Gun Owners Of America Agrees To Handle Olofson Appeal

GOA has long been critical of the abuses of power and lack of due process characterizing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Efforts to reform the agency have never gotten this rogue agency to conform to the rule of law.

David Olofson was convicted in January of owning an unregistered firearm, when in reality, his AR-15 was nothing more than a legal, semi-automatic firearm (that is, each pull of the trigger results in only one bullet getting fired). The BATFE determined his gun was a machine gun, however, because it malfunctioned — firing two multiple round bursts before it jammed.

The conviction of David Olofson is a gross miscarriage of justice. A gun that malfunctions is not a machine gun. What the BATFE has done in the Olofson case has set a precedent that could make any of the millions of Americans that own semi-automatic firearms suddenly the owner an unregistered machine gun at the moment the gun malfunctions.

The Olofson case is a horrible example of the Bureau’s outcome-based science that was so typical of the FBI lab that came to light, thanks to whistleblower Dr. Frederick Whitehurst.

GOA is pleased that its legal team at the William Olson law firm has been supplemented in the Olofson case by Bob Sanders. Sanders has a distinguished career stretching from Director of Enforcement at the Bureau to many years of private trial law representing victims of BATFE lawlessness.

Herb Titus is a distinguished member of the Olson law firm. Titus, the founder of two law schools, has a long career in constitutional and appellate law.

While David Olofson is scheduled to begin his sentence this week, the Olson law firm will be appealing the District Court’s decision. The Olson law firm provides counsel in federal and state cases for Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation.