By the way, those airsoft guns the BATFE seized because they were 'machine guns'?

'Easily convertible', etc? If you didn't know it was bullshit before, you'd know it now.
The thing that's immediately noticeable is ATF has gone into full weasel-word mode.

These people, amidst great media fanfare, have seized thousands of dollars worth of private property from a family-owned business under the guise of law enforcement. And now they're avoiding direct questions.

Why?

The anonymous spokesperson refused to answer the "point blank" question "Does the ATF believe these toys can be converted into deadly weapons...?"

Why?

What does deferring to the legal definition of a "machinegun" have to do with this unless ATF's position is that these are machine guns?

What are we to make of ATF's assertion that "this is more of a public awareness issue and that the real danger is how realistic these toys look"? Since when is raising public awareness cause for seizing property? What does that have to do with the legal definition of a machine gun?

And Pajamas has gotten onto it, and has some notes on the bullshit:
We have seen an AWSS rifle break at the junction between the upper receiver and the barrel, an area subjected to some of the greatest stresses in a real AR-15 as that is where the chamber would be located. The machining required to create a gas-operated rifle from one of these rifles would be extensive and expensive, requiring the replacement or fabrication of several key components — barrel, gas block, gas tube, receiver, bolt carrier, bolt, firing pin, associated springs, etc. Anything less would pose as real a danger to the shooter as to any potential victims. There is also the long-running argument that if someone with criminal intentions has the skills to actually convert an Airsoft gun, they probably have the ability to fabricate a basic firearm from scratch.
Which pretty much covers it. It would actually be easier to make a basic submachinegun than it would to do all this.

So it comes to either someone really screwed up and they don't want to admit it and make it right, or somebody KNEW this was BS, did it anyway, and now realizes just how badly they screwed the pooch. And is making it worse by stalling and playing games.