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Ooops...
ATF issues permits for importation of 13,000 barrel shrouds, then decides they are silencers. From the description, it sounds as if the shrouds are designed to look like suppressors, but the barrel really extends to the front end of it ... in which event I can't see how they could suppress the sound any.
UPDATE: at AR15.com, they ask some interesting questions. For example, if it is indeed a silencer, why is ATF asking them to ship it back to the manufacturer for modification? Wouldn't that involve sending an NFA device in interstate commerce without a permit? And transferring an unregistered NFA device?
· BATFE
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file this one under "problems associated with going Tommy Tactical. If and when I buy an AR, the only thing I'm going to hang on it will be a better sight.
OK, I'll bite. Why would a FAKE suppressor generate so much interest and why would there be so many people buying them?
To strictly follow the law, once they are determined to be silencers they should be abandoned to ATF, unless they declare an amnesty (i.e. Streetsweepers, etc.). In the past when rulings like this have been made, they have been known to contact (either directly or through the retailer) those who bought the contraband item and require them to effect surrender somehow. With very small numbers, like the Akins Accelerator, they even go door-to-door.
A very interesting case, there will probably be repercussions.
Why would a FAKE suppressor generate so much interest and why would there be so many people buying them?
Because (a) the long barrel sticking out looks stupid, and (b) it's part of a clone of the MP5SD, which is supposed to have a silencer in it (hence SD: Schalldämpfer), so it's entirely cosmetic. ATF probably thinks it's too easy to drill some holes in it and make it a crude muffler.
The ATF with no idea what it is doing. Saying one thing then turning 180 degrees. Costing people money and time.
The ATF is never wrong.
ATF telling dealers that they are only selling 12 weapons a year so they don't sell enough to be dealers.
At the same time.
ATF telling people they would be charged because they were dealing without a lience. They were selling less then 12 weapons in a year.
ATF stupid, ingorant, not a clue. They aren't smart enough to lie. That would mean that they know the truth.
Tom,
Fake silencers are often used simply to make certain types of firearms more realistic and/or better looking. Semi-auto versions of guns like the MP-5, P90, Uzi, etc. simply look "off" with that extra half foot of barrel sticking out beyond the frame. If you turn those last few inches of barrel into something that resembles a silencer it ends up looking better/more realistic to many.
With the possible exception of you, Dave, government employment usually coincides with senility.