Will your Mossberg be outlawed?

[DHonovich]

"Dear Sir or Madame:
Thank you for responding to the Shotgun Study. Your assistance will
further promote ATF's ability to support the firearms industry. We will
review and consider your comments and suggestions.
If you have any questions, you may contact the Firearms and Explosives
Industry Division @ 202-648-7090. Once again, thank you for your email.

Firearms and Explosives Industry Division
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives"

This is the response I received via email.

 

[ladytech777]

Gee, I guess everything I have is going to be affected by the next hurricane or sinkhole-
whichever comes first! I wouldn't mind a boating accident- but then I would need to buy
a boat! I don't think a fire would work- i already had one.

 

[Rossignol]

I have been told by a contact that this proposed legislation effort has failed and was initially aimed at the Saiga.

However, along a similar note, Obama gave an executive order not to allow some 870,000 mil-surp M1's Garands and M1 carbines to be shipped in from South Korea. Even though these were made in the US, they dont fall into the "sporting arms" definition. The state dept had allowed the importation, but Obama's signature made it irreversible.

 

[EAINC]

very good read here

 

[Tom396]

"Dear Sir or Madame:
Thank you for responding to the Shotgun Study. Your assistance will
further promote ATF's ability to support the firearms industry. We will
review and consider your comments and suggestions.
If you have any questions, you may contact the Firearms and Explosives
Industry Division @ 202-648-7090. Once again, thank you for your email.

Firearms and Explosives Industry Division
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives"

This is the response I received via email.

Gee, with support like that, who needs enemies? "We're from the government and we're here to help." I remember a comedian once saying, "Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Hmmm. That doesn't sound like a Bureau, that's sounds like a party." Take care. Tom Worthington.

 

[John A.]

I know this is an older topic that Tom dusted the cobwebs off of, but this is the exact reason that the term/definition: Sporting should be disallowed, and the attorney general should not be granted excessive powers without checks and balances.

Nowhere in the Constitution did it mention sports, or hunting, and it should not be associated in any form or fashion with our Second Amendment gun rights period.

 

[MikeD]

Once they can apply labels (in the legal sense) such as "sporting", "competition", "defense", "hunting", etc. by use they can more easily restrict one type or another. It's bad enough we have the divisions set forth in the NFA now, we don't need any more subdividing of of firarms in to categories.

If anyone wants to see an example, look to England.

 

[John A.]

Sadly enough Mike, there is a legal Sporting Purposes definition.

That's what they're basing all this on.

The determination of a weapon's suitability for sporting purposes "rest directly with the Secretary of the Treasury." 114 Cong. Rec. 27465 (1968) (Statement of Sen. Murphy). While the legislative history suggests that the term "sporting purposes" refers to the traditional sports of target shooting, trap and skeet shooting, and hunting, the statute itself provides no criteria beyond the "generally recognized" language of section 925(d)(3). S. Rep. No. 1097, 90th Cong. 2d Sess. 80, 1968 U.S. Code Cong. and Admin. News 2167.

The Senate Report on the Gun Control Act stated:

The difficulty of defining weapons characteristics to meet this target [of eliminating importation of weapons used in crime] without discriminating against sporting quality firearms, was a major reason why the Secretary of the Treasury has been given fairly broad discretion in defining and administering the import prohibition.



Moreover, there is legislative history which indicates that Congress intended the standard to allow the importation of traditional sporting rifles, while excluding military-type rifles. The Senate Report on the Gun Control Act observed that the importation standards ". . . are designed and intended to provide for the importation of quality made, sporting firearms, including . . . rifles such as those manufactured and imported by Browning and other such manufacturers and importers of firearms." S. Rep. No. 1501, 90th Cong. 2d Sess. 38 (1968). Significantly, the rifles being imported by Browning at that time were semiautomatic and manually operated traditional sporting rifles of high quality. [footnote 1]

An explanation of the effect of this section by one of the sponsors of the bill specifically stated that military firearms would not meet the "sporting purposes" test for importation. The mere fact that a military firearm may be used in a sporting event does not make it importable as a sporting firearm. [footnote 2]






Report and Recommendation on the Importability of Certain Semiautomatic Rifles (1989) (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/wbard ... report.txt)
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There is a later BATFE opinion memo from c.1998 that explicitly states that IDPA/USPSA/"police combat matches" are NOT "sporting purposes" under the import ban.

"Department of the Treasury Study on the Sporting Suitability of Modified Semiautomatic Assault Rifles (4/98)"
http://www.atf.gov/pub/treas_pub/assaul ... /index.htm

Excerpt from chapter "Scope of 'Sporting Purposes'" http://www.atf.treas.gov/pub/treas_pub/ ... pscope.pdf

In addition, the FEP specifically addressed the informal shooting activity of "plinking" (shooting at randomly selected targets such as bottles and cans) and determined that it was not a legitimate sporting purpose under the statute. The panel found that, "while many persons participate in this type of activity and much ammunition was expended in such endeavors, it was primarily a pastime and could not be considered a sport for the purposes of importation. . . ." (See exhibit 6.)

Finally, the 1989 report determined that the term sporting purposes should be given a narrow reading incorporating the traditional rifle sports of hunting and organized competitive target shooting. In addition, the report determined that the statute's reference to sporting purposes was intended to stand in contrast with military and law enforcement applications. This is consistent with ATF’s interpretation in the context of the Striker-12 shotgun and the USAS-12 shotgun. It is also supported by the court’s decision in Gilbert Equipment Co. v. Higgins.