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Posted on 07/16/2007 12:01:12 PM PDT by neverdem
| Labor Department Announces It Will Revise Overreaching OSHA Explosives Rule |
| Monday, July 16, 2007 |
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced it will significantly revise a recent proposal for new “explosives safety” regulations that caused serious concern among gun owners. OSHA had originally set out to update workplace safety regulations, but the proposed rules included restrictions that very few gun shops, sporting goods stores, shippers, or ammunition dealers could comply with.
Gun owners had filed a blizzard of negative comments urged by the NRA, and just a week ago, OSHA had already issued one extension for its public comment period at the request of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. After continued publicity through NRA alerts and the outdoor media, and after dozens of Members of Congress expressed concern about its impact, OSHA has wisely decided to go back to the drawing board.
Working with the NRA, Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) planned to offer a floor amendment to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill this Wednesday when the House considers this legislation. His amendment would have prohibited federal funds from being used to enforce this OSHA regulation.
Such an amendment is no longer necessary since Kristine A. Iverson, the Labor Department’s Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, sent Rep. Rehberg a letter, dated July 16, stating that it “was never the intention of OSHA to block the sale, transportation, or storage of small arms ammunition, and OSHA is taking prompt action to revise” this proposed rule to clarify the purpose of the regulation.
Also, working with the NRA, Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO) gathered signatures from 25 House colleagues for a letter, dated July 11, expressing concerns about this proposed OSHA rule. The letter calling the proposal “an undue burden on a single industry where facts do not support the need outlined by this proposed rule” and “not feasible, making it realistically impossible for companies to comply with its tenets.”
The OSHA proposal would have defined “explosives” to include “black powder, … small arms ammunition, small arms ammunition primers, [and] smokeless propellant,” and treated these items the same as the most volatile high explosives.
Under the proposed rule, a workplace that contained even a handful of small arms cartridges, for any reason, would have been considered a “facility containing explosives” and therefore subject to many impractical restrictions. For example, no one could carry “firearms, ammunition, or similar articles in facilities containing explosives … except as required for work duties.” Obviously, this rule would make it impossible to operate any kind of gun store, firing range, or gunsmith shop.
The public comment website for the proposed rule is no longer accessible. The Labor Department will publish a notice in the July 17 Federal Register announcing that a new rule proposal will soon be drafted for public comment. Needless to say, the NRA monitors proposed federal regulations to head off this kind of overreach, and will be alert for OSHA’s next draft.
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Not safe yet. They’re back at the drawing board.
They’re just mad they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Don’t certain types of nailguns use explosive charges? The construction industry ought to be against this as well.
... and yet ...
The OSHA proposal would have defined “explosives” to include “black powder, … small arms ammunition, small arms ammunition primers, [and] smokeless propellant,” and treated these items the same as the most volatile high explosives.
So why is Iverson lying? Or is she just stupid?
You got it, Pete!!!!
Yup. “Power hammers” use what are essentially .22LR blanks. So do stud drivers. Interestingly, some of them are considered firearms in some states and are subject to the same restrictions.
OSHA will be willing to back up a step this time. The ultimate goal is what was in the original proposal. It’s a warning to all whenever a bureaucrat agrees to change something in order to stop legislation against it. The proposal will be back later.
Correcto!!
Hilti and Remington both made nail guns for shooting nails into concrete, powered by a .22 caliber blank.
Temporary relief bump.
Rust and gungrabbers never sleep. They’ll be back.
They're just mad they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Exactly! You can bet there are anti gun liberals behind this, and just like we have seen with the shamnesty attempt, we can NEVER trust them. People originally thought we defeated them, twice. Those were just small battles. The war in NOT over yet. Congress is just trying other sneaky ways to grant amnesty. Through the AgJobs legislation and the Dream Act.
You can bet the anti gunners in Congress and the Senate are trying to do the same with gun control. Like you said, they just got caught with their hands in the cookie jar this time.
In truth, there does need to be considerable regulation of a lot of these materials, as real safety needs.
In the US Army, a typical motor pool can have six or eight internal storage sites for different stuff that you do not want to store together: fuel, paint & solvents; acids; compressed gases; electrical welding; etc. It takes a lot of effort just to map where in the pool to put each, far enough away from the others.
And there is a big difference between common sense regulation and intrusive micro managing.
Everyone in government has to be watched closely. They have to justify their jobs so they sit around trying to think of new regulations, etc., obviously not thinking through what the consequences would be (I would hope). However we can not take the chance that that is the case. Thank goodness there are some who have the ability to see these things and attempt to put an end to them.
Nice try ... gun grabber at OSHA
So, what is the bottom line? Did OSHA recently fire all the intelligent people, or has this been happening over time through attrition and EEO?
Getting fired from a government job is next to impossible. You have to be a conservative or something equally bad. Which leaves—you guessed it.
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