What's a "sporting purpose"?

[MudPuppy]

So, with all the hoopla about "sporting" purposes--just what exactly does that mean?

Isn't hunting a sporting purpose?

I took two whitetails over the holiday break, one with a 308 CETME and the other with an AMD-63 (hungarian AK variant--homebuilt!). Both of those rifles are subject to the silliest laws with the words sporting purpose tossed around like it actually should mean something. Now, I realize the government rules and stuff long ago became about protecting its own existence and rarely serves the interest of the population, but I'm really just not getting how this works. Grenade Launcher? Sure, you're not using that for target practice or taking a deer. Full Auto? Also generally illegal for taking game as far as I know (in Texas it is forbidden).

Now, I realize all this is a moot point in regards to what the consitition actually means when it uses the word "infringed", but when it gets down to it the BOR really isn't relevant these days (Emminent domain, no warrants required for searches, no new FA permits, etc), but the laws on the books usually get followed--hence the question on what the heck sporting actually means??

 

[longeyes]

Hunting down tyrants is very sporting.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

First, it isn't sufficient to be a "sporting purpose", it must be a "generally recognized sporting purpose" - so even though a gun is used in a sport, or even that it dominates a popular and old sport (like NRA High Power/AR15s), doesn't mean it has a sporting purpose to the ATF.

Second, this vagueness is interpreted by bureaucrats, not defined by law. That alone should explain why the law makes no sense.

 

[Standing Wolf]

So, with all the hoopla about "sporting" purposes--just what exactly does that mean?

Whatever the federal trough feeders want it to mean today; tomorrow, of course, is another day, another opportunity to revise and refine the meanings of things.

 

[grampster]

Actually I think it has something to do with hookers and horse racing.

 

[kahr40]

Hunting down tyrants is very sporting.

Or maybe popping a bad guy trying to rob you or breaking into your house? That sounds like great sport.

 

[georgeduz]

its not about what you need ,its all about your freedom and liberty.you may not need something or want it.but it is your right to own it.i dont hunt i dont want to hunt,i just shoot.

 

[progunner1957]

"Sporting Use" - the groundwork for absolute power with no accountability

So, with all the hoopla about "sporting" purposes--just what exactly does that mean?

It means:

"We The Soverigns, who seek to rule The People of the United States with absolute impunity, hereby declare the Bill of Rights in general and Article Two of said Bill in particular null and void, subject to our arbitrary and enlightened governance.

In order to further our holy grail of autocratic socialist rule with no accountability to The People of the United States, we hereby decree that any firearm that has any utility whatsoever as a military weapon and is therefore useful in the role of a citizen resistance to our absolute power to be 'of no sporting use' and therefore is to be confiscated forthwith from all rightful owners of said weapons, The People of the United States."

That's what "sporting purpose" is all about.

It is both revealing and alarming that the arbitrary and fabricated criteria of "Legitimate Sporting Use" was used by Hitler's Nazi regieme to confiscate arms from the Jews it later brutalized and murdered by the millions. That elements in "our" government and "our" culture would even think of going down the "Sporting Use" road is most unnerving.

It reveals their true intentions - absolute power with no accountability to We The People, just like the "government" of Nazi Germany.

We cannot ever allow that to come to pass.

In my opinion - and everyone may not agree - it is better to fight a second American revolution than to live at the mercy of criminal thugs, whether they roam the streets in gang colors or roam the halls of Congress in $2000 suits.

AS H.L. Mencken said of WWII, "There are worse things than war."

 

[alan]

UNDEFINED IN LAW, so far as I know, as is the case with particularly suitable or readilly adaptable thereto.

Excuse me for repeating myself

 

[Hkmp5sd]

What no one has said yet is that it is a clause introduced into the 1968 Gun Control Act (GCA) that prohibits the importation of firearms that ATF has determined are "not generally recognized for sporting purposes." This is why no one can import HK-94s or folding stock AKs. It does not affect guns manufactured in the US.

If you are interested, HERE is the report ATF made on banning a bunch of imports back in 1989 that had previously been sporting, but suddenly became unsporting.

 

[VorpalSpork]

If you are interested, HERE is the report ATF made on banning a bunch of imports back in 1989 that had previously been sporting, but suddenly became unsporting.

Does anyone else find it morbidly humorous to hear the BATFE espousing an originalist interpretation of the 1968 Gun Control Act as justification for their actions? Such a pity they don't read the 2nd amendment that way.

 

[benEzra]

It is both revealing and alarming that the arbitrary and fabricated criteria of "Legitimate Sporting Use" was used by Hitler's Nazi regieme to confiscate arms from the Jews it later brutalized and murdered by the millions. That elements in "our" government and "our" culture would even think of going down the "Sporting Use" road is most unnerving.

Anybody have a citation from 1930's German law on this? I'd be interested in seeing that. (Scary.)

 

[stevelyn]

What is a "sporting purpose"?

It is an undefined, arbitrary and subjective term used by BATFEces to deny people their rights.

BTW when the '68 GCA was being written, Senator Dodd used the Nazi weapons laws as his model.