I have to say that I never imagined in my wildest dreams (which usually have more exciting things in them than potatoes which, in my experience, don’t move under their own power) did it ever occur to me to put the words “potato” and “firearm” in the same sentence.
Okay, maybe if you’re talking about a potato gun, but those don’t use gun powder, so that’s a different animal.
And, besides, how a potato is used in our discussion today of potatoes and firearms (yep, still weird to put in the same sentence) is completely different than a spud gun.
You may just have to read it to believe it. Luke McCoy writes,
A new video released by the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) is drawing attention online after it used an ordinary household item — a potato — to illustrate what the group calls the “absurd overreach” of the National Firearms Act (NFA).
In the video, NAGR’s Zachary Clark holds up a potato that has been officially registered as an NFA item. He explains that, due to its alleged classification as a suppressor, the potato required a full NFA registration process: Clark underwent fingerprinting, a background check, and the item was entered into the ATF’s national registry.
Now, this whole situation is clearly a publicity stunt by the NAGR (and a clever one, at that), but it makes a good point: the NFA has absurd provisions that could be used to control things that have absolutely nothing to do with firearms.
After all, how many people do you know who have put a potato over the end of the barrel of a gun? I’d wager, not many. (I am curious how well it works in that capacity, though).
And the NFA shouldn’t have anything to do with that potato.
It’s not too hard to imagine, based on this situation, how a steak house could go through a lengthy registration process just to be able to serve baked potatoes with your ribeye (because that’s one of the common ways that government overreach happens).
That’s an absolutely ridiculous scenario, but it’s not impossible. And that is yet another reason that we should get rid of the NFA.
