Re: ATF regulations.

At 11:14 PM 10/12/2004 -0400, Donald Qualls wrote:

>Most airbag propellants are sodium azide, which itself is on the List (or 
>was, as of a couple years ago).

Sodium azide explosive mixture is on the List; sodium azide by itself is not.

>However, ISTM that if BATFE wants to go after someone on this one, they 
>should start with the car makers, who are distributing this explosive 
>willy-nilly to unlicensed individuals, including many who are legally 
>disabled (via prior felony convictions) from possessing explosives.

Precisely.  This is why it just has to be exempt: lawyers in Executive 
agencies are big on rules being enforced.  If there is a rule, it should be 
enforced.  If it isn't being enforced, it should be stricken.  If it is 
being waived left and right, it should be rewritten to exclude the waived 
conditions.  If it is ridiculous on the face of it, it is only a matter of 
time before it is held up for public ridicule on CBS or Fox News, depending 
on what party holds the White House at the time, and bureaucrats *hate* 
being publicly ridiculed.  It's practically a condition of employment: Thou 
Shalt Keep Thy Boss Off CNN.

>Bottom line: if the government's ability to arrest anyone, any time were 
>ever in question, it shouldn't be now.

Never was.  Arrest is easy.  Arraignment is harder.  Prosecution is harder yet.

The government really does depend on the willing cooperation of the 
citizens in upholding the laws.  They know - most of them, anyway - that 
that cooperation decreases when the laws become burdensome, or 
ridiculous.  That's why they try to keep them reasonable.  (They don't 
always succeed.)

-R

Randall Clague
Government Liaison
XCOR Aerospace
[email protected]
661-824-4714


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