Tag Archives: Trump

Trump Vows To Do More

Trump spoke at the NRA’s annual meeting.

Reminding gun owners what he did for the protection of the Second Amendment and pledging to do much more, former President Donald Trump closed the National Rifle Association’s main event Friday with a stemwinder that brought the crowd to its feet.

What he did for 2A protection? Lessee…

He did roll back a bizarre interpretation of 3D printer files as munitions (something that report falsely characterizes as “banning 3D-printed guns”). And he reversed the VA’s blatantly unconstitutional and illegal reporting of people to NICS. I’ll give him those.

On the other hand, he also signed Fix NICS, prompting states to arbitrarily convert more people into prohibited persons and felons.

And there was that Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals appointee who thinks, “the Second Amendment has no application to state laws.” What could possibly go wrong?

Even more damaging, he magically turned inert pieces plastic into machineguns, by executive fiat. That did more damage to 2A-protected rights than any Dim president had managed in decades. Estimates vary, but turned tens to hundreds of thousands of people into unindicted felons. And more than a few indicted and convicted.

Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool. Well, Trump did used to be a Dimocrat.

He established the precedent that federal bureaucrats are free to redefine words at will, without enabling legislation, to call any damned thing they want “machineguns.” And the ATF immediately ran with it; they live for this… excrement.

The Rare Breed Triggers FRT-15 trigger group, which requires the trigger be pulled for each round fired, suddenly became a “machinegun,” by using the exact same “logic” of “operation of operation of the triggerreally meaning “volitional movement of the finger. Oops; more newly-minted felons.

On a roll with redefining words, they came for pictures. Yep, thanks to Trump’s precedent, the ATF decided that line drawings of unassembled pieces of lightning links really are machineguns. A couple of folks are on trial for that even now, including a guy who let people run ads for the Auto Keycard, but never even sold them himself.

The Trump precedential damage continued with braced pistols becoming short-barrel rifles, after they specifically were not. But at least they gave you the options of begging permission to pay for the privilege of keeping them, or self-incriminating and hoping they’d make an exception for you. More felons.

And he’s “pledging to do much more?” While didn’t act on them before, Trump has supported no-due process red flag orders, raising the age to buy any firearm to 21, and an “assault weapon” ban. Is that the “more” he’s promising? If the Dims were paying attention, they’d nominate Trump themselves over Xiden.

On the bright side, Trump’s Supreme Court picks might… might eventually repair the damage he did to the Second Amendment. But his actions will still cost us millions of dollars in legal expenses, endless man hours, and hard work — not to mention the harm done to plaintiffs and improperly charged defendants — to get the Court to reverse him. (And note that the brilliant BRUEN decision was not written by a Trump appointee.)

If it were just his SCOTUS picks, economic work, and the incredible Abraham Accords, I’d be happy to see Trump elected again. But the man has zero impulse control on Second Amendment issues; he can demonstrably be panicked into rash action by any high profile incident.

And we have to live with his impulses.

 

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Barrett Nominated for Supreme Court

I hadn’t spoken up publicly on Trump’s possible choices to replace Ginsburg, even though nearly everyone expected it to be Judge Amy Coney Barrett. I was a little less sure.

But Saturday afternoon, he did nominate her.

Donald Trump Nominates Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court
The president made the announcement in the Rose Garden, thrilling conservative guests who were present and gave her a standing ovation when the president appeared with Barrett.

“She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution,” Trump said, while introducing Barrett.
Barrett thanked the president for the honor of serving on the court, should she be confirmed by the Senate.

For me, a key point in Barrett’s favor was her dissent in Kanter v. Barr:

[The federal and Wisconsin laws] would stand on solid footing if their categorical bans were tailored to serve the governments’ undeniably compelling interest in protecting the public from gun violence. But their dispossession of all felons—both violent and nonviolent—is unconstitutional as applied to Kanter.… Neither Wisconsin nor the United States has introduced data sufficient to show that disarming all nonviolent felons substantially advances its interest in keeping the public safe. Nor have they otherwise demonstrated that Kanter himself shows a proclivity for violence. Absent evidence that he either belongs to a dangerous category or bears individual markers of risk, permanently disqualifying Kanter from possessing a gun violates the Second Amendment.

But that was also why I was unsure Trump would pick her. Republicans love them some law ‘n order, and anything that makes more people “prohibited persons” is just peachy (think Fix NICS), and I think some Senators may be dubious of a nominee who is open to allowing non-violent felons to have rights.

Let’s hope I’m wrong about that, too. Barrett, age 48, could potentially defend Second Amendment rights for another four decades. In other areas, she’s a mixed bag of opinions, but in balance, probably the best choice we can get.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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Magazines are guns… now

Here we ago again, compliments of the “pro-2A Trump” administration.

I noted this issue 8 months ago: A Texas state judge let a suit go forward against Academy Sports & Outdoors, for selling a long gun to an out-of-state resident (specifically: the Sutherland Springs chumbucket). The legal theory was that the sale should not have proceeded because “high capacity” (i.e.- standard) magazines are banned in the asshole’s home state of Colorado, and 18 U.S. Code § 922(a)(3) bans the interstate sale of a firearm if it isn’t lawful in both states. (Never mind that the shooter was a prohibited person whom no one bothered reporting to NICS.)

The problem with that is that magazines are not firearms. The ATF has said so repeatedly. Therefore, 18 U.S. Code § 922 doesn’t apply.

Until now. Welcome to the wonderful world of feds redefining words… again.

Trump administration: Academy Sports liable for selling gun to Sutherland Springs shooter
Now, Trump administration lawyers are trying to shift some of the attention onto Academy Sports + Outdoors, writing in a motion filed Tuesday that the retailer is liable for the massacre because the shooter purchased his gun and high-capacity magazine at one of its stores.

[chumbucket] showed a Colorado license but carried out the purchase in Texas. High-capacity magazines are illegal in Colorado.

Same argument, but now it’s the federal government, rather than plaintiffs, doing the redefinition.

How Orwellian. We have always been at war with East Asia. Magazines were always firearms.

Trump is the most anti-2A President in decades, since 1994 at least. And he has successfully imposed more restrictions than any other President, Republican or Democrat, in his two and a half years in office.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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A 2A President

Just for the record, as President, Trump has now:

1. Signed Fix NICS, to ensure more people are added to the fatally flawed system.

2. Supported no-due process ex parte firearms confiscation.

3. Banned bump-fire stocks, and set the stage for a semi-auto ban.

4. Endorsed raising the age to possess a firearm to 21.

5. Supported banning suppressors.

6. Flip-flopped on universal preemptively-prove-your-innocence background checks.

7. Arbitrary magazine limits.

Prior to becoming President, Trump endorsed:

  • an “assault weapons” ban
  • waiting periods to purchase
  • gun-free zones

“Your second amendment rights … will never, ever be under siege as long as I am president.”

Fixed it for you.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

 

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Trump: Never?

So Trump spoke to the NRAAM…

“Your second amendment rights … will never, ever be under siege as long as I am president.

Please note that the NRA leadership has supported all these (except raising age limits to 21), too. LaPierre and Cox still seem to be there, so don’t tell me about the new Board.

“Never.” I wonder…


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Bumping Off the Truth

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is either a liar or mentally incompetent. If not for President Trump’s pro-gun control history, I would question his judgment in appointing Sessions to head the Department of Justice. If Ted Kennedy were alive, Trump would probably have nominated him for National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator.

As noted on Friday, President Trump and AG Sessions announced a coming ban of bump-fire stocks (“bump-stock-type devices,” as the rule notice so eloquently puts it); no grandfathering, get rid of it or go to prison for possession of an unregistered NFA item.

Not to mention PANTS.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) uses the same docket number as the December ATF proposal, so it isn’t clear whether we’ll get another formal chance to submit comments. The press release says there will be a 90 day commenting period, but that docket number makes me wonder.

I did send a comment to the Attorney General via web form (2,000 character limit). The White House is next on my list.

But let’s look at this. From the AG’s announcement:

Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice is proposing to amend the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, clarifying that bump stocks fall within the definition of “machinegun” under federal law, as such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger. (emphasis added-cb)

Sessions opens with an outright lie. And he didn’t simply misspeak.

The NPRM makes the same blatantly false claim:

Specifically, these devices convert an otherwise semiautomatic firearm into a machinegun by functioning as a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that harnesses the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm in a manner that allows the trigger to reset and continue firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter. Hence, a semiautomatic firearm to which a bump-stock-type device is attached is able to produce automatic fire with a single pull of the trigger.

No, they do not. Firing still requires the trigger finger to engage and operate the trigger individually for each shot fired. After the firearm is MANUALLY pulled forward again with the shooter’s off hand.

In general, bump-stock-type devices — including those currently on the market with the characteristics described above — are designed to channel recoil energy to increase the rate of fire of semiautomatic firearms from a single trigger pull.

No, they do not. The “rate of fire” from a “single trigger pull” is still… 1. Each round discharged still requires an individual manual operation of the trigger IN THIS UNIVERSE. The firearm’s cyclic rate of fire is determined by the physics of the firearm’s internal parts: Mass, resistance, inertia, mechanical engagement, force of discharging cartridge. If anything, a bump-stock-type device would bleed recoil energy and cause a reduction in the theoretical maximum.

Shooters use bump-stock-type devices with semiautomatic firearms to accelerate the firearm’s cyclic firing rate to mimic automatic fire.

NOT IN THIS UNIVERSE, where the cyclic firing rate is determined by the internal physics of the firearm. Bump-stock-type devices merely assist the shooter in returning the firearm to the ready-to-fire position, and maintains the trigger finger in an optimum position, at which time the shooter manually operates the trigger for the next shot.

A bump-stock-type device merely aids the untrained shooter in achieving something closer to the firearm’s inherent theoretical rate of fire. (Again, since some recoil energy is bled off to assist in manual trigger operation, it probably prevents the shooter ever reaching the actual theoretical maximum.) Bump-fire stocks are training wheels.

The ATF previously ruled that the Akins Accelerator differed from modern bump-stock-type devices in that the spring in the stock acted as an active component to force the firearm into the ready-to-fire position trigger against the shooter’s finger, without additional action by the shooter. With a modern bump-stock-type device, the shooter must MANUALLY return the firearm to the ready-to-fire position, at which time the shooter MANUALLY operates the trigger again.

This is very easy to test, three ways, each using a bump-stock-type device:

1. Pull the trigger a single time and immediately move your finger forward off of the “ledge” (or “finger rest”). If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

2. Should this not be clear enough, fire again; this time keeping your trigger finger off of the “ledge” so that your finger holds the trigger down, preventing it from resetting. If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

3. If you are still unclear on the concept, pull the trigger, but keep the rifle pressed back in a conventional non-bump-fire mode (i.e.- don’t pull the rifle forward). If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

If one cannot understand this, then that person is mentally incompetent and should be adjudicated as such under 18 U.S. Code § 922(d)(4), and should removed from office.

If one will not understand this, then that person is guilty of malfeasance and should be removed.


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Bump-fire Banned

Let me drop this here before the sun sets.

Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.

— Donald J. Trump, 1:50 PM – 23 Mar 20181:50 PM – 23 Mar 2018

In case you’ve forgotten how stupid (and contrary to physical reality) this is.

And yes; The Zelman Partisans opposes this. Accepting this is in no way a compromise. We did not get reciprocal carry. We did get a dangerous Fix NICS. And this isn’t a merely bump-fire ban; it’s effectively a ban on semiautomatic firearms (and if you think Feinstein, Schumer et al aren’t aware of that, you weren’t paying attention): parts is parts.

I’ll try to dig up the official commenting URL tomorrow night.

Added: I’ve got 10 minutes…

Attorney General Sessions Announces Regulation Effectively Banning Bump Stocks

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

No. They. Do. NOT.


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“Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool.”*

“By the way, bump stocks, we’re writing that out. I’m writing that out myself, I don’t care if Congress does it or not, I’m writing it out myself, OK? You put it into the machine-gun category, which is what it is, it becomes essentially a machine gun.”

— President Donald Trump, February 26, 2018

“Machinegun” is defined in statutory law. Short form: a firearm that fires more than one round per trigger operation.

If that can be changed by executive order, instead of congressional legislation, then everything is a machinegun waiting for the pen-stroke.

What can he — would he — do with that pen?


* For our younger historically-challenged MSD readers: Bubba Clinton advisor Paul Begala, The New York Times, July 5, 1998


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[UPDATE] That’ll be our first one-term president in a while

I wish I could be surprised, but even before Trump began to look like a serious candidate– well before he got the R nomination — I warned that his new-found verbal respect for RKBA was belied by a long anti-RKBA history.

Trump pushes ban on ‘bump stocks’ — devices that turn weapons into ‘machine guns’
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has recommended that “bump stocks” — devices that let semi-automatic weapons fire hundreds of rounds per minute — be banned.

Trump signed a memorandum recommending that Attorney General Jeff Sessions propose regulations that would declare that bump stocks are illegal because they effectively turn legal semi-automatic weapons into outlawed machine guns.

I told you the fix was in.

Age limit for buying AR-15 assault rifle ‘on the table’: White House
The White House said on Tuesday setting an age limit for buying AR-15-type assault rifles, the type purchased legally by a teenager who shot dead 17 people at a Florida high school last week, was under consideration.

It will be interesting to see how they define the restricted firearms. Will they include California-compliant “non-assault weapon” ARs, bolt-action rifles, revolvers, pistols, and pump-action shotguns?

ETA:

White House on ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban: ‘We Haven’t Closed Doors on Any Front’
NPR’s Mara Liasson asked, “In 2000 [President Trump] did support an ‘assault weapons’ ban. What is his position now?” She followed her own question by asking if President Trump supports “reinstating” the 1994-2004 federal “assault weapons” ban.

CNN reported that Sanders responded by saying, “I don’t have any specific announcements, but we haven’t closed the door on any front.”


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Poll: Rate Trump’s first 100 days of RKBA

When Donald Trump first started campaigning for President, many people were dubious of his new-found commitment to the right to keep and bear arms given his history on the subject: gun bans, preemptively prove your innocence, waiting periods, and more.

But once he hit the campaign trail he started talking a good game. The question was, could he walk as well as talk?

One hundred days in, he’s still talking, but he has also done some good things like ending the Social Security abuse. On the other hand, Obamacare 2.0 attempts still have RKBA problems, federal gun-free zone requirements are still there, and his Second Amendment advisory group is vaporware.

Since everyone else is rating Trump’s first 100 days in office, how would you rate him on RKBA?


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