ATF's expansive definition of "manufacturer"

The last one takes the cake: blueing, applying camouflage, or otherwise coloring a firearm is "manufacturing."

Funds running low so they have to find more things that require licenses? Nice!

This makes me furious!

If a gunsmith takes an existing receiver and "manufactures" a gun, there should now be two guns, right? With two serial numbers? How can a court enforce such contradictory rules? What would the ATF say if the judge said, "OK, show me both guns."

How can an FFL possibly comply with record-keeping requirements for such nonsense? If he lists only one gun, he's not logging in the gun he just "manufactured", but if he lists it twice, then he's inventorying the same serial number twice.

By that logic, if I have my car customized with cool rims and tires, Recaro seats and a wild new paint job, I have "manufactured" a new car, and I should have to re-submit the "new car" to the EPA for emissions testing.

Doesn't the ATF have to go thru the usual "comment period" and hold hearings before promulgating these new rules?

They compose these ridiculous rules and it takes a quarter-century for us to come up with a defendant who has "standing" to challenge them in court!

Hey this is the ATF under Bush, just imagine the things they'll think up under Obama?

Turk,

These aren't new rules. Years ago, my neighbor Bernie bought a barrel making business in Prescott, moved the equipment to Hereford and set up shop. He had to get a manufacturer's license.

The idea is to make people go out of business or not start in the first place.

It it all about revenue. Every time you manufacture something, you have to collect the excise tax. Also look at the proposed ITAR fee increase. All of these new manufactures will have to register under ITAR also.

I guess I'm going to have to toss in Rivrdog's Razor.

Rivrdog's Razor compliments the truism, "if it walks like a duck (etc)"

Rivrdog's Razor says that if a conservative POTUS never changes out enough of the previous Liberal government, isn't he just the President of a Liberal Government?

This is what has happened here, and it is why the conservative record of the Bush Administration is so spotty. The man just never cleaned house.

Oh well, I guess he just wants to make it easy for Obama....

Another Hoop to Jump through, Weather it be justified in the name of crime control or just more revenue to pay for ATF.

I don't see how it could be about the revenue when the ATF shuts down so many businesses. They definitely get there funds from places other than license fees.

If it was about the revenue, then they wouldn't care who manufactured what, and where, as long as the paperwork was filed correctly, and the enclosed check was good.

"Their", not "there".

Homophones should be against the law.

Funds running low so they have to find more things that require licenses? Nice!

If they really wanted to raise revenue, they'd lobby Congress to eliminate 922(o) so that they could get several hundred thousand $200 checks every year. Suffice it to say that I don't think that the Batf'kers are interested in revenue, but in their mission to backdoor a ban on private ownership of firearms by making it too expensive to be in the business of selling or modifying guns and ammo, and then the remaining dealers, etc. would jack up prices and make it too expensive for the average Joe to buy and feed his guns.

How does jeopardy attach to someone who "manufactures" the same serial numbered receiver more than once? Why even bother with serial numbers?

In a perverse way, it is about revenue. But not the money they extract from the citizens on behalf of the government.

It's about the funding BATFE receives. The more rules there are, the more activity they can show, and the more bureau funding they can justify.

Firearms enforcement was given to Alcohol and Tobacco in the first place because bootlegging and cigarette smuggling have more or less gone out of style, and they had agents sitting around with nothing to do. For a bureaucrat, that is intolerable, because it leads to department downsizing. If you supervise fewer people and smaller budgets, you have been de facto demoted. And that is how we got BATFE.

Note that the introductory paragraph says they are NOT addressing whether this stuff constitutes "manufacturing" for purposes of the excise tax on firearms. So the only additional revenue they can reasonably be after with these rules is the license fees.

Don't know how much more a manufacturer's license is than a gunsmith license. Some of these "manufacturing" operations sure sound to me like gunsmithing work, even if it is done on more than one gun at a time, so there must be more money to be had or ATF wouldn't bother.

Power is the aphrodisiac of choice, money is in second place.

""Their", not "there".

Homophones should be against the law."

Posted by: TJH at August 22, 2008 09:29 AM

Does that make you one of those homophobes I've been hearing about:)

I guess I'm going to have to toss in Rivrdog's Razor.

Rivrdog's Razor compliments the truism, "if it walks like a duck (etc)"

That's not a truism since there are plenty of things that aren't what they seem. And you shouldn't name something if it's totally unoriginal.

Rivrdog's Razor says that if a conservative POTUS never changes out enough of the previous Liberal government, isn't he just the President of a Liberal Government?

That POTUS also nominated the justices that swung Heller our way, so no, he's not. There are a million things to criticize this guy on, from a conservative perspective, but you managed to pick one of maybe three areas where he's solidly in our camp.

Paul W,

I think you got it right here, the agency is trying a back door effort to control guns and gun crime, and again this will upset law abiding citizens that make small alterations to their firearms. Not to mention the additional costs that will effect retailers. Same old same old type of thing that will probably be challenged in court.

Ben,

"That POTUS also nominated the justices that swung Heller our way, so no, he's not. There are a million things to criticize this guy on, from a conservative perspective, but you managed to pick one of maybe three areas where he's solidly in our camp."

Really? We are talking about the same guy that said he would sign a new assault weapons ban if congress presented him with a new one?

I am not going to even start on all the other non-2a related Jr's Liberalisms. He is/was only a social issues conservative. Once we lose all of our constitutional rights, at least we can look back and be thankful that the gays aren't married.

"Really? We are talking about the same guy that said he would sign a new assault weapons ban if congress presented him with a new one? "

Did Congress present him with a new one? You have no proof that he would have signed it, merely a statement from a politician. That statement is worth zilch, naught, nada. Only actions means something and if there is no action, you can't make a statement about it. Bush could say he wants to eat all babies, until he does it, it is just so much hot air.

I'm glad to see someone else caught this change.
The best part about this for me, as a refinisher/gunsmith, is that refinishing does not fall under Federal Excise Tax rules anyway, so there would be no additional revenue stream from the refinishing, and the Type 7 FFL costs about the same as a Type )1. I sent a massive letter about this to the Tech Branch last week, and will be ecstatic to see their response. I'll post the text of the letter on my blog sometime soon, as well as the response when it arrives.
If I MUST become a manufacturer, then I reckon it will be time to manufacture. If I must pay for another type of FFL and 2-3 $k of ITAR State Department nonsense, too, I might as well incorporate and become an SOT.

I found this discussion by searching for type 7 FFL. I am a part time gunsmith in business since 1972. I was compliance checked by the ATF last November (11/2008) and was found to be a "manufacturer" because I build 1-2 custom rifles a year for customers (I supply the receiver sometimes). I complied and got a type 7 license and am now trying to figure out exactly what else I need to do to be legal. The ATF agent said that I should ignore the SOT tax because I am so small. Easy for him to say. I am now strongly contemplating closing the end of the year because of this BS. Can anyone comment on the tax requirements of a type 7 FFL including the SOT and any ITAR regs? I do not import or export anything and do not work on type 3 weapons. Thank you for any help. Regards, John