CPT Jonathan Tuttle points out some interesting stuff on the official ATF website, and no, it ain't good.

This just in over the electronic transom:

From: Cpt. Jonathan Tuttle
Subject: new stuff on ATF web site . . . clues . . .
To: (REDACTED)
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 10:05 PM

(REDACTED):

There's a lot of new stuff on the ATF web site; a concerted effort to develop it. Note in particular:

While the NFA was enacted by Congress as an exercise of its authority to tax, the NFA had an underlying purpose unrelated to revenue collection. As the legislative history of the law discloses, its underlying purpose was to curtail, if not prohibit, transactions in NFA firearms. Congress found these firearms to pose a significant crime problem because of their frequent use in crime, particularly the gangland crimes of that era such as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The $200 making and transfer taxes on most NFA firearms were considered quite severe and adequate to carry out Congress’ purpose to discourage or eliminate transactions in these firearms. The $200 tax has not changed since 1934.

This is at: http://www.atf.gov/firearms/nfa/

It is like ATF is laying the groundwork to suggest the Congress pass legislation to outlaw NFA firearms altogether.

The sections on new letters (see http://www.atf.gov/publications/newsletters/) is chillingly incomplete, e.g., note the missing ones, particularly involving the AR-15, and the various ones involving machine guns.

More broadly, it appears that ATF is attempting to "professionalize" the look of its web site, and give the impression of a professional law enforcement organization.

The NFRTR has always been arcane enough that ATF has been able to dodge the consequences of messing it up; same thing, to an extent, with the machine gun issues.

But (REDACTED) case is starting to bring Title I stuff into the fray, and the various "nonfirearms" that are uppers; not to mention the "upper" and "lower" receiver fiasco that now appears to apply to both Title I and Title II firearms. The expansion of FTB and related issues into the Title I area is likely to be of EXTREME concern to ATF. . .

Tuttle