This week we’re looking at the practical impact of President Joe Biden’s “ghost gun” kit ban. The ban went into effect just a few days ago. So, it’s a good time to check in and assess the fallout.
That’s why we’ve brought Rob Picus on the show. Rob is one of the key organizers behind the gunmakers match, a shooting competition for people who build their own firearms. He has become engrained in the homebuilding community.
He said companies that make 80 percent frames or receivers have begun to test the new legal landscape. At least one company has made the unserialized and unfinished parts available for sale apart from the jigs and drill bits needed to finish them. Since the ATF rule considers the parts being sold alongside what’s required to build them into a working gun the same as selling a working gun, the strategy to remain compliant appears to just be selling everything separately.
Rob said Polymer80, one of the market’s biggest companies, is also moving towards selling unfinished receivers on their own. Still, there are a lot of unanswered questions with potentially disastrous consequences for anyone who answers wrong. Rob explains the potential pitfalls.
He also gives his view of the state of the effort to reform the NRA from the inside. Rob is a board member of Save the Second, which was formed to try and oust current NRA leadership and impose new internal controls after accusations of financial impropriety began hounding the gun-rights group. However, he admitted the reform movement has been much less successful than he’d initially hoped as this week’s news that dissident board member Philip Journey is not being renominated for this year’s ballot by his fellow board members.
Plus, Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman and I discuss how California and New York are pushing back against the Supreme Court’s gun-carry ruling.
You can listen to the show on your favorite podcasting app or by clicking here. You can also watch the entire episode on our YouTube channel. As always, the show goes public on Monday. Members get access on Sunday AND the opportunity to appear on the show for a member segment!
