It should be no surprise to anyone that the Trump administration’s ATF would be a kinder gentler regulator to the firearms industry. The NRA-backed pro-gun president made eliminating wasteful, useless regulations one of his key campaign promises and his extremely pro-gun son has apparently helped push him further in the right direction. Word comes today through a leaked ATF white paper exactly what kinds of pro-gun regulatory changes are coming down the road.

The full white paper is available here, but here’s a quick summary:

  1. New Federal Firearms License specifically for online and gun show sales. This would be the return of the “kitchen counter” FFL, allowing private citizens to enjoy all the benefits of a Federal Firearms License without actually needing to run a proper business. Ostensibly it would be used for those who don’t have a retail location but still want to sell guns online and at gun shows, but reality is that it would be a way for every citizen to pay one licensing fee and have guns shipped straight to their door from the factory with no middleman (since the government already did a more thorough background check than any NICS check could do).
  2. Redefinition of “armor Piercing Ammunition.” Companies making and importing ammunition that currently meets the definition of “armor piercing” such as lead free projectiles and the 7N6 ban from 2014 would be able to sell their wares once more without fear. It would also drive down the cost of ammo for Soviet surplus ammunition since the pipeline would once more be open.
  3. Lifting the M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, and M1911 Army Surplus Importation Ban. For years there has been a treasure trove of surplus M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, and M1911 handguns sitting in Korea waiting to be shipped back to the UnitedStates so that the CMP could sell these guns to the U.S. citizens at dirt cheap prices. The Obama administration blocked their importation citing concerns over “gun violence”. Overturning that decision would be quick and painless and make many a firearms collector very happy.
  4. Eliminating Law Letter Requirements. If an FFL wants to get a machine gun manufactured after 1986 they need a letter from a local law enforcement agency requesting the gun for demonstration purposes. These “law letters” or “demo letters” are really just a time consuming formality keeping gun stores and FFL holders from buying machine guns. Elimination of this archaic requirement would allow new machine guns to be avalable to every FFL/SOT holder. Possibly including the new wave of “kitchen counter” FFL holders.
  5. Reversing the decision on shouldering a pistol brace. A couple years back the ATF issued a series of confusing and conflicting rulings about whether it was illegal to shoulder a pistol arm brace such as the SB Tactical brace. There’s apparently quite a bit of energy being directed at reversing the ruling and once more enabling the mass shouldering of pistol arm braces.
  6. Redefine “Sporting Purposes.” There’s a Chinese manufacturer that is making brand new M14 style rifles. They are plentiful in Canada but unavailable in the United States because, according to the law, they are not for “sporting purposes” and ineligible for importation. The folks behind this white paper seem to think that it’s high time we redefine what “sporting purposes” are. This might qualify things like 3-gun and other competition shooting activities as “sporting” and open the door for just about everything to be imported.
  7. Make agency rulings searchable. Instead of relying on what opinion letters have been published on the internet, make those opinions publicly available and searchable so that everyone can see previous opinions and hold the ATF accountable.
  8. Remove silencers from the NFA. This one isn’t really possible to do from within the ATF, it would probably require Congress to act through the Hearing Protection Act. But support from the ATF goes a long way towards public acceptance of the idea.
  9. Allow interstate firearms sales at gun shows. Right now gun stores can only sell guns to residents of their own state from locations within that state’s borders. If they want to visit a gun show across state lines they can only take orders and ship to a local FFL, not directly sell. The ATF wants to make it so that FFLs can travel from state to state and sell guns as they see fit.
  10. Reclassify “destructive devices”. Right now both destructive device munitions and launcers are considered “destructive devices” and regulated just like silencers and machine guns, meaning every round of HE for your grenade launcher needs a serial number and its own Form 4. The ATF wants to make it so that only the launcher, not the munition, is considered the registered “destructive device.”
  11. Raise the threshold for “grey market” records reporting. Right now any store that has more than 10 crime guns traced to it needs to do extra recording and reporting to the ATF of their used guns. The ATF wants to raise that threshold to lessen the strain on dealers.
  12. Eliminate “multiple gun reporting” for border states. Right now, if you buy more than one AR-15 in a certain time period in Texas and other border states the ATF requires a special form to be sent detailing the sale. It’s ostensibly to stop straw purchasers, but the success rate is low enough to be statistically zero. Eliminating that burden would help gun dealers.
  13. Reduce record retention requirements. The ATF currently requires all 4473 forms to be kept for 20 years. That’s a bit much, don’t you think? This proposal would reduce that burden on gun stores.
  14. Allow NICS checks for non-gun purchases. You can’t work in a gun store if you are prohibited form buying a gun. To figure out if an employee is disqualified the simplest way would be to have the store run a NICS check, but that’s not allowed under the current law. Allowing background checks for employees would reduce the cost to hire new employees and make life easier for gun stores.

Right now these are just proposals — none of them have been approved or implemented. The document in question was prepared as a menu of items for the new ATF head to consider, not necessarily a final list of things that will be implemented. But it seems reasonable to expect that this is at least an indication of the general directions of things to come. And of course, the anti-gun groups are already in full pearl-clutching mode.

“This white paper offers a disturbing series of giveaways to the gun industry that would weaken regulatory oversight of the gun industry without adequate consideration of the impact on public safety,” said Chelsea Parsons, vice president of guns and crime policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

“ATF has long described its regulatory function as a core part of its law enforcement mission to fight gun crime, yet this paper seems to prioritize reducing perceived burdens on the gun industry over an interest in protecting public safety from the illegal diversion of firearms,” Parsons said.

The regulations the white paper moves would address were put in place largely without any consideration of their impact on the rights of gun owning Americans and have little or no impact on crime. A little swing of the pendulum back in the opposite direction is very much in order.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

116 COMMENTS

    • Uh, no. Not exactly.

      This is the ATF’s effort to counter potential legislation that would *really* loosen some of these requirements and issues. Trust me on this. There are still plenty of people at ATF that like onerous regulations and rules. But there’s a new sheriff in town.

      John

      • Regulations can be changed by edict and we are all bowing down to our benevolent over lord who ALLOWS us to do these things. This paper only shows that we are not free to do these things without Father’s permission and Father can take these crumbs away as soon as the political wind shifts.

        • If you like your ATF rules, you can keep your ATF rules.

          And the ATF rules will lower the cost to the average U.S. family by $2,500.

      • Agreed. One thing is conspicuously absent – the Hughes Amendment. BATFE needs to release an opinion letter restating BATFE’s previous position that an unincorporated trust is not a “person” under the GCA, and issuing guidance that applications to transfer or make a new machinegun by a trust are to be approved.

        This is just like DoD revising guidance regarding CCW in order to try to preserve “Commander’s discretion”. The BATFE is just trying to get ahead of things that are definitely going to happen, with or without their concurrence, in order to try to preserve other onerous regulations.

      • Make it happen John.

        Have them remove the “open bolt” regulation that they penned out of thin air that somehow makes an open bolt semi-auto a “machine gun” when it really is not.

        Have them remove the “constructive possession” nonsense. If hobbyists are building a legal semi auto from a parts kit, they should be allowed to without federal agency harassment.

        • I make a point to mention the Hughes Amendment whenever I can. The Hearing Protection Act is the first chip in the NFA armor. For the first time, parts of the NFA are on the table. With some pressure, we can get rid of Hughes also. In fact, Hughes can be rendered irrelevant through executive action alone. As I mentioned above, just acknowledge that the argument from the Hollis case is correct and adjust BATFE policy accordingly. This needs to be repeated frequently until somebody takes notice who can actually move on this.

      • “If you like your machine-gun you can keep your machine-gun”.

        I want to know where the ATF provision is denying those filthy, violent Communists/Socialists/Anarchists the ability to purchase firearms for the purpose of furthering their so-called “revolution”.

        • REFUGEES ARE NOT CITIZENS, I DON’T THINK THEY CAN BUY. THE PROBLEM IS THEY GET FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO BUY FOR THEM. OR THEY JUST ASK CLINTON AND SORO’S FOR THEM.

      • John Ross is trying for it. I think it’d be a hilarious coup for Trump to appoint a guy who wrote a dime-novel about killing federal gun grabbers in a future dystopia (then having sex on top of them, lol). Even better than Rick Perry heading up Energy.

        • Rick Perry yanked the TX railroad commission’s chain to make sure TX stayed a good place to do business as an energy company.

          Promoting the idea that offshore rigs control drilling mud viscosity by adding ashes of EPA desk jockies is the kind of imagery that we’re talking about.

          I’m hard under the table, if everyone didn’t know that already.

    • The Bureau sees the EPA being led up to the gallows, and in response they say “maybe we should meet these guys half-way?”

  3. Number 5 would be best accomplished by dropping SBRs and SBSs from the NFA altogether. Let common sense rule; a 12-inch-barreled shotgun or rifle is no more deadly than a 16″ version, and the shorter models are probably less powerful, too, due to velocity losses in the shorter barrels.

    If you can make it from a normal rifle or shotgun in 5 minutes with a single hacksaw cut across the barrel(s), it shouldn’t be against the law to own/possess.

    • The ATF could issue a rule that once a firearm is sold by an FFL as a handgun or other , it cannot be made a rifle by the addition of parts. This would allow pistols with sticks and forward grips. Redefining a forced grip on a pistol to NOT be AOW, could also be done. These could be done without congress and in fact without comment periods, since they would be definitions only not new “rules” for the purpose of regulation.

  4. “This white paper offers a disturbing series of giveaways to the gun industry that would weaken regulatory oversight of the gun industry without adequate consideration of the impact on public safety…”

    …except throughout the paper, the writer clearly explains how the regulations as they are now do absolutely nothing to increase public safety. So that’s just like, Ms. Parsons’ opinion, man.

    • I’d like to add a rule that it would make it WRONGFUL, not just WRONG for anyone to claim that they can protect you on an individual level [never mind that courts have ruled that police are not required to]. And make it illegal to claim that current firearms rules provide you any form of safety.

      “False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” – Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794) quoted in The Right to Arms and the American Philosophy of Freedom (via heritage.org)

      • “Teddy!…
        Give the Dude a minute will ya?!
        Christ, Teddy, sometimes this sh¡t just isn’t that simple…”

    • She is right about them being giveaways; the anti’s sure aren’t getting shit in that list of items. We all know that’s the real reason they’re pissed.

      She should be happy she’s getting that much; there are serious legal challenges mounting –coincidentally– on each of the items in that list. It’s just a matter of time before these cases leak out of sycophant federal district courts and are taken up by a professional supreme court with a hard-on for original intent & plain meaning. If the ATF loses silencer and short barreled rifles/shotguns, about the only thing they would exist for is machineguns & overseeing a pointless licensing scheme that isn’t even a barrier to purchase anymore. Their little fief will shrink into nothing & be forgotten, along with the NFA and GCA altogether.

    • Oh boy, Polytech and Keng, Crooked Hillary and Slick Willy’s favorite contributor, he pumped tons of dough into BOTH their campaigns 20 years ago at the same time they were pushing the so-called “Assault Weapons” Ban.

    • The theory is that everyone is waiting for the NFA rules change before buying silencers now. So new orders have been way down.

        • When the restrictions are largely removed from the purchase of suppressors/silencers they will be scarce for a short time but the shortage of threaded pistol barrels will be the choke point. Stock up now.

      • Well, that and the fact it’s a *minimum* year-plus wait for anything you can buy from them today. That big rush they capitalized on was effectively the last meal they will get until the ATFs workload stabilizes. Luckily, the white paper released suggests they are getting crushed by all the silencer paperwork and desperately want them deregulated.

    • My guess is it’s a temporary layoff. Let those workers ride the unemployment train for 6 mo or untill HPA passes. Then recall them, and I would bet 80% or better of the laid off workers will come back.

      • Or more. The HPA stands a really good chance of passing, and if/when it does, a LOT of people are gonna go out and buy suppressors. Then within probably 6 months, the market will stabilize and costs will come WAY down, thus encouraging people who balked at prices and hurdles before to go out and buy them as well.

    • Overproduction in anticipation of a Dem POTUS. If HPA passes (doubtful lbut who knows?) silencer/suppressor prices are going to drop bigly.

  9. Or… We could just defund the ATF and then you could have a whole new kind of firearms knowledge espoused by the next group of Walmart greeters. ?

  10. I love #1 and #4… Me thinks that if those get codified, every tactical rifle I own will start spouting giggle switches.

    • I don’t think #4 will apply to us peons.

      If I’m reading this right, it looks like it’s gonna apply to SOTs that support DOD custom weapons, like the special forces, and here’s the weird thing, the ” theatrical armorer community.”

      Hollywood would get select-fire, but not us.

      “Current law precludes FFLs who are registered Special Occupational Taxpayers (FFL/SOT) from transferring machineguns manufactured post-1986 unless they are for export or for law enforcement/government use; and there is no provision for the transfer from one FFL/SOT to another. This is somewhat detrimental to FFL/SOTs operating within the small, but useful, Department of Defense-supported industry and theatrical armorer community.

      One option,if supported by the Department of Justice (DOJ), would be to re-institute ATF’s ability to provide variances to licensees, as ATF has done in the past, that would adequately provide form transfers within defense industry FFLs and avoid a requirement to change the statute. Use of variances in a consistent and fair process within the limited DoD supported FFL/SOT community would be viewed favorably by the industry and have no impact on public safety.”

      I see a new business for you, “Pwrserge’s Theatrical Prop Rentals”

      • Serge, I bet it means you could have giggle switches, as long as have and *maintain* a SOT license.

        What happens to NFA toys when a SOT manufacturer lets their SOT lapse?

      • Those industries already have exemptions via SOT post-samples. The point here is that the artificial stagnation of the civilian sector of this technology is having similar wasting effects in the LEO/MIL area. I can’t tinker in my garage and create the next leap forward in recoiless hyper-velocity wonder machineguns, for instance. The barrier to entry for small startup size manufacturers is so high they tend to stick to safely profitable endeavors (and the BS ITAR fees of a couple grand a year don’t help, either, but aren’t the ATFs doing)

  11. BLOOD! BLOOD IN THE STREETS I SAY!!! Good bye sweet gun free utopia big brother America!….. on a serious note; unless laws are passed that take this from the relm of regulation to stutory law, then we are the whim of ever changing political winds and all these things can be taken back in short order.

    • And that’s precisely why the ATF is proposing these ideas as policy changes. They’re trying to get out in front of the changes the Trump administration has hinted at by proposing ways to relax the rules without changing the laws. That way, when Trump’s gone and a more gun-control-friendly administration is in place, they can capriciously reverse the rules back to their more restrictive state. If Congress does this stuff with legislation, it’s much harder to pull back later.

  13. “The ATF wants to make it so that only the launcher, not the munition, is considered the registered ‘destructive device.'”
    brb buying a bloop-tube

  14. So are those surplus 1911’s all Colts or a mixed bag? I would take one of those colts and a m1 for good measure.

    • I suspect, since they’re guns we gave to Korea decades ago, that they’re probably shot-out mix-and-match rattletraps that haven’t been treated with much care. I suspect, if it actually comes to pass, the excitement over getting one will overwhelm reason, and lots of collectors will end up paying more than they’re really worth.

      • What are you talking about? They already pay a lot more than they’re worth (1200$ M1 Carbines and what not)

      • If they were given to the South Korean army as aid after the war then there’s very little chance of them having ever been shot! /sarc

      • Yeah, bizzaro.

        Not the Ohole POS (D) ass-raped ’til your peeled like a grape world we just started clawing out way out of. We could still do a Civil War to mop up though. There’s a lot of POS (D) and foreign and Soros funded globalist POS crap we have to overcome yet. Too bad it went peacefully, hunh?

  16. “Leaked ATF memo reveals planned…”

    Oh boy, here we go again.

    “…pro gun moves”

    Wait, what??? Let’s see… machine guns? For moi? I’m not gonna hold my breath but I will say that got my pants a little tighter right now.

  18. Given what the ATF is saying and recommending here, there is no longer an argument against the HPA that can stand. None. I was largely confident the HPA will pass despite what many here are saying. Now I know it will. Even faster than I thought. I give it just over 200 days from introduction to pass. Yes I know how hard it is for Bills to make it out of committee! Yes I know Bills go to the Senate to die! Yes I know a few Dems will have to vote for the HPA in the Senate. Give it 200 days.

    The ATF gets a really bad rap here, and I get that. I totally get that. BUT, a lot of the folks who work there, and even some of the folks who have ran the place, are gun-lovers themselves. Many of whom would like to see the exact same things you want to see happen. Many would be happy to gut the NFA. Maybe this paper will help some of you see these guys in a slightly different light. That does NOT make me a big ATF fan by any means. But sometimes you just have to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, a very refreshing read from the Director of the ATF.

    • I’d guess Jan 2019 at the latest, the Dems can decide to fall on that sword, I won’t even cry.

  19. Nothing motivates the survival instinct of a featherbedding gov’t like the prospect of loosing they cushy employment/which way the winds be blowing.

    How is a “Kitchentable” FFL different from a “gun registry”? There is none. Short term operations that are required to turn in it’s records to the jackbooted thugs when it expires.

    • Jackbooted thugs might think twice if the “kitchen counter” FFL has actual MG’s.

      Just sayin’.

  20. The thought of dirt cheap m1 carbines brings me great joy! but if the 4473 is not kept on file and a gun shows up at a crime scene, what measures are there to help solve the crime and find the guns original owner?

    • Very, very few crimes are actually solved by “gun traces”, and I suspect a similarly small number of stolen guns are actually returned to their original owner by such a trace.

      If you haven’t reported the gun stolen, they’re not going to give it back just because your name is on the original 4473. The 4473 is proof that you once owned it, but not necessarily that you are the current rightful owner. And if you’ve filed a stolen property report, they don’t need the 4473 to return your property to you (which they very likely won’t do if the gun is held as evidence in a violent crime).

    • That happens about 1% of the time they even bother to trace a gun, it sounds like. Not a big issue, ergo not worth the huge burden on licensees (that’s the ATF no. 2’s opinion, not some random yokel’s)

  22. Someone, somewhere in the bowels of the ATF supports removing silencers from the NFA and loosening requirements on destructive devices while potentially allowing kitchen counter FFL’s to have newly made MG’s!??!

    What alternate universe have I been transported to?

      • That’s why I said “potentially”. I rate the chances as vanishingly small but the fact that they would even crack the door on such an idea is, after the previous administrations in office, a bit absurd but also refreshing.

        I don’t think a lot of this will happen but it does provide evidence that the ATF is not completely staffed with incompetent people or jack-booted thugs. It would appear that there are at least some people within the agency who view the firearms industry and gun owners in general as good and law abiding people who don’t need the level of oversight the ATF is currently required to provide.

  23. While these may be “nice” they are still wrong. Redefining “sporting purpose” overlooks the fact that the second amendment does not protect guns for “sporting purpose” but for militia use. Likewise removing silencers from the NFA list overlooks the fact that the NFA list itself is unconstitutional. Allowing NICS to be used by employers is a great expansion of government interference. I could go down the list, but those examples should give you an idea…

    • Hey, these are all steps in the right direction. I agree, it would be nice if we could repeal every federal gun law overnight, and it would fit with the Constitution. But that’s not gonna happen. They’re been restricting our rights incrementally since 1934, and incremental change is how we’re gonna get them back. Don’t make the mistake of making perfect the enemy of good.

  25. The korean guns have nothing to do with CMP. They were not lend lease, they were sold to the koreans. All of them were slated to go to century. Century even made a statement regarding layoffs due to the order to block their importation. While it’s great to see more surplus come in, it ain’t going to come via CMP.

    • Most of them probably will. The M1’s at least. The CMP is pretty much the only organization in the US with the knowledge and skill base, that can check everyone of those guns. Because they will all need to be inspected before they can be sold. No one but the CMP has enough employees with the necessary skills and tools to do that at this point.

      • You’re saying that Century would prioritize it’s lack of skills of the M1 over its desire for profits? Now that’s funny.

      • Whether the Koreans actually paid us real money for them back in the 1960’s or not, they own them outright. The deal that the Obama admin blocked was a commercial deal for those M1’s, and the CMP wasn’t involved at all. CMP gets their guns from transfers of U.S. Government property, they don’t do commercial imports. Since the M1’s in question are wholly and legally owned by the Korean government, they will almost certainly be imported commercially by someone like Century, and sold as-is caked in cosmoline, not cleaned, inspected, and refurbished. Don’t expect ’em to be all that cheap, either, in a milsurp market where a decent-but-nothing-special SKS now goes for $400.

  26. These guys are seeing the writing on the wall and know if they want to stay on board of this runaway horse, they better hold on tight and let it run!

    • Seconded. Hell, there is so many interesting guns out there that I’ve love to get. But no… freakin’ arms control laws. >,,<!

  28. Number 3 stands to change everything.

    If M1’s and M1 carbine’s from abroad become kosher – watch the price on them drop AND the price on other semi-auto’s in order to compete. If this administration gets rid of the Norinco ban sheesh all bets are off 🙂

    • No, the exemptions on new-production transferable machineguns changes everything. A real-deal select fire FG42 runs some 250,000$, but now you’d be able to get into an SMG reproduction FG for six grand and a tax stamp. A stamp with a shorter wait time since silencers are no longer clogging up the works.

  29. One glaring omission, although probably because this is in the hands of the State Dept., rather than Treasury: rescind the application of ITAR regulation over small arms gunsmiths. If your local gunsmith has to drill a couple new mounting holes to stick a scope mount on your hunting rifle, that hardly constitutes “manufacturing.” It they want to re-open the door to kitchen table gun dealers, they likewise need to get rid of the egregious $2500 ITAR registration to perform shade tree gunsmithing.

    • Not just gunsmiths. ITAR registration should not apply to anyone not directly in the business of export.

      • Or anyone involved in small arms. Sorry, but there’s no way in hell a shoulder-fired-anything constitutes a risk to America’s strategic military standing (tactics =/= strategy) that would change how we engage an opponent. Certainly nothing related to firearms.

  30. All this from a Trump vote? Hallelujah? Hey the Cubs,Trump and the Patriots won-ANYTHING can happen.

  31. All of the big gun makers will exert all their political pressure to prevent (kill) the re importation of all those ROK surplus guns–why would any maker want to see gun prices drop with a flood of very desirable surplus and collector guns ?? DMD

    • because as the white paper stated, these guns generally go to militaria collectors or possibly CMP. It’s like Mosen Nagants flooding the market, you may get a few people buying them but they aren’t gonna impact the market.

  32. Doing this by regulations is a big fail. Sure, it will feel nice for a while, maybe make it possible for some people to get guns they wouldn’t be able to otherwise, but that’s it.

    Do it by legislation! One I’d insist on is ending the nonsense about not being able to give a gun to someone in a different state — something I ran up against when a friend in Washington wanted to give me his older AR. But put as many corrections to the current quagmire into law.

    Then when Trump has given us a solid 2nd-Amendment SCOTUS, let everyone and their brother brings challenges, so the laws can be confirmed — but noted as unnecessary because the Second Amendment makes the sorts of restrictions the law would be removing null and void in the first place.

  33. Let’s limit “Armor Piercing Handgun Ammunition” to, well, pistol calibers, which include .44 Remington Magnum and .38 Special, but do not include 5.56×45, 7.62×39 or 7.62×51.

  34. Personally I don’t believe this is real. I think we’re getting trolled. But at the same time I don’t ignore the fact that there are somethings the BATFE handles that are impotent. It’s more along the line that the entire agency has always been broken and politicized to the point of doing more harm than good.

    • This isn’t “Real” in that it isn’t what has been presented by the title of the article or implied therein.

      It’s simply one man’s opinion from within the ATF, I suspect these types of documents are regularly written and floated and then go somewhere to die.

      A basic reading level of the disclaimers at the end of the PDF document would allow one to understand this.

      The title of the article however says ‘Planned Pro-Gun Moves” – they are not planned, title is false. TTAG is clickbaiting everyone.

      False premise.

  35. First page of the document states:
    “Options to Reduce or Modify Firearms Regulations”

    Nick where does it say anywhere in the document that these are planned changes?

    How can you possibly stand behind this statement:
    “Word comes today through a leaked ATF white paper exactly what kinds of pro-gun regulatory changes are coming down the road.”

    The white paper says nothing of the sort, it’s simply one ATF exec’s musings on several regulations – and he very clearly states as such. These are not planned. They are not “coming down the road.”

    Get a grip.

    “Note: The opinions expressed within this white paper are not those of the ATF; they are merely the ideas
    and opinions of this writer. They are provided for internal use within ATF and DOJ and not intended to be
    public. “

    • Agreed completely. This is all I can think of everytime I read “dirt cheap guns from the CMP are coming!”

      A) they won’t be dirt cheap ( pretty sure new Springfield is comparable in cost)
      B) CMP was put in place to encourage civilian marksmanship so it irritates me a little bit that the prices are driven up by “collectors”

  38. So, like a kinder, gentler master ruling over Americans with a gloved, un-clenched fist? Go to hell.

  39. Interesting ‘leak’. Whenever something leaks, I wonder why it WAS leaked. In this case is it a trial balloon, or a lead one meant to spark enough political firestorm to kill the changes before they ever occur?

  40. This list reads to me like a list of “regulations we can change to make our jobs easier” aka “ways to cut some money out of the budget and weasel out of our responsibilities”

    The fact that regulatory guidance from an agency can make this big of a difference in our hobby is criminal.

  41. disband these gun runners and dope dealers! remember Waco, where they killed 80 some people just for a movie about how good they were. or ruby ridge where they enticed a poor man to chop the barrel of a shotgun off, then tried to turn him into a snitch, when that wasn’t going to happen, they changed his court date made him a fugitive, surrounded his cabin killed his 12 old son, his dog, and a wife holding a baby.. let gun dealers make illegal sales for Anti-gun agitprop that got border agents killed, they do nothing but make life miserable for real people

  42. These proposals need to be implemented. BUT…more important is to follow up with legislation that limits ATF’s rulemaking ability. Otherwise, the next Democrat in the White House will simply undo them the way Trump is. It is unbearable the way that gun rights ebb and flow with every change in the White House. Fix the rules, and then take away the ATF’s rulemaking ability I say.

  43. BATF knows it was not Lawfully created. ATF is only its most recent name. Created not by CONGRESS but by bureaucratic stroke of a pen , ( over several name / function changes ) it CAN and SHOULD be Abolished.
    ATF knows it is only one case away from being EXPOSED as having NO Standing and NO Jurisdiction.
    We should modernize gun laws, but it must be with a LAWFULLY + Constitutionally created agency ..( FBI )… not a deep state holdover from the old Federal Alcohol Administration. ( Perfect example of government NEVER shrinking )
    Even if we ignore the Waco / Ruby Ridge / Fast & Furious MURDERS …. ATF has a proven history of Lying in court to win cases and continue its OUTLAW existance. ( See ; Thomas Busey transcript case , 50% error rate covered up for 20 YEARS , while agents lied under oath the NFA registry was … 100 % accurate. — Learn the history for yourself :
    http://www.usa-the-republic.com/revenue/BATF-IRS%20Criminal%20Report.html#bfi

  44. #7 alone would help the gun rights landscape forever; just like registering all gun owners makes for a great way to increase regulations, registering (making searchable) all ATF opinions (ie legislation by fiat) would open the door to requiring those opinions to be self-consistent, balanced, and within the actual laws that they claim to gain their power from. And once those opinions were searchable, making them no-longer searchable would probably require an act of congress, along with that congress never being re-elected; how could anyone tolerate/justify making government rules less transparent as they apply to and can be understood by normal, law abiding citizens?

  46. Hey TTAG, The summary of #1 skips over a very important point. To acquire and maintain an FFL you would still have to be “engaged in the business”. You can’t and will not be able to just pay a license fee to only have your own guns shipped to your door for your personal collection. You have to at least be attempting to turn a profit. The first time that ATF conducted an annual inspection of your log book and it showed that all of your purchases are retained for your personal use, that FFL would likely be revoked.

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