and their first bozo nono was an accident after the first one its not an accident anymore
Isn't this incident their first "no-no"? "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" simply means you don't get to avoid sanction, it doesn't mean you are intentionally wrong prior to being informed otherwise.
Again, offshore
toy manufacturer, the regs they would rationally look at are their local manufacturing regs and
maybe import regs, which may or may not further reference actual domestic FA manufacturing regs. If anyone had even a remote reason to go out of their way to go looking to ATF for regs about toys it was the importer. However, why would they? For all outward and inward purposes they are just bringing in airsoft. Why would they think to look outside that import chapter in a totally different book in a totally different library to start measuring internal dimensions on a toy lower?
This is reasonable ignorance, not even insupportable stupidity, much less negligence or real culpability. That's all I'm saying.