H.R. 7115 “The Instant Felony Hobby Act”

And so much more. Officially, the short title for this mess is “3–D Firearms Prohibitions Act,” but I stand by my version.

(a) Banned hazardous products.—Notwithstanding section 3(a)(5)(E) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2052(a)(5)(E)), the following shall be considered banned hazardous products under section 8 of such Act (15 U.S.C. 2057):

(1) A firearm receiver casting or firearm receiver blank or unfinished handgun frame that—

(A) at the point of sale does not meet the definition of a firearm in section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code; and

(B) after purchase by a consumer, can be completed by the consumer to the point at which such casting or blank functions as a firearm frame or receiver for a semiautomatic assault weapon or machinegun or the frame of a handgun.

(2) An assault weapon parts kit.

(3) A machinegun parts kit.

That’s pretty straightforward. Note that it isn’t limited to 80% receivers. It’s any blank or casting, before any machining.

But this is odd:

SEC. 3. Prohibition of advertising do-it-yourself assault weapons.

(a) In general.—It shall be unlawful to market or advertise, on any medium of electronic communications, including over the Internet, for the sale of any of the following:

And it’s the same list. Apparently newspaper and magazine ads are still acceptable. For hazardous materials?

But “SEC. 4. Requirement that homemade firearms have serial numbers.” I’ll start with (c)(1)(A).

It shall be unlawful for any person, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to make a firearm, unless the person has obtained a serial number and identifying mark for the firearm under this section.

So you can’t even start construction until you have a registered and tracked serial number; rather like building your own legal suppressor. But (c)(3) is worse.

BAN ON POSSESSION OR TRANSFER OF FIREARM WITHOUT SERIAL NUMBER.—It shall be unlawful for any person, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to possess or transfer a firearm made after 1968 by a person who is not a licensed manufacturer, unless—

“(A) a serial number and identifying mark for the firearm has been issued under this section;

Remember, you can’t have a casting or blank, because it’s a “hazardous material.” You can’t build until you get the serial number. But you have to be finished in 10 days; 10 days to do a casting, machining a block of metal into a blank, or printing a receiver, finishing it, and affixing the serial number. Ten days. And grandfathering only covers pre-1986 hobbyist-built firearms. Because you can’t possess the old serialized firearm, it’s illegal before you could even apply for a serial number.

And then there’s SEC. 5. Definitions.

A “semiautomatic assault weapon” is any semiauto rifle or shotgun with any feed device other than .22 rimfire tube magazines. It includes anything using magazines, belts, drums, stripped clips, en bloc clips, and so on.

Dad’s old Browning hunting rifle is now an assault weapon.

As are semiauto pistols with any one of the usual arbitrary secondary characteristics: mag well not in the grip (there goes your broomhandle Mauser C96), threaded barrel (even if nother is threaded onto it), a second grip, weighs more than 50 ounces.

Any other semiauto pistol that’s otherwise compliant is still an assault weapon if it can be deemed to be a semiauto version of an automatic firearm (think CZ Scorpion EVO, or AK and AR pistol variants).

If you already have a home-built firearm, you’d have to destroy it before this goes into effect, because it’s impossible to get a compliant serial number. Any future home builds will be registered to you.


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