“Has this strategy at registration ever been tried in the USA?”
Yes it has. In 1968 there was a machine gun amnesty in which the government allowed the owners of machine guns to keep them so long as they registered them with the government. Amazingly, the government actually kept it’s word, and to this day, those guns are transferrable
Yes it has. In 1968 there was a machine gun amnesty in which the government allowed the owners of machine guns to keep them so long as they registered them with the government. Amazingly, the government actually kept it’s word, and to this day, those guns are transferrable
This appears to be something different. It is some weird sort of regulatory mishmash. An official amnesty is not being declared. In 1968, and amnesty and amnesty period were declared. The Secretary of the Treasury is the person who has the authority to declare an amnesty.
This is something different, where the ATF reserves the ability to declare whether an item meets their new specifications as to whether it fits their amnesty or not. The specifications are numerous and byzantine.
That alone makes this whole exercise problematic. The executive branch as the authority to authorize an amnesty; that is *not* what they appear to be doing.