Millwright remarked,
Lessee....we're trying to outguess the possible "decision" of an agency that's declared bootlaces and rubber bands "machine guns" in court testimony ? >MW
Read Post 7:
If you recall, a while ago there was a big brouhaha about how silly it was for the BATFE to call a looped shoestring an actual machinegun. But on reading their letter citing the way the actual law was written, I could see where they were coming from. I (gasp!) agreed with their viewpoint.
I'm sure you're joking, but read the original correspondence, where they made the original decision dictated by the actual law's actual verbiage, and then their later clarification, developed because of the fuss generated by "our" interpretation that we all walk around with two machine guns laced into our shoes.
http://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2010/01/25/shoestring-machine-gun/
I'm not in the habit of defending the BATFE, but as I said above, there are enough vagaries in the laws they are charged with enforcing that I'd think carefully about trying to finesse the system with, say, rack-and-pinion firing systems (see Post 4).
Like it or not, they are trying to enforce a set of Federal firearms laws which sometimes lead to unexpected and
unintended results, and which are on the face of it unconstitutional infringements, like having a shotgun with a barrel only 17.99999 inches long. Or got that way by having the temperature drop to 20° Fahrenheit, by shrinkage.
The solution is to get rid of the NFA and, while we're at it, the GCA of 1968 and all derivative laws.
Let the BATFE go after moonshiners and tobacco smugglers and
take what's specifically out-of-bounds constitutionally, out of their jurisdiction.
Terry, 230RN