The 62.5 Gram Exemption - The Real Story (from John Wickman)

03/04/03 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

In an open letter to Jim Banke at Space.com, John Wickman (ARSA) sets the record straight on the when and why of the arbitrary 62.5 gram limit for rocket motors. Click on the Read More link below to see the rest of the story. To: Jim Banke at Space.com

As someone intimately involved in getting a rocketry exemption in the Safe

Explosives Act, let me set the recorded straight on the ATF statement.

First, you need a little history on all of this to put it in perspective.

In 1970, the Organized Crime Act created for the first time an “Explosives

List” which was to be regulated by the ATF, a division of the Internal

Revenue Service. At that time ammonium perchlorate composite propellant

(APCP) was placed, for reasons unknown, on the Explosives List. From

creation of the law up to 1997, the ATF's position was that consumer rocket

motors were propellant activated devices and exempt from any ATF

requirements for permits or licenses. In 1997, the ATF suddenly decided

that only motors under 62.5 grams of propellant weight were exempt and

motors with propellant over 62.5 grams needed a permit. This 62.5 exemption

was never put into formal/published regulation by the ATF. It was a “shoot

from the hip” regulation where the ATF threatened to arrest and prosecute

anyone with a motor over 62.5 grams that did not have a permit. In August

of 2002, the ATF published in their monthly newsletter that they were going

to determine whether they would continue with the 62.5 gram exemption. The

implied threat was that it could go away. Even by 2002, the ATF never put

the 62.5 gram exemption into published, formal regulation. It was just

selective prosecution. At the end of January 2003, the ATF for the first

time proposed a formal 62.5 gram regulation. A regulation attached to a

series of new regulations having nothing to do with rocketry. As I write

this, there is still no official exemption for any size rocket motor in the

code of federal regulations, only a proposed regulation.

As you can see from the history, the ATF at one time exempted all consumers

rocket motors for over 26 years, then overnight, on a whim, the ATF decided

on exempting only those motors under 62.5 grams. The change in 1997 dealt a

blow to most consumer rocket motor manufacturers. Estes Industries being a

notable exception. All of their motors where under the 62.5 gram limit.

What is to prevent the ATF from changing the 62.5 gram limit downward later

this year after the media spotlight is gone and Congress adjourns. Nothing.

The rocketry community has no protection in United States Code. That is

what we are asking for. We are asking for what the ATF gave consumer

rocketry for over 26 years before they whimsically changed their minds. We

are asking for a complete exemption from the explosives act in United States

Code for the protection of the ENTIRE rocketry hobby from the ATF.

It is very short sighted for Estes to look the other, in exchange for an

exemption. An exemption which the ATF in their own newsletter, six months

ago, indicated they were ready to eliminate. Without the efforts of ARSA,

TRA, NAR and Senator Enzi, one can only wonder if the proposed 62.5 gram

exemption by the ATF would be made. Estes Industries may want to think

about that.

John Wickman

Amateur Rocketry Society of America