The old thread from last year that got resurrected is here:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=784840&highlight=ITAR
and it seems the newest posts were deleted.
This doesn't affect gunsmiths as much as it will affect YOU. If you need work done to customize your gun - a smith will apparently be required to have ITAR licensing to do the work.
But the interpretation, which, as usual is vague and disengenuous, seems to indicate that if a smith needs to modify a part in any way from the makers as shipped conformation, then changing that shape, form, function, or dynamic interaction with other parts means they can only do the work if they are licensed.
This isn't the ATF, this is the State Department.
Now, how bad is it? For AR assemblers, not so much. For a tax collecting smith who charges for their labor, it could then mean upping the prices on trigger tuning, aesthetic treatment, rebarreling, etc. The TRADITIONAL gun owner is going to be hit with a huge surcharge to finance. Reshaping a stock, adjusting headspace, reaming a chamber, tuning the action, whatever, if it alters the part in any way, ITAR.
For those knowledgeable who think it won't, by all means ask State for clarification. We'd all like to hear it's not nearly as bad as it seems - but that will require getting answers out of them that are concise and detailed.
Therefore it's all speculative. However, the traditional gun owners need to be informed as they are the ones who require smith services much more often due to the proprietary nature of the guns they use and collect.
One area of concern is that there doesn't seem to be any start date when this became effective, and there's no reason to expect that prior work is grandfathered either. The language states that if it was changed but not by a licensed entity then it was done illegally, whenever that happened.
There are major issues to be resolved in how this works.