[trapper john]

I no longer make the buffers for the fox carbine-- Like Paul Harvey used to say--" and heres the REST of the story" I just found out something interesting AND disconcerting about the proscess of making any kind of parts for firearms and I would like to pass this info along to all who visit Firing Line-- I just read an article in a publication called Small Arms Review by Moose Lake Publishing Tele (702)565-2926-- It is in the October issue Vol.13 No.1--( a very informative and interesting magazine) The article is titled ITAR? What in the world is ITAR! by Jason M. Wong-- It describes an existing Federal agency put in place by the passing of several laws - The first being the Arms Control And Disarmament Act which became law on 9-26-61-- The second is the Arms Export Control Act passed in 1976--Arising from these laws is a Federal regulation that governs the manufacture and export of defense articles from the U.S.-- This in turn contains a "munitions list"-- Catagory No.1 of this munitions list includes all firearms components parts and accessories and is intended to be "all encompassing"---It states basically that if a person makes or otherwise "manufactures" ANY part or accessory for ANY firearm whether or not the part is "exported or not or whether or not it is just produced in your home workshop or on your garage drillpress the Feds consider you to be in the "business " of manufacturing defense related items -- At this point , to be "legal" and to not incur the wrath of this State Dept. agency you are "required to register with with what is termed the Ditectorate OF Defense Trade Controls DDTC--This is all per ITAR section122.1(a) The present registration fee per year is $2250 (and thats the cheapest- it goes up from there)- So-- it seems pretty impossible that if you want to help out your fellow firearms enthusiasts by making a small part such as a buffer that a Federal agency has the power to step in and prohibit your efforts under threat of Federal indictment IF you dont pay them the $2250 per year to produce a couple of seemingy harmless parts--but thats the law folks--- I believe that the passage of these laws and the convoluted bureaucratic mess that they have caused are another case of unintended consequences-- So the offshoot of this whole mess is that I will no longer be making buffers for the Fox_Demro Carbine- There is already a wealth of information in the Firing Line site for you to be able to make your own buffers or to have a good gunsmith make one for you--Ihope the people in charge of Firing Line will let me include the foregoing information in this post as I feel that it is information that Could serve to save someone from needless trouble with our friendly Federal regulators