Tommy Built gets hammered by ATF

[HydroAuto]

How many Tommy owners are going to cough up the extra $250 for something they already bought?

Conversely, I wonder how many Tommy’s will suffer a tragic boating accident this week?

Conversely, how many people would cough up $250 to avoid felony charges. Yes, it's extortion.

Also, $250 is less than a talented attorney will charge for an hour of their time.

Given that owners have already dropped $2k-$3k on the firearm, I don't think an additional $250 will be much hardship and will only re-affirm their dislike of the ATF.

Please don't interpret the above as condoning the charge. The core of the matter is driven by bureaucracy, and is nothing less than extortion in my opinion. Hopefully it will be litigated.

 

[Bear44]

Sure, and when ATF announces it is because they found it easy to convert into a machine gun, that is like saying "we found out your Ford Escort can do the quarter mile in 7 seconds...now bring it back to the dealer, so we can fix that".

If ATF approved it and then changed it they are at fault and the end user still should not have to pay anything.

 

[BigPrince]

Didn't think it was possible to make Q PR look good but Tommybuilt has done it.

 

[Rolling_trip]

the owner should send the "upgrade" charge to the ATF to pay........

 

[Bear44]

the owner should send the "upgrade" charge to the ATF to pay........

If they approved it and then changed it, agreed. More realistically, the company should demand more time to address the change, so they have time to sue the ATF. That way they won't be out of pocket.

If the company was selling it before actual approval by ATF, it's all on the company.

 

[StuP]

If they approved it and then changed it, agreed. More realistically, the company should demand more time to address the change, so they have time to sue the ATF. That way they won't be out of pocket.

If the company was selling it before actual approval by ATF, it's all on the company.

That's the crux of it, was it approved, I suspect not.

 

[HydroAuto]

the owner should send the "upgrade" charge to the ATF to pay........

And while we're at it, we should write a letter to the IRS that we don't want to pay so much taxes.

 

[whiskerz]

That's the crux of it, was it approved, I suspect not.

Approval letters have limited value as well. I know of a guy with 2 approval letters for his product them 6 months later he embarrassed the ATF and they revoked his letters due to attacking his way of making a living. He spent a lot in court and lost against a group with an unlimited budget

 

[HydroAuto]

That's the crux of it, was it approved, I suspect not.

Speculating on the details here... but from what is presented in the letter from Tommy Built, they are using a feature to prevent use of an auto-sear that already exists in the H&K SL8 rifle. The SL8 is the semi-auto version of the G36. The SL8 was imported to the US, and sold to the gen.pop without issue. How is it now that the same feature set is considered NFA? Is a manufacturer supposed to submit EVERY design for approval/determination prior to manufacturing? Even when there is an established track record of its use in other firearms? Then there's the whole matter of the ATF tech branch not issuing any determinations any more.

 

[opps]

“In the T36 instance they literally hammered a FA carrier into a receiver in order to proclaim it a MG. They permanently modified a receiver, permanently modified a grip housing, added the FA catch, and added a FA carrier in order to enable FA. If the test is what is readily convertible then the KG99 open bolt guns that are identical to their later banned as MG twins don't pass such a test - the exact same gun is a MG and yet it is not a MG.”