What “home storage requirements” for gasoline involve the ATF? There are no ATF permits required to buy it, no ATF searches, inspections, or container requirements for gasoline. Even state and local codes (if any) and unenforced and unenforceable. There’s no one going to stop you if you store gasoline in open containers or glass jars. Not that anyone should do that, of course. But it shows just how lax regulations are for such a volatile and dangerous material. Why should our far less dangerous, non-volatile APCP be subject to anything stricter?
I made a proposal at a series of NFPA meetings that met with approval from ATF who then formally proposed it on my behalf (imagine that, Irvine and ATF in bed together) to the subcommittee, who approved it for vote to the full committee (typical rubberstamp). During the full committee vote one Dane Boles stood in opposition to the measure. Due to his understandable stature with the group, his words were heeded and the matter tabled, never to be seen or heard from since. So now I set them forth as guidelines in connection with insurance coverage I recommend. If the perceptions were backed by scientific methods and accountability, we wouldn’t have arbitrary laws relating to APCP.
However, I feel it is just as unreasonable to ask for an unlimited non-permit exemption for any quantity of APCP for the same reason. Those that are asking for the “all or nothing” exemption are just as guilty of being arbitrary and illogical as the ATF is in the other extreme. A technical non-profit code-making group that understands the real risks of flammable materials and storage should be the ones that set this limit. Then it would be a uniform code without the need to lobby each state and locality, wasting their time and our time. This would have nothing to do with the BATFE.
