ATF Warn of Structuring After Defeat in District Court to Polymer80

Polymer80
ATF Warn of Structuring After Defeat in District Court to Polymer80

One day after Polymer80 won in court and started selling P80 kits with both jigs and frames for the first time since the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) rule surrounding frames and receivers (Final Rule 2021R-05F), the ATF issued an open letter threatening to prosecute sellers of gun parts and tools if they “structure” transactions to avoid the regulation.

Structuring is a financial crime where a person or business structures deposits to avoid setting off red flags. After 9-11, when a person or a company deposit over $10,000, they must complete extra paperwork. The government runs additional checks to ensure they are not laundering money for a criminal enterprise or terrorist organization. Many people make smaller deposits over several days to avoid these extra checks. To discourage this, the government has made it a serious crime to structure transactions. Now the ATF is using the same standard for purchasing gun parts.

If Company A produces a blank frame and a jig and then sells the blank frame and directs the buyer to another site to buy the jig, the ATF seems to be saying that the company is structuring the transaction. This definition of “structuring” is a departure from any the government has ever used.

“Specifically, since the Frame or Receiver Final Rule became effective on August 24, 2022, some suppliers of partially complete frames or receivers appear to be structuring their transactions or coordinating with other persons or entities to sell, distribute, or otherwise make available, in ostensibly independent or separate transactions, the compatible templates, jigs, molds, equipment, tools, instructions, or guides needed to complete the partially complete frames or receivers to the same individuals who purchase a partially completed frame or receiver from the original supplier. As explained further below, such conduct will affect how ATF analyzes what materials have been “made available by” the supplier under the Final Rule and, under certain circumstances, could be evidence of a willful intent to violate the requirements of the GCA, as implemented by the Frame or Receiver Final Rule, or defraud the United States, and ATF may investigate these activities,” the letter reads.

The ATF says they will prioritize actions against companies caught structuring the selling of frames and jigs.

The ATF also asked help from the public to find companies “structuring.” They also stated any previous determination letters are null and void. Although since, Polymer80, the overwhelming industry leader in 80% firearms, is exempted because a District Judge granted the company a preliminary injunction against the ATF.

“Anyone who observes suspected violations of the GCA or ATF’s implementing regulations may report them to ATF. Any persons can call their local field office, can contact ATF’s Emerging Threats Unit, or report a potential violation to ATF’s tip line at Submit a Tip | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (atf.gov), https://www.atf.gov/atf-tips,” the letter reads.

It was signed by Steve Dettlebach, who is under increased pressure since the ATF’s rule has seen multiple setbacks in court, with many companies getting injunctions against the ATF’s “ghost gun” rule. But the ATF isn’t just losing on frames and receivers. The Fifth Circuit court of appeals also found the Trump-era bump stock ban was unconstitutional in the Cargill ruling under the Administrative Procedures Act. The ATF not only used the same rule-making power for the frames and receiver rule, but it also used the same unconstitutional power in the pistol brace rule.

AmmoLand News spoke to Gun Owners of America’s (GOA) Executive Vice President, John Velleco, late Tuesday night, who was upset at the ATF’s open letter.

“The Biden administration and the ATF are not only turning hundreds of thousands–if not millions–of law-abiding citizens into potential felons, but the ATF is now *prioritizing* enforcement of the unconstitutional frames and receiver rule,” Velleco said. “I guess since the Left is successfully keeping violent felons out of the prison system, they have plenty of room for American gun owners.”

The ATF didn’t name any particular company or explain why it decided to release the letter now, but many people believe it was thanks to Polymer80 winning an injunction.


About John Crump

John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.

John Crump

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Jaque

The ATF will keep issuing directives against the 2nd Amendment until Congress acts against them. And thats as likely as another American Revolution.

sage419

If Company A produces a blank frame and a jig and then sells the blank frame and directs the buyer to another site to buy the jig, the ATF seems to be saying that the company is structuring the transaction.”
Are software companies that post minimum hardware requirements also “structuring”? Lots of businesses do this. ATF is way out of line (again).

Tionico

so if my truck needs some work done and I guy the brakeparts from NAPA, get the reman alternator from Autozone, and find the new ball joints at OReilly’s, then go buy the batttery fro Interstate, I suppose I am “structuring” my car?

WHO feeds these eedjits anyway? SOMEONE needs to take them out behind the woodshed and administer some good ol’ JUSICE

BigRed

Shut the ATF down. It does not represent the people’s freedom, it represents the government’s tyranny.

Watch um

Better said that done. I agree they should be gone

USMC0351Grunt

Then WHY are WE ALL not doing just THAT?

Darkman

The Federal Bureaucracy is and has always been the greatest threat to the Freedom and Liberties of the Citizenry. A Bureaucracy put in place by politicians on both sides of the political divide in order to implement rules and regulations. In the darkness, that would never pass muster in the light of day. That would require them to openly support and vote for. The Federal Bureaucracy has become one of the may Causes for which the Founding Patriots went ot war against the British Crown. Regulation without Representation.

USMC0351Grunt

No, the apathy of WE, The People has always been the biggest threat to our freedom, liberty and sovereignty. MOST pf us that have balls don’t use them enough and now-a-days there are many trying to decide whether or not to cut them off because they get in the way of their pronouns.

Arizona

They, and the rest of the federal gov, only have what power We the People grant them. If everyone complies, and kneels to their “decrees”, they have unlimited power. If most say “nope” and live their lives per the Constitution and ONLY recognize the power lawfully granted to gov by the Constitution, then all their rules, decrees and BS laws mean squat. They cannot arrest and jail 10-40% of the country. They can’t handle 3%.

Watch um

You are correct, but are you willing to be the person to be arrested, or me and will the rest of the 40 % step up to provide funding for you or me to fight this in court while you or me sit in a jail cell because some liberal judge set out bonds so high we can’t afford them.

J.galt

If they insist on being lawless tyrants and if it means jail anyway based on unconstitutional anti American “laws” it really IS time to kill all they send.

NO “American” would work for the atf and no “person” who works for atf should ever hold a position of honor in these United States.

F’ atf and their extended families. DO. NOT. COMPLY. PERIOD.

J.galt

It is truly time to step up and be an American.

Remember Lexington!!!!

USMC0351Grunt

Ah! You forget! DEMAND a Court Appointed Attorney and DEMAND a JURY TRIAL. Each and every one of us! EN BANC!

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

LOL! A Court Appointed Attorney is BEHOLDEN TO YOUR ADVERSARY!

nod

Problem is We The People let the government grow unchecked. Sleepy Joe said the people work for the government when on the campaign trail and nobody called him out for that blunder. The government was originally to be run by the people. The government was intended to be small and look at how big We The People let it get. The government gets richer and we get poorer.

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

Here is the REASON they don’t listen to us…There Is A Reason “They” Don’t Listen to Us Anymore

USMC0351Grunt

They can’t handle 1% and THAT is the approximate number of U.S. Marines on active duty. Just sayin’

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

And I just wonder how many of that 1% would take up arms AGAINST anyone who would stand against these unconstitutional overreaching assholes if ordered to do so.

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

Yea, one guy against 1000. Seems fair to me. That’s the way it would be if you go up against them. Which is WHY we need our MILITAS BACK! Referred to in modern times as an individual’s right to carry and use arms for self-defense, the Second Amendment was envisioned by the framers of the Constitution, according to College of William and Mary law professor and future U.S. District Court judge St. George Tucker in 1803 in his great work Blackstone’s Commentaries: With Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws of the Federal Government of the United States and… Read more »

gregs

batfe is going to get more scary in their tactics because they have been smacked down hard a couple of times and when tyrants get smacked down they get more dangerous until they are eliminated.

grant

I think it’s clear that the Biden Admin and all his ‘Minions’ have no intention of following these Judicial rulings,
Judicial Rulings that, in other words, are the Law.
Therefore, it’s safe to say Biden not only has no intention of following the law, he is Breaking it, on several levels. and in several areas, not just this one.
To put it another way,
Multiple Crimes are currently being committed against the Citizens of the USA by the POTUS.
Thats not just impeachable, thats imprisonable.

Watch um

An the government is using our tax money to pay their lawyers and we use our money to pay our lawyers to fight their so called laws.
I am about out of money, what say you?

Roland T. Gunner

This has gotten to be truly insane, the impunity with which the Left enforces bad, unethical laws and rules.

Structuring
Constructive posession
Red flag laws
Terroristic threat laws

All unethical and unconstitutional.

USMC0351Grunt

Don’t forget sharing data files on the Internet! (3D Printing, Etc.)

Henry Bowman

They can’t stop the signal…

Henry Bowman

Structure THIS, ATF!!!

DIYinSTL

Not satisfied with just squelching the Second Amendment, Director Doodlebug and his legal minions at the ATF are now attacking the First Amendment. You will note in the ATF letter that structuring can include “instructions, guides, or marketing materials”.

USMC0351Grunt

Yeah? Let them go and buy a car, an appliance or any other consumer product and get caught, “structuring”. Let’s see WHERE they’ll get service and parts for ANYTHING? SAME DIFFERENCE! SAME LAWS!

Montana454Casull

The ATF can structure a pile of sand and pound it .

JDT

Hopefully the ATF will soon be abolished and a lesson in history book.

Chuck

ATF needs to become Extinct. Period.

USMC0351Grunt

Are you kidding me? THIS, RIGHT HERE is where WE, The PEOPLE step up! Picture 30 MILLION gun owners SWAMPING Polymer80, 80%Arms and like companies, buying their products. Hell, even if it’s one a month. Even if you don’t intend on building them! SCREW the ATF! WE SWAMP the USPS, Fed-X and UPS… We can store them and re-sell them ONLINE if we want to… We can ALWAYS re-sell them! THEY ARE NOT FIREARMS! Let them prosecute 30 million of us all at once! Let them dispatch 87,000 UN-TRAINED, UNNEDUCATED “agents” to pursue the over 17 MILLION Veterans as well… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by USMC0351Grunt
Stag

ATF needs to be Waco’d.

Boz

Fatf! They DON’T make Iaw. 2A supersedes EVERYTHING that they do. They shouIdn’t even exist.

Zhukov

Everyone involved with compiling this letter along with Dittlewat need to be jailed for civil rights violations.

Bill

Polymer 80 is selling frames with rails and/or jigs right now. The Company referenced the recent court defeat for the BATF.
https://www.ammoland.com/2023/03/polymer80-return-to-selling-pistol-frames-after-winning-preliminary-injunction/#axzz7whuT99Y0

J.galt

Buy all you can from poly 80 but pay with a money order and have them shipped to your liberal anti gun neighbors house and be waiting for the delivery.

Lakefoot

i likey.

DIYinSTL

Eat bugs for protein and strain some thin oatmeal if you want a glass of ‘milk’. That is a couple things they are going to try to do to us for ‘hope and change.’

Steve

Any chance someone gets, follow a local ATF agent home. Find out where they live. Document it. Same with local Sheriff’s Deputies, Police Officers, IRS Agents, FBI if known..Make a note if you notice new folks in your neighborhood or subdivision out walking around (even couples) that you don’t recognize. Start paying attention folks. That info will come in very handy when that drooling moron and his coven of witches in the White House decides to start issue Martial Law Decrees.

J.galt

All atf assholes / all persons recieving a tax theft paycheck should be required to supply a home address so they can not F**K Americans anonymously.

F atf…..kill all they employ.

StLPro2A

“Structuring” to thee, is “complying” to me. Pointing customers to a source of products you don’t sell is good customer service. But, ATF thinks it is illegal Kinda like citizen pointing to another citizen. Snitches get stitches style.

“….report a potential violation to ATF’s tip line.” Dialing, dialing……Hi, ATF? Like to do my civic responsibility to report an ATF violation. Sleazebag named Hunter lied about using illegal drugs on a 4473 to acquire a gun. Equal sleazelady named Callie, I think, threw an illegal gun into a dumpster, endangering children and vagrant dumpster divers.

DIYinSTL

Illegally possessed. The pistol itself was and is a legal item.

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

Maybe this is the reason:

TStheDeplorable

The court said it’s legal to have such a firearm. The ATF is bothered that their views did not prevail. The ATF now says that although you can have the whole gun, and you can buy all the parts for the gun, the store can’t sell you all the parts for the gun, but somehow it will be okay if you go online to several different sellers and buy all the parts to the gun.

The ATF is acting like a pissed off ex in a divorce.

StLPro2A

“….”HOW.” This is the government our Founders warned about….and for which they penned the Second Amendment. THAT is HOW. Are we getting warm yet???

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

Why do you suppose they did away with the POWER of the MILITIAS? Because the tyrants are threated by it’s very existence.

Those Forgotten and Ignored 13 WordsWhy we need our citizen militias back…

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

Crimes should entail a VICTIM. PERIOD. Having possession of “something” should NEVER be a crime. THE ATF needs to be disbanded and any law to that is CONTRARY to the Constitution needs to be trashed.

Pantherpiss

Irish democracy

USMC0351Grunt

HEY! You hold your tongue! I’m a member of the Presidio County Texas Republican Party. THAT does NOT prevent me from crossing county or state lines when in need! One other member and I down here, WE STAND TALL! Thank God we have a Sheriff’s Department that stands tall as well!.

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

So if your Sheriff deputies caught you with an “unregistered” NFA weapon, they would just casually say take care and send you on your way??? Or if you have a pound of mary jane in your possession they will just say, no problem? Just curious HOW tall they stand.

USMC0351Grunt

APATHY! The NUMBER ONE REASON WHY we are where we are DECADES after getting our asses kicked with the NFA, the GCA and on and on? Keyboard Commandos are the ONLY ones outside of liberals that will NEVER sacrifice their nuts for their nation!