BATFE Fails the Test
Copyright 2004 JPFO
http://www.jpfo.org/batfevideo.htm $17.76 DVD or VHS
Contents [with my comments]
* Firearms Test - [slightly over 1/2 hour of video of an Agent from the
BATFE firing Glover's FN-FAL in Charlotte, NC. The rifle is fired
twelve times; twice it "string fired" the 3 rounds which were loaded -
i.e. fired all 3 with only one trigger pull. Also the rifle was leaving
light firing pin impacts on the 2'nd round's primer even when it shot
only one round with the one trigger pull.
Then there is about 1/2 hour filmed indoors showing stripping down the
action of this rifle by Len Savage, of Historic Arms, and a few people
he is working with. This is *very* interesting.
They take apart the rifle. The agent points out a part which appears
to have a bit of metal ground or worn off, and which he says makes this
into a machine gun - but that, in any event, the rifle fired more than
one round with one pull of the trigger (it did do that sometimes) and
therefore is a machine gun.
The defense team takes apart the action of the rifle and shows that
the firing pin spring is compressed and worn/broken - so it is shorter
than it should be and would let the firing pin "float". Also the firing
pin is defective. Savage points these out as a cause which makes the
gun "malfunction" - and states that a malfunction does not make the gun
an NFA machinegun - that it has to be design/redesign or
manufacture/remanufacture. The agent says that he just found the
behavior and the rest is left to the lawyers. Savage also points out
that the worn part mentioned by the agent can't affect firing - making
the agent look relatively ignorant of the internals of the FN-FAL.]
* Points of Interest - goes directly to the most interesting points of
the Firearms Test.
* Test From Second Camera Angle - the same test recorded from a 2nd
camera angle.
There also is a 2 page printed doc - 4 sides - giving:
Len Savage's "Report of Technical Examination" (2 pages)
A copy of the BATF Receipt for seizing 7 rifles from Glover (1 page)
An order form for JPFO material. (1 page)
Discussion
I watched the DVD - it is very straight forward - you see what
happened. This was after Glover's rifles had been confiscated and
charges had been brought against him (U.S. v GLOVER). He retained legal
counsel (which eventually cost him about $30K) and finally the charges
were dropped - probably because of the filmed results shown on this DVD.
Then you can start thinking about it. Thinking scary thoughts.
Who in the federal government has the responsibility to avoid starting
on ill-founded criminal prosecutions? The NFA violation(s) charged
against Glover were big-time felonies!
The BATF(E) agent fired the gun and reported on what happened - there
is no dispute that he reported accurately. (However, he reports using
Federal ammunition - which is considered to have the softest primers
available - hence the most likely to respond to a malfunction by string
firing.) He also admits, on camera, that he didn't tear down the action,
and hence didn't get at the root cause of the erratic string firing.
Why is this important? Because that means he didn't differentiate
between the crime of manufacturing/remanufacturing/posessing a
"machinegun", and a non-criminal malfunction.
The agent said that's for lawyers to argue, he just fired the gun and
had it act (sometimes) as a machinegun - and that's in his report. But
he did *not* report on the cause. I found that aspect depressing -
although perhaps that is what the agent is supposed to do. Still he
didn't seem to be at all interested in the malfunction-aspect, and
seemed defensive on that point.
But AFAIK, the agent didn't bring the charges. (As in ordinary police
work, the police write up a report, then the prosecutor studies that,
perhaps orders more work be done, and makes the decision whether or not
to bring charges.) In this case, the "more work" should have included
inspection for malfunction.
So, if this is similar to police work, there should have been "more
work" plus an evaluation of whether or not to bring charges. This,
IMHO, should also have included some expertise to determine whether the
alleged "modification" was relevant to the charges. It appears that
none of this "more work" and expert judgement was brought to bear - just
a knee-jerk reaction to the results of a test which could easily result
from a malfunction. (The string firing noted was with civilian ammo -
none was seen with the military surplus ammunition used - and military
primers are considered to be the hardest.)
The BATFE has a reputation of trying to make guns string fire - not
only using the softest primers commercially available, but also
fastening guns down in such a manner as to facilitate string fireing -
and then calling the gun a "machinegun".
I wonder what it will take to get the BATFE to take a fair, proper and
scientific approach?
Conclusion
I highly recommend this video - but only if you are interested in the
technology and have the patience to watch all that detail.
More reading
The JPFO site given above also links to 3 articles. I recommend the
Shotgun News one: BATFE FAILS THE TEST! By The Liberty Crew
Also search the JPFO site for Glover. (If you search the Internet,
you'll need to include Savage and (BATF OR BATFE) or you'll get lots
of false hits from Danny Glover movies, etc.) There is a lot of
material about this case that you can find on the Internet.
--henry schaffer
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