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Unless a federal court has determined the AA to be a machine gun, then the AA is not a machine gun. The Executive Branch, of which the BATFE is a part, has no authority to interpret law. The Akins folks ought to sue the BATFE, if they are not already taking the sateps to do so.
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Congress delegated the authority to implement the NFA to ATFE, and that gives ATFE the authority to say what does or does not fit within the definition of machine gun. Because ATFE was granted the authority to make those determinations and issue the implementing regulations, federal courts give considerable deference to ATFE's decisions as to what the regs mean.
Atkins can sue, but it will need to convice the court that ATFE's decision was effectively unsupportable and arbitrary.