill bits and milling tools to make it a full automatic.
...............
However, once you make a “machine gun” you are subject to Federal licensing laws even if you don’t sell it.
I find this news surprising - not the fact that ATF is violating the law but that one of their (former) agents continues to testify on the side of truth. That’s a better percentage than I expect from BATFE.
There has not been a “war on drugs”.
If there had been one, the borders and the coasts would have been secured at the onset.
It’s an industry especially with local asset and cash confiscation laws
It’s their money
They get all sorts of fun stuff taking your money
People here think the government can’t find folks to go door to door on guns
Oh yes they can....same sorts who love suiting up for drugs will come for guns
Those guys sitting in the median on rural interstates in black SUVS looking for cash
Tell them is they find a firearms they can confiscate the vehicle
Or the house....
You can always find lackeys
Dump GCA 68 and NFA 34. Get back to the guarantee as written and quit guessing what the founders thought.
Under the US Code of Federal Regulations, a firearm frame or receiver is defined as: “That part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock, and firing mechanism, and which is usually threaded at its forward portion to receive the barrel.”
A quick review of the AR-15 lower:
-houses the hammer [check]
-houses the bolt [nope]
-houses the breachblock - i.e. closes the chamber [nope]
-houses the firing mechanism - firing pin [nope]
“However, once you make a “machine gun” you are subject to Federal licensing laws even if you don’t sell it.”
Not entirely true. One Circuit court found that if it never enters interstate commerce it’s perfectly legal. The ATF never appealed the ruling because they knew they’d lose.
4th if I remember right.
L
The idiots at CNN completely miss the significance this sentence.
Innumerable people have been arrested and had their lives ruined for not breaking the law because the ATF determined that's what should be.
All the baloney about evil criminals, making innumerable numbers of AR-15s to terrorize the general population is complete hogwash.
Even in some bizarre Universe if that were true, The ATF is not protecting anyone by putting citizens who have not broken the law into jail. The ATF is in violation of the law not the people. The policymakers at the ATF should be in jail. This is a rogue government agency that decides who should be free who should be arrested based on their own criteria and the hell with the law. This is despotism in its purest sense.
Still looking for the part of the 2nd amendment that says:
“A bureau will be formed to see the proper distribution of firearms is carried out or regulated as needed.” Crickets!
“There has not been a “war on drugs”. If there had been one, the borders and the coasts would have been secured at the onset.”
Yep. It’s been a LEO jobs program.
Nope:
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/guide/atf-national-firearms-act-handbook-atf-p-53208/download
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.