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February 19, 2007

Classifying Your Firearms into Oblivion

In 2003, Akins Group Inc. developed the Akins Accelerator, a bumpfire stock for a Ruger 10/22 that can produce about 650 rounds/minute. The company received classification letters from the BATFE agreeing that the stock was not a firearm and therefore unregulated.

Akins performed approximately 18 months of testing, built injection molds based on the results, and began offering the Accelerator to the public in December of 2006.

True to form, the BATFE suddenly decided that the plastic stock was in fact a machine gun. The considerable time, effort, and of course money Akins invested into the project has been rendered essentially useless. You can read the entire saga at http://www.firefaster.com/documentation.html .

As our regular readers are aware, this isn't the first time that the BATFE has changed its mind on a classification. Our "Boot the BATFE" page at http://www.jpfo.org/bootbatfe.htm has several ATF Reconsideration letters listed.

It's important to realize what this really means. The ATF tells a manufacturer that a particular product is legal and acceptable. Based on this, the manufacturer invests large sums of money to produce the product, and even begins distributing the product. AFTER the money is spent, AFTER the inventory has been built, AFTER customers have purchased the product, the BATFE says, "Oops, just kidding. It's illegal."

Now the manufacturer has wasted valuable capital and his customers are in possession of products that could get them fined or jailed! All because the BATFE changed its mind.

It gets worse.

The BATFE is declaring by fiat that this product or that is "illegal". There's no legislation involved. No Congressional hearings. No oversight at all. Just a bureaucrat stating, "Yeah, this is illegal." Your only recourse is to beg them to reconsider again (and how likely is that?)

If the BATFE is reclassifying plastic rifle stocks to be "machine guns", what's to stop them from reclassifying semi-autos as "machine guns"? After all, your semi-auto has "characteristics and features of a machine gun" (the BATFE's favorite phrase lately). And if a shoelace can be classified a machine gun (yes, really! http://www.jpfo.org/images02/shoestring.jpg), then why not?

Here is yet more proof -- as if we didn't have enough -- that the BATFE is an unelected rogue agency run amok. It is a law unto itself; as many people have found, merely criticizing it can result in dire consequences.

If you haven't yet supported the making of our film The Gang -- a film with the express goal of helping to abolish the BATFE and end all federal control and regulation of firearms --, why not? We MUST bring down Leviathan now, before our right to keep and bear arms is a faded memory. Go to www.jpfo.org/thegang.htm or www.thegangmovie.com for more information.

- The Liberty Crew

 


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