Reprinted from " The Patriot Post"
Second Amendment: Guns For Dummies
Federal authorities at the ATF recently intercepted a large shipment of rifles labeled "toys" in Tacoma, Washington, that it claimed "could have had far-reaching and potentially devastating ramifications if they had gotten into the hands of individuals who wanted to do harm in the American population." Could the weapons seizure have prevented a shooting rampage across the nation? Perhaps -- except for one problem. The guns actually were toys.
Apparently, the ATF thought there was no limit to the widespread damage these mostly plastic Airsoft BB guns could have inflicted upon hapless Americans. The lightweight plastic BB ordnance fired by such heavy artillery may actually sting or leave welts on bare skin if fired at close range. Undeterred by such an obvious blunder, the agency justified its seizure by declaring the toy BB guns could be converted into real, fully automatic machine guns -- which is true, if virtually all of the toy's parts were replaced with real machine gun parts from a real weapon. The same holds true for any other toy being converted to the real thing from scratch, like toy pickups or spaceships. The old adage never to attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity continues to be true, especially when it comes to bureaucratic bungling. Perhaps in the future, the ATF could refer to Guns for Dummies to help them identify real weaponry.