The order does not accept the argument that the ATF can change the definition of a firearm without congressional approval. The order shows Congress could have used the language the ATF now prefers, but Congress did not.
Partially complete Polymer80, Lone Wolf, and similar striker-fired semiautomatic pistol frames, including, but not limited to, those sold within parts kits, are regulated by the Gun Control Act (GCA) because they have reached a stage of manufacture where they “may readily be completed, assembled, restored, or otherwise converted” to a functional frame.
The letter was prompted by YouTube’s takedown of videos that gun dealer Jason Schaller had published showing how to complete a firearm including unserialized parts including an 80% lower. That activity, if you’re keeping score at home, is still perfectly legal in 45 states or so.
It’s easy for someone writing to say that the ATF should regulate “ghost guns,†but the problem is that there’s no practical way to do it. Sure, the ATF could redefine at what point a receiver becomes a firearm, but that will likely push people to build guns complying with the new rules. It wouldn’t actually stop anyone.
Everytown, a Bloomberg-funded gun control group, petitioned federal regulators this week to change how so-called “80 percent†receivers are handled.
Everytown even supplied suggested language for a proposed rulemaking change to ATF, one that would treat unfinished receivers and frames as regular firearms, with all the red-tape and inevitable FFL transfer fees that come along with it:
For Paloma Heindorff, who took over as head of the company last year after stints as director of development and vice president of operations, these innovations are an important part of keeping the powerful in check. “We’ve got to be developing technologies in the independent sector to be able to counterbalance the enormous control that the government has and the enormous access to information that corporations have,” she says.
“This is a piece of metal that you can easily buy in the markets,†said Bridgeport Police Chief AJ Perez in a press conference, holding up an unfinished 80-percent AR lower. “But if you can get this, you can make this,†he said, holding an AR-15 short-barreled rifle. “And this is a real weapon. This weapon will discharge anywhere from 50 to 30 rounds at a time.â€
Grewal’s action targets unnamed “ghost gun makers†who he argues advertises build and kits to New Jersey residents with possible civil action under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, with as much as a $10,000 penalty for initial offenses. He holds that fraud is committed because the makers do not disclose that possessing a firearm classified under state law as an unregistered “assault weapon†in New Jersey is a crime.
“As the chief law enforcement officer for New Jersey, I demand you stop selling and advertising unregistered and unserialized assault weapons to New Jersey residents,†Grewal says in the letter. “Should you fail to comply with this demand within 15 days, my Office will initiate legal action.â€
Lawyers for the Department of Justice submitted a memorandum Friday in the United States District Court, Southern District of California, in support of defendant’s motion to dismiss Lycurgan, Inc., dba Ares Armor vs. B. Todd Jones [successor name to be substituted], in his official capacity as Head of the San Diego Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case involves Ares’ contention that ATF erred and overstepped its authority in declaring the firm’s EP80 polymer precursor receivers (“80 percent receiversâ€) to be complete receivers, and thus “firearms†as defined by the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Here’s a not so well kept secret, there’s no such thing as an 80% lower in the eyes of the BATF — it’s either a gun or it isn’t. The phrase “80% lower†was coined by a cleaver marketer of incomplete AR lowers years ago and it stuck.
The actual regulation in the Gun Control Act that all this hubbub is based on states, “(A) any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; (B) the frame or receiver of any such weapon.â€