by Hitoru » Mon May 05, 2008 11:51 pm
1990 18 U.S.C. section 922(r)
Congress reacts to all this funny business by passing a new bill (veto proof) that Bush signs into law. It states that it is illegal to assemble an unimportable firearm from imported parts, or more specifically makes it illegal to assemble any firearm prohibited from importation under 18 U.S.C. section 9235(d)(3). The idea here is to prohibit Importers/Manufactures/Dealers from offering imported firearms to the general public that are not allowed to be imported. There is still no definition of what is unsporting and thus importable in Law, Regulation, or Ruling. Remember guys, wording is important in law, it only makes the act of assembly illegal, possession, and transfer are not covered here. Again, the intent was to prohibit B-West and Springfield Inc type activities. There was much argument about what was meant by "imported parts". One could read the law as did the NRA to mean that as long as there was one nonimported part on a rifle it could not be construed to be made of imported parts. The ATF went as far as to tell Kokalis that mere insertion of a 30 round mag into a MAK-90 was worth some jail time. So anyway we were still free to possess and transfer newly converted rifles, such as say a SAR-4800 with a "compact accurizing package" installed, the supposed illegal act was the actual assembly. Thing was, Federal Law/Regulation/Ruling did not define "unsporting", "imported parts", or "assembly". In other words, 922(r) lacked legal definition, or teeth.
Well since this law is so vague in 1993 ATF writes regulation (178.39) that spells out the "10 parts rule" further defines what assembly of imported parts means. It states that only 10 imported parts are allowed in a unsporting imported firearm. The odd part is that the Federal Firearms Regulation Guide that is circulated by the ATF is put out in 1990 and it is to late to include this in it. Both the new Law and it's corresponding Regulation shows up in the 1995 Guide. During the interim many rifles are assembled at home from imported parts without concern to parts count.
The biggest obstacle for enforcing this law (note there are no known 922(r) convictions even thought the law is now 15 years old) is that it prohibits the assembly of a certain firearms that don't pass the "sporting clause" found in 18 U.S.C. section 925(d)(3) but "unsporting" firearms are not defined in Law, Regulation, or Ruling, and may well never be defined in such manor, because it is much more fun to change the rules as you go along. So how can you prosecute someone for building a rifle that is prohibited in 925(d)(3) from importation when there is no description or definition of these firearms in Law, Regulation, or Ruling? A second obstacle for enforcement is that term "assemble" is not defined in Law, Regulation, or Ruling either. Importers/Manufactures/Dealers are forced to comply with 922(r) in that they are directly regulated by the ATF (remember B-West?)
1994 Policy change, Chinese fun is over
Chinese ugly guns no longer approved for import effective 05-27-94.
1994 Crime Bill; 18 U.S.C. section 922(v) and (w)
No longer the law of the land, so not relevant from a legal standpoint (well, except for the few still in the slammer for violating it). This was a failed next incremental step at "gun control". In part It consisted of a list of prohibited firearms. The list was compiled by picking ugly guns found in gun annuals of the time. The thing was poorly written. The biggest effect of 922(v) was that US firearm production reaches WWII levels, and consequently there is a mass proliferation of semiautomatic firearms in the US. While 922(v) and (w) were law, there were a few semiautomatic firearms and detachable mags manufactured with "law enforcement only" markings. No Federal Law exists that prohibits possession, transfer or manufacture of semiautomatic firearms or mags with the markings "law enforcement only". In fact, you could engrave you firearm with the markings "illegal firearm" and it would still be legal to possess and transfer.
What are you? Some short sighted trigger puller? - RR3 .
Mr.wRong.
