From the open letter, images of what the ATF claims are now "firearms" under the law.
Posted on 10/03/2022 5:43:16 AM PDT by marktwain
On September 27, 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued an open letter to all Federal Firearms Licensees. The letter is available online.
The letter is seven pages long and includes several images. The purpose of the letter is explained in the first paragraph. From the atf.gov:
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is issuing this open letter to further assist the firearms industry and the public in understanding whether a “partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional” receiver of an AR-15/M-16 variant weapon has reached a stage of manufacture such that it “may readily be completed, assembled, restored, or otherwise converted” to a functional receiver, and is therefore classified as a “frame or receiver” or “firearm” in accordance with the final rule titled “Definition of ‘Frame or Receiver’ and Identification of Firearms (Final Rule 2021R-05F), which became effective August 24, 2022. In particular, the following addresses items that are clearly identifiable as an unfinished component part of a weapon—specifically, partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional AR-type receivers (also known as receiver ‘billets’ or ‘blanks’).
The “Final Rule” is being contested in the courts. In North Dakota, Judge Peter D. Welte accepted the ATF definition of a firearm in the Final Rule, at least in his refusal to issue a temporary injunction against the implementation of the rule. The rule might still be found to be unlawful in the court case.
In the Northern District of Texas, Judge Reed O’Conner found the ATF exceeded its authority, and issued a limited injunction against implementation of the rule. From the opinion:
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
From the open letter, images of what the ATF claims are now "firearms" under the law.
If it can be “readily converted into a something”, then it certainly isn’t that something right now.
Firearms....
He correctly points out that elsewhere, in reference to machine guns, the Congress has clearly identified certain parts as subject to NFA regulation, so Congress knows the difference.
The rule is facially unconstitutional and unlawful.
Sell that with a jig or a g-code file and you're now a felon.
Sell an aluminum billet in the shape of a triangle, with a jig and we can cut our own L shaped object...
That is an outstanding response.
This brings to mind the analogues argument of when a human fetus can be called a human being. In this ATF’s way of thinking, it is obvious they want control so they fudge and call unassembled parts a firearm. Using that analogy, does that make a car tire, which is necessary for a car to function properly, a car? Of course it doesn’t. If the courts agree with the ATF on this BS, this country is heading for some very dark times.
Right? On that basis every semi-automatic is fully automatic in the prior state.
Asinine.
I like that. If it takes more than 15 weeks to assemble, it's a firearm.
Very Dark Times.
Yup
But there Is a God.
This is some of the most outrageous over reach that any agency of the federal government has attempted.
I know it sounds naive, but this administration's willingness to transgress legal restraints that reach back to the founding is shocking.
From misdemeanor defendants languishing in solitary confinement in DC jails, to the FBI ignoring the "stochastic viololence" of their street armies buring pregnancy centers, and now creating the thought crime, wherein possession of some INSTRUCTIONS or common tools turns a lump of metal or plastic into a heavily-regulated firearm shocks the concience. What obedience is owed to a government that is so wildly out of control?
This does not end well.
Well, that looks like a serial number on a couple of them.
That's how ridiculous it is.
But your points are well taken. Something is going to break at some point.
1) BATF needs to be abolished.
2) Even so ... selling the jig and tool kit separately from the 80% receiver would seem to be not selling a firearm.
The rule states selling the jig and instructions separately from the unfinished “receiver”, to the same person, is committing “conspiracy” to violate the law.
That sucks.
Refer back to (1) above.
“Pursuant to Final Rule 2021R-05F, partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional frames or receivers that are sold, distributed, possessed with such items (or made available by the seller or distributor to the same person) may change the analysis, including those distributed as frame or receiver parts kits. 27 CFR 478.12(c). “
I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think that the BATFE has intended to create the need for itself to prove a conspiracy. They’re claiming that providing the tools to the same person, abeit at a different time is a direct violation of the regulations.
This cannot be allowed to stand.
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