Akins Accelerator Court Ruling is Issued

[MicroBalrog]

PDF here

ATF wins this round.

Naturally nobody likes this, but it was to be expected.

[PTK]

Balls.

I was hoping.

[Werewolf]

This is worrisome to me. Not being a lawyer maybe someone could explain how this:

On July 24, 2008, the Court of Federal Claims dismissed Akins’ remaining claims,
holding that Akins’ takings claims were “barred under the police power doctrine,”

which is where Akins tried to get the government to pay him for taking his stuff under the taking clauses of the 5th amendment.

What the hell is the police power doctrine and if the soon to be commie pres and congress decide to take away all our guns with out paying us for them would this same police power doctrine apply?

[Nick1911]

So basically, basing a business model on what a product the ATF has deemed legal is poor practice, as the standards of what is and is not legal can change for no apparent reason.

[Gewehr98]

As an FFL holder, I find it amazing that the device even passed ATF scrutiny the first time.

If you study the mechanism, it's a lot closer to a machine gun than an operator-activated trigger device.

It's a free-floated action rebounding in a fixed stock, using the recoil to bounce the trigger against the shooter's finger for a full-auto effect.

ATF screwed up by letting it onto the market, IMHO. 

That's not saying I like the ruling, or this 'police power doctrine" thingy, but as long as the 1934 NFA act and 1986 No New MG Ban are firmly in place, it should be applied across the board, not selectively. 

[MicroBalrog]

Perhaps he should start selling commemorative shoelaces?

[Gewehr98]

You funny guy.  [not]

[AJ Dual]

ATF screwed up by letting it onto the market, IMHO. 

Seriously? You think it was a mistake?

Letting it onto the market for a brief period, then recalling it gives the ATFE "something to do", and to report back to superiors at review/budget time.

Even if no one individual made a conscious decision to do this willfully, bureaucratic institutions have the ability to produce self-serving "emergent behavior" like this.

Just as another example, does it seem odd to anyone that the ATFE has approved production of Saiga 12ga drum magazines, much less the 10 round box magazines, when the USAS-12 and the Striker/Streetsweeper-12 were declared destructive devices over a decade ago?

[Brad Johnson]

As an FFL holder, I find it amazing that the device even passed ATF scrutiny the first time.

It didn't.  The sample he submitted was legel in its operation because it broke while being tested, rendering into a condition that only allowed single pull/single fire.  The sample was technically legal, but only because it wasn't working properly when tested.

If you read the letter from the ATF they very specifically state that their opinion was based solely upon the actual operation of the faulty sample, not on the overal premise of operation.  Then they go on to reiterate the definition of machine gun (several times, if memory serves).  It's glaringly obvious what they were saying, at least to those who actually read the letter for what it is.

Akins misread that letter and presumed it to mean the device as a concept was legel.  The letter actually said that the device in it's present operating state (i.e. faulty) was legal.  Akins junkies continue to espouse something in the letter that isn't there.

Mods, please.  This gets hashed out ad nauseum at least a couple times a month over on THR.  Can we kill this now?

Brad

[Gewehr98]

Yeah, it does seem to crawl out from under the rock on a frequent basis.

Brad spelled out the whys and hows of the whole thing. 

It smelled bad from the get-go, and if ATF said a broken sample's function was ok, but the complete version was not, then there you have it.

Thread closed. For those inclined to do so, go buy shoestrings, and don't tell the ATF about it.