Tag Archives: ATF

"News Media", authoritarian swine, Bump-Fire, Constitution, Courts, gun grabbers, Law, Politics, resistance, Voting

Options To A National Divorce

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As I’ve mentioned before, in some ways I see a national divorce as potentially the only way to salvage part of America as we know and love her. Barring of course appealing to Gov Ron DeSantis to come in and begin administration of the states that want that, as opposed to those who are upset by M&Ms with shoes.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/S1fh5punju0

But if Gov. DeSantis responds to the requests of other red states with inadequate governors to go in and help restore American values such as one set of rule and laws for everyone as well as equal enforcement, limited small government, actual classroom lessons in STEM and real American history, just be aware Ukraine will be sending money and possibly troops to prevent the “invasion”. Just as our government has done to the people in the Donbas region. Russia will laugh her tail off.

So, short of asking Gov. DeSantis for help, let’s look at a couple of interesting thing. First up, she’s a 10…th…Amendment.

The Tenth Amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The anti-commandeering clause says that the federal government can not compel local governments to enforce their tyranny. Some ATF examples from 2007 Office of Inspector Generals report involving egregious acts from just Richmond, Virginia, from May 2004 through August 2005.

The first hearing presented testimony from four witnesses who alleged that ATF agents used aggressive and harassing techniques primarily at a gun show held on August 13 and 14, 2005, at the Richmond International Raceway in Virginia. Three of the witnesses were present at the gun show: the gun show promoter, a gun salesman who worked for a federally licensed dealer but represented him self as a private seller at the show, and a federally licensed dealer who had exhibited his firearms collection for sale at the Richmond gun show. The fourth witness was a private investigator who was hired by the National Rifle Association (NRA) to conduct an investigation o f ATF enforcement activity at the August 2005 gun show. The witnesses alleged that ATF Special Agents and state and local police interrogated and intimidated gun buyers, targeted women and minorities as potential straw purchasers, visited the homes of buyers to verify their addresses, and detained some gun buyers after they left the gun show and seized their weapons without cause.

Showed.Up.At.Gun Buyers.Homes.

But they’re better now, right? From a forum post:

This is a scary but true PSA , the ATF requested a table in the entrance area of a gun show today in Ft. Wayne, 5 agents in full ATF regalia met patrons as they entered our show.

I did not interact with said ATF nor do I recall seeing there presence in the show, I was a vendor, back in a corner selling gunsmithing tools, but none the less the ATF was there, in force.

One guy I know well did interact with these agents, asking the agents to explain a certain law to him, the ATF declined because, they, the ATF could not understand the language nor the depth/ limit of the laws scope……isn’t that scary!!

To the best of my knowledge the ATF did not ask for ID no inspect any guns, but I am certain they were there as part of there “we hate you , you don’t deserve the protection of the constitution ” thug squad.

And then there is the “let’s take the jackboots on the road” show, and this is where the anti-commandeering part comes in as well.

Arkansas sheriffs push back on new ATF gun policy

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Multiple Arkansas sheriff’s offices are pushing back against a new gun policy from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, (ATF).

This new federal rule states that those who use a “brace stabilizer” attachment will have to register their weapons with the government.

Gun control groups support the new policy, but not everyone agrees.

Stone County Sheriff Brandon Long and the Cleburne County Sheriff’s Office shared that their offices would not assist the federal government in enforcing this policy.

Sheriff: Residents should tell ATF agents conducting warrantless gun inspections to leave

A Washington state sheriff recently advised residents in his county that if agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) come to their homes without a search warrant asking to inspect their firearms, they can tell them to leave their property.

Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer said in a press statement on Friday that agents are “making surprise home visits of persons who have purchased two or more firearms at one time. To my knowledge, these ATF visits have not occurred in Washington State yet.”

So until the corrupt BATFE can be defunded, or rebuilt, this might help keep citizens a bit safer from them.

May I just point out, the left already does this and thinks it’s peachy keen. Sanctuary cities, do they deport illegals or work with ICE? The federal government still has laws against pot, and yet many states don’t enforce them, let along allow local law enforcement to do so. Basically no undocumented doobie will be deported.

Let’s extrapolate this. Let’s start with something that had should never have been started, Covid. What if each county or city had not been greedy to take the federal bucks that came with covid and had refused to follow the federal mandates? No lockdowns, no business killing policies that only helped the big Dim mega-donors like Bezos? No paper burqas, no healthcare workers still trapped in the CO2 retaining masks because they have a desire to help people. I know, irony abounds. The CDC guide lines from the lying Walensky may cause hypercapnia. Confusion is always a good thing to look for in your healthcare workers, right? And all for no good reason as even the lying Fauxci had to admit under oath to the mighty AG from Missouri (now Senator) Eric Schmitt, that there are no studies showing masks work. So that would mean no police raiding struggling restaurants, no police or security dragging un-masked mothers sitting alone on bleachers off in handcuffs, and Stephanie Warriner would still be alive. Canadian judge drops charges on hospital security guards in Stephanie Warriner asphyxiation death, new video shows them slamming her into wall

This poor tiny young woman had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. She couldn’t breath with the mask on. She made a grave error in judgment. She went to a Canadian hospital, where they murdered her. She was “wearing her mask too low” as she was trying to breath, and the idiot security guards who have as many brains between them as Ashli Babbit’s murderer Michael Byrd killed her. Great job guys, you would have a bright future with the Metro PD. May they die horrible deaths as they gasp for breath.

The guards initially claimed that they were assaulted by the frail woman suffering from COPD, but it was later found that the guards lied. “Mr. Hutley went as far as to claim that Ms. Warriner delivered several overhand and underhand punches to Ms. Rojas-Silva’s face and was kicking her feet,” says a court document by the Crown.

“Later on, Mr. Hutley began sobbing and admitted he had not been truthful in the report, saying ‘I’m sorry. I would have never said the things I said in there if I knew there was a video,'” the court document says.

Yes, I’m pissed.

But these are policies that are enforced because of the government guidelines. And granted the communist country of Canada has no Constitution or 10th Amendment under dear leader Turdo.

But imagine if every county in each state were responsible for evaluating federal guidelines and deciding to accept or reject them and no local law-enforcement was to be utilized in their enforcement. Local politicians are subject to re-election, unelected bureaucrats, not so much. They just go on to make lots of royalties with their wife in charge of ethics for their department. Sounds legit.

Things might look very different. Thousands of small businesses might still be around.

A friend of mine from Missouri sent me something interesting that could be helpful as well. It involves how a state’s constitution is amended and ballot initiatives. This example is from Missouri, but other states may do things differently.

Currently, it takes only a simple majority statewide vote of the people to ratify a proposed amendment and those votes can all come from a relatively small geographic area. Which means in their recent vote to allow legalized pot, it passed. And how did it pass in a red state like Missouri?

Who voted to legalize pot?

Because high crime, demoncrat controlled areas voted for it. Tyranny of the majority as he calls it. But the majority of counties do not want it.

One of the proposed solutions was needing a vote of 2/3 to pass a ballot initiative, but that meant that the populated areas could nix it sending it to the courts, then you have the courts ruling over things. This is what you see in Israel. The Knesset passes a law, the totally left-wing Supreme Court says no. And the people’s elected representatives are dead in the water. There is currently a battle in Israel over this, in the American media it’s called “Israel’s democracy is dead”. Right, because when the people’s elected representatives can’t pass laws the people want it’s a good thing according to the left. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/366376 So no need to reinvent the wheel, we know this doesn’t work out well.

So that brings me to the second item, besides not press-ganging our local officials or law-enforcement into service of the federal leviathan. This idea comes from Missouri First. Um, so did the pot graphic, I shamelessly swiped it. It’s called the Concurrent Majority Ratification. A majority of voters, statewide will have to vote “yes” AND ALSO

A majority of voters in each of more than half the 163 state House districts would have to vote “yes.”

Pretty clever eh? He points out it is very consistent with other areas of government.

States vote to ratify amendments to the U.S. Constitution – we don’t take a national popular vote.

The Electoral College – we don’t elect the president by a national popular vote.

Two U.S. Senators per state, no matter the size of the state.

Bicameral legislatures.

Members of the House of Representatives (both U.S. and state) represent geographic districts.

So, will we end up with a National divorce? I don’t know, but if states begin to utilize the 10th Amendment and especially the anti-commandeering clause more as well as looking at amending state constitutions to reflect traditional laws perhaps it could be avoided. Although I still suspect there will be areas that are going to break off. The demoncrats have so polarized and divided the country I’m not sure we share much of anything anymore.

But I’ll leave you with this snippet from the Tenth Amendment Center:

The federal government relies heavily on state cooperation to implement and enforce almost all of its laws, regulations and acts. By simply withdrawing this necessary cooperation, states and localities can nullify many federal actions in effect. As noted by the National Governors’ Association during the partial government shutdown of 2013, “states are partners with the federal government on most federal programs.”

Partnerships don’t work too well when half the team quits. By withdrawing all resources and participation in federal law enforcement efforts and program implementation, states, and even local governments, can effectively bring the federal actions to an end.

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authoritarian swine, gun control, Law

Pistol Brace Final Rule: 293 Pages Of Arbitrary Capriciousness

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The ATF’s final rule on whether pistol braces magically turn pistols into short-barreled rifles was signed on January 13, 2023.

Most of the document is rationalization of why they believe they can get away with this, and explaining away NPRM commenters’ objections. They did agree that the proposed form 4999 — which used an arbitrary point system to differentiate between pistols and short-barrel rifles — was flawed. They decided that was sufficiently flawed that they abandoned it.

The rule gives a slight nod to BRUEN:

Nothing in the Supreme Court’s recent decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022), changes this analysis. See id at 2162 (Kavanaugh, J. concurring) (reiterating Heller’s finding that “dangerous and
unusual weapons” are outside of the Second Amendment’s protections).

That presupposes that braces inherently make a perfectly acceptable firearm into a “dangerous” device without actually changing the firearm’s function. It assumes that “1.4 million” braced pistols (the ATF’s own estimate of the number extant) are “unusual.” It also completely ignores the “general historical tradition” test laid out in the main decision.

If you scroll down to page 268, you’ll find the actual final rule, and see that they opted for a evaluation system even more “arbitrary, capricious, and incoherent” than the 4999.

The short form now is that a firearm with a pistol brace is a short-barrel rifled if it is:

“a weapon that is equipped with an accessory, component, or other rearward attachment (e.g., a “stabilizing brace”) that provides surface area that allows the weapon to be fired from the shoulder”

How much surface area does it take to create a rifle? The rule doesn’t say, leaving it up to “”arbitrary, capricious, and incoherent” FTB evaluators. Just think: the more firearms they can declare short-barrel rifles, the more tax money they can collect. No perverse incentive there, eh?

And has arbitrary “other factors,” which are:

“a weight or length consistent with the weight or length of similarly designed rifles”

In a saner world, I could almost let that one slide.

“s a length of pull […] consistent with similarly designed rifles”

Length of pull, as The Zelman Partisans has noted, “presupposes that all braced pistols are SBRs until proven otherwise.” Guilty and taxable until proven innocent. It is the ATF after all.

“equipped with sights or a scope with eye relief that require the weapon to be fired from the shoulder in order to be used as designed”

That one is also almost reasonable, if it weren’t for the rest of the BS.

“Whether the surface area that allows the weapon to be fired from the shoulder is created by a buffer tube, receiver extension, or any other accessory, component, or other rearward attachment that is necessary for the cycle of operation”

Since “surface area” is purely arbitrary and undefined, I don’t see how this clarifies anything. But just wait…

“manufacturer’s direct and indirect marketing and promotional materials”

Now company advertising flacks can inadvertently turn pistols into rifles, and it has nothing to do with the physical characteristics of the firearm or brace. It gets worse, though…

“the likely use of the weapon in the general community.”

If the brace has some undefined amount of surface area, the ATF can still declare anything a short-barrel rifle simply by deciding that it’s likely some idiot somewhere will use his firearm incorrectly.

We would have been better off with the 4999, which at least didn’t test advertising fliers and ATF agents’ purported precognitive powers.

The rule gives those currently in possession of braced firearms a few options.

Send it to the ATF for evaluation, so see if it can make ot past the magic test and remain a pistol.

Destroy the firearm.

Remove the brace and destroy that.

Replace the firearm barrel with a 16 inch (or more) barrel.

Turn the firearm in to law enforcement or the ATF.

Go to prison on an NFA violation even if you have a letter from the ATF saying your braced pistol isn’t a rifle.

Or you can apply to register it. If you do so through the E-Form system within 120 days of the rules Federal Register publication, the ATF will generously waive the usual tax stamp fee.

ATF delenda est.

 

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with ISP bills, site hosting and SSL certificate, new 2021 model hip, and general life expenses.
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authoritarian swine, Culture, gun grabbers, Law, Politics, resistance, Sellouts and traitors, Terrorism, Voting

Welcome to Amerizuela

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Welcome to the 3rd world banana republic known as Amerizuela. Or perhaps Ukranica? A place where political opponents are held in a gulag as POWs for over a year and are harassed by weaponized law-enforcement. They have reached new lows. As probably everyone has heard President Trump’s home Mar-A-Lago was raided by the corrupt FIB.

I like many other Americans, of both political parties by the way, view this as an outrage. How do I know both political parties? Because Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers posted on GAB that she was hearing from Demoncrats that are, while not equally appalled, are appalled none the less.

No one likes where this country is headed under the Biden crime junta. It is obvious that a vote for a Demoncrat brings a weaponized IRS. 87,000 new IRS agents, nothing for the border or military mind you, but to go after the middle class that elected Donald J. Trump? 87,000 new IRS agents. The total budget for the border patrol is less than just the increase in what the IRS is getting.

The weaponized IRS

Biden Puts IRS Funding Ahead of Military and Border Security

And when I say “weaponized IRS” I mean weaponized. This is from August 1st of this year.

IRS Stockpiles More Than 5 Million Rounds of Ammunition

Democrats’ Inflation Bill Will Add Agents to an Already Armed IRS – Only Democrats and China Win

So remember that meme that was popular awhile back?

They’re after YOU

Yep, guess they will be.

But first, they have to take out the Donald.

And so the corrupt Biden, Garland and Wray have descended into 3rd world banana republic tactics.

They raided Mar-A-Lago.

The excuse was some documents that had been packed up by the GSA. Why do I say excuse? Because the corrupt FIB was just there in June when the Trumps were there and were in the room where they are kept locked up for several hours with the President’s lawyers and went through them. President Trump even stopped by to say hello. But now that the Trumps are in NJ, they find it necessary to “raid” his home.

FBI searched Melania’s wardrobe, spent hours in Trump’s private office during Mar-a-Lago raid

This article is a wealth of information.

The Post has learned that the search warrant used by the FBI to enter the palatial Palm Beach property focused solely on presidential records and evidence of classified information being stored there.

….

The raid by over 30 plain clothes agents from the Southern District of Florida and the FBI’s Washington Field Office extended through the Trump family’s entire 3,000-square-foot private quarters, as well as to a separate office and safe, and a locked basement storage room in which 15 cardboard boxes of material from the White House were stored.

Interesting. The Washington field office. That’s where the lead agent that was in charge of the fake Whitmer kidnapping was promoted to. He’s now in charge of the Washington office. This came out in Sen. Ted Cruz’s grilling of the corrupt Chris Wray. Now I’ve heard theories that Merrick Garland has his panties in a knot because he blames the right for being denied his place on the Supreme Court. Maybe, I don’t know. But I do find it interesting that about 5 days after it comes out the corrupt agent in charge of the Detroit field office and the Whitmer kidnapping is now the corrupt agent in charge of the Washington office and suddenly we have a corrupt raid on President Trump, and Melania’s wardrobe I might add. They think presidential records are kept in her ball gowns? If I were Melania I’d have the whole place fumigated.

But back to our raid, the President’s lawyers were forced to stay outside, so who knows what that wiretapping bunch planted. And they were very arrogant as they went places they weren’t allowed to be per the warrant.

Another group of agents, including a professional safe cracker, moved to a separate part of the enormous 1924 Spanish stucco building to search Trump’s office and safe.

The demeanor of the three DOJ lawyers who accompanied the FBI was described by one eyewitness as “arrogant,” and they repeatedly told Trump representatives: “We have full access to everything. We can go everywhere.”

So where did the warrant come from? Who signed off on it? Oh, Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer!

US Judge in Florida Approved Search Warrant for FBI Raid on Trump’s Resort

(Bruce)Reinhart was a senior prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida during the prosecution of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Shortly after a non-prosecution agreement was reached with Epstein, who pleaded guilty to a single state-level charge in exchange for not being prosecuted by federal officials, Reinhart “joined Epstein’s payroll,” according to documents entered by lawyers for women Epstein allegedly abused.

Reinhart, a criminal defense attorney at the time, represented “numerous Epstein employees and pilots” in civil cases filed against Epstein by alleged victims, including Epstein’s housekeeper Louella Ruboyo and pilot Larry Morrison.

“On information and belief, Reinhart’s representation of these individuals was paid, directly or indirectly, by Epstein,” one document says. “Such representations are in contravention of Justice Department regulations and Florida bar rules. Such representations also give, at least, the improper appearance that Reinhart may have attempted to curry with Epstein and then reap his reward through favorable employment.”

Reinhart responded with a motion for sanctions, saying the documents contained “unfounded factual and legal accusations.” He asked for leave to intervene in the case.

But the FIB always fights for “truth, justice and the American way!” Right?

As Jack Posobiec, political commentator and former intelligence officer, points out in his podcast that back in the Viet Nam era no one trusted the FIB and the government. We have a national security state in charge of our government. The FIB & CIA are the 4th branch, the operations arm of the administrative state. Then he gave a list. It’s worth listening to the podcast. They lied about a lot. Comey, Mueller and many other familiar names have been corrupt for a long time. The “Did you know” part is quite interesting. This episode was called American Stasi.

But let’s see, what happened with some people it sure seems should have been investigated?

Not Raided by FBI: Bidens, Clintons, Russia Hoaxers, Black Lives Matter

FBI raid on Trump compound stands in stark contrast to Clinton treatment years earlier

Hunter’s FBI

You would think that the FIB would have a clue how the normal average American would feel about seeing their country turned into a banana republic by a corrupt justice department. You would think that Merrick Garland would have a clue, but hey his son-in-law makes his money selling Critical Race Theory materials to schools and he sicced the FIB on parents calling them terrorists and he got away with that, so guess he’s not worried. And I don’t think they have a clue.

How the FBI’s Raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Was Viewed by Millions of Americans

The message is clear. The government under Democrats hates us, and they will sic federal agencies on Americans who dare to defy the parameters and agenda set by the political class. If half the nation doesn’t feel that justice is blind, that federal law enforcement agencies are professional and impartial, and that law and order is now dependent on party affiliation, then the stability of our system could be placed in doubt. Democrats have set us on a path toward civil war if they continue with this campaign of overreach under Biden

And now the corrupt BATFE is getting in on the act.

Sinister move by ATF should serve as warning Seems the BATFE now wants addresses for buyers that are delayed!

But as the letter notes, the ATF is demanding contact information for delayed NICS checks.

For the uninitiated, this may make perfect sense. After all, we don’t know if those delayed checks are criminals trying to buy guns or not.

Except, that’s literally not how the law works. A delayed background check is supposed to be treated as a passed check. Further, according to a couple of gun store owners and employees I’ve spoken with, something like 95 percent, at a minimum, of all delayed NICS checks are people with no criminal history. The system just created a delay for some unfathomable reason.

This is bad! The whole DOJ is corrupt. But, I have a practical solution to these problems and more!

Our southern border is a hot mess. When Republicans take control of the house and senate in January all the new IRS agents, who are very well armed, are going to be sent to the border to help secure it. All 87,000 of them. The FIB and the ATF are going to be disbanded in the current form. But I don’t want the good people that have been held hostage by the corruption at the top to be un-employed in the Biden “recovery”. Nope, they will now be tasked with finding all the illegal immigrants in our country. They’re trained for that, right? They will round them up and ship them back to their country of origin. This will save our country millions of dollars! And lastly, fire Merrick Garland, Chris Wray and Steven Dettelbach. Now that will be money well saved, and from the firing of those three we give the border patrol bonuses! See! There are solutions! Follow me for more practical, money saving budgeting ideas.

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authoritarian swine, gun grabbers, Law

ATF Copying A&D Books

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“ATF auditor illegally recording an FFL’s A&D books“

With video.

No registry? Here’s our ATF auditor copying every single page of our A&D books with her cell phone camera using an app that reads text. This data includes make, model, serial number, buyer’s name and address, and even the seller. We have over 20 minutes of footage of this happening in our shop in public view. Yes, this is illegal.

Damned right it’s illegal. The “no registry/database” was the “compromise” that FOPA gave us when we lost new machineguns.

It was compromise the feds could afford to make, since they had no intention of obeying the law anyway.

Oh, and note that Twitter’s censors hid the video behind a “The following media includes potentially sensitive content” warning.

Originally posted at Bear Bussjaeger. Cross-posted because this needs all the visibility it can get.

 

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Courts, gun control, Law, SCOTUS

Reining In Bureaucrats

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Yesterday, I wrote about West Virgina v. EPA, a case challenging the ability of EPA bureaucrats to write “law.” If the states won, the precedent would be great news for those challenging the ATF’s propensity for pretending to be Congress.

We won. In a 6-3 opinion, Roberts wrote:

Congress did not grant EPA in Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act the authority to devise emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach the Agency took in the Clean Power Plan.
[…]
This is a major questions case. EPA claimed to discover an unheralded power representing a transformative expansion of its regulatory authority in the vague language of a long-extant, but rarely used, statute designed as a gap filler.
[…]
Given that precedent counsels skepticism toward EPA’s claim that Section 111 empowers it to devise carbon emissions caps based on a generation shifting approach, the Government must point to “clear congressional authorization” to regulate in that manner.
[…]
But the only question before the Court is more narrow: whether the “best system of emission reduction” identified by EPA in the Clean Power Plan was within the authority granted to the Agency in Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. For the reasons given, the answer is no.

The bump-fire stock ban, with its redefinition of “manual operation of the trigger comes immediately to mind.

 

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with ISP bills, site hosting and SSL certificate, new 2021 model hip, and general life expenses.
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gun control, Law

NICS Denials And Criminal Investigations

I received a GOA alert about S.675 – NICS Denial Notification Act of 2021, so I thought I would check it out.

On the bright side, it’s unlikely to go anywhere. It was introduced 3/10/2021 and was immediately referred to committee where it has sat ever since.

Downside? It’s a mess. Here’s the meat of the bill.

“(a) In General.—If the national instant criminal background check system established under section 103 of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (34 U.S.C. 40901) (commonly referred to as ‘NICS’) provides a notice pursuant to section 922(t) of this title that the receipt of a firearm by a person would violate subsection (g) or (n) of section 922 of this title or State law, the Attorney General shall, in accordance with subsection (b) of this section—

“(1) report to the law enforcement authorities of the State where the person sought to acquire the firearm and, if different, the law enforcement authorities of the State of residence of the person—

“(A) that the notice was provided;

“(B) the specific provision of law that would have been violated;

“(C) the date and time the notice was provided;

“(D) the location where the firearm was sought to be acquired; and

“(E) the identity of the person; and

“(2) where practicable, report the incident to local law enforcement authorities and State and local prosecutors in the jurisdiction where the firearm was sought and in the jurisdiction where the person resides.

First off, as GOA notes, “9 out of 10 times these denials are false positives.” That’s a lot of pointless investigations.

Next up is what exactly are state and local authorities going to investigate? 18 U.S. Code § 922 is federal law, violations of which would be a matter of federal investigation. Making local authorities do it would be a unfunded mandate.

And what exactly would anyone be investigating? While it is a felony for a prohibited person to purchase or possess a firearm, 18 U.S. Code § 922 doesn’t have a provision for attempted, but failed, acquisition. Nor, I think, do most state laws. About all anyone could get such a person on is violation of this 922 provision, if they lied on the 4473.

(6)for any person in connection with the acquisition or attempted acquisition of any firearm or ammunition from a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector, knowingly to make any false or fictitious oral or written statement or to furnish or exhibit any false, fictitious, or misrepresented identification, intended or likely to deceive such importer, manufacturer, dealer, or collector with respect to any fact material to the lawfulness of the sale or other disposition of such firearm or ammunition under the provisions of this chapter;

And intent would matter, mens rea. Relatively few prohibited persons try to buy their guns from FFLs. In one case I know of, a man attempted to purchase a firearm. NICS turned him down. It turned out that decades before he had gotten a misdemeanor conviction (bar fight, I believe). It had never been an issue at gun stores before. But apparently that state had realized — again decades later — that his charge carried a potential two year sentence (if I recall correctly, he only got probation), and added him to the NICS database.

The poor guy never knew until that purchase attempt that he was a prohibited person. He had always heard that it only applied to felony convictions and misdemeanor domestic violence. Sadly, 922 doesn’t read “felony or misdemeanor domestic violence; ” it’s “a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.

He filled out the 4473 in good faith. Would it be worth waste time and money on an investigation of him?

For the most part, this bill would just tie up law enforcement resources. There is one interesting part though. It would also add this to 18 USC “§ 925, an “Annual report to Congress. The report would require the ATF to report the number of denials; the number of denials determined to be false; and best of all, the number of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions. It would be nice to have all that gathered in one convenient document to wave in gungrabbers’ faces, to show how pointless NICS really is.

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authoritarian swine, Bump-Fire, Courts, gun control, Law

Gun Control 2021?

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The Machine Gun Nest has pieced together all the elements of a potential semiautomatic rifle ban in 2021. They have discovered the dangerous precedent of allowing the ATF to redefine words to make inanimate bits of plastic into machineguns, paperweights into firearms, and pistols into rifles. Why, all this adds up to making semiautos into machineguns because they’re easily converted.

“What’s going on with gun control right now in 2021?
There’s been much talk at the range recently about the new proposed gun control by the Biden Administration. Many people are perplexed. We get a ton of questions, emails, and phone calls asking, “Will this affect me?”, “What can I do?”, “Why are they doing this?” among others.
[…]
So, where does this all come together?

It’s obvious when you look at what’s happened and what’s been proposed where the Biden admin is headed for gun control. They are testing the waters right now with these two proposed rule changes, but I guarantee this is not the end. These current ideas have been taken right from the David Chipman “Legal and Lethal” playbook. There’s a part where Chipman writes this about semi-automatic rifles

Well, no sh-t, Sherlock. TZP has been warning about this specifically for nearly fours years. We warned about this before the ATF even proposed the bump-fire stock machinegun rule.

We warned you again two years ago, when that very “easily converted” argument was made in court. We warened you repeatedly.

We warned you in 2018 that easily converted to a higher rate of fire would define “machinegun.”

And again, two weeks ago.

“What’s going on in 2021” maybe wouldn’t have been such a problem if more people had paid attention to what was going on in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. More attention than ridiculing those of us warning about “Bump Stock Hill” anyway.

Speaking only for myself as an individual: There have been many days in recent years when I seriously questioned why I bother with trying to raise awareness of these dangers. This is one of those days. My work seems pretty pointless.

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authoritarian swine, Courts, gun control, Law

Rare Breed Triggers Fighting Back

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I recently noted that the ATF has deemed the FRT-15 semiautomatic trigger is a machinegun. Rare Breed Triggers president Lawrence DeMonico is pushing back.

In this video, Mr. DeMonico explains what the ATF did, why Rare Breed knows they are wrong — on so many levels — and what Rare Breed is doing to fight back.

Before going to market, they took the FRT-15 to four separate subject matter experts, who all, independently said the trigger was semiautomatic. Personally, in terms of the language of the law, I think it’s a no-brainer since very point of the trigger is that it forces a reset absolutely requiring the user to pull the trigger once again before it will fire.

Of course, the ATF is not using the actual language of 26 U.S. Code § 5845:

(b)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. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.

The ATF has adopted a new definition of “function of the trigger” to mean “volitional movement of the finger.” Read that. Do you see “volitional”, “movement,” or “finger” in there anywhere?

And even that is remarkably stupid, even for an agency that thinks inanimate pieces of plastic are machineguns. One more time: The FRT-15 forces a reset and requires the user to consciously and manual pull the trigger again to fire. At least with a bump-fire stock, the finger could passively sit on the ledge, while the user — consciously and manually operates the action with his off-arm.

I assumed that Rare Breed Triggers would file a lawsuit. In the video, Mr. DeMonico confirms that a suit has been filed. Once I knew that, and in which court, it took me approximately 10 seconds to find it; and most of that time was spent typing search terms. The case is Rare Breed Triggers, LLC et al v. Garland et al.

This case is going to be fun to watch. For one Mr. DeMonico pulls no punches. For another…

There’s the matter of his subject matter experts. They were… the ATF’s subject matter experts. One literally wrote the ATF’s academy course on machinegun identification. Another taught the course in machinegun identification.

Those people are going to walk into court, present their prior-ATF credentials, and explain that the FRT-15 is semiautomatic.

The ATF is going to walk into court and tell the judge and jury that fingers are triggers.

Please note that only one person had been charged with unlawful possession of a bump-fire stock machinegun. When defense showed up with an expert witness who said bump-fire stocks are not machineguns, the prosecution dropped the charge, rather than try to tell the judge and jury that fingers are triggers.

This case won’t be in a Ninth Circuit court. The judge is probably going to be pounding his gavel and demanding order when everyone cracks up laughing.

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authoritarian swine

ATF Officially Publishes Brace Notice of Proposed Rule-Making

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Twice. Again.

Yes, once again — as they did with the bump-fire stock NPRM and the “ghost gun/frame/receiver NPRM — the ATF published docket ATF 2021R-08, took comments, then deleted that docket, and opened new docket ATF-2021-0002 without the old comments. This appears to violate the Administrative Procedures Act. It also appears — due the regularity with which they do this — to be a deliberate attempt to discourage public comment on legally dubious proposed rules. The ATF publishes, the hardcore Second Amendment advocates rush to comment and publicize the NPRM so more people will comment…

And when they try, the publicized link is dead. Some will be sufficiently dedicated to search out the new docket. Others may assume the docket wasn’t real and never comment. Those who had commented may never check back (something TZP has learned to do), and discover their comments are gone; possibly never to be transferred over to the new docket.

But for now new docket ATF-2021-0002 is there. Please comment; be sure to click the “Opt to receive email confirmation” box so you get verification of your Comment Tracking Number. Bookmark the docket so you can can go back to check it (and your comment’s) status.

Comments are due by September 8, 2021.

The Zelman Partisans submitted this comment.

Comment Tracking Number: kpq-zrva-s2yf

The Zelman Partisans oppose this proposed rule.

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?

“Length of pull” presupposes that all braced pistols are SBRs until proven otherwise. The restriction on brace length would make it a one-size-fits some piece of junk. A brace properly fitted for a large male would be unworkable for a smaller female. Defensive firearms are commonly purchased with shared use by family members in mind.

Also, it appears that the ATF is unaware of braced pistols that are not AR-type. The attachment evaluation assumes an AR-type buffer tube. The weight and overall length exclude the entire class of drop-in pistols braces, such as for Glocks. The rule is silent on those. Is the braced Glock automatically an SBR because it fail the 4999 Section tests? Or would the chassis resembling a carbine NEVER be a rifle?

And why would flip-up iron sights (which one might well want for storage and transport) make a pistol into a rifle?

Because the 4999 “test” requires that any specific pistol-brace combination be evaluated in whole, rather than evaluating the BRACE itself, none of the millions of owners of braced pistols currently in existence can know whether their equipment has the a ATF’s dubious blessing, or requires NFA registration. This proposed rule thus puts those millions in danger of unwitting felonhood. The only legal option is those MILLIONS to flood the The Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division with MILLIONS of firearms for evaluation, depriving them of their property for years as the FATD struggles with the backlog.

We think the ATF will need to go on a hiring spree, for examiners. And when MILLIONS of newly-annointed “short-barreled rifles” are created by fiat, the tax stamp backlog will be amazing.

Additionally, one should recall that braces were first designed for handicapped people. This proposed rule would appear to put the ATF in conflict with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Expect to be sued.

We think the Department of Justice will need to hire more lawyers.

This collection of follies could have been avoided by adopting a sane definition of stabilizing brace: “A device designed to aid a user in holding a large pistol with one hand, which extends no further than the user’s forearm when gripping the firearm normally, and which conforms to the user’s forearm.”

The Zelman Partisans also note that once again the ATF has violated the Administrative Procedures Act by opening docket 2021R-08, taking comments on that docket, DELETING it, and opening new docket ATF-2021-0002 without the old docket comments. The ATF does this on such a regular basis that we believe it is a deliberate attempt to discourage public comment on legally dubious proposed rules.

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guns, Law

ATF’s Stabilizing Brace Rule On the Way

The Epoch Times reports that the ATF’s Notice of Proposed Rule-Making on whether a stabilizing brace turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle has been published in the Federal Register.

However, while they link a DOJ pre-published copy, and provide no link the NPRM on the Register. A search there does not turn it up, nor does it yet appeared on Regulations.gov. The document that ET links to even states that the text of what gets published may differ.

This one differs greatly from the ATF’s previous abortive attempt at rule-making on braces last year. The 2020 fiasco was purely subjective; We’ll know an SBR when we see one. This one at least makes the attempt to appear objective. They will create an evaluation worksheet, a “4999.”

The meat of the NPRM, the 4999, is a checklist, which assigns “points” to a braced firearm on a ranked basis. The more like a brace, the lower the points. More like a buttstock, more points. They would “evaluate” various characteristics. It’s broken down into two testing sections.

Starting with Section I, the firearm must weigh at least 64 ounces, but — as we’ll see — no more than 120 ounces. It must be at least 12 inches long, but no more than 26. If your brace meets those “prerequisites,” you get to proceed to the next part.

Section II looks at “accessory design,” “rear surface area,” “adjustability,” and “stabilizing support.”

If the design accrues 4 or more points in Section II, do not pass go. It’s a short-barreled rifle.

Frankly, about the only design that would pre-qualify as a brace in Section II would be a nonadjustable (for length, one presumes) fabric arm loop/”cuff” with some feature like a rear point to make it specifically uncomfortable to shoulder. I really don’t wants points on a brace, and fixed length brace that’s fine for six-footer me probably won’t fit my four-foot, eleven inch sister.

Rear surface area? It’s purely an arbitrary guessimate by the examiner, No standard is given. Much of the “objective” process is like that.

The subject of “cuff” is interesting. That reminded me of part of my comment on the December NPRM, more reasonable definition of brace.

A device designed to aid a user in holding a large pistol with one hand, which extends no further than the user’s forearm when gripping the firearm normally, and which conforms to the user’s forearm.

Maybe they read it.

If we survived Section II, we get the privilege of advancing to Section III, where the evaluator looks at “length of pull,” “attachment method, “stabilizing brace modification/configuration,” and “peripheral accessories.” Again points are assigned on a sliding basis.

The only way not to get points for length of pull is for it to be less than ten and a half inches. If I were stabilizing an AR pistol, I’d want 13, which would earn me 3 points just on that. And note that even calling “length of pull” implies it’s an SBR unless proven otherwise.

For attachment method, most braced AR pistols I’ve seen would be safe, using a “standard AR-type pistol buffer tube.” Not all, though.

If one accepts that the ATF has any constitutional business regulating rifles, short-barreled or not (I don’t), the the mods/config section more or less makes sense.

The accessories test is bizarre. Some are consistent with other rules (no secondary forward vertical grip), but why the devil bureaucrat does putting flip-up iron sights (think for storage and transport) matter? That alone earns a point, of which you can have no more than 3. Four or more, SBR.

The proposed rule is a mess. It doesn’t allow for the possibility that someone might want to brace anything but an AR pistol. Even the only attachment method mentioned is the buffer tube. And what about this?

That’s right out.

It might meet the minimum length prerequisite, but not the weight standard. Does that mean it is good to go, because it’s light, it cannot be an SBR? What about this one?

Good to go?

Or, because it’s light and attaches at other than the nonexistent buffer tube, it’s automatically an SBR? My definition would have settled it. The ATF’s doesn’t.

As usual, the ATF is an incoherent solution in search of a nonexistent problem.

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