If you re-read the article, Roh asked the ATF in writing if his “press the green button” 80% lower finishing parties were legal, they replied with a determination letter that it was not.
I’m not saying it was right or wrong, but it is a fact that the ATF had made a ruling.
What part of that is beyond the scope of the ATF&E’s regulatory authority do YOU fail to grasp? The fact that he got a letter written by some un-named bureaucrat pulling a statement the "pushing a green button to start a machine" is not sufficient to constitute that person making that receiver, IS NOT A "RULING." It cannot be. The authority of the ATF does not include telling people what tools and techniques they may apply to effect the manufacture of a firearm. I am certain Roh’s attorney told him the same thing my in-house attorney just told me, affirming my original conclusion. A "ruling" requires a decision by a judge, either a DOJ judge, or an administrative law judge, not some clerk in the ATF office pulling his personal opinions out of his ass and telling an earnest citizen making an honest inquiry, something he just made up.
This is a serious area of debate due to the existence of 3D printers where all you have to do to make a gun receiver is download a file and load it in your computer, run it, and press the enter button. Courts have ruled that is perfectly legal.
There is very little difference between making a 3D printed receiver and finishing one in a computer controlled milling machine, In fact there is MORE personal manufacturing work involved in machining that 80% lower in a CCMM than in 3D printing because Roh had his customers carefully mount the 80% lower into the machine in a machining jig, check the alignment, and then tighten the clamping screws to the proper tension before starting; with a 3D Printer, your only concern is making certain that you’re using the proper raw materials, either the right kind of plastic, or if it’s a metal printer, the right alloy.
So, you see, the ATF&E bureaucrat’s letter was mischaracterizing the actual law and even their own regulations, making it up ad hoc as they went along in an out of control, rogue manner, and, in fact, was trying to intimidate Roh into just submitting to what the ATF wanted without legal authority to do it.