First ATF Ruling of 2015: More expansion of power
Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 6:45 am
If you want to complete an 80% receiver for yourself, guess you cannot rent or borrow tools . . . .
However, the ruling also brings to my mind questions about other machining operations. What if I want to borrow my brother's machine shop after hours to otherwise perform machining operations on a gun: adding scope mounting holes, threading a barrel, lightening the slide, etc. Does that machine shop suddenly need to be a licensed gun manufacturer?
Seems like typical ill-conceived idiocy.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2015/01/da ... pment.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
However, the ruling also brings to my mind questions about other machining operations. What if I want to borrow my brother's machine shop after hours to otherwise perform machining operations on a gun: adding scope mounting holes, threading a barrel, lightening the slide, etc. Does that machine shop suddenly need to be a licensed gun manufacturer?
Seems like typical ill-conceived idiocy.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2015/01/da ... pment.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In its first ruling of 2015, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has held that businesses may not allow individuals to use their equipment to further process incomplete firearm blanks, frames and receivers , attorney Joshua Prince reported Saturday. Such businesses may not assist or provide machinery access to unlicensed individuals without being licensed firearms manufacturers.
The effect of this ruling will be to close down operations in which persons who are legally entitled to manufacture their own firearms for personal use are permitted by a business to use its equipment, either with instruction or without. Provided such firearms are not intended to be sold or distributed, marking and record-keeping requirements do not apply. By changing the rules, ATF has closed down a means by which people who lack the equipment themselves to finish off a part will be able to exercise their right to build a firearm, a practice many rely on, particularly when completing so-called “80 percent” precursor receivers.
BATF'rs wrote:Held, any person (including any corporation or other legal entity) engaged in the business of performing machining, molding, casting, forging, printing (additive manufacturing) or other manufacturing process to create a firearm frame or receiver, or to make a frame or receiver suitable for use as part of a “weapon … which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,” i.e., a “firearm,” must be licensed as a manufacturer under the GCA; identify (mark) any such firearm; and maintain required manufacturer’s records.
Held further, a business (including an association or society) may not avoid the manufacturing license, marking, and recordkeeping requirements of the GCA by allowing persons to perform manufacturing processes on blanks or incomplete firearms (including frames or receivers) using machinery, tools, or equipment under its dominion and control where that business controls access to, and use of, such machinery, tools, or equipment.
Held further, this ruling is limited to an interpretation of the requirements imposed on persons under the GCA, and does not interpret the requirements of the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. 5801 et. seq.