Speaking of misperceptions

See, us stupid RKBA types simply misunderstood the nice gun grabbers.

A common misperception about gun control
The hardliners seem to believe that opposing the unrestricted manufacturing and sale of guns is suspect if one wishes to be considered a true-blue American.

And with that one statement, we see that Mr. Cotto is completely ignorant of the very subject on which he would lecture us. Unrestricted? Seriously?

Let’s look at what it takes to manufacture and sell guns.

• Get a federal license. Type 03 if you are just a dealer, but a more expensive type 07 to manufacture. Yet another license to manufacture “destructive devices.”
• Get your state or local business license. Depending on state, you may also require a separate firearms dealer/manufacturer license. Expect to be required to install specified security and surveillance systems.
• Build your firearm. Give it a serial number (permanently marked in ways strictly regulated, right down to font size and depth of the stamping/engraving).
• There are safety requirements for modern-manufacture weapons. Expect to build in a firing pin/striker disconnect or block.
• If there’s any doubt whether it might be a destructive device or Any Other Weapon, send a sample to the ATF Technical Branch for evaluation.
• If the ATF determines it could be a machine gun, you can’t sell it to civilians at all. If it’s an AOW, purchasers will need a special tax stamp to get it.
• States like California and Massachusetts have their own set of rules, so you need to send them sample guns for testing before you can market there. Better check all fifty states’ rules. You’ll probably have to test fire each gun and include a fired case in the box with the gun.
• Truthfully, you won’t want to market anything in California, because new guns have to incorporate nonexistent “microstamping” technology.
• That serial number? Permanently log it in records subject to ATF inspection. That log will include when you ship the firearm out to a dealer or middleman.
• The recipient also has to maintain those records. Forever. If they go out of business, the records must be shipped to the ATF.
• To sell to an individual:
  • Make him fill out a multipage questionnaire. The ATF wants to know his race.
  • Check his government-issued photo ID. If he doesn’t have one, no sale.
  • Run a background check on your customer; you are required to consider him a felon (or several other classes of “prohibited person”) until proven otherwise.
  • Once the background comes back clean, you can sell him the firearm (unless it’s a pre-’86 machine gun or AOW for which he has not yet obtained his tax stamp).
  • But… depending on the state, you can’t actually give it to him for several days. Mandated waiting periods, you know.
  • You might also be required to provide trigger locks and mental health information.
  • Oh, yes. You are required to be a mind reader, to ensure you can detect an unlawful “straw purchase.” Not all criminals will be as obliging as former astronaut Mark Kelly who publicly announced that he was making a straw purchase.
• Now that you’ve sold that gun, don’t forget to update your bound book for the ATF’s inspection.
• Brace yourself for ATF compliance inspections. Obama has issued an executive memorandum requiring the ATF to conduct even more of them.

Perhaps Mr. Cotto thinks the firearms industry is “unrestricted” because he heard Hillary Clinton say that firearms manufacturers are immune against lawsuits. He should have noted the “politician/mouth-moving” indicator.

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act only provides limited immunity. They are liable for defective products, just like any other industry. They are liable for laws broken by themselves.

But they are not liable if they followed all the rules (far more than just those I mentioned already), built a product that operates correctly as advertised, and Some Asshole murders his mother to steal her guns that she purchased lawfully (see above procedures) to kill more people. (Background: The PLCA was passed after the family of a gangbanger murder victim successfully sued five firearms manufacturers for building the gun with which their punk was shot, despite the fact that the make and model were unknown since the firearm was never found.)

Once Mr. Cotto demonstrates more knowledge about firearms, industry, and the Second Amendment, I might be a little more inclined to consider his whining about my alleged misperceptions.