It’s summer and it’s hot.  So, to make up for any complaints about our recommended summer reading, we thought we’d ask you to join us on a treasure hunt for an historic IRS document. IRS? Glad you asked. In or about 1969, the IRS defined “Factoring Criteria for Weapons.”  It was a scoring system to rate handguns and pistols, making them lawful or otherwise prohibiting them from import.  Among the criteria were frame length, barrel length, weapon weight, safety features, and caliber/gauge.  It is available as a modern form, still used by the ATF in determining import permissions. Can you locate and send us the current ATF form number?  The first three of our blog readers to do so will win a copy of “The Four Pillars of Firearms Compliance,” written by our CEO, Jon Rydberg. But, the IRS? Yes, it’s true.  Remember the history of firearms regulation started with an excise tax on imported firearms and ammunition in 1919 and then a tax on the interstate shipment of firearms by manufacturers, importers, and dealers under the 1938 Federal Firearms Act.  Enforcement was initially assigned to the Department of the Treasury/IRS.  And when the ATF was first formed, it was under the auspices of the IRS.  It wasn’t until 1972 that the ATF became a separate bureau.   The notion of the “Factoring Criteria for Weapons” arose when the IRS, as the implementing agency, tried to define the term “sporting purposes,” which was set by Congress as the test for, originally, importation of handguns under the Gun Control Act of 1968.   It is phrased this way in the statute at 18 USC §925(d)(3):  “The Secretary shall authorize a firearm…to be imported or brought into the United States…if the firearm…(3) is of a type that does not fall within the definition of a firearm as defined in section 5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 and is generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes, excluding surplus military firearms…” Of historical note, in a 1989 Department of Treasury memo that states, “While the legislative history suggests that the term “sporting purposes” refers to the traditional sports of target shooting, trap and skeet shooting, and hunting, the statute itself provides no criteria beyond the “generally recognized” language of section 925(d)(3).” Happy hunting!