A Q&A with retired ATF Senior Special Agent Daniel O’Kelly
By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
Retired ATF Senior Special Agent Daniel O’Kelly has personally examined more than 100,000 firearms and even more ammunition during his 34 years in law enforcement – 10 years as a police officer and detective in northwest Indiana and 24 years with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
O’Kelly is a true firearm expert.
When he became an ATF Special Agent in 1988, he was responsible for investigating arson, bombings, explosives, organized crime and drug trafficking, but the agency soon realized he was capable of far more. O’Kelly was certified as an expert firearm witness in federal court in 1990. Ten year later, he was chosen to serve as ATF’s Resident Agent in Charge of the State of Delaware. He has served as the firearm instructor coordinator of ATF’s Tampa Field Division. He became the chief firearm technology instructor at ATF’s National Academy, where he wrote the firearm technology course for ATF personnel, which is still in use today. He even served undercover and arrested international gun traffickers in Europe and was later was placed in charge of ATF’s undercover training program – back when graduates would target motorcycle gangs.
Today, O’Kelly is director of the International Firearm Specialist Academy located in Grand Island, Florida. His clients include prosecutors and defense attorneys, law enforcement agencies, gun dealers and firearm manufacturers, importers and collectors.
O’Kelly was hired by attorneys who represented Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, but federal prosecutors blocked O’Kelly from testifying on nearly every issue. However, Adamiak’s defense attorneys were able to get him on the stand to stop ATF’s untruths involving MAC flats.
A MAC flat is a pre-cut piece of flat sheet metal, which is designed to be bent in a jig or welded to form the lower receiver of a MAC-style pistol or carbine. But turning a flat piece of metal into a firearm requires welding, bending the metal in a hydraulic press and using jigs and other tooling. O’Kelly was able to prove that the 977 pieces of stamped metal Adamiak had did not legally qualify as firearm receivers.
After lengthy testimony, the judge sided with O’Kelly, and denied the prosecutors’ attempt to penalize Adamiak for the MAC flats prosecutors claimed were machineguns. The additional 10 years prosecutors wanted for the flats were not added to Adamiak’s 20-year sentence, thanks to O’Kelly.
Should Adamiak be in prison?
“No. For the items brought before me, he should not be in prison. His attorney and I were not given accurate information. I had the impression at the time of the trial that the ATF had not accurately identified the items. I had the impression that some could have been ineligible. Since then, I have found out that some weren’t firearms.”
How did this event with the ATF happen?
“That’s easy to answer. The ATF needs numbers to justify its existence. Each agent has to produce cases in order to justify their existence. They’re training is ridiculous. They’re only taught about 60 percent of what they need to know: make, model and serial number. If you get into (National Firearm Act) stuff, the agents have no idea what they’re looking at. They have to bow to the Firearm Enforcement Officer, who are notorious for claiming they’re giving an expert opinion, but they are giving what the ATF said. Back in the day, one FEO would say an AR lower is a firearm, because the company line dictated by a combination of the agency’s attorneys and executive staff. The executive staff was told what it was by administrators, which was extremely anti-gun. Anything they didn’t like they called a firearm. If they could, they’d call it an NFA firearm, which you have to register, like calling them receivers when they didn’t satisfy the definition, calling cut up receivers firearms, calling receivers machineguns. The definition of a firearm frame or receiver has four requirements: It has to have a bolt or breech lock, house a hammer, house the firing mechanism, and has to receive the barrel. None of the items being held against (Adamiak) are NFA receivers, receivers, and they’re not firearms and not machineguns.”
Did the ATF experts commit perjury?
“Any ATF employee who said a PPSh-41 upper was a frame or receiver as defined at the time was trying to mislead the court or didn’t know what they were talking about. (Firearm Enforcement Officer Jeffrey) Bodell testified that all 977 of the MAC flats were machineguns, but that didn’t work out. I could have shown the same thing about all the items I wasn’t allowed to testify about during the trial.”
Have you lost faith in the ATF?
“Of course, my faith in the ATF has diminished for years because of the number of times I have seen FEOs testify about things they knew were not true under oath.”
Why did they do it?
“I wouldn’t propose to be able to speak for them. They’re willing to claim they were doing what they were told to do.”
What should happen to Adamiak?
“Someone should be allowed to show the court in an appeal that all of this evidence did not satisfy – there was not a violation. He should be released, and his conviction should be overturned. Look at Adamiak’s toy Denix STEN. The FEO gets a real STEN barrel and gets it to fire one round. He couldn’t get it to feed from the magazine, but he calls it a machinegun. A toy is not a weapon, but he gets it to fire one round.”
What should happen to the ATF personnel involved in Adamiak’s case?
“The federal prosecutor was shown the law. Any FEO who testifies to something different than that commits a willful falsehood. They are the gun experts of the gun police. They ought to be charged with perjury and jailed, not to mention being fired. This case was the worst.”
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