| Labor Department Announces It Will Revise Overreaching OSHA Explosives Rule |
The Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced it will significantly revise
a recent proposal for new “explosives safety” regulations that caused
serious concern among gun owners. OSHA had originally set out to
update workplace safety regulations, but the proposed rules included
restrictions that very few gun shops, sporting goods stores, shippers, or
ammunition dealers could comply with.
Gun owners had
filed a blizzard of negative comments urged by the NRA, and just a week
ago, OSHA had already issued one extension for its public comment period
at the request of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. After
continued publicity through NRA alerts and the outdoor media, and after
dozens of Members of Congress expressed concern about its impact, OSHA has
wisely decided to go back to the drawing board.
Working with the
NRA, Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) planned to offer a floor amendment
to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill this Wednesday when the House
considers this legislation. His amendment would have prohibited
federal funds from being used to enforce this OSHA regulation.
Such an amendment
is no longer necessary since Kristine A. Iverson, the Labor Department’s
Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, sent
Rep. Rehberg a letter,
dated July 16, stating that it “was never the intention of OSHA to block
the sale, transportation, or storage of small arms ammunition, and OSHA is
taking prompt action to revise” this proposed rule to clarify the
purpose of the regulation.
Also, working with
the NRA, Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO) gathered signatures from 25 House
colleagues for a letter,
dated July 11, expressing concerns about this proposed OSHA rule.
The letter called the proposal “an undue burden on a single industry
where facts do not support the need outlined by this proposed rule” and
“not feasible, making it realistically impossible for companies to
comply with its tenets.”
The OSHA proposal
would have defined “explosives” to include “black powder, … small
arms ammunition, small arms ammunition primers, [and] smokeless
propellant,” and treated these items the same as the most volatile high
explosives.
Under the proposed
rule, a workplace that contained even a handful of small arms cartridges,
for any reason, would have been considered a “facility containing
explosives” and therefore subject to many impractical restrictions.
For example, no one could carry “firearms, ammunition, or similar
articles in facilities containing explosives … except as required for
work duties.” Obviously, this rule would make it impossible to
operate any kind of gun store, firing range, or gunsmith shop.
The public comment website for the proposed rule is no longer accessible. The Labor Department will publish a notice in the July 17 Federal Register announcing that a new rule proposal will soon be drafted for public comment. Needless to say, the NRA monitors proposed federal regulations to head off this kind of overreach, and will be alert for OSHA’s next draft.
Read the letter to Cong. Rehberg from the Labor Dept.