So you concede that the parts can be machined to produce a working .50BMG? So, he is indeed breaking the law, but you believe that he should get off on a technicality -- ie., depending on the definition of "easily converted".
Now, you say this conversion is complicated and would take some time, thereby negating the "easily converted" criteria of the law. Well, first of all, the district court found that the affidavit, which contained Stewart’s own statements about how easily his kits could be converted, still supported a finding of probable cause. Let me guess, Stewart was lying.
Second, if this went to court, maybe the judge would have found that it wasn't so easy. But Stewart was never charged with selling these kits. This was never going to court. This is a non-issue!
Any large enough piece of steel can be machined to make anything made out of steel.
The parts he sells can be so machined.
Easily converted is not a technicality. It is the substance of the law.
Lets get this right. The fully automatic M-16 rifles have different size pins that hold the automatic capable sear. This is done so that 1. you can tell right away from the outside if it is automatic, and 2. so that automatic sears do not fit into the semiautomatic AR-15 and clones.
The ATF had a special AR-15 made up that was fully automatic, but had the semiautomatic pins. The very existance of that rifle was illegal. They took it to Stewart, and claimed, falsely, that it had a problem. From the outside it looked like a semiautomatic AR 15. When he accepted it, to work on it, they arrested him.
The ATF brought an illegal machine gun to Stewart. Then they charged him for posessing an illegal machinegun. That made him a felon.
Then they tested his kits, using the standard of "can it fire a primer?" to assert that he was a felon in posession of kits. Heck, a nail and a hammer can fire primers. Heck of a standard there.
Then the used that prosecution to go through locked storage in his home/office, that he had not sold. For what it is worth, it is a lot easier to make a fully automatic rifle than a semiautomatic rifle. These one of a kind prototypes would have been offered to the US government for sale (the largest purchaser of machineguns in the hemisphere) but needed to be developed to have a reliable and compliant semiautomatic capability. Until they were legal, they were not for sale, and were not in commerce of any kind.
This doesn't bother you? I guess you would have arrested John Browning too.
The reason I am so passionate on this issue, is because, but for the grace of G-d, there go I.
I have patented 6,079,138 folded delayed blowback operating system for automatic hand held weaponry. This lets you have a 7.62mm rifle with 24 inch barrel in a 28 inch rifle. No piston to foul. No gas tube to clog.
Because of this case, I am developing a PUMP ACTION rifle to get the semiautomatic sear and automatic sear. This doubles my work to produce a functioning rifle. It is worth it to stay out of jail, but while this work around goes on, our soldiers in Iraq still are plagues with jammed rifles, and choose between short barrels with less lethality, or rifles with longer barrels and greater lethality but slower into action.
Soldiers get shot when they can't get their rifle into action quickly. Soldiers get shot when their rounds are less lethal.