U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Gun Owners of America & AmmoLand News are in possession of the complete Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.P.) Manual for the ATF’s Firearms & Ammunition Technology Division (FATD).
Recently Gun Owners of America filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking the ATF to supply FATD’s “Standard Operating Procedures.” For years gun rights activists and firearms journalists speculated that the document existed. The ATF has always been tight-lipped about the existence of the document and what it could contain. GOA was able to determine the exact name of the document and requested it from the ATF.
GOA has shown the will follow through and sue the ATF and other government organizations over denied or delayed FOIA requests.
The ATF could have forced GOA’s hands but, to their credit, turned over the document to the gun rights organization for publication as required under Freedom of Information Act law. If GOA did have to sue the ATF, the group could have forced the ATF to pay the legal fees if the government lost in court.
Now GOA & AmmoLand News now have the complete Firearms & Ammunition Technology Division (FATD) “Standard Operating Procedures” document.
The amount of information in the ATF FOIA release is vast. Some of the information given by the ATF to GOA was already released but buried deep inside the ATF’s FOIA response was FATD’s “Standard Operating Procedures.” That document gives us a deep insight into the shadowy division of the ATF responsible for deciding what is and isn’t a stock and what is and isn’t a firearm.
GOA approached AmmoLand News and asked if we would be interested and digging through the document and analyze the inner workings of FATD. AmmoLand News agreed to the offer because we believe that this information should be publicly available for anyone to view. Over the coming weeks, AmmoLand News journalists will be highlighting some of the information locked inside the documents. AmmoLand News and GOA will make the complete document available for the industry, defense attorneys, and the public at the end of our reporting.
Inside the FATD Standard Operating Procedures is how the branch handles and examines different items. These items include discussions of armor-piercing ammunition and non-evidentiary firearms. It gives a great insight into what the ATF officers look at when reviewing different things before issuing an opinion letter back to a firearms company or individual that submitted a firearms product for a determination.
Not only does the document cover the methods and procedures the FATD department needs to follow, but the document goes into the training of Firearms Enforcement Officers. For the first time, the public will get to look at the training that the ATF provides these officers. It will be an eye open for the readers to learn what type of training programs that new officers must be complete before being allowed to examine items.
Not only does the document covers what information an officer needs to know about importation laws and knowledge of the Nation Firearms Act, but it also talks about how the officers must write a short essay about a firearm from a list that includes guns like the SKS, Sten, or the FN FAL.
There is more to come on this story so stay tuned.
About John Crump
John is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
well commenters, y’ all could have submitted a foia for that information yourselves if you wanted it that much. ammoland and goa did the work and are now in possession of that info and it is their right to disseminate it as they see fit. i’m sure we will get it shortly.
batfe could have denied the request or litigated it, but thankfully it is now out in the open and they do not have the ability to obfuscate when asked questions about accessories.
great job and thanks to goa and al
Well done again GOA!
Looking forward to reading your breakdown of the document Ammoland!
Why not release it in full, right now? Certainly there is info we could use in opposing the receiver and brace proposals…
Ammoland will likely string the release out over time insuring readership numbers will jump and remain high for the duration of the release. Maybe advertising rates will jump accordingly. I dont blame them as Ammoland is a for profit enterprise. But it would be nice if we could get the entire book at one time and now, not next month.
The reason for not releasing all at once most people would tire of reading and stop reading before they are able to comprehend the importance of the full document.
Let the lawyers of GOA do their job and make available the real “meat” of the release.
C’mon, man, we get enough of those restrictions from the dotgov now – you know, like the 2A restrictions on “…shall not be infringed.”?
FREEdom of information, not infringed information.
Gimme gimme gimme!
Information isn’t free. The work was done by GOA, and will be done by AmmoLand News journos, and it’s good they’re exploiting it this way.
then file yer OWN FOIA request. YouARE a citizen, thus that informatioin is yours, as a product of da gummit you manage. You COULD have filed that request years ago, right?
“The info is vast.”
GOA & ALN have an exclusive and want to read, study, understand, x-chk & report first. Good.
“Over the coming weeks, ALN journos will highlight info, then make the complete doc available.”
As a GOA life member/donor I applaud the win. GOA & ALN will focus on the most critical timely issues more effectively than taking a yuge dump. If they don’t, and it results in a loss, then complain.
It’s GOA’s work to exploit. If GOA & AL build members-readers that way, good for them, good for us.
John — please have an editor proofread your work before it goes to production. “Minor” typos stand out like the proverbial sore thumb and detract from “reading comprehension” in general. I am not picking on you! I am a retired writer, and have learned from experience that it is impossible for anyone to “proof his own work,” just as at a certain level it’s impossible for a developer to “debug his own code.” (Yes, he has to do the actual gruntwork — but, when it comes to finding the bugs… When I was developing software I’d take a program I… Read more »
PS: There is a reason that it’s not possible to find your own typos. When we read what we wrote, we see what we wanted to say, not what we actually typed. Yes, we’ll always find some typos — but we’ll rarely if ever find all of them.
EXACTLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…………….
Link to document…?
They stated they’d post the document in full after they complete their reporting on it. Gonna have to wait …hopefully not too long.