Monday, August 18, 2008

Manufacturing Control

Below are examples of operations performed on firearms and guidance as to whether or not such operations would be considered manufacturing under the Gun Control Act (GCA).
BATFU presumes to tell us what we can and cannot do, right down to colorizing guns.

[Via Mack H from John Jacob H and Free Republic]

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arbitrary, as usual.

I frequently say that Congress knows what ATF is doing, and does nothing about it.
Congress may not know these laws, because they are NOT laws but regulations thought up by unelected bureaucrats.
Drop-in parts? Painting? Those are "manufacturing"? Won't NAPA and Maaco be surprised to learn that they're car "manufacturers"?
Wait. Never mind. Guns are special and unique.
Well, the Second Amendment is the only one with the words SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.

Matt said...

This one's more dangerous than normal. I'm surprised they didn't address the large home-built-for-private-use issue. When they do, they'll snare a whole bunch of the "pragmatic rights" crowd. I wonder where they'll stand then.

Anonymous said...

Does that mean that if I want to change any part of my firearms I need permission from some DC dick head?

Anonymous said...

Ask Larry Crow what "manufacturing" is.

It was enough to make many of us give up the trade as anything other than a hobby and an important skill set we like to keep sharp.

III

Anonymous said...

All of a sudden at least half the things I used to do as a gunsmith would make me a manufacurer these days. Yet another reason I'm glad I got out of the business.
Intent seems clear to me, make enough picky rules so that the little guys cannot keep track of them all. Drives the small timers out of business. And as we've seen, the big dogs are dependent on government contracts for most of their business so must comply with whatever BATFE decides they must.
And we thought we'd won something with that silly IIA ruling, hah.

Anonymous said...

In "free" America, we have a celebrated (DIY) Do-it-yourself culture.

Why not be self-reliant? Why not customize your car, your computer, your ... firearm?

Guess the ATF doesn't celebrate America.

Unknown said...

Soo.. drilling and tapping a 1911 slide to mount a red-dot scope- make you a manufacturer? Dealer... MAYBE. What planet are these people on?

Also, wtf does sporterize mean? Add a thumbhole stock and a beer holder?

"ATF has determined that both colorization and heat treating of firearms are
manufacturing processes."

So if I pay a guy with good Duracoating skills to blue a gun, he's now an "unlicensed manufacturer?" Or if I do it myself, that's "colorization"? Midway better start putting a warning in the catalog.
BARFFF

Ken said...

I sometimes think the perversion of the commerce clause (exemplified in the linked) is at least as great a tyranny as anything that has been done to the Second Amendment.

III

Anonymous said...

...drilling and tapping a 1911 slide to mount a red-dot scope...

Doing that does not make you a manufacturer if it's your own property and you don't sell it (except for when it does, depending on what time of the month it is at the BATFOO offices and if they like you or not).

III

Anonymous said...

A glimpse of America's future?

No bill introduced into Congress...

No legislation passed by Congress...

No Bill signed into law by the President...

ATF just chooses to "Re-interpret" the existing law?

Anti-constitutional!

My, how seeds of Nazi law [GCA of 68] have grown in our government to bear good little SS fruit. I fear it is only a matter of time they start executing Americans for tax violations again.

"De Oppresso Liber"

Len Savage

Anonymous said...

“Whenever the [Government] endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.” ~ John Locke

Absolved