Obama EO's on the way and they're BAD

[Ingman]

I agree as to the legality. However, there is no statutory basis for requiring border state FFLs to report multiple long gun sales either. He pulled that out of his ass. Wanna bet what happens to a non-reporting FFL in his compliance check if he defies the rule?

That argument isn't so clear cut. Congress has already required the reporting of multiple handgun sales under 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(3)(A) - this is clearly a statutory requirement. The ATF is claiming they can demand reports of multiple longgun sales under 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(5)(A) which reads:

Each licensee shall, when required by letter issued by the Attorney General, and until notified to the contrary in writing by the Attorney General, submit on a form specified by the Attorney General, for periods and at the times specified in such letter, all record information required to be kept by this chapter or such lesser record information as the Attorney General in such letter may specify.

That subsection generally allows the ATF to demand any records they want, usually for purposes of some specific investigation they are carrying out. What is new here is that the ATF is using that authority for a fishing expedition that involves thousands of FFLs.

To me this looks like a slippery slope. If the ATF can demand that many records as part of a general investigation into "gun trafficking" then what is to stop them from demanding ALL records and basically building a database of all FFL-based gun transactions?

Anyway, before this gets too long winded, my point is to make a distinction between multiple long-gun reporting and the idea of hypothetically redefining magazines as NFA destructive devices. The requirement for multiple long-gun reporting is a novel use of an existing statute. "Destructive devices" have a very clear statutory definition that cannot have things arbitrarily added to it. There is simply no way that the executive branch can add magazines to the definition of "destructive devices", although I'm not putting past them to find some other way to dick with magazines.

My biggest concern is what they can do to imports. It didn't even require a formal Executive Order, and Chinese guns and ammunition are still prohibited twenty years after Clinton acted. How cheap would ammunition be now if Chinese factories were still pumping the below out like they used to?