I know the link is from CNN but I didn't see any obvious bias other than a warning that says the Feds prevented felons from getting the firearm.
Short version - Guy sells 80% lowers. A purchase or $25 gets you into his gun club. The guy allows club members to use his equipment; i.e., hot available to the public. You used his machine to complete your 80%. Once it's finished, he helps you build the complete rifle. Guy is arrested for illegal manufacturing firearms.; I don't think he ever had a license.
At trial, defense argues "under the US Code of Federal Regulations, a firearm frame or receiver is defined as: 'That part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock, and firing mechanism, and which is usually threaded at its forward portion to receive the barrel.'" AR lower receiver does not fit the legal definition of a receiver so the guy hasn't broken the law. Guy has only allegedly violated a policy "that masquerades as law."
ATF says there are technical differences but their interpretation captured the intent of the law.
US District Court Judge "issued a tentative order in which he determined that the ATF had improperly classified the AR-15 lower receivers in" this case. He "added that the combination of the federal law and regulation governing the manufacturing of receivers is 'unconstitutionally vague' as applied in the case against Roh. 'No reasonable person would understand that a part constitutes a receiver where it lacks the components specified in the regulation,' he wrote." He "also found that the ATF's in-house classification process failed to comply with federal rule-making procedures. Changes to substantive federal regulations typically include a notice-and-comment period and eventual publication in the Federal Register."
The ATF offered a deal. Plead guilty and he would be allowed to change his plea in a year if he hadn't gotten in any more trouble. The case would then be dismissed with the guy spending no time in jail and with nothing about this on his record. It was said the ATF wanted the deal to keep the tentative order from becoming permanent and being used as case law.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/us/ar-15-guns-law-atf-invs/index.html
Short version - Guy sells 80% lowers. A purchase or $25 gets you into his gun club. The guy allows club members to use his equipment; i.e., hot available to the public. You used his machine to complete your 80%. Once it's finished, he helps you build the complete rifle. Guy is arrested for illegal manufacturing firearms.; I don't think he ever had a license.
At trial, defense argues "under the US Code of Federal Regulations, a firearm frame or receiver is defined as: 'That part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock, and firing mechanism, and which is usually threaded at its forward portion to receive the barrel.'" AR lower receiver does not fit the legal definition of a receiver so the guy hasn't broken the law. Guy has only allegedly violated a policy "that masquerades as law."
ATF says there are technical differences but their interpretation captured the intent of the law.
US District Court Judge "issued a tentative order in which he determined that the ATF had improperly classified the AR-15 lower receivers in" this case. He "added that the combination of the federal law and regulation governing the manufacturing of receivers is 'unconstitutionally vague' as applied in the case against Roh. 'No reasonable person would understand that a part constitutes a receiver where it lacks the components specified in the regulation,' he wrote." He "also found that the ATF's in-house classification process failed to comply with federal rule-making procedures. Changes to substantive federal regulations typically include a notice-and-comment period and eventual publication in the Federal Register."
The ATF offered a deal. Plead guilty and he would be allowed to change his plea in a year if he hadn't gotten in any more trouble. The case would then be dismissed with the guy spending no time in jail and with nothing about this on his record. It was said the ATF wanted the deal to keep the tentative order from becoming permanent and being used as case law.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/us/ar-15-guns-law-atf-invs/index.html