I just received a notification from Dead Air Armament that the rubber wipes they were selling with their Ghost 45M are considered a "silencer" part by the BATFE. The Bardwell ATF opinion letter states otherwise. Dead Air has decided not to challenge the decision.

It's frustrating and upsetting that the BATFE can change laws with the stroke of a pen. It's a rubber washer.......

I thought they always were. When I had my old sonics suppressor back in the early 90's the old wipes were considered parts and I had to send it to a 07/gun smith to have them replaced. So I didn't use it much and sold it off because of that.

They aren't changing the law:

18 U.S.C. Section 921(a)(24):

"(24) The terms ‘‘firearm silencer’’ and ‘‘firearm muffler’’ mean any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication."

If it's a part for your suppressor, they can regulate it.

They may not have interpreted it as a part before, or enforced their regulations against that particular part, but they are free to do so.

BATFE's opinions are the law, until they decide that they aren't. I know those opinions are often the closest thing to the law that we have when it comes to these nitty-gritty categories, but legally, they're just BATFE's best guess at the time. They are not bound to those opinions.

quote:

Originally posted by LDD:
They aren't changing the law:

18 U.S.C. Section 921(a)(24):

"(24) The terms ‘‘firearm silencer’’ and ‘‘firearm muffler’’ mean any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication."

If it's a part for your suppressor, they can regulate it.

They may not have interpreted it as a part before, or enforced their regulations against that particular part, but they are free to do so.

BATFE's opinions are the law, until they decide that they aren't. I know those opinions are often the closest thing to the law that we have when it comes to these nitty-gritty categories, but legally, they're just BATFE's best guess at the time. They are not bound to those opinions.

Not disagreeing with what you said, but it still seems like so much nonsense to me.

If you have a registered lower, you can buy FA trigger parts online and have them shipped to you without getting into any trouble, yes? Like, you want a new trigger for your FA AR?

So why are repair parts of cans any different?

Fuckers.

Does that mean they can no longer sell wipes?

I thought wipes were outdated anyway. I wondered why Dead Air went that route with their 45 can. This ruling is going to hurt DA since I know I don't want to send my can in every time the wipes wear out.

quote:

Originally posted by exx1976:
Not disagreeing with what you said, but it still seems like so much nonsense to me.

If you have a registered lower, you can buy FA trigger parts online and have them shipped to you without getting into any trouble, yes? Like, you want a new trigger for your FA AR?

So why are repair parts of cans any different?

Fuckers.

IIRC, there is an opinion letter floating around that says exactly what you are implying: that M16 owners should not have loose full-auto trigger groups near or with their AR15 lowers.

I think the difference is that a lot of the original "manufacturers" of M16s are not around anymore to send in for service (like swapping out an easily replaceable hammer or trigger) so the option of "return to manufacturer for repair" is not available.

I acknowledge that it is a PITA. When the spring clip on my AAC M4-2000 wore out, I had to send the whole thing back even though there were instructions on how to replace that exact part in the manual. I guess sometime between the publication of the manual and when my spring clip wore out, BATFE changed their opinion and re-classified the spring clip as a "suppressor part." This particular part went on the outside of the can and hand nothing to do with sound suppression at all (had 0 effect on DB reduction, it was part of the fast-attach retention mechanism).

quote:

Originally posted by Hammer1967:
Does that mean they can no longer sell wipes?

They have ceased selling them immediately. It was an optional piece that came with the Ghost 45. There are other suppressor manufacturers still using them as well.