Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire ATF Reclassifies Wetted Nitrocellulose as Explosive Materials Under Federal Laws

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Washington, DC -(AmmoLand.com)- In an Explosives Industry Newsletter issued in June 2016, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) reclassified wetted nitrocellulose containing greater than 12.6 percent nitrogen as a high explosive under the federal explosives laws.

As explained below, this is a dramatic and sudden change in agency policy with a significant impact on the ammunition industry. The new policy was announced in a newsletter without any opportunity for industry input.

[b]I. Background

The federal explosives laws, 18 U.S.C. Chapter 40, regulate commerce in “explosive materials.” The term “explosive materials” is defined as explosives, blasting agents, and detonators. The term “explosives” is defined as any chemical compound mixture or device the primary or common purpose of which is to function by explosion. The definition requires ATF to publish an annual list of explosives that fit within the statutory definition. The 2015 List of Explosives is available at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-10-23/pdf/2015-26994.pdf.

Exemptions from the requirements of the federal explosives laws are provided, in pertinent part, for: (1) the transportation, shipment, receipt, or importation of explosive materials for delivery to any federal or State agency; (2) for small arms ammunition and components thereof; and (3) for the manufacture under the regulation of the U.S. military of explosive materials for their official use.

The term “ammunition” is defined in 27 C.F.R. § 555.11 as follows:

“Small arms ammunition or cartridge cases, primers, bullets, or smokeless propellants designed for use in small arms, including percussion caps, and 3/32 inch and other external burning pyrotechnic hobby fuses. The term does not include black powder.”

ATF’s longstanding position is that the small arms ammunition exemption applies only to .50 caliber or smaller rifle or handgun ammunition as well as certain shotgun ammunition. This position is clear in a June 2013 Explosive Industry Newsletter addressing exploding ammunition.

ATF also exempts other components of small arms ammunition from the requirements of the law and regulations, but only if such components are listed in the definition of “ammunition” in 27 C.F.R. § 555.11. This means that smokeless powder and primers are exempt from record keeping and storage requirements. However, other explosive materials used to manufacture ammunition will not be exempt until incorporated into one of the components of ammunition listed in the regulation, including smokeless powder or a complete round of small arms ammunition. Thus, wetted nitrocellulose containing greater than 12.6 percent nitrogen may be lawfully shipped, transported, or received only by persons holding federal explosives licenses or permits. Nitrocellulose must be recorded in records of acquisition in accordance with 27 C.F.R. § 555.123(b). The wetted nitrocellulose must also be recorded in the daily summary of magazine transactions required by 27 C.F.R. 555.127 and stored in storage magazines meeting the construction, tables of distance, and other requirements of storage regulations in 27 C.F.R. Part 555. At the point the nitrocellulose is incorporated into smokeless powder or a complete round of ammunition, it is exempt from the requirements of the record keeping, storage, and other requirements of federal law and regulations.

II. ATF Newsletter Article

The June 2016 newsletter article states that ATF was recently asked about the status of nitrocellulose under the federal explosives laws and regulations. The article notes that “Nitrocellulose explosive” is on ATF’s List of Explosive Materials and states ATF has determined that “nitrocellulose containing greater than 12.6 percent nitrogen is a high explosive under 27 C.F.R. Part 555.” The article indicates ATF is aware that the U.S. Department of Transportation may assign a nonexplosive classification to nitrocellulose when it has been wetted with water or alcohol, based, in part, on the diminished likelihood of explosion in a transportation accident. However, because nitrocellulose retains its explosive characteristics when the water or alcohol is removed, the wetted nitrocellulose remains a nitrocellulose explosive subject to all controls of the federal explosives laws. Because of the diminished likelihood of wetted nitrocellulose exploding, “ATF will consider variance requests to store the wetted material under an alternative arrangement.”

III. Impact of ATF Reclassification

Manufacturers and importers of smokeless propellant have relied on ATF private letter rulings issued prior to 2016 stating that nitrocellulose wetted with water not less than 25 percent by mass is not subject to regulation under the federal explosives laws. Accordingly, the manufacturers have set up their logistics, storage and operations consistent with nitrocellulose not being regulated as an explosive. Manufacturers and importers may not have adequate storage facilities or record keeping systems to comply with the law. Licensed manufacturers also rely on private, unlicensed vendors to store wetted nitrocellulose in facilities that do not comply with storage requirements. A number of manufacturers also report an adverse impact on their contracts to supply smokeless propellant and finished rounds of ammunition to the Department of Defense.

Publication of the change in classification in an industry newsletter without advance notice has left manufacturers scrambling to determine what standards ATF will allow for alternate storage and record keeping and to obtain permits for unlicensed storage vendors. In the meantime, manufacturers and importers are violating federal law, as ATF allowed no grace period for coming into compliance. We note that ATF has authorized such periods in the past when changing agency positions. For example, see ATF’s November 12, 2010 Open Letter regarding explosive pest control devices.

IV. Conclusion

ATF’s sudden and unexpected change in policy on wetted nitrocellulose will likely have a significant impact on industry’s ability to deliver products to the military and commercial markets. Industry members have relied on the exemption for wetted nitrocellulose for many years and are aware of no accidental detonations or diversion of this product into illicit channels. Consequently, it is unclear why ATF believed it necessary to change its policy and, more importantly, why ATF announced the change in a newsletter article with no advance notice to industry.

We are working with ATF to address the issues raised in this alert, including a possible agency announcement of delayed enforcement. We will notify our readers of any developments in the future.

Bet this change came straight from the White House.

Just the half bred negroid throwing barbs trying to get people stirred up, his uselessness is about up, Trump will fix it.

It says anything 50 cal. and smaller is exempt.

Sons a biches.

It's the transfer of raw product their going after.

nevermind. I missed it.

Never heard of it before. I'm sure it's nothing important. Definitely nothing to do with a precursor to every powder and primer in every cartridge out there...I'm sure it's more of a DOT safety thing on account of all the 'wet nitrocellulose' trucks that have been blowing up recently.

think its time sell some stock and stock up on more powders.

Glad I have enough primers and powder to last me.

I missed the part where my "legislators", ie, direct representitives, voted on this "law".....

I realize that nitrocellulose is a key component of smokeless powder. I am trying to wrap my head around just how / what the practical effect of this new "regulation" will be on us reloaders? Does it mean that any powder that has wetted nitrocellulose in it that exceeds 12.6% nitrogen is now subject to regulation as a "high explosive" (and I don't know if that is even possible in terms of the various chemical components used to make powder)? Or, does the new "regulation" apply strictly to nitrocellulose, and an exemption then applies once the nitrocellulose is combined with the other necessary chemical components that are used to make smokeless powder?

I don't want to be forced into a knee-jerk powder buying spree, (but I guess you can never really have too much in the way of powder or primers), but I don't to get blind-sided by Obongo and his Band of Bolsheviks either.

Smug, and almost grotesquely uninformed comment, that.

This has been brewing since fat Ted chaired the OSHA committee, and though beaten back, was NEVER taken off the table.

GTC

Wrote this damn near 10 years ago,....it was published in a few Vintage and Historic Arms rags.
Drug this up from the raw draft submitted,...so bear with any typos.

GTC


It Almost Slipped Past Us, Undetected or Identified, Cause for Concern

I’ll not be forgetting the first two weeks of July 2007 any time soon. This period saw some friends and myself drawn into a marathon of communication, primarily in the online-internet venue, but heavily relying on telephone, fax, and regular U.S. Postal Service mailings as well. Without becoming overly dramatic, let me simply state that the availability of rapid communications assets may have been the deciding factor in narrowly averting a serious and catastrophic event. In rhetorical terms, an “Under the Radar” threat was detected, brought up on the screens, and than shot down, in the short span of a couple of weeks. That would be a glacial time span in the context of modern aerial warfare, but in the context of oppressive regulatory law, almost just a heartbeat.
Troubling in the extreme is that the “Threat” was well established and quietly making it’s way towards a “deadline”. Had it crossed its’ deadline undetected and unobserved, our access to the everyday supplies and components essential to our legacy shooting sports, and outdoor recreation activities would have been severely compromised.
Troubling in the extreme is that virtually all of those organizations and individuals that one would expect to be well “in the loop” on these sorts of issues were as in the dark as we were. Initial advisories and declarations of alarm were met with blank stares, some doubt, and worse, apparent disregard.
Troubling in the extreme is the fact that with all of the power that American Sportsman can wield through well established and effective legislative process, a clear cut loophole apparently exists, one that without scrutiny can permit “backdoor regulation” to become the law of our land.

OSHA – 2007 – 0032 – 0001 and “Regulations dot Gov.”

On 13 April 2007, the document above appeared on a website,www.regulations.gov,
There to be available for review and a three month period for “public comments”, ending July 12. The document is 52 pages in length, and a serious piece of text to wade through. I’m going to quote a few lines of these interminably long winded, and oppressive “Proposed Regulations”, the core issue, as it were:

“…OSHA has changed the definition of “Blasting agent” in the proposed standard to update it and make it consistent with the definition used by DOT and THE UNITED NATIONS GLOBALLY HARMONIZED SYATEM OF CLASSIFICATION AND LABELLING OF CHEMICALS EXPLOSIVES CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM…..”
(emphasis, mine)

“………the term would include dynamite, black powder, pellet powders, detonators, blasting agents, initiating explosives, blasting caps, safety fuse, fuse lighters, fuse igniters, squibs, cordeau detonant fuse, instantaneous fuse, igniter cord special industrial explosive materials, SMALL ARMS AMMUNITION, PRIMERS, SMOKELESS PROPELLANT ( emphasis again mine), ….etc.”

Now obviously there’s not room for all 52 pages here, but if you can find time to review this document I encourage you to do so. Emplaced, these regulations would have effectively made access to hand loading components and loaded ammunition tenuous, and prohibitively expensive. This is, in truth, malevolent and destructive regulation, and arguably unconstitutional, but I doubt the U.N. reads our Constitution in the same light as we do.
OSHA is a “Regulatory Agency”, overseen by a senate Sub-committee. The members overseeing this one, include some folks that have been, shall we say, less than friendly to Shooting Sport, and the Second Amendment. I would encourage you to check that point out, you’ll clearly see what I’m getting at.

It is a bit spooky to reflect that just as this proposed regulation was quietly planted in the process of review, our NRA was holding its’ annual meeting in St Louis, 13 April to 15 April. I’ll quote from the August issue of American Rifleman,

“A sobering speech from keynote speaker John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined how dangerously close our gun rights came to being decided by the international gun-ban community…………..”

“…….these non governmental organizations change the dimension of the problem from an issue of national policy to make it a matter of international policy, where they’re going to have, in effect, a second bite at the apple they couldn’t win in the American political context.”

I really think that Mr. Bolton’s comments define and encapsulate the situation that we address here, as well. It’s ironic that the timing of the “Period for public review and comment” on another internationally driven and intrusive agenda was launched on the day he spoke. I think that it’s pretty shocking, and cause for serious concern that the agenda apparently lay undetected and ticking like a noxious bomb until very late June.

Well, this played out as a classic “Eleventh hour” scenario. Once the implications of the pending regulation were defined a relatively small band of concerned writers lit up the interactive on-line world of Shooting Sport. Wyoming‘s Steve Garbe rode right at the head of this posse, and I was proud to ride along, We were all pretty shocked at how few folks were aware of this pending regulation, and in particular our elected representatives.
Folks with a major stake in this, businesses, suppliers, and manufacturers seemed to be totally in the dark as well. NRA-ILA did not issue any sort of alert until early July. The fact that the development of an intense and marathon public awareness and legislative alert campaign coincided with our Independence Day holidays (seems fitting, no?) did not make for the easiest communications. Offices were closed and empty, folks had taken the week off, etc..

I know though, of several instances where members of a rapidly growing group of Shooting Sport types actually went to their elected Representatives homes to discuss their concern. Once advised many elected reps. actually went to work on this on Independence day, calling staffers and cohorts.

As the “Widfire” spread, many folks were frustrated by the “regulations dot gov” site, as they attempted to post their comments in opposition. The site was deemed by many to be extremely user unfriendly and overly complex to access and post on.

Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-Montana) assembled a sizeable group of other Congressmen and Women, and they submitted their comments to OSHA.

By Thursday, 5 July , it became evident that an expanding circle of concerned folks were contacting their elected reps, and also their respective state’s Fish and Game divisions. More dismayed commentary was being heard as to just how few folks with a real stake in this knew anything at all about it.

By Friday 6 July, the groundswell had grown to a magnitude that saw the problem discussed briefly on National talk radio, with Rush Limbaugh throwing in with the posse.
At this point the “Public Comments” page on the regs.gov site was just that, one page, listing 17 comments, and that since 13 April. Slowly we started to see that list grow, which was encouraging.

No-one involved in this had much of a weekend over 7 and 8 July, planning and writing seemed to be the order of the day, and phone lines were buzzing. The main thrust was to secure a 60 day extension for the public review and comment period, which in the subsequent week proved to be successful, and was in emplaced on 9 July. The NRA - ILA on-line alert clearly brought massive horsepower to the scene, and what had started as a few small and lonely campfires was clearly growing into a nationwide blaze. Patiently coaching and steering folks to keep their eye on the ball, Steve Garbe continued to encourage unrelenting pressure in all appropriate directions.

Early in the coming week, National talk radio again covered this issue (Rush Limbaugh, again) only in greater depth. The “Public Comments” section grew, by leaps and bounds.
On the various Shooting Sports / Outdoor Rec. websites post after post gratifyingly indicated that the groundswell had become a Tsunami, and that things were looking a bit brighter, in general. I think that during this period we’ve seen more fine and thought provoking text written on the basic nuts and bolts of American Shooting sport, firearms rights, and legislative / lawmaking process than in quite a while, The sheer volume is staggering, and it will be an interesting project for someone to do a compilation on. I would note that many of our Commonwealth brethren chimed in with sound advice, and their cautionary notes. They’ve “been there”, and clearly know whereof they speak.

Somewhere, in a lonely cluttered cubicle perhaps, a “Docket Manager” struggled to keep up with a deluge of public comment. The volume was obviously staggering, and it was interesting to note that posting continued over the weekend, and well into the nights (perhaps they had gone to “double shifts status?).

On Tuesday 17 July OSHA quietly announced: “…the U.S. Department of labor is closing the comment period effective 17 July….The Department intends to re-propose the explosives NPRM at a later date in order to clarify the intent of the rulemaking.”
Just after that midnight the “Comments” listing stood at 92 pages, with 2283 comments.

At the time of this writing, 19 July the “comments” list sits at 145 pages, with 3605 comments recorded. That must mean that there was quite a backlog to individually review, and approve for posting, one would think. Considering the meager single page of 17 comments available on 4 July one would have to be impressed by the effectiveness of this little experiment in grassroots activism. There’s been some disingenuous comment by OSHA spokespersons as to how “This was never intended to affect Sport, or small business, or commerce…….etc” One has but to look at the make up of the Senatorial oversight committee to garner a clear picture of just what exactly was going on here, and it should be of great concern that oppressive regulation of this magnitude can be quietly implemented by a so obviously agenda driven few. This was not about workplace safety, it was about your ammunition, pure and simple.



So, What Have we Learned From This ?

On the bright side, I would say that this evolution clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of focused communications of our concerns to our elected Representatives, and that a patient and tenacious “stay the course” attitude will see us through dark and threatening times. Clearly information is one of our most powerful assets when evaluated, and applied.

Clearly, a dearth of information was made available on important regulatory action in process and progress, and I don’t think that Limbaugh went overboard calling it “Backdoor gun control”. We caught it this time, and it’s worth noting how quickly it was withdrawn, once exposed.

“The Department intends to re-propose…..”, means just that, and obviously we need to bird dog this regulatory issue with ongoing concern .A loophole apparently exists that needs to be closed, that being the fact that regulatory action of this potential magnitude can be emplaced without Congressional review and approval. This is more than likely the best time to get this rectified, and as soon as possible. I’m not really sure how comfortable you are with having the U.N. looking over your shoulder at your loading bench, but would venture no more so than I. What I’m getting at is that this issue should not be allowed to go cold, and that some accountability on the part of those responsible for this clearly political agenda driven stunt is in order. In short, they have some explaining to do.

All of us have to acknowledge that this was a close run thing, and I do mean all of us, up to and including our NRA-ILA. It would seem (and sadly so) that we just have to become a little more focused on avenues of potential threat, and review anything and everything that’s happening in our government. That lesson learned, on an internal level we should dispense with any and all unproductive criticism of how this particular situation evolved, and work together as a powerful and unified front.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”
Jefferson

Or sarcasm, that's my take.

Think about it: The recent assaults on our 2nd. Amendment Rights by the nameless / faceless rule-making, unelected bureaucrats:

1. The attempted 5.56/.223 greentip ammo ban;
2. The attempted "export license" to take your rifle on a foreign hunting trip;
3. The current assault on gunsmiths; and
4. What now appears to be another back-door attempt to make reloading more difficult and/or expensive and/or to create artificial scarcities in reloading components.

(If I have left anything out ... please feel free to add to the list.)

I don't think this is aimed at reloading, I bet that isn't even on their radar yet(although it would be affected). I imagine this is to make the manufacture, storage, and transportation of ammo fall under the guise of explosives, which would make it cost prohibitive and drive everybody from the market, even the big boy ammo suppliers...

I didn't know that powder manufacture involved storage & transportation of anything other than the most basic raw materials. But it sounds like a pound of powder is about to go from $20-30 to $30-40.

this is the sort of thing that happens, when Congress writes laws that allow or encourage the administration to interpret the law. At that point, they can call black white, up down, right wrong or insane sane.

he has hundreds of folks on the payroll, just digging every day for something he can alter to help destroy America.