On Lightning Links and the NFA - A Thought Experiment

[BHPSteel]

I'm sure most of us are at least slightly aware of the outcome of the ATF's ruling regarding lightning links (particularly so-called "AutoKeyCards" etc). In effect, by creating a template for one of these devices which can be used to modify some variants of AR15 in order to enable full automatic fire.

I'm not a lawyer, so I'm happy to be educated here, but my understanding was that by creating that template, an industrous owner could remove material from the credit-card sized template to create a functioning lightning link. A gentleman named Kristopher Ervin was arrested for selling these sheets of metal. His defense is based in part on the fact that this was intended to be a 'novelty item', but as noted, an owner could potentially turn this into a functioning component for an AR15.

My question is - what if Ervin had reproduced the outline of the lightning link scaled - sufficiently that the resulting part was not physically capable of functioning to modify any AR15 (or any other firearm) as an automatic weapon if cut out. If so, then Ervin's objective of creating a novelty (albeit annoying for the ATF) that had no ability to be 'misused'?

Further question - theoretically, what if the outline had been reproduced on another medium which was not mechanically strong enough to function in a firearm, but was at the right scale?

In short, was it a combination of the material and/or the scale of the outline which left Ervin open to prosecution?

 

[300_whisper]

How is it not a violation of freedom of speech and expression?

At what level does it stop? Does a blank sheet count as an auto key card since it has the potential to be manufactured into one? Does being an engineer make you a felon since you have the capacity to create one?

I’m not smart like lawyers. So maybe they can chime in to help us simpletons understand this BS.

 

[riflejunky]

If the prosecutor can convince a jury his “intent” was to circumvent the NFA and provide what will be portrayed to the jury as an illegal machine gun part then the dude is ****ed. Any one who sets out to annoy a federal agency that has the authority to put them in prison for ten years per offense is a dumbass. You asked that’s my take.

 

[steviesterno]

The atf has previously decided a shoe lace is a machine gun. Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

The shoe lace In question was shown in the photo to ATF by the guy who rigged it up to the trigger of his mini 14.

It showed that every time the bolt charging handle reach the fully forward position the string would pivot around a pulley or pivot point behind the trigger and tighten against the trigger, pulling the trigger rearward to fire the gun again.

Given the way that this man modified his shoe string and his gun to utilize the shoestring as a Full auto conversion,

I think ATF was 100% correct in their original ruling and they shouldn't have been spineless puzi's and reversed their decision just because a bunch of idiots online criticized them for it.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

AutoKeyCard Explained: Why Did the ATF Shut It Down?

We explain what an AutoKeyCard is, why the ATF takes issue with it, and what legal defenses its creator might mount against the Feds.

www.pewpewtactical.com

So, ATF takes the position that if you sell a do-it-yourself lightning link auto sear that appears to be (my guess) about 50% finished, leaving you to do the remaining half of the work yourself if you want this to actually be a functional drop in auto sear,

that Unfinished auto-sear is itself a machine gun conversion part. ATF --they say that because they're using common sense, and they know it's not really a bottle opener even though that was put on one end of the metal. ATF knows, and we all know, that the real purpose of the tool is not to open bottles but to give you all the raw material, the right grade of steel, the right thickness of steel, that you need to make a machine gun! And we all know that the remaining steps and cutting out the template and polishing the parts is some thing anybody can do in their basement or garage workshop.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

I don't have a problem with ATF's ruling on mostly finished auto sear conversion kits. Because it is completely illegal for ordinary citizens to manufacture a machine gun today; you can't register one because the window closed in 1986.

However, ATF's ruling on do it yourself silencer kits falsely marketed as "solvent traps" or solvent filters is different --because federal law still allows people to build their own suppressors on a Form 1and register them.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

...

My question is - what if Ervin had reproduced the outline of the lightning link scaled - sufficiently that the resulting part was not physically capable of functioning to modify any AR15 (or any other firearm) as an automatic weapon if cut out. If so, then Ervin's objective of creating a novelty (albeit annoying for the ATF) that had no ability to be 'misused'?

Further question - theoretically, what if the outline had been reproduced on another medium which was not mechanically strong enough to function in a firearm, but was at the right scale?

I don't know what ATF would say about this, but the closer the novelty item is to being a functional finished machine gun conversion part the closer you come to crossing the line into NFA territory. A cube of solid metal the size of the brick is 0% on its way to being a machine gun conversion part. It's going to be legal in all circumstances, I think even if you openly admit that you own this piece of metal because you want to hold and reserve ability to machine it into a gun or a machine gun conversion part one day at some unspecified point in the future .



On the other hand, imagine a lightning link made of the appropriate metal already cut out --but only roughly cut and it will not function in a firearm until it is deburred, filed, polished, sandblasted, etc.
You could call that a 98% finished lightning link , so clearly that is an NFA restricted machine gun. Even if you pinky-swear that you will never do that last bit of polishing required to make it functional.

In short, was it a combination of the material and/or the scale of the outline which left Ervin open to prosecution?

Yes, those factors and the fact that this device had no real utility for any legal purpose. The bottle opener angle was clearly contrived and artificially asserted in a feeble, failed attempt to keep the thing legal.

 

[Gingerbeard Man]

I don't have a problem with ATF's ruling on mostly finished auto sear conversion kits. Because it is completely illegal for ordinary citizens to manufacture a machine gun today; you can't register one because the window closed in 1986.

However, ATF's ruling on do it yourself silencer kits falsely marketed as "solvent traps" or solvent filters is different --because federal law still allows people to build their own suppressors on a Form 1and register them.

You should have a problem with anything regarding the F in ATF as it's a violation of the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution.

It's pretty clear cut, even to the lay person, that the ATF is a felonious agency in and of itself.

18 U.S.C. § 241

Statutes Enforced by the Criminal Section

www.justice.gov

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

Here's a variation, a hypothetical, a situation that we can use to illustrate this and consider ATF's response.

I think the following is a much closer call.
_________________

You get ATF's approval to be a manufacturer and distributor of firearm silencers. You intentionally build them with user serviceable rubber wipes. Wipes are similar to baffles but they actually touch the bullet, therefore they wear out, and they can affect the bullets accuracy. Wipes were most popular in the 1960's -1970's on suppressors made for spraying submachine gun bullets.

Now, suppose you tell all of the people who inquire about your suppressor that the wipes inside it are easily changed-out with a commonly available rubber washer that is in stock at every Lowe's, every Home Depot, and every Ace Hardware in the entire country. You made your factory supplied wipes to the exact same dimensions in both diameter and thickness as this common rubber washer from the hardware store.
GIVEN THAT FACTUAL BACKGROUND:

1-- Is it legal for a lawful owner of such a suppressor to buy a dozen of those exact same size replacement washers from a hardware store when this person has no other use for those washers?

2-- Is it legal for the owner of this suppressor who is ALSO the owner of an automotive repair shop, who normally keeps hundreds of rubber washers of various sizes and shapes in his tool kit, to order some extra ones in the same size that his suppressor uses so that when he wants to replace worn wipes in his "can" he'll just grab some from the shop's inventory ?

3-- Is it legal for *Meg Ryan* to to buy that exact size of rubber washer intending to use it in an arts and crafts project with her grandson, when Meg Ryan does not own any firearms or suppressors or have any interest in them? (Nonetheless, this rubber washer is dimensionally identical to a critical internal component of a suppressor that ATF knows about and which is being sold to the American public.)