Reply #17: Bad writing from the Burns, Oregon Times-Herald [View All]

[slackmaster]

An upbeat story but flawed because of inappropriate nomenclature.

David Bartlemay makes assault rifle for Senior Project

Obtaining permission to build a semi-automatic assault rifle as his senior project at Burns High School (BHS) marks David Bartlemay as someone who can think outside the normal scheme of things and tackle difficult scenarios — someone not exactly average....

...It was not simply put together from a kit, but studied and designed and constructed piece by piece, Bartlemay said, so that he would have intimate knowledge of every bit of his weapon.

He purchased parts and built the gun to his own design....

slackmaster has a couple of comments:

Here is the large version of the illustration from the article:



Note that the rifle has no bayonet lug and a non-threaded muzzle (Kind of looks like an AKM-type post-ban brake which we may assume is soldered in place). This is not an assault rifle and not even an assault weapon under federal law, rather a perfectly legal post-ban AR-15 type rifle. Oregon has no legal definition for either term; assault rifle has no federal legal definition but generally refers to selective-fire weapons like the military M16.

No legal permission, permits, etc. are required to build a post-ban AR-15 in Oregon. Anyone who can legally possess a firearm can build one for personal use. Mr. Bartlemay needed permission only from school officials.

I've built a few AR-15 rifles myself, and for the benefit of people unfamiliar with the weapon it's probably the easiest rifle one can build up from parts. Every piece except a finished lower receiver can be bought by mail-order, and many different styles and configurations are available.

For full copyrighted article please see http://www.burnstimesherald.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=3036