Thanks, I am just trying to find a line of demarcation. It appears that the law was written for "common rats" not a certain style of trap.
Just had this discussion yesterday again

The exemptive phrase is "common rat and mouse traps"
Trying to remember from my english classes here. Does anybody else remember diagraming sentences? It's been a while for me.
Our contention has always been that "common" is an adjective of "traps" "Common" modifies traps and "rat and mouse" modifies traps. That would mean any rat or mouse trap that is commonly found. You couldn't go making your own but if you could buy it I would think that would qualify.
If "common" modifies "rat" my question is what is a "common rat". That really has no meaning, at least I have never been able to find a definition. If it said old world rats or something like that it would have a meaning but what is a "common rat".
English teachers speak up.