I am sympathetic to the guy’s crank interpretation, because that’s exactly how lawsuits against development that drag on for ages work.
I am sympathetic to the guy’s crank interpretation, because that’s exactly how lawsuits against development that drag on for ages work.
It's also the way prosecutors constantly charge people with other laws.
They can drag in a potato cannon, maybe light it with some black powder if compressed air doesn't "count", and show that the PVC pipe readily expelled the projectile and thus the pipe by itself is a "firearm barrel" if it can readily be placed into such a potato gun. It would be no problem to prosecute someone for selling the PVC pipe to a plumber and 100% meet the letter of the law.
I don't see that as farcical but rather a straightforward application of the law. Maybe you find the law farcical/cranky but my interpretation isn't.
That's a bug of the judicial system's speed rather than the interpretation of law. A groundless lawsuit still needs to be heard through a glacial system before the result can be determined.
When time is money, such delays are takings from the applicant, and work like mafia protection money.