In all fairness, if automatics are illegal, this accelerator should too.
I’m just amazed that neither side did their job in the initial testing procedures. I presume that both knew it was supposed to be similar to a machine gun, but when it didn’t operate properly, they didn’t double-check with another copy.
So why should we ask the government to exercise our God-given rights?
In all fairness, if automatics are illegal, this accelerator should too.
The problem is that according to the law they are legal, and this guy put 10 years and everything he had into making it based on that law. Just the phrase "by a single function of the trigger" makes the law not apply to this device, since the trigger has to function for each shot.
Then the ATF, as usual, goes out and makes its own law. And we thought activist judges were bad.
They knew exactly what it was.
It's kind of obvious from it's total lack of comment that this device applied to other rifles (which it mentions in the article is where they were going with it) would have destroyed most of the Class III market, the value of the obscenely overpriced firearms in that market, relegating the entire stock of transferable select fire weapons to dusty museum pieces and ended most of the reason for ATF to exist.
Somebody put two and two together and figured out the Adkins device would effectively put ATF out of the firearms business. That would leave them with pretty much nothing but a one question call center and chasing cigarette smugglers away from Indian Reservations.
Pay close attention to how the law defines "machinegun:"
"more than one shot... by a single function of the trigger."
This device clearly pulls the trigger once per shot.
Seems pretty clear.
But the guy is right, his device doesn't meet the description of the banned weapons. This is the old ploy of enforcing what the left thinks the law SHOULD HAVE SAID rather than what it says.
In all fairness, the ATF originally said this was okay. The guy went ahead based on lawyers, ATF decisions, and research to go ahead with this.
It is BS to change the rules in the middle of the game. They set this guy up. It’s their fault, not his.
I’m amazed that you are amazed. This device conforms to the exact specifications of the law (a single shot with one pull of the trigger). This device requires that the trigger reset after each shot compared with a full auto weapon which only requires one pull of the trigger for multiple shots.
Using your reasoning, the Colt Single Action Army should also be deemed a machine gun because some shooters han cycle it at over 600 rpm.
The rifles are only semi-automatic and require a pull of the trigger for each shot fired. This device does not change this. It only allowed the stock to act as a cradle to allow the action to slide back from the recoil and then to bounce back forward until the trigger hits your finger again thus firing another round. Under this ruling, the ATF can call any semi-auto a machine gun in that you can rapid fire by repeatedly pulling the trigger or by “bump-firing” which is nothing more than holding it loosly to allow the gun to bounce to the rear and then back to the front. This guy consulted with the ATF up front and received a letter stating that the rifle was still only semi-auto and that it was legal since only one round was fired for each activation of the trigger. They changed the rules after the fact and should have to reimberse him for his loss.