Oops

There are so many details in the gun and ammo industry it might be easy to overlook some little decision and the side effects of it. Some mistakes are minor. Some are a little larger.

The ATF accidentally banned ammunition manufacturing.

Well, not exactly, but sort of. The changed the regs and reclassified nitrocellulose as a high explosive. You know, nitrocellulose. The stuff that is used to manufacture virtually ALL smokeless powder? All the facilities that made or handled powder would have to be totally redesigned, and frequently relocated, and shut down in the meantime. Yeah, just a minor change. So, the ATF, having been informed of the effect of this minor update, issued a “it’s still on the books, but never mind for the moment” notice.

Joe, I know you say you’ve had nothing but positive interactions with the ATF field agents and personnel, but you must live in a odd location in the time-space continuum.

Yeah…. Top. Men.

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5 thoughts on “Oops

  1. This ruling was NO ACCIDENT. It’s a bald faced attempt to put an end to the civilian production of smokeless powder and by extension ammunition. It’s
    backdoor gun control. They got caught red handed and are blowing smoke to
    cover for their attempt. But they haven’t given up. The probable reason for them
    suspending this is the upcoming election. The big muckymucks at BATFEces who are behind this are probably sweating it out waiting to see if by chance Trump wins in November. If he does they don’t want to have handed him an excuse to haul out his patented ‘You’re Fired’ and toss it at them. If Cankles win we can almost certainly expect this regulation to be put in place and enforced VIGOROUSLY.

    • This is quite possibly true. OTOH, it’s also quite possible that the brain-trust at the top really are this stupid.

      And I’m not sure which scenario is scarier, but both are strong arguments for the whole thing being shut down entirely, because neither “Evil” and “utterly incompetent” are acceptable in any government agency. I’d love to see the BATFE head trying to explain why they are one versus the other in sworn testimony before congress, because those really are the only two options.

  2. The competence level of government agencies has actually been dropping in recent years, and it wasn’t high to begin with.

  3. It could be either one: “Let’s see if we can sneak this through” or “This seems like a good idea, let’s do it!”

    Either way, strongly suspect the “Oh, we didn’t mean THAT!” letter came out of “Do you know how many congressmen have called? Some of them mentioning things like ‘budget cuts’ and ‘hearings’? Do something to calm this down!” Which means, no matter which was behind it, they’re still holding the possibility open.

    Because ‘ATF’ means never having to care about actually being held responsible for anything.

  4. It certainly seems likely they did this on purpose and were caught. But then again, strictly speaking, isn’t nitrocellulose in fact a high explosive? At least in its pure form. Of course, when processed into smokeless powder it no longer is.

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