Gun makers exploit legal definitions by reclassifying bullets as tools.

Evidence

It did not take gun makers long to find a way around this requirement. They simply devised a button that releases the magazine with the tip of a bullet and defined the bullet as a “tool.” The gun makers called the “bullet button” assault weapon “California Legal.” As this failed effort shows, whatever gun features are banned or altered the gun industry finds a way around them, mechanically and linguistically. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1075

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘bullet = tool’ move is a crisp specimen of how regulated actors weaponize definitions; an essay could survey similar definitional exploits across industries.