More Info from the News Machine
Ah, the truth comes out. I see 80% receivers everywhere. heck, theyre on amazon. Ares was flying too close the sun and got burned. Sucks tho.
"'Tis better to have flown and got burned than to have never had the change to fly at all."
More news with Ares Armor. There has been some more info coming out speculating on events and reasons leading up the this event with Ares Armor and the raids. 2 things seem to stick out to me.
1. Illegal "Build Parties"
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/03/foghorn/ares-armor-search-warrant-sheds-light-reason-atf-raid/
"So from the documents, it looks like these guys (LCG AR Parts and Custom Accessories, or “LCG”) employed an illegal Mexican immigrant who’s also a felon to assist customers in manufacturing firearms on the business’s premises [for a fee]. The employee in question allegedly would set the blank up in the drill press, instruct the customer in drilling out the holes, then then take it from there."
The BATFE feels that, because some other companies in the state are participating in illegal, questionable activities, or associating itself with highly criminal persons, that Ares Armor is OBVIOUSLY doing the same thing, of course. "Guilty by Association" in order to carry out a clearly illegal and restraining order violating warrant on a legal and law-abiding business to carry out an illegal phishing expedition for a businesses private customer information isn't a justification for violating a citizen's or a business' Constitutional 4th Amendment rights. According to what I've seen, Ares Armor is reviewing/changing how it carries out its "build parties" in order to ensure that they are not violating any laws in doing so, and even informed the BATFE as such.
2. The "Fake 80%" EP Armory Polymer 80% Lower Receivers
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/03/foghorn/ares-armor-update-skinny-polymer-80-lower-receivers/
"The claim to fame for these models is that the lower receivers are two different colors — one color for the receiver itself, and a completely different color for the parts that need to be milled out to complete the gun. It’s the equivalent of a “paint by numbers” approach to firearms manufacturing, making the process nearly idiot-proof." - "According to the ATF’s “once a gun always a gun” doctrine, the instant the lower is milled out and completed it’s officially a firearm and subject to all of the applicable laws. Even if you go back and fill in the relevant sections, it’s still a gun that you just manufactured and must be treated as such."
What I get from this article is that there is a disagreement between certain manufacturers and the BATFE on the legal precedent of the exact point a firearm is completed to the point that it needs to be officially registered as a firearm.
If, for instance, the Fire Control Group cavity of an AR-15 is created out of one color of material, and then the rest of the firearm is then cast around that existing piece of material in a different color, then the casting would have never been milled into a legal firearm at anytime, but would still have 2 different colors of material, working as a guide for the customer to mill out the last 20% themselves easier.
Or, as another example, if a manufacture mills out the Fire Control Group cavity of an 80% Lower Receiver, but NOT the holes for the Hammer, Trigger Pins, Selector Switch, or the Trigger, and then refills the cavity with a different color material, then does to qualify to the "once a gun always a gun” doctrine? The firearm had been completed more than the "80%" point at one point, but was never completed to the 100% point, so the firearm could have never possibly be used as a completed firearm, and shouldn't have to be registered as such. Is an "81%" complete firearm considered a firearm on a register-able level?
On a lighter note,
Ares Armor has seem to have taken everything that has happened with a grain of salt, and even played in some serious humor about the situation.
