More NFRTR troubles
Testimony in the case of US v ONE HISTORIC ARMS MACHINE GUN revealed there are untold numbers of unregistered machine guns currently owned by Americans that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives not only knows about, but actually created the conditions whereby this situation exists.
November 17th, 2010 at 10:34 am
So there are 50,000 felons just waiting to be arrested by the batfu. Guess that is the whole reason to have the useless agency… To chase them all down…
November 17th, 2010 at 11:16 am
50.000 more reasons the ATF needs to be disbanded, and the NFA needs to be repealed.
November 17th, 2010 at 11:41 am
RE: John Smith
50,000 people, waiting to become felons, many who probably dont even know it, nor have ill intent.
November 17th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
I know bryan but neither ignorance nor intent mean anything to the batf….
November 17th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Actually, those machinegun owners are NOT felons, via the linked ATF ruling (82-8).
David and MikeV’s point is that the ATF (in all of their expert glory) in that ruling
1. defined a machinegun according to the law
2. affirmed that the weapons in question (SM10,SM11A1 pistols and SAC carbines) are, in fact, machineguns
3. allowed the free and unrestricted ownership of those weapons manufactured prior to June 21, 1982.
Now, should the ATF decide to rescind this ruling, then the honorable (yeah, right!) thing to do would be to allow an amnesty for the owners of the machineguns in question, letting them pay the $200 tax and have the firearms put into the registry.
What *should* happen is that the ATF’s firearms oversight be transferred to the FBI, and the NFA ’34 should be repealed, since it can be now be demonstrated that it is of absolutely no effect.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
There are enough known errors in the NFA registry to justify using the amnesty power for a reregistration period. No questions asked.
Now, I DO think NFA’34 needs reform as well, but that is a different subject.
November 17th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
The Packetman –
I think the point is that ATF has no authority to say that a firearm is a machinegun but does not require registration. Their options under the law consist of a) determining them to be machineguns and requiring surrender/confiscation, or b) determining them to be machineguns and initiating an amnesty. Option c) determine them to not be machineguns, is off the table now unless ATF wants to open an even bigger can of worms.
Something people do not realize is that there is no “grandfather” option for machineguns. If it’s a machinegun, it’s either registered or contraband.
What I do not get is why this is being made an issue of now. The DOJ lawyers that ATF now has lots of have been going through past decisions and rewriting/reinterpreting them to square with their more restrictive interpretation of the GCA – they would have gotten to the extremely problematic 82-2 and -8 rulings sooner or later, and it would become an issue then. So, why make it an issue now?
November 18th, 2010 at 10:33 am
I guess being an owner of an airsoft gun makes me one of those 50,000. Haha!