Firearm malfunctions-go directly to jail

[BlaqueKatt]

story here from CNN

a 16 year army veteran from Berlin WI, is facing federal prison time and is now a convicted felon due to a semi-auto AR-15 misfiring and shooting 3 rounds with one pull of the trigger. The ATF radied his home, seized his firearms(all were deemed legal, and not returned-due to his new found felon status), computers and firearms manuals.

Seriously I think this is a major over reaction-as the commentator says, it's a malfunction, not a criminal act-get it fixed, don't send him to prison.

[Fire_on_High]

I'm Pro 2A, very much so, but you're not getting the whole story. He knew the gun was damaged and would fire bursts, pointed the fact out to someone else in a wink-wink nudge-nudge sort of way, "don't play with this here switch in this here way, mmk?" and then loaned them the weapon which "misfired" at a range.

This isn't your typical bump-fire case. The guy knew and hadn't had it fixed.

IMO it *should* be legal, but the fact of the matter is it currently isn't and he knew he had a gun in violation of the law, but instead of getting it repaired or even putting it safely up for the time being, he showed it off.