Posted on 12/29/2007 4:31:44 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
HUDSON - It was a simple idea, with big potential.
For years, marksmen have been using a technique called bump firing, shooting a semiautomatic rifle from the hip and allowing the weapon's recoil to pull the trigger.
With federal regulations keeping fully automatic weapons out of their hands, it was one of the few ways for firearm enthusiasts to enjoy the thrill of firing a machine gun.
If there was only a way to simulate that action, Bill Akins wondered, by creating a device that mechanized the recoil resistance to fire more rapid, and accurate, bursts of bullets.
Thus the Akins Accelerator was born.
....
That was until the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives banned the Accelerator - two years after approving it.
To the ATF, the mechanism is an illegal converter kit that, in the wrong hands, could turn a run-of the-mill target rifle into a 700-round-per-minute killing machine.
Threatening him with imprisonment, officials ordered Akins to cease production, turn over the recoil springs from his existing stock and hand over his customer list.
...
He also said he feels betrayed by the pro-gun lobby.
A few weeks ago, the NRA sent him a membership renewal. Akins stared at the one-page letter for a while. He sighed.
"I couldn't bring myself to renew it," he said. "What's the point, right?"
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.tbo.com ...
On the other hand, if government hadn't banned a class of guns to begin with, nobody would need his device.
The article you have supplied has several comments by posters and answers back from the inventor, himself. He also supplies additional information for the readers. There’s also another guy there, who comments on an invention that the BATF said was illegal, too (he said back in 1989). He sold his invention to another guy who happens to be still making it (apparently without any problems) and making a lot of money off it.
So, it appears that if someone wants to fight these things and go ahead anyway, they probably can and fend off the BATF. It is apparently not a matter of illegal or not, but rather if one is willing and has enough money to continually fight the government, even if the government is doing the wrong thing. They can bankrupt a person by simply continuing to do the “wrong thing” and running you into bankruptcy trying to defend yourself.
At any rate, this sounds like something that the BATF has done illegally and they are simply “pushing their weight around”...
Regards,
Star Traveler
I gotta question. Can you stop firing by taking your finger off the trigger? I know a lot of these so-called conversion kits you have to empty the magazine and can’t stop firing unless the gun is out of ammo.
For those who just have to have the thrill of firing an automatic weapon, there are legal ways to do this.
I don’t really much care one way or the other on this particular issue. I don’t see it as critical or pivotal. I like guns but am not a “gun nut”. I surely do believe in the Second Amendment and love to see stories of law abiding armed citizens putting a hurt on the bad guys.
I can’t figure the attraction but I certainly support people who want to shoot full auto. I’ve shot quite a few full-auto weapons and all I could think of was the money it was costing in ammo. To me it’s a waste of time unless you’re going to a war somewhere but I appreciate the historical significance of what some collectors do.
I don’t shoot full auto... but it sure is NOT the business of ANY government to try to outlaw certain weapons due to their rate of fire... Outlaw the BATFags instead... Disband F-Troop.
“I don’t shoot full auto... but it sure is NOT the business of ANY government to try to outlaw certain weapons due to their rate of fire... Outlaw the BATFags instead... Disband F-Troop.”
Absolutely.
Any firearm banned is potentially unconstitutional in the first place.
“Any firearm banned is potentially unconstitutional in the first place.”
Is that supposed to be “Any firearm[s] BAN...”? If so, drop the word, “potentially” because ANY firearms ban is absolutely unconstitutional, period. If not, please explain what you mean.
I don’t own a gun. But if I wanted a gun, it wouldn’t be that I want the “thrill of firing” an automatic weapon.
It’s that I would like to be allowed to exercise my constitutional right to OWN an automatic weapon because it is the weapon I CHOOSE for that purpose.
And it’s not for the thrill, it’s to protect my liberties.
You are absolutely right. I must have typed things in wrong, and I keep forgetting that at least one of the words in a search has to be more than three letters long (I searched for “Ban ATF” — then I searched for “Ban on device”, when it should have been “Ban of device”.)
Sorry.
Methinks you are trying too hard to read something into my post. You are basically correct in my thoughts - and backed up by one of my later posts regarding the National Firearms Act/Gun Control Act of 1968...
The arbitrary and capricious behavior of the BATF is well-documented. What America really needs is two-fold: 1) a written constitution, setting out both limits for government power, and documenting the rights of the people, and 2) to become a nation ruled by laws, not by men.
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