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BREAKING: BATFE set to Expand NFA 1934
Inside sources who wish to remain nameless have reported that the BATFE is preparing to announce a new memorandum. One that will broaden and redefine the National Firearms Act of 1934. Confidential informants state that after consideration, ATF officials have concluded that more detailed guidelines be put in place. This is to further determine what is and is not a “destructive device” or an “NFA ” regulated item.
The NFA gave ATF the authority to define with is and is not a firearm. To define what is and is not a destructive device. To define what is and is not a handgun, shotgun, or long gun, and what is “Any Other Weapon”. As a result, the ATF feels more classifications are necessary.
Given their authority to define and authorize minimum barrel length, minimum overall length for rifles and shotguns, the new memorandum will add a “minimum weight” classification to all firearms. Firearms deemed to fall below the minimum weight standard will become NFA items and require registration and tax stamp applications. No grandfather clause allowed. One agent working on the new memorandum stated,
“Since the original NFA 34 went into effect, manufacturers have been using new components, such as aluminum and polymer, to reduce the overall weight of firearms. In 1934 they did not anticipate this drastic reduction in weight. Light-weight guns are much easier for criminals to carry concealed on their bodies and lighter guns translate to terrorists being able to carry more ammunition for the same weight.
Not to mention the fact that plastic and aluminum being used to defeat metal detectors. Having considered all of the previous information, the ATF will institute minimum weight requirements for all handguns, rifles and shotguns in order to bring them into compliance with the spirit of the law.”
Memorandum Details
To further elaborate, insiders have informed us that firearms in common use in 1934 are going to be the standard. In addition to the terms “Short-barrel Rifle” SBR and “Short-barreled Shotgun” SBS, a new official term “Light-weight Gun” LWG is going to be an addition to the NFA 1934 list of definitions.
A requirement will be for all firearms to meet the weight standard in original factory condition. That is without ammunition or any magazine or accessory attached. Once filed, the memorandum will apply the following minimum weight standards:
Handguns – Colt M1911A1 2.4 pounds (empty / no magazine)
Manually-loaded Rifles – Springfield M1903 8.7 pounds (empty)
Self-loading Rifles – Thompson M1928A1 10.8 pounds (empty / no magazine)
Shotguns – Winchester Model 1897 7.94 pounds (empty)
Ownership, Possession, and Registration
Calculation of all weights will be at Sea Level standard. BATFE field agents will receive instructions to use calibrated United States Postal Service scales. Any firearm found to be under the minimum weight standard as set forth by memorandum shall be immediately forfeit and confiscated by ATF personnel.
Possession of an unregistered LWG is a felony offense identical to that of illegal possession of an SBR. As a result, owners of LWG items at date of memorandum will have ninety (90) days from said date to register said items. Otherwise, they must surrender them to a regional office of the BATFE or other Federal law enforcement agency.
Ok, Maybe Not
Okay, you got me, this is a farcical article, a lampoon if you will. However, I must ask you, how many of you believed or still believe that this is possible? I know many out there are yelling at their phones or computers saying how “stupid” or “ridiculous” is the idea of the ATF instituting a minimum weight standard for guns. Sometimes you need to illustrate absurdity by being absurd.
Throughout the history of the United States of America, until 1934, manufactures had engineers determined the length of a firearm. Performance desires and practically is what based the barrel length. Then one day, a newly form government tax collection agency got together around a table. Government bureaucrats arbitrarily decided what minimum barrel length a rifle and shotgun could have as well as the overall length. A sixteen inch rifle barrel is safe for the peasants to have, but a 15 inch rifle barrel makes the gun insanely dangerous and it requires registration and regulation. Ditto for the shotgun, a 17 inch shotgun barrel turns the gun into a hyper-lethal death machine.
In All Seriousness
Let us be serious for a moment. What legal precedent is there to prevent such a far-fetched idea as minimum weight from becoming reality? The National Firearms Act of 1934 gives carte blanche freedom to the ATF to define what is a legally owned firearm, what is an NFA item, and what is a Destructive Device. The precedent for overreach was set long ago. Such as, if you put a ten dollar plastic foregrip on a pistol, it transforms into an “AOW” by ATF standards. That piece of plastic somehow turns the gun into a super killer death machine.
In 1994 the BATFE “ruled” that the USAS-12, Striker 12, and Street Sweeper 12 gauge shotguns were all “destructive devices” and thereby prohibited for ownership without registration and a license to possess a destructive device. Up to that date, all three guns had been perfectly legal over the counter firearms. These guns were not made illegal by act of Congress, they were “reclassified” by the ruling of an autonomous Federal bureaucracy.
Conclusion
Do I need to remind you that with the stroke of a pen, 5.45x39mm ammunition that was legal to import yesterday is now banned today? There were no public hearings, no vote, no legislation, merely the whim of a government agency.
Like it or not, in the United States of America, the people (the boss) who are meant to be in charge of the nation have allowed their representatives (the employees) to create autonomous bureaucratic agencies. By creating self-regulating agencies with the power to define and redefine laws, rules, and regulations, the Congress of the United States violated their Constitutional duty as direct representatives of the people.
When you allow a self-regulating agency you do not have the Representative Republic. They do not answer directly to the voters, to de facto create law via rulings and redefinition. Hell, you don’t even have a democracy as uneducated morons are fond of referring to the USA. In fact, what you have is an Oligarchy where an elite class set themselves above the peasant class. Never forget that the rulings and regulations issued forth by the ATF and other government agencies always exempt the State and members of the state. The rules only apply to the peasantry which is the near textbook definition of tyranny.
Before you dismiss a “minimum weight standard” are ridiculous, ask yourself why it could not happen. The history of the modern United States shows that such behavior by government is actually more likely to occur than not to occur. Keep playing your fantasy games and calling yourself a “reasonable gun owner” and a “sportsman”. When you wake up and that which you care about has been made illegal via memorandum, you will have no one to blame but yourself.
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Professor Paul Markel
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You could have saved this for April 1. In any case, no one is safe from a president who considers the Constitution of the United States of America to be not law, but rather just suggestions. If the law were strictly followed, the president, former Attorney General, and the former Secty of state, plus a long list of co conspirators in the IRS and other agencies, would have been arrested, put on trial, and would be in prison now.
However, the real fear is not this communist leaning president, but the next one. That person is likely to be in a position to fill one or two vacancies in the Supreme Court. With our cowardly RINO senate, there will likely be no resistance to the next extreme liberal appointee to the court, and that, my friend, will be the functional end of the 2nd Amendment. With democrats offering more freebees than ever before, especially to the gullible nonworking college age population and the perpetual welfare class, it will take a near 100% turnout of conservative voters to even have a prayer of winning the election in November. We can’t afford to not vote for the republican candidate, not matter how much we might not like some of his opinions.
That’s what I think.
Holy hell, you had me fired up! Thunderstruck started playing in the background and I was getting ready to gear up!
You should be fired up, and stay that way until the Republic is safe again.
Holly Cow batman, you scared the crap out of me. I’ll take the next hour to compose myself and clean up.
Sometimes you have grab someone and shake the shit out of them to wake them up.
Actually… it is they that are doing the shaking down.
Well, I thought, I guess I’ll have to start carrying my 1911. And I have an 1897, though it was modified to look like a trench gun. And I’m glad I bought those Garands. Love the BATFE seal. “Nobody is coming for your guns,” except every Democrat. Maybe “Nobody” is the same as Democrat.
Good one, Doug. Maybe they could have “Nobody” on the BATFE jackets and caps.
Great wake up call!
Everyone needs to share this article.
Thankfully, Obama didn’t push things as far as we feared he might. As for ATF, they were soundly put in their place over the m855 armor piercing debacle. Hopefully, we can elect a pro-2nd Amendment president and remove the authority ATF has to make such rules.
Damn you Professor now I have to go take heart medicine.
They could come up with all the outrageous ideas they want. My congressman, John Culberson, heads the subcommittee that funds them. They can make rules, but unless they’re prepared to publish and enforce them with their own money and on their own time, they’re SOL, as Culberson’s not giving them the money. He’s already laid it out for Lynch: no more money for new regulations.
Is it “April Fools Day” already???
Thanks for giving them another idea.
This is exactly why we need organization like the NRA. Everyone owning a firearm should be a member of one of these organizations. They have power in congress and actually work for you. Open you wallets and join, get your card and sleep well at night. It’s the ones who do nothing that drag our sport down.
Now, is a good time to consider a NFA-Firearms Trust with Certification, Co-Trustee forms, Bill of Sale, Bank and BATFE instructions.
It is Title II or NFA firearms. There are no such thing as a Class III as that is a dealer specification.
While trying to not curse, because this “article” had me fuming by the second paragraph and nearly having a heart attack by the fourth, I am considering suing your asses for not giving a fair warning. Really effed up it is.
You see I LIVE this shit. What is written above is a clear and present danger to Law Abiding Citizens and we would not be surprised in ANY WAY if someone tried this.
So who would give them the idea? The NRA???? You just DID!
What gives a criminal the idea to break the law in a certain way? THE PERSON WHO THINKS IT UP! Prisons are a great place to learn to become a better criminal DUH!!!
Now I can imagine some sneaky sniveling hand wringing dweezle sitting in the BATFE offices smirking and figuring out how to sell this idea to those in our already overwhelmingly criminal government.
You more than effectively made your point.
I am a Veteran like you. I served 22 years until I was force discharged for disability and had to wait 27 years for the VA to finally address the damage caused by living for those 27 years WITH a broken neck, including a dozen misdiagnoses. Today I have a total of 7 fused vertebrae after 17 years of wheelchair living. 17 years of unnecessary life wasting had the VA done as it was supposed to by providing proper medical care. I am now wheel chair free and instead am battling MRSA given to me by the VA during a cancer operation. Yeah quality medical care . . .
I had planned for decades to go hunting for Mulies or Longhorn and to fish for steelhead. Instead I am relegated to wound care and banging keys on the internet. My dreams were stolen decades ago and just when I thought I could finally realize them, . . . .
Dan
NOT FUNNY! Indeed, ridiculous and indeed thought it quite possible. These liberty thieves know no boundaries. They keep pushing those of us who believe in what America once was and can be again. However, their time is slowly and painfully coming to an end. We are nearing our own 12/26/1991 moment and we too will buckle under the pressure of control spending and a the complete void of any meaningful leadership. Our elected officials don’t have any understanding Of their fiduciary responsibility to the people. However, they will not escape our wrath when the bottom falls out. Congress knows there is no stopping it. Why do you think there is no sense of urgency at all to address the crushing debt. It’s because they already know how this ends. It will be up to us. Those of us that know the transgressions that took place over the last 240yrs against the Constitution (yes I know, the constitution wasn’t ratified in 1776 so it’s not quite 240yrs…)
What’s worse is how this deal in Oregon is shaping up. My guy tells me this is not over and the other shoe is about to drop. Something stinks with how that went down and if the Oathkeepers on their website are asking people “not to mobilize” intimates that mobilization must be under way. Stranger things through history have happened and we will have to wait and see whether this was our version of an April 19th 1775 moment, or if it will take something the likes of your fictional account above to light the fuse of this powder keg we are perched on top of. I fear for my children’s future in this current version of America, but if their future is to be one without liberty than let’s stop blowing the fuse out, deal with what must be dealt with and start putting this experiment in Liberty back together again.
You had me going there, which proves your point quite well…
Thanks! Now you’ve given the turds at ATF another idea how to screw us! You know that they read these blogs!
Holy hell, you had me fired up! Thunderstruck started playing in the background and I was getting ready to gear up!
You should be fired up, and stay that way until the Republic is safe again.
Thanks for giving them another idea.
Great wake up call!
Everyone needs to share this article.
Sometimes you have grab someone and shake the shit out of them to wake them up.
Actually… it is they that are doing the shaking down.
Damn you Professor now I have to go take heart medicine.
Well, I thought, I guess I’ll have to start carrying my 1911. And I have an 1897, though it was modified to look like a trench gun. And I’m glad I bought those Garands. Love the BATFE seal. “Nobody is coming for your guns,” except every Democrat. Maybe “Nobody” is the same as Democrat.
Good one, Doug. Maybe they could have “Nobody” on the BATFE jackets and caps.
It is Title II or NFA firearms. There are no such thing as a Class III as that is a dealer specification.
Thankfully, Obama didn’t push things as far as we feared he might. As for ATF, they were soundly put in their place over the m855 armor piercing debacle. Hopefully, we can elect a pro-2nd Amendment president and remove the authority ATF has to make such rules.
You could have saved this for April 1. In any case, no one is safe from a president who considers the Constitution of the United States of America to be not law, but rather just suggestions. If the law were strictly followed, the president, former Attorney General, and the former Secty of state, plus a long list of co conspirators in the IRS and other agencies, would have been arrested, put on trial, and would be in prison now.
However, the real fear is not this communist leaning president, but the next one. That person is likely to be in a position to fill one or two vacancies in the Supreme Court. With our cowardly RINO senate, there will likely be no resistance to the next extreme liberal appointee to the court, and that, my friend, will be the functional end of the 2nd Amendment. With democrats offering more freebees than ever before, especially to the gullible nonworking college age population and the perpetual welfare class, it will take a near 100% turnout of conservative voters to even have a prayer of winning the election in November. We can’t afford to not vote for the republican candidate, not matter how much we might not like some of his opinions.
That’s what I think.
Now, is a good time to consider a NFA-Firearms Trust with Certification, Co-Trustee forms, Bill of Sale, Bank and BATFE instructions.
This is exactly why we need organization like the NRA. Everyone owning a firearm should be a member of one of these organizations. They have power in congress and actually work for you. Open you wallets and join, get your card and sleep well at night. It’s the ones who do nothing that drag our sport down.
Thanks! Now you’ve given the turds at ATF another idea how to screw us! You know that they read these blogs!
Holly Cow batman, you scared the crap out of me. I’ll take the next hour to compose myself and clean up.
They could come up with all the outrageous ideas they want. My congressman, John Culberson, heads the subcommittee that funds them. They can make rules, but unless they’re prepared to publish and enforce them with their own money and on their own time, they’re SOL, as Culberson’s not giving them the money. He’s already laid it out for Lynch: no more money for new regulations.
While trying to not curse, because this “article” had me fuming by the second paragraph and nearly having a heart attack by the fourth, I am considering suing your asses for not giving a fair warning. Really effed up it is.
You see I LIVE this shit. What is written above is a clear and present danger to Law Abiding Citizens and we would not be surprised in ANY WAY if someone tried this.
So who would give them the idea? The NRA???? You just DID!
What gives a criminal the idea to break the law in a certain way? THE PERSON WHO THINKS IT UP! Prisons are a great place to learn to become a better criminal DUH!!!
Now I can imagine some sneaky sniveling hand wringing dweezle sitting in the BATFE offices smirking and figuring out how to sell this idea to those in our already overwhelmingly criminal government.
You more than effectively made your point.
I am a Veteran like you. I served 22 years until I was force discharged for disability and had to wait 27 years for the VA to finally address the damage caused by living for those 27 years WITH a broken neck, including a dozen misdiagnoses. Today I have a total of 7 fused vertebrae after 17 years of wheelchair living. 17 years of unnecessary life wasting had the VA done as it was supposed to by providing proper medical care. I am now wheel chair free and instead am battling MRSA given to me by the VA during a cancer operation. Yeah quality medical care . . .
I had planned for decades to go hunting for Mulies or Longhorn and to fish for steelhead. Instead I am relegated to wound care and banging keys on the internet. My dreams were stolen decades ago and just when I thought I could finally realize them, . . . .
Dan
NOT FUNNY! Indeed, ridiculous and indeed thought it quite possible. These liberty thieves know no boundaries. They keep pushing those of us who believe in what America once was and can be again. However, their time is slowly and painfully coming to an end. We are nearing our own 12/26/1991 moment and we too will buckle under the pressure of control spending and a the complete void of any meaningful leadership. Our elected officials don’t have any understanding Of their fiduciary responsibility to the people. However, they will not escape our wrath when the bottom falls out. Congress knows there is no stopping it. Why do you think there is no sense of urgency at all to address the crushing debt. It’s because they already know how this ends. It will be up to us. Those of us that know the transgressions that took place over the last 240yrs against the Constitution (yes I know, the constitution wasn’t ratified in 1776 so it’s not quite 240yrs…)
What’s worse is how this deal in Oregon is shaping up. My guy tells me this is not over and the other shoe is about to drop. Something stinks with how that went down and if the Oathkeepers on their website are asking people “not to mobilize” intimates that mobilization must be under way. Stranger things through history have happened and we will have to wait and see whether this was our version of an April 19th 1775 moment, or if it will take something the likes of your fictional account above to light the fuse of this powder keg we are perched on top of. I fear for my children’s future in this current version of America, but if their future is to be one without liberty than let’s stop blowing the fuse out, deal with what must be dealt with and start putting this experiment in Liberty back together again.
You had me going there, which proves your point quite well…
Is it “April Fools Day” already???