The ATF is reportedly working on redefining “firearm” to include unfinished “80%” frames and receivers. And I am getting really tired of this.
18 U.S. Code § 921(a)(3)
The term “firearm” means (A) any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; (B) the frame or receiver of any such weapon; (C) any firearm muffler or firearm silencer; or (D) any destructive device. Such term does not include an antique firearm.
27 CFR § 478.1
Firearm frame or receiver. That part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock, and firing mechanism, and which is usually threaded at its forward portion to receive the barrel.
That definition is already causing judges to toss firearm possession cases, where the defendant possessed AR lowers, which the ATF willfully and dishonestly calls “firearms.”
True, that does provide housing for the trigger group and hammer. But note the lack of the rest of the firing mechanism, the firing pin. That goes in the upper, which is not considered a firearm. No does the lower house the bolt/breechblock. It doesn’t even have an attach point for the barrel. One characteristic out of four magically makes it a “firearm.”
Judges disagree.
The upper, though, houses the bolt/breechblock, the firing pin, and has the attach point for the barrel. Three out of four of the firearm characteristics doesn’t make it a firearm?
So the ATF already has a judicial problem with the current effing arbitrary redefinition. And now they want to — totally without any lawful authority — to expand it to include unfinished frames/receivers/lowers-to-be.
Lessee… no barrel attach point, no place to put a bolt/breechblock, no place to put the trigger group and hammer.
Try telling the judges, who don’t believe that a finished and assembled AR lower is a firearm, that this paper weight is. Try telling them that the ATF has the lawful authority to pull that redefinition out of its… lower cranial storage orifice.
Currently, even with our corrupted court system, I don’t think this change will survive a challenge. But if the ATF draws out the administrative process of rule-making then Bye-Biden Harris may be able to install a sufficient number of anti-constitutional judges to uphold it.
Alternatively, with the Dims holding both House and Senate (senate president Harris, you know), and the White House, they could do this this legislatively for once.
Either way, I look forward to seeing how they define these “unfinished firearms.”
