Shotgun study

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This Will Give The Authors Of The ATF Shotgun Importability Study The Vapors

August 15, 2011 by 1 Comment

The bureaucrats of the ATF’s Firearms and Explosives Industry Division released a report in January concerning the importability of certain shotguns.The study contended that certain shotguns would not meet the sporting test for importation despite being used extensively in USPSA and IPSC competitions.

Following this review, the working group determined that certain shotgun features are not particularly suitable or readily adaptable for sporting purposes. These features include:

(1) Folding, telescoping, or collapsible stocks;
(2) bayonet lugs;
(3) flash suppressors;
(4) magazines over 5 rounds, or a drum magazine;
(5) grenade-launcher mounts;
(6) integrated rail systems (other than on top of the receiver or barrel);
(7) light enhancing devices;
(8) excessive weight (greater than 10 pounds for 12 gauge or smaller);
(9) excessive bulk (greater than 3 inches in width and/or greater than 4 inches in depth);
(10) forward pistol grips or other protruding parts designed or used for gripping the shotgun with the shooter’s extended hand.

Although the features listed above do not represent an exhaustive list of possible shotgun features, designs or characteristics, the working group determined that shotguns with any one of these features are most appropriate for military or law enforcement use. Therefore, shotguns containing any of these features are not particularly suitable for nor readily adaptable to generally recognized sporting purposes such as hunting, trap, sporting clay, and skeet shooting.

The Tromix Mini 12-gauge Saiga AK Shotgun reviewed in the video below has at least five of the “evil” characteristics as determined by the ATF study and it has a short barrel to boot. Oh, the horror!

If you want Tromix Lead Delivery Systems to build one of these for you, you’ll have to pony up at least $1385 (probably more) plus your own Saiga 12. You will also have to wait until 2012 to take delivery as they are booked up for custom builds through the end of 2011.

Despite all the NFA crap that would come with this shotgun, I’d still wouldn’t mind having one. They look like a fun gun to have.

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Report On ATF Shotgun Study

May 15, 2011 by 2 Comments

Link at the Peace, Love, Ammunition blog has examined the 516 page document that purports to have ALL the comments received on their “Shotgun Study”. While there are numerous problems with this document – including the publication of personal address information – the worst is what seems to be the deliberate omission of comments.

As Link notes about the comments he submitted:

I downloaded the poorly planned 516 page PDF and immediately searched for a distinct portion of my email address.  It was not found.  I know I submitted an email to the BATF on this matter, and I also knew that I had received an acknowledgment from the ATF confirming receipt of my email.

I searched and found their receipt email which I was initially going to post, but as I dug deeper into the rabbit hole it became less relevant.  Their receipt email was sent to me on 13 May 2011, which struck me as bizarre, since I knew I sent my response to their request for comment prior to attending the NRA Annual Meeting at the end of April 2011.  I searched my sent items and found that I had sent them my thoughts on their “study” on 8 April 2011.

Read the whole report which includes a link to the ATF released comments. The link to the study is below.

Peace, Love, And Ammunition: BATFE Shoutgun “Study”: I Smelled A Rat

UPDATE: According to the ATF label on this file at their website, these are only the responses received up through March 6th.

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NSSF On The ATF Shotgun Study

February 1, 2011 by

The NSSF released this today. I think they got it right where they say it isn’t for the Federal government to decide an event is sporting if the participants consider it a sport.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is currently reviewing the recently released study by ATF on the importability of shotguns. NSSF will be submitting comments to ATF by the May 1, 2011 deadline. NSSF’s initial reaction to the study is that if the shooting public deems a certain activity to be “sporting” through participation, even if that sport is new and seems unconventional to the uninitiated, NSSF does not believe the federal government should say that the firearms law abiding citizens use to participate in that shooting sport activity are neither “particularly suitable for nor readily adaptable to generally recognized sporting purposes” pursuant to the Gun Control Act of 1968. Many new sport shooting disciplines have arisen since 1968 and have enjoyed significant participation. The federal government ought not to be making subjective decisions about what lawful shooting activities it considers a sport.

The safe and responsible participation in new and evolving sporting events does not result in injury. The possession of firearms in the hands of law abiding Americans for any lawful purpose, including but not limited to sports shooting, does not cause crime.

The Supreme Court’s decisions in Heller and McDonald make clear that the exercise of the fundamental individual right to keep and bear arms for self defense protected by the Second Amendment does not hinge on whether one will use the firearm to participate in an activity the government deems to be sufficiently sporting. The shotguns this study would ban from importation are also suitable for self protection including home defense.

NSSF believes the time has come for Congress to re-examine the so-called “sporting purpose” test as a criteria for importing a firearm into the United States.

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NRA On Shotgun Study

January 29, 2011 by

The NRA-ILA released this statement on the just released ATF study on shotgun imports and the “sporting test”. I couldn’t agree more that the sporting test needs to be abolished.

Proposed Shotgun Import Ban Shows Need To Change Law

Friday, January 28, 2011

On Thursday, Jan. 27, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released a Study on the Importability of Certain Shotguns, which proposes that “military shotguns, or shotguns with common military features that are unsuitable for traditional shotgun sports” be prohibited from importation. This would apply to all shotguns—not just semi-automatics. As in previous “working group” studies on rifles, the study fails to give proper credit to the widespread use of these guns in newer shooting sports, or to their adaptability to hunting.

The study underscores the need for Congress to change the firearm importation law. That law requires the Attorney General to approve the importation of any firearm “generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.” This “sporting purposes” test was imposed by the Gun Control Act in 1968, a time when the right to self-defense with a firearm was not as widely respected by the courts as it is today.

Clearly, the main reason to change the law is that the Second Amendment—as the Supreme Court said in District of Columbia v. Heller—protects our right to keep and bear arms for defense, not for sports. In its 2008 Heller decision, the court observed that “the inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right” and ruled that the Second Amendment protects “the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,” particularly within the home, where “the need for defense of self, family, and property is most acute.” The court also dismissed the notion that the amendment doesn’t protect modern arms, saying “Just as the First Amendment protects modern forms of communications and the Fourth Amendment applies to modern forms of search, the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms.”

Another reason to change the law is to end the BATFE’s 22-year history of misinterpreting it. In 1989, the bureau banned the importation of semi-automatic rifles, claiming they were not used for “organized marksmanship competition.” (In fact, the banned guns were of the type most commonly used by competitors in the most popular marksmanship competitions in the United States—the National Matches, and the hundreds of local, state and regional competitions that precede the national events each year.) In 1998, BATFE expanded the ban, absurdly claiming that semi-automatic rifles’ “suitability for this activity [marksmanship competition] is limited.” At the time, a Clinton White House official said “we’re taking the law and bending it as far as we can to capture a whole new class of guns.”

Now, BATFE is bending the law one more time. As this issue develops, the NRA will be looking at every legislative and legal option to bring our firearms import laws back in line with the Constitution.

NRA members and other concerned gun owners can submit comments on the study until May 1, 2011. Comments may be submitted by e-mail to shotgunstudy@atf.gov or by fax to (202)648-9601. Faxed comments may not exceed five pages. All comments must include name and mailing address.