(03-13-2022, 03:14 PM)ABNARTY Wrote: This is depressing.
The quick version IMHO is a agency under the Executive branch, outside of Legislative or Judicial review, can oppress citizens at will. If said citizen cannot afford legal defense all the way to SCOTUS (or 99.9% of Americans), they are screwed.
Look at what the ATF is doing right now. Any part of a suppressor is now a suppressor itself. Have some tube steel sitting around the garage? The ATF can come in a claim it's a suppressor because it can be used in the construction of one. They are redefining the language in their regulations and implementing their new interpretations. Congress just sits there with their heads up their butts.
Just wait until CBDC's get going here. That will be the death of the 2A. And a lot of other things too.
Not just tube steel. I've seen suppressors made out of PVC pipe, PVC pipe caps, and window screen. Your local Lowes or Home Depot are now literally loaded down with illegal suppressors.
Most of the windows in your house are illegal suppressors, if they have screens in them. Your bathtub or kitchen sink is an illegal suppressor if it has a drain pipe.
A tube of lithium grease at the auto parts store is an illegal suppressor, because lithium grease is a component of screened suppressors.
BATFE is also trying to "redefine" firearm by redefining "firearm receiver", which is the only part of a gun they recognize as THE firearm. They are trying to make the definition more vague so that "80% lowers" will become actual guns subject to BATFE regulation and FFL dealer requirements, but the definition is so vague that any chunk of metal or polymer could technically be defined as a "firearm". Sheet metal, too, because sheet metal can be bent, drilled, milled, and fabricated into an AK receiver, and is therefore a Kalashnikov rifle.
But wait, there's more! Now they are toying with the idea of redefining "split receivers", such as an AR has with an upper and a lower, such that every part of the receiver is in itself a "firearm", and then will have to be stamped with serial numbers. When that goes into effect, you will no longer just be able to swap upper receivers on an AR to make a match grade tournament rifle, or switch calibers, or any of the thousand things you can do with an AR just by swapping out the upper receiver. You won't just be able to order a complete upper and get it through the mail any more - it will have to go through an FFL dealer.
Taurus is getting ahead of the curve on that - the last Taurus pistol I bought, a couple years ago, was stamped with the serial number on the receiver, the slide, and the barrel... and that's just the serials I can see on the surface, without taking it apart.
Anyone wonder at my fascination with pointy sticks? It's because the BATFE - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives - has not yet become the BATFEPS - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives, and Pointy Sticks.
Not YET, anyhow.
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Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’