VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) – The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is investigating congressional candidate Karen Mallard after she posted a video on Facebook that shows her cutting apart an AR-15 rifle.
The school teacher and Democrat is running for Virginia's 2nd Congressional District, hoping to oust Republican Congressman Scott Taylor. In the video, as Mallard introduces herself, she says, "I grew up in Wise County, surrounded by guns. Our family had guns my whole life. We use them for hunting, for protection, and recreation."
She goes on to explain that she wasn't happy when her husband bought the AR-15 "a while back." Mallard adds that after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on February 14, and the renewed outcries for stricter gun control that followed, she and her husband agreed they didn't want the AR-15 in their home.
The couple later decided they didn't want it it anyone else's house, either.
"So, today, we're going to destroy it," states Mallard before taking a handheld power saw to it. In a matter of hours, the video drew hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments.
Many of those comments were negative. Some people accused Mallard of political grandstanding.
Several others said Mallard broke federal law by taking a legal firearm and altering it, making it into an illegal one. Many of them referred to details contained within the Sawed-Off Shotgun and Sawed-Off Rifle Act which, in part, prohibits people (except for those permitted by the act) from having a rifle that has been "modified to an overall length of less than 26 inches."
13newsnow.com/article/news/local/mycity/virginia-beach/atf-investigating-after-congressional-candidate-cut-apart-ar-15/291-526898428
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