Front Sight, Press

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is charged with assuring the safety and health of American workers. Unfortunately, OSHA sometimes goes at their job of protecting American workers so energetically as to pass regulations that virtually make the work impossible.

OSHA has now turned its attention to the manufacturing, transportation and storage of small arms ammunition, primers and smokeless propellants. Not a good thing for the industry - especially in light of their proposal to make the industry “safe”.

As they are written today, the firearms industry says, those new OSHA rules would force the closure of nearly all ammo manufacturers and force the cost of small arms ammo to skyrocket, “beyond what the market would bear”. Essentially, closing down the industry.

That’s not Chicken Little fear-mongering.

The costs associated with compliance with the proposed rules could easily exceed $100 million dollars. Not a number that could be absorbed by ammunition makers, wholesale distributors and retailers. It’s certainly not a cost that could be passed on to consumers without bringing the industry to a crashing halt.

The new rules also have some classic OSHA overstatements. Ammunition and smokeless propellant manufacturers would have to shut down and evacuate a factory or retail location when a thunderstorm approached - and customers would not be allowed within 50 feet of any ammunition - displayed or stored - without first being searched for matches or lighters.

Hello, shoe bomber?

It would also prohibit possession of firearms in commercial “facilities containing explosives” - those facilities would include sporting goods stores and gun shops.

And OSHA proposes prohibiting delivery drivers from leaving “explosives” unattended. That would prevent UPS, FedEx or similar delivery services from delivering gunpowder or ammunition to individuals and dealers. The double-barrel impact of such a ruling would effectively end online and catalog sales as well.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and SAAMI have already had preliminary meeting with OSHA officials to “begin the process of explaining to them the major problems this proposed rule presents for all levels of the firearms and ammunition industry.”

They are also petitioning for a sixty-day extension of the public comment period to allow further input from those of us who would be impacted by the decision.
Meanwhile, the NSSF is encouraging retailers to contact OSHA directly and request the comment period extension. Personally, I think NSSF should be giving the retailers rakes, hoes, and torches so they could march on OSHA headquarters like the peasants marched on Frankenstein’s Castle. Of course, the handles on the hoes, rakes and other implements would be OSHA orange and OSHA yellow - in keeping with OSHA directives and the torches would bear all the OSHA-required safety placards (my favorite idea for the torches would read “In operation this device may become hot, posing a potential threat to exposed tissue if carried in a non-prescribed manner”).

The proposal, despite being a goldmine for humor, is nothing about which to joke. Like any other government idea, hare-brained or otherwise, it has the potential to take on force of law.

At that point, it is, as the old song goes, “too-late to worry, too-soon to cry.”
For that reason, retailers should be contacting OSHA and making them aware that the proposal constitutes a “significant regulatory action” in that it will “adversely affect in a material way” the retail sector of the firearms and ammunition industry. If you’re going to write a letter, please create a reference line that reads as follows:

RE: Docket No. OSHA-2007-0032
Request to Extend Public Comment Period and Request for Hearing on Significant Regulatory Action” as Defined in Executive Order 12866.

If you’re looking for a bit more guidance in a letter, there’s a template available from the NSSF at: http://www.nssf.org/share/docs/BP070207-OSHAletter.rtfIt will download as a PDF file you can simply fax to (202) 693-1648. Please include the Docket Number (OSHA-2007-0032) and Department of Labor/OSHA on the cover sheet and reference section of your letter.

Over the past two years, we have observed on more than one occasion that the battle for firearms would be lost if opponents decided that, rather than fight the Second Amendment - a battle they have repeatedly lost, they attacked the ammunition that makes firearms useful.

Some observers have remarked that the industry may be “overreacting” to the OSHA proposal and that, with the exception of the customer regulations, it’s really not “that bad”.

With the government’s propensity to expand -ceaselessly - and never to release regulatory controls, there doesn’t appear to be any wiggle room in this proposal. It has to die.

If it isn’t stopped - as in a dead standstill - it will grow in scope and impact until we will find ourselves with the Second Amendment protecting our rights to keep and bear arms, but OSHA having removed our ability to acquire ammunition.

Source: Jim Shepherd, The Shooting Wire

See also:

Proposed OSHA Regulation Threatens Firearm and Ammunition Industry

OSHA proposed rules for shipping ammo & components

OSHA Threat

The full text of the proposed regulation (Requires Adobe Acrobat)