BATFE 41P – No News is…. No News

BATFE LogoAs we get closer and closer to the theoretical “12/00/2015” final action date for the ATF’s Rule 41P – the rule that would make it more difficult to make or transfer NFA items to a gun trust – there hasn’t been much chatter about it.  This includes the absence of a reply to the 9,500 or so comments that were submitted during the comment period that must be responded to.  Prince Law reported in August that there were four reviewers working through those comments.

This year saw, once again, renewed pushes for more gun control that fell flat and served to do little other than rally support against such gun control measures.  Anti-gun zealots were, once again, caught cooking the books to get false numbers that they spread as gospel and telling outright lies.  This, along with mainstream media coverage of the danger of “gun free zones” this year may even be awakening some of the general public to the utter nonsense that is the gun control agenda.

That turning tide of Second Amendment proponents away from being “the silent majority” is a great thing to see.  Some of the delay in 41P movement is said to have been a result of the government resources that had to be devoted to reading the more than 300,000 comments on the armor piercing ammunition regulations (which were ultimately scrapped because “we spoke, they listened“).

Note that this mythical zeroth day of December cited on the Rule 1140-AA43 page is not given as an effective date for 41P.  It is the current “final action” date, upon which they will decide whether to scrap this ruling, as they did with the ammo ban, or go with it.

Public sentiment aside, there is also the question of political sentiment.  Second Amendment rights are again becoming a hot topic that is finding its way into the media’s political spotlight, to include presidential debates.  Add to that the fact that there is legislation introduced that will weaken the NFA’s grip on silencers rather than tighten it, as 41P would do.  HR3799 is drawing congressional support with 17 Representatives from 14 states cosponsoring the bill.

In other congressional news, HR3799 co-sponsor Rep. John Carter (R-TX) proposed an amendment to the FY16 appropriations bill, HR2578, which would neuter 41P.  H.Amdt 320, which prohibits funds made available by the appropriations bill from being “used to propose or to issue a rule that would change the Chief Law Enforcement Officer certificate requirement in a manner that has the same substance as the proposed rule published on September 9, 2013” was agreed to by a voice vote the day before the bill passed the House.  However, H.Amdt 320 – as Sec. 548 in the 6/8/2015 version referred in Senate – appears to be struck from the 6/18 version reported with amendment to Senate.

In sum, nobody still knows when anything will happen or, if and when it happens, what it will be.  Nobody knows if 41P will die on the vine, be dropped altogether, or picked up and run with.  Nor, if it is the latter, does anyone know how such a scheme would be implemented, what would (or would not) be grandfathered, what would happen to submitted applications in the processing queue, etc.  At least, if they do know, they aren’t telling.

Partners
Categories
Archives
R.K.B.A

Join NRA Save $10


GunLink is a proud member of NSSF