All posts by Carl Bussjaeger

Firearms Policy & Law Analyst at The Zelman Partisans Personal Blog: https://www.bussjaeger.us/blog/
gun control, Law, Politics, Rights

DOJ Problem Solved

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The other day I noted that Trump could institute nationwide reciprocal carry just by enforcing the Constitution, and 18 U.S. Code § 241 – Conspiracy against rights and 18 U.S. Code § 242 – Deprivation of rights under color of law.

But the problem with that is the corrupt DOJ.

Problem solved.

Trump taps Matt Gaetz for Attorney General
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he had chosen Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to serve as Attorney General.

A conservative firebrand, Gaetz led a group of dissident Republicans in ousting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023. He has been a stalwart supporter of Trump.

I think Gaetz will enjoy cleaning up the DOJ and FBI.

Trump’s picks of Gaetz, Waltz for NSA, and Marco Rubio for Secretary of State put quite a dent in Florida’s Congressional delegation. But Gov. DeSantis gets to appoint Rubio’s replacement, and Gaetz and Waltz are in pretty red districts.

No doubt the Senate Dims will muck with Rubio and Gaetz’s proceedings, but I think they’ll be confirmed.

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Action, Constitution, gun control, Law, Rights

Full Faith And Credit

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I see Trump has found a Second Amendment adviser to help him avoid little issues like his bump stock ban this time around.

He says he’ll push for nationwide reciprocal carry.

BREAKING

Trump announces full conceal carry reciprocity

WHAT THIS MEANS:
No matter which state you’re in, if you’ve got your concealed carry license, each state will still have to honor it – for example, you have a Florida concealed carry permit – California would have to honor it.

HUGE
(video)

Joe Huffman has doubts.

But words are cheap. It will take a lot to get it through the legislative process. The problem is that if it becomes law then the politicians just lost something to promise during the next election cycle.

I disagree. No new legislation is required. 18 U.S. Code § 241 – Conspiracy against rights and 18 U.S. Code § 242 – Deprivation of rights under color of law will do.

Because there’s that pesky Constitution wannabe tyrants keep forgetting.

Article IV, Section 1
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.

Congress isn’t the problem; it’s the dirty DOJ which — currently — won’t enforce it. This is just one of many reasons it’s so important that Trump clean up the DOJ. Probably as one of his first acts, so it won’t obstruct every thing else he also needs to get done.

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Arbitrary And Capricious, authoritarian swine, gun control, Law, You can't fix stupid

Details Matter: Okeechobee Emergency Gun Ban

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Regulars readers probably already know about this. Prior to Hurricane Helene, Okeechobee Police Chief Donald Hagan declared an emergency and banned the sale of firearms and ammunition, and the public carry of firearms by non-law enforcement.

Since Florida has state preemption of firearms regulation, sane people found this… problematical.

Now the chief and town are scrambling to cover their posteriors. That little error could cost those involved $5,000 apiece, and not out of taxpayers’ pockets.

Fumero’s boss, Okeechobee Mayor Dowling R. Watford, Jr. and police spokesman Detective Jarret Romanello, gave numerous interviews to local media claiming city officials were reviewing the entire incident to determine how the “mistake” occurred.

As it happens, I can help them with that.

The chief’s declaration cited Florida Statute 870.044:

Automatic emergency measures.—Whenever the public official declares that a state of emergency exists, pursuant to s. 870.043, the following acts shall be prohibited during the period of said emergency throughout the jurisdiction:
(1) The sale of, or offer to sell, with or without consideration, any ammunition or gun or other firearm of any size or description.
(2) The intentional display, after the emergency is declared, by or in any store or shop of any ammunition or gun or other firearm of any size or description.
(3) The intentional possession in a public place of a firearm by any person, except a duly authorized law enforcement official or person in military service acting in the official performance of her or his duty.

He took the ban language straight from that statute. And if that’s all you look at, you might think — as the idiot obviously did — that 870.044 gave him that authority. A declared emergency, right?

But he missed that little “pursuant to s. 870.043”. Sure, there was a weather related emergency; but what sort of emergency does 870.043 cover?

Declaration of emergency.—Whenever the sheriff or designated city official determines that there has been an act of violence or a flagrant and substantial defiance of, or resistance to, a lawful exercise of public authority and that, on account thereof, there is reason to believe that there exists a clear and present danger of a riot or other general public disorder, widespread disobedience of the law, and substantial injury to persons or to property, all of which constitute an imminent threat to public peace or order and to the general welfare of the jurisdiction affected or a part or parts thereof, he or she may declare that a state of emergency exists within that jurisdiction or any part or parts thereof.

Riots, civil disorder, mass violence. Nothing in there about tropical cyclones. Oopsie, chief.

Read the fine print. All of it.

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authoritarian swine, Law

Germany Irony Alert

To someone with an interest in edged tools for most of his life, this sounds rather ironic.

German leader vows tougher knife laws and more deportations after fatal attack in Solingen
SOLINGEN – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to toughen knife laws and step up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers Monday as he visited the scene of the knife attack in which a suspected Islamic extremist from Syria is accused of killing three people.

They;re going to blade blades in the City of Blades?

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authoritarian swine, Courts, gun control, Law

[Update] Backdoor Registration In Idaho?

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Twin Falls, Idaho police have an interesting way to “catch criminals faster.”

Both shops say TFPD is trying to force them to use a program called “LeadsOnline.” They claim the program not only acts as a de facto “gun registration program” because it requires personal information about the customer selling the gun as well as information about the firearm being sold.

The gun store owners maintain that this is a form of backdoor gun/owner registration because, unlike typical pawn shops — where the make model, serial number (and often caliber) of a pawned firearm is reported, and only if it comes back stolen do the police request (maybe with a warrant) the identity of the pawning customer — TFPD is demanding names, addresses, phone numbers of every single seller. In advance; preemptively, so to speak.

Note also that per Joshua Van Dyke of Homestead Tactical, none of these shops are pawnbrokers. That’s going to be important.

Idaho has statewide preemption and a constitution that forbids registration. I suppose the police might claim that this isn’t gun owner registration because they’re collecting data on former owners who sold their firearms. Never mind that such sellers in a gun shop (versus a pawn shop) are often trading them in for newer, pricier guns. On the list you go!

But wait… it is not the police department collecting this data. They use a commercial third party, LeadsOnline. Yep, the reporting is online, and data stored online. Think on that.

The police cite city ordinance Chapter 4, Section 10 as their authority to require this reporting.

3-4-10: REPORTS TO POLICE DEPARTMENT:
The Police Department may, at its discretion, require a written monthly report of said business and during the business hours of every day may require a personal examination of the books or records of such pawnbroker, showing the articles or other property purchased, pledged, traded, consigned, or otherwise received. (Ord. 2591, 9-8-1998, eff. 10-1-1998)

Chapter 4 defines pawnbrokers/pawn shops and “secondhand dealers” as separate entities. Reporting is only mandated for pawnbrokers (as opposed to Section 3-4-11 3-4-11: CLOSING HOURS, which specifically addresses both “Every “pawnbroker” or “secondhand dealer.” See above; neither Quick Response nor Homestead Tactical are pawnbrokers; the requirement doesn’t apply.

Did the police simply decide that all parts of Chapter 4 apply to all pawn shops and secondhand shops?

Not really. Per Homestead Tactical’s Joshua, “[T]he PD is choosing to only enforce this against gunshops-the city ordinance, however, is not specifically limited to retail firearms shops only. In other words, the PD isn’t going after other businesses (small engine repair, used cars, etc.) that handle serialized items. They are being discriminatory in the application of the city ordinance.”

To my mind, that only firearms are being subjected to this snooping turns this into a 2A — and Article 1 Section 11 of the state constitution — issue. Preemption violation.

Twin Falls Police are collecting data — via an online third party of unknown computer network security capabilities — in violation of the state constitution and preemption.

Say; did TFPD vet LeadsOnline’s security to ensure innocent sellers’ data cannot be hacked? Does TFPD incur any liability if data they demanded gets stolen? Who knows? The police did not respond to my inquiry. At all. Not even an automated “out of office” message. Likewise, Idaho Dispatch’s Greg Pruett was unable to pry answers out of TFPD’s media contact, Lieutenant Craig Stotts. I tried Chief Kingsbury, too; -crickets-.

They are also — surprise! — violating Article 1, Section 17 of the state constitution.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue without probable cause shown by affidavit, particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized.

If that language seems oddly familiar, then you recognized that the police are also violating the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution by demanding warrantless access to the stores’ customer records.

And in this refreshing post-BRUEN environment, TFPD should be scrambling to find some old laws to show their scheme “is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

If the Twin Falls police are talking to anyone about this, for their sake, it had better be attorneys; good ones. What with exceeding their authority, preemption violations, and multiple violations of state and federal constitutions, they’re in trouble.

Added: Another Fourth Amendment aspect to this occurred to me, based on a recent Fifth Circuit case. In United States v. Smith, the Circuit Court found that geofencing — a sweeping identification of everyone in a specified area in a specified timeframe — violated the privacy rights of all those caught up in the net who were not suspects. There was a lack of probable cause to look up everyone.

And isn’t that exactly what the TFPD is doing? ID all your customers, just in case one might have committed a criminal act. We don’t need no steenkin’ probable cause.

The Fourth Circuit has upheld geofencing, so we now have a Circuit split, ripe for SCOTUS review. Perhaps this would be a good time to get the Ninth Circuit involved, potential leading to the Supreme Court.

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guns, Humor, shooting

Not With My Shoulder, You Don’t!

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Meet the .960 caliber JDJ Fat Mac, a firearm I only just learned exists.

One pound at 2,200 FPS is a mere 38,685 foot pounds muzzle energy.

Lunatic: But it has a muzzle brake.

Cartridge: I sneer at your muzzle brake. Prepare to suffer serious injury or death!

If you want one (and find someone willing to part with one of the only three manufactured), you’ll only need around $100,000.

And oddly enough, despite the well-over-half-inch bore, you don’t need an NFA tax stamp. It has a “sporting use” exemption. Darned if I know what you’d hunt with it… on this planet.

I admit it: I want one. Because. If I win the lottery, I may not tell anyone, but there’ll be signs.

(Hat tip to Wisco Dave.)

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Arbitrary And Capricious, authoritarian swine, Courts, gun control, Law

“Arbitrary And Capricious.” Who Knew?

We did.

The Eighth Circuit has tossed the ATF’s pistol brace rule. The Court didn’t bother addressing the Administrative Procedures Act violations, because they found that another element of the challenge to the rule sufficed all by itself. The decision is thirty-three pages, but this one little excerpt pretty much summarizes it.

Thus, the Coalition is likely to succeed on the merits of its argument that this step is arbitrary and capricious; the ATF “has articulated no standard whatsoever for determining” when a stabilizing brace’s rear surface area would allow the shouldering of a weapon.

Huh; “arbitrary and capricious.” Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah; in The Zelman Partisans’ original comment of the Notice of Proposed Rule-Making, more than three years ago.

This proposed rule is an incoherently expressed description of an arbitrary, capricious, and incoherent process of classifying firearms.

As no standards were given, a subjective examiner’s guesstimate of “rear surface area” could pass a brace, or put it right on the edge of alleged short-barreled rifle by itself. Will one examiner estimate the “rear surface area” of a cuff-type brace by the physical area of the rear EDGE of the cuff, while another goes by the area of the space ENCLOSED by the cuff?

We could have saved a lot of time and money if the ATF jackbooters had simply taken note of that at the time. But the ATF livesd for — and on — “arbitrary and capricious.” As backed up with Chevron deference, which the courts have also taken away from them.

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Constitution, gun control, gun grabbers, Law

Forced Reset Reset

Among other gadgets which the ATF-Troop unilaterally declared to be NFA items — machine guns, specifically — was the forced reset trigger and like items.

Not so fast, feckless feddies. A federal judge has tossed that bizaare claim, in NAGR v. Garland.

Having considered the above-referenced filings and applicable law, th4e Court concludes thatthe Defendants engaged in unlawful agency action taken in excess of their authority. Therefore, the Courts GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgement and DENIES Defendants’ Cross-Motion for Summary Judgement.

Note: The judge didn’t say the ATF exceeded its authority and leave it at that. He specifically and explicitly stated that they acted unlawfully; they broke the law. And he called out their BS on claiming FTRs turn semiautos into machine guns.

An FTR is a device that forcibly returns the trigger to its reset state. In the commercialized FRT designs at issue in this litigation, the trigger is forcibly reset by the hammer when the bolt carrier cycles to the rear. A “locking bar” mechanically locks the trigger in its reset state, preventing the user from moving the trigger rearward to function by releasing the hammer, until the bolt has returned to the in-battery position and the firearm is safe to fire.
[…]
When firing multiple shots using an FRT, the trigger must still rest after each round is fired and must separately function to release the hammer by moving far enough to the rear in order to fire the next round.

TL;DR: It’s still firing semi-auto, idiots. And you don’t get to change the definition of machine gun to encompass whatever.

Plaintiffs’ cgun definition as applied to FRTs ontend that the ATF’s broadened view of the machinegun definition as applied to FRTs is an unlawful expansion of the agency’s authority.Plaintiffs are correct.

Interestingly, there seems to be no mention of CHEVRON deference to agency interpretations, or Loper Bright‘s reversal of such deference. The judge simply noted that both plaintiffs and defendants agreed of how FTRs work, but that the ATF improperly called semiautos machine guns.

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Courts, Hollywood, Law

Alec Baldwin Charges Dismissal: Not What Some Think

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Sheila has covered the Trump assassination attempt, so I’ll just say for now — pending new information — that I don’t think this will be the last attempt before November.

What I am here to talk about is charges against Alec Baldwin being dismissed with prejudice.

Some people see this as the exoneration of Baldwin.

We told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and told you, and explained to all comers, in excruciating detail, how Baldwin was not legally responsible to any whit for the shooting on the set of Rust, explaining the safety rules and the chain of culpability using metric fucktons of pixels and internet bandwidth.

Sorry, Aesop; that isn’t what happened. Charges were dismissed for a deliberate Brady violation by prosecution: hiding evidence which defense seemed to believe to be exonerating. Defense had moved for this dismissal, and I find that odd.

Up to now, all the publicly available evidence and forensic reports indicated to me that Baldwin was guilty. Now, suddenly, new evidence appears. Two years after the shooting, a third party turned over some ammunition that he thought might be associated with the case. Without a trial with testimony, I don’t see how it is relevant. It might be, but I don’t know. The case against Baldwin was based on his own — multiple — safety violations; not on where the live ammunition came from. It wouldn’t matter where the live round came from if only Baldwin had followed just one of the four rules.

At opening statements Wednesday, prosecutors alleged Baldwin violated the “cardinal rules of firearm safety” by pointing the prop gun at Hutchins and pulling the trigger.

Assuming it is relevant, I would have thought defense would want to continue the trial and get the actual exonerating testimony on record, along with a formal acquittal. That would clear Baldwin’s name.

Instead, the defense effectively suppressed all the evidence — not just the new ammo evidence but everything else prosecution was prepared to present — themselves, at least so far as the public is concerned. No trial, no evidence presented. If defense actually thought the evidence was overwhelmingly exonerating, why move for dismissal for a Brady violation (something you might do before the trial starts) instead of moving for a directed verdict of acquittal (the normal thing, once a trial in in progress)?

Now Baldwin is going to have to live with having killed a woman, and having everyone look at him and think, You never were acquitted; you forced an end to the trial on a technicality. Why?

For that alone, I imagine a lot of actors and crew will be hesitant to work with Baldwin anywhere in the same county.

[best infommercial voice] But wait! There’s more! Baldwin’s defense:

“This was an unspeakable tragedy, but Alec Baldwin committed no crime. He was an actor, acting, playing the role of Harlan Rust,” attorney Alex Spiro said. “These ‘cardinal rules’ are not cardinal rules on a movie set.”

Would you want to be anywhere near the guy who thinks safety rules don’t apply on set? Not even the film industry’s own safety standards.

I also wouldn’t want to pay the insurance premiums for any film that includes Baldwin. Assuming any film with Baldwin can even get insurance coverage now.

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Courts, gun control, Law, SCOTUS

Gutting The Administrative Swamp Creatures

Oh, boy. Last week, we saw “CHEVRON deference” overturned, eliminating the ATF-abused procedure of requiring judges to take the agency’s word for it when they creatively reinterpret laws.

Today, the Supreme Court took it quite a bit further in CORNER POST. This is a case over debit card merchant transaction fees, so you wonder what it has to do with Second Amendment issues.

Everything. And the EPA is going to hate this, too. Here’s the background.

In 2021, Corner Post joined a suit brought against the Board under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The complaint challenged Regulation II on the ground that it allows higher interchange fees than the statute permits. The District Court dismissed the suit as time-barred under 28 U. S. C. §2401(a), the default six-year statute of limitations applicable to suits against the United States. The Eighth Circuit affirmed.

The lower courts held that the statute of limitations clock started ticking the rule was published. An interesting take; imagine claiming that statute of limitations for robbery started running when the law was passed, rather than when the robbery took place.

That matters, because Corner Post didn’t exist when the transaction fee rule was published. Just like you might not have been born when the armed robbery law pass enacted. Corner post was injured when they opened for business and started accepting debit cards. That is when the statute of limitations starts counting down.

Held: An APA claim does not accrue for purposes of §2401(a)’s 6-year statute of limitations until the plaintiff is injured by final agency action.

How does that apply to us and the ATF?

Until 1982, semi-auto firearms that fired from the open bolt were semi-autos. But that year, the ATF suddenly decided that open-bolt firearms are easily converted into machineguns, and thus are machineguns. Unless…

To make it worse, it only applied to those models sold after the ruling, while those sold prior somehow remain semiautomatic. This forced complete redesigns on the manufacturers.

Here we have a rule that is arbitrary, capricious, and in conflict with the law defining “machinegun.”

The term “machinegun” means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.

“Restored,” not converted. It had to be a machinegun at some earlier point in its existence. But courts defer to the ATF’s re-definition, and send people to prison over semi-auto “machineguns.”

We got rid of that stupid deference last week. But it still looked like we were stuck with existing stupid, arbitrary, and capricious rules. No more.

Go out and buy one of those open-bolt SM10 machineguns. When you’re told to apply for your tax stamp, sue the ATF over the idiotic rule…

…because you were just now injured by it. And have standing.

tick tick tick tick tick

Every swamp agency’s years-old rules are now ripe for challenging all over again, without deference. I saw a comment at SCOTUSblog to the effect that SCOTUS just guaranteed itself horrendously full dockets for next few years.

Good.

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