When the police make up the rules which they enforce on the fly, it’s called a Police State.

Ultimately, the question for gunsmiths becomes, “Where does maintenance end and manufacturing begin?”

Common sense would have the person/corporation that turns a hunk of whatever into a receiver needing a serial number would be the manufacture.

This is nonsense. I wish we had a pro-gun President and a pro-gun Congress.

Where does maintenance end and manufacturing begin

Thats pretty much the same question electric utilities have been faced with in light of the changes the Clinton Administration instituted to the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program.

Activities that have traditionally been deemed maintenance (and were even included on the initial maintenenace schedules when the utilities were constructed) were classified as new construction or improvements to a utility and those power plants were subject to exorbitant fines ($25,000+ a day for each day of operation after the maintenance was performed).

The Bush Administration tried to develop regulations that simply provided an answer to this question and were pretty viscously attacked for “rolling back environmental laws” and “gutting the clean air act” so its no surprise that the gun banners might try to co-opt the strategy for their own needs.

That sentence is incomplete: you need to add the word off at the end.