Akins Accelerator in the news
I’ve covered the issue many times. Now, the press is covering how Bill Akins has been bankrupted by inconsistencies from the ATF:
More than five years later, Akins is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.
His business partner has severed ties with his company. His investors have bailed. He has a warehouse in Oregon filled with more than $750,000 worth of useless stock. His reputation has been sullied by trade publications that once praised his invention.
He can’t afford to hire a lawyer to challenge the ATF’s ruling.
“They’ve destroyed my dream,” Akins said. “Eleven years of my life, gone like that.”
ATF officials stand behind their decision to outlaw the Akins Accelerator.
Drew Wade, an agency spokesman in Washington, said the ATF initially approved the device after test firing a prototype that Akins sent them in 2003.
Records indicate the prototype malfunctioned when it was tested and analyzed by a senior technician from the ATF’s Firearms Technology Branch, according to Wade. But the agency approved the Accelerator anyway, saying in a letter that it did not meet the criteria for a machine gun and, as a concept, was allowable under federal law.
“FTB has concluded that your submitted device is not designed and intended for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun,” Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officials wrote in a letter dated Aug. 23, 2005.
Wade said the agency reversed its position after someone who bought a fully functioning Accelerator requested another test firing.
And this time, he said, the mechanism worked.
Shortly after, federal regulators issued a new ruling: The Akins Accelerator is prohibited under the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act of 1968.
The article also notes the NRA’s lack of involvement in the case: Officials from the NRA and the National Sports Shooting Association, chief advocates for gun ownership in the country, weren’t willing to comment on Akins’ dilemma.
Read the whole thing.
Via Greg.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Of course not. The NRA wants to avoid the machine gun question at all costs. Defending it makes them look “extremist.”
Can’t have that.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Kevin’s right. They aren’t touching this one.
December 19th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Just checking to see what time it is….
December 19th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
They’re not touching much of anything to our benefit. But they’re all over the send more money shit so we can decline the battles necessary to win a war.
December 19th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Long past that time, Magus. Problem is, the right time is very early on, when it appears to most people to be overreaction.
By the time most people would support “shooting the bastards” it’s far too late to affect the rest of government via that method. It just scares ’em into making the screws tighter