keeping score

And everyone’s favorite agency, the BATFE, has scored themselves a trio of new victims. First up, a decorative plastic tube placed over a solid metal barrel is now somehow a National Firearms Act regulated item:

On January 2010 American Tactical Imports Inc received official notification from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives that the original barrel shroud (aka: fake suppressor) supplied with your GSG 5 SD model must be replaced. It has been determined that this shroud is regulated under the National Firearms Act. American Tactical will provide a replacement shroud at no charge for each GSG 5 SD model sold or currently in inventory.

The National Firearms Act covers sound supressors/silencers, and given that the plastic tube in question was designed to aesthetically (but not functionally) emulate the suppressors of certain MP5 models, it is a valid assumption to believe that the BATFE objects to the shroud on the basis that they believe it is a suppressor. This “determination” comes after they approved the plastic tubes for importation and installation:

interesting, brings up a couple of questions, wasnt it passed before importation? and what reason do they give?

Yes it was. I even have a letter I’m not allowed to share where they revoked our permits for being approved in error. The brunt of this entire situation is on ATI here, please don’t look for an official letter to be issued to the public by the ATF because I get the feeling they will not.

Even better is how the situation is being handled:

OK, so this doesn’t make a lot of sense. If we remove the NFA regulated device and ship it, aren’t we in further violation? If this device has suddenly become an NFA regulated item, isn’t it more adviseable to destroy the device vs. shipping it? If I ship an “illegal” device via the USPS, haven’t I just committed a whole entire series of additional felonies? Where is the actual ATF ruling?Do we have any kind of drop-dead date for compliance? I can’t just take a silencer and ship it anywhere I’d like, if this device is now considered by legal definition a silencer––what your asking us to do is illegal. We need a whole lot more information on this issue.

I should think you would ask customers to remove and destroy the device, then supply a new one vs. returning and trying to ship an illegal device

I think your first sentence says it all my friend. ATF says that we are to export all fake silencers back to Germany. Each one we receive will have to be connected to the firearms serial number and manually accounted for by the ATF. We lucked out that the interior sleeve can be added to the old design so once we start shipping quantities back to Germany they can be retro-fitted to the new design so hopefully we’ll have some good turn around on getting larger quantities of cans. Receiving back the cans at our facility for inventory and packing is the ATFs call, so I can’t imagine they would hold you for shipping the can when it’s what they have instructed.

(All answers to all questions came from ATICSR_Christopher, one of the official ATI representatives on AR15.com.)

Unfortunately, the last sentence of that last blockquote would not give me the slightest warm fuzzy – after all, the BATFE instructed that these plastic tubes were legal to import and install on firearms without NFA regulation or taxation, and now they have spontaneously decided, in a somewhat non-official manner, that those plastic tubes should, in fact, be regulated. Who is to say that the BATFE will not pull similar shenanigans concerning the shipping and transportation of apparently-NFA-regulated equipment?

And speaking of the NFA determination, no one has seen any evidence that the BATFE has actually tested the plastic barrel shroud tubes to determine whether or not they suppress the report of the GSG – not even ATI. So what basis is the BATFE using to make their determination?

The second victim of the BATFE’s whimsical and random rule-changes is Cavalry Arms, an FFL that used to make all-plastic lowers for AR-15s:

As you may be aware, we have been engaged in an ongoing dispute with the ATF for the past two years. While Cavalry Arms has at all times tried its best to run a lawful and honest shop, unfortunately, some regulatory compliance mistakes were made. We have now come to the point where we feel it is in our best interest to close our FFL and to cease all firearms operations. The owner of Cavalry Arms, Shawn Nealon, has elected to leave the firearms business and concentrate on firearms accessories instead. We are currently in negotiations with another company for that company to purchase the CAV-15 product line.

(News courtesy of Say Uncle.)

The short story is that CavArms used an outside contractor to fabricate the two halves of their AR-15 lowers, and then they friction-welded the pieces together, on-site, as a Type 07 FFL. The BATFE wrote a letter initially authorizing this multi-point assembly process, until their technical branch either glued or rubber-banded the two pieces together and were able to squeeze out a few rounds. At that point, the legality of the halves, the company fabricating them, and just about everything else came into question, and CavArms never fully recovered.

Which just sucks. I cannot say as though I am fond of fixed-stock platforms, but an all-polymer, affordable lower for AR-15s is simply awesome, no matter how you look at it. Worse, the BATFE approved the design and methodologies, then came back a few years later and proclaimed, “Wait, no, nevermind, you guys are breaking the law!” without any recourse or recompense… or oversight.

Now, today, we find that the BATFE has raided the manufacturing facility of Sabre Defence, for reasons and motivations unknown. Rumors are flying about employee misconduct, missing firearms, and so forth, but those are just rumors. However, considering that BATFE agents have shut down a fabricator that not only produces for civilian markets, but also for military contracts, the government representatives are being interestingly quiet as to the reason for the investigation.

As this great American experiment continues, we are rapidly learning of the dangers of creating autonomous agencies with little oversight or external control – they can whimsically change their minds about things they approved in the past, and suddenly you are breaking the law. Is that really the kind of world you want to live in?