When people are building their own plastic ar's, that could be considered a loop hole. When a company is manufacturing plastic ar receivers for sale, then sells a bunch of them, they are blatantly exploiting that loop hole, and frankly i dont feel bad when the ATF shows up on their door.
There's a question here weather they were in fact manufacturing "Firearms". It's a pretty arcane subject, that seems like it should be straightforward. Here's how it works:
According to the government, a "firearm" must carry manufacturer's identifying marks and a serial number. The actual "firearm" is not a complete weapon, but some component of the weapon deemed essential by the government. The "essential component" of an AR-style rifle is the lower receiver. All simple so far.
Now for the fun part. A forging blank or billet is not a receiver without a lot of machine work in some pretty specialized jigs and fixtures. At some point during the machining process the magic happens and the forging blank becomes a deadly firearm. The controversy starts when you try to define when machined metal becomes a finished piece and is considered a firearm for manufacturing/registration purposes.(It's kind of like the abortion debate.) For government purposes, the magic happens at 80%. This is where you get an "80% lower" - a lower receiver that has 80% of the machine work done, but is not yet far enough along to be serial numbered and counted as a firearm. This 80% lower may be sold as a gun part, and not as a firearm. That's the "loophole".
(here I'm a little fuzzy on the details) I've read that in the case of our AR lower receiver, there are 5 machining steps that need to be completed to finish the part. This can be done on a high quality drill press if you're good, but it's much easier to do on a mill.
(back on more solid footing now) Ares has been selling metal 80% receiver blanks for some time, and operates within the law as defined by ATFE. Ares started selling plastic lower receiver blanks that require the same machining steps to complete as the legal metal receivers. They're functionally identical. The ATFE has recently decided the plastic receivers are complete firearms and Ares is manufacturing without a license.
From here we get into an argument about how the receiver is manufactured. Aresa claims a plug is inserted in a mold and the composite injected around it. ATF says the plug is inserted after molding, which would mean one of the machining operations required to be left un-done was in fact finished prior to sale, crossing the magic "80%" threshold. Ares claims the ATF has never visited their manufacturing facility, so presumably ATF came up with their version of events based on inspection of a unfinished receiver.(or some bureaucrat just pulled it out of his a**, that happens at ATF a lot,..). If we care we'll be able to read about it on 3-5 years when the court case is closed.(ATF trials tend to take several years, as the prosecutors like to drag things out as long a possible. - Topic for another time.)
The controversy here isn't the receivers. ATF wants the customer list from Ares. Most people think this is to track down the buyers for backdoor registration purposes, so they know "who gots the guns" when TSHTF(if it ever does)
In actuality, it's for more overt purposes. ATF loves slam dunk convictions. Over 90% of ATF convictions are based on paperwork violations. So you go to federal prison, not because you hurt somebody, but because you didn't fill out a form, or didn't fill it out correctly, or failed to keep your copy of the form available for inspection.
There's a grey area as to weather it's legal to transfer a non-serial numbered firearm between private parties, but it straight up black and white as far as manufacturing. If you buy an 80% lower and complete it, you can not transfer that firearm without filling out a lot of paperwork with the feds because you are a firearm manufacturer, just like Colt, Remington, or Ruger. In ATFs eyes, that customer list is a list of slam-sunk felony paperwork violations just waiting to be filed. Imagine, "Hi! I'm with ATF. You bought this part. Here's the sales receipt. Finished it? Still got it? No?.. ..,And these are handcuffs!" Done.
They don't give a sh** where the finished gun ends up.
Non-registered guns aren't a good thing, you cant argue 'because obama' to justify felonious activity.
All of my guns are "Non-registered", nor are they required to be. It's not a felony or misdemeanor where I live, and I kind of resent the implication, thanks anyway,..
As for "because Obama",.. Well, both the ATF and the IRS agents are committing what appear to be felonies, and they're getting away with it "because Obama". But that's cool right? "because Obama"? So "because Obama" is an excuse that's only good if you work for the Federal Government. Did I get that right?
