Injunction To Be Filed In Lawsuit Challenging California Ammo-Law Train-Wreck California – -(AmmoLand.com)- The problems encountered since the new ammunition background check system was put into effect on July 1st 2019, have far surpassed what we predicted, and we predicted a train wreck.
The approval process takes over a half hour per customer, instead of the promised two minutes. DOJ is imposing unnecessary and costly requirements on vendors.
Countless customers are being turned down by DOJ for lack of ID even if they have a California driver’s license. Law abiding people cannot get ammunition they need for sport or self-defense. Businesses may have to close as a result of this extreme regulatory burden.
“Newsom’s Prop 63 law is a business killing nightmare and a red-tape charade that is useless as a crime prevention measure,” said CRPA President Chuck Michel.
“This law puts a ridiculously excessive burden on Second Amendment rights and was designed to make it practically impossible for gun stores to make a profit or for people to use a gun for sport or self-defense. It’s part of Newsom’s effort to eliminate the “gun culture” – which he hates.” said Michel.
“We are going to ask the Court to put a stop to it immediately.”
CRPA, with NRA’s support, challenged the ammunition background check law in court months ago. The lead plaintiff in the case is gold medal-winning Olympic shooter Kim Rhode.
The CRPA legal team already got a favorable ruling in the Rhode case – which is being heard by the same judge who ruled in the Duncan 10+ magazine lawsuit.
We had to wait for the ammo law to take effect to seek an injunction, but now that the law has gone into effect and the infringements have been documented, CRPA plans to seek an injunction in the Rhode case next week.
If you’ve had problems buying ammunition, and particularly if you are an ammunition sales vendor having problems, please email us at ammosnafu@michellawyers.com so we can add your experience to the mountain of evidence documenting how this law has failed.
To review all of the materials that NRA and CRPA have put together about what these laws require and the lawsuit challenging them, visitmichellawyers.com/ammunition-california-laws-and-regulations/.
Gun rights supporters should not support other 2A groups promising to file their own legal challenges to the new ammo laws.
Although these may just be list building promotions for use in their future fundraising appeals, any new redundant lawsuit that might be filed would be duplicative, would complicate the legal process, greatly risks having a different (likely hostile) judge second-guess the good ruling we already got in the Rhode case, and jeopardizes the potential success of CRPA’s existing lawsuit.
You go right ahead and do that.
Below are screenshots from the Nevada County California Sheriff’s Office Booking Report
(courtesy of Elmo) showing 3 arrests for smuggling in fireworks.
If you’ll notice, the three arrests that I screenshotted took place at the I-80 Agriculture Inspection Station – you know, the one that nobody ever gets stopped at.
From Elmo’s email:
Over the last two weeks, CalFire LEOs have made at least 15 and possibly as many as 20 arrests on identical charges, one of which is Possession of Dangerous Fireworks, a felony.
These arrests have been made by at least 8 different badge numbers and all but 2 of them occurred at the “I-80 Ag Station”.
The other 2 were made at Soda Springs. The people arrested have been from the Sacramento and Bay areas and the San Juaquin Valley.
I believe this is a precursor to what the CA DOJ will be doing with people who transport ‘contraband’ ammunition later this summer. I find it completely foolish that some people still believe they’re going to be able to run over to Cabela’s or to the Big Gun Show and stock up. They’re risking a lot to take that chance, including the loss of their right to own a firearm.
Here’s your screenshots:
All I’ve got to say is buyer beware.
Thanks to their proximity to Hollywood, the Los Angeles Police Department has been featured in more films and television than any other law enforcement agency. As everything from hero to villain in TV and movies, LAPD is as much a part of the pop culture landscape as the iconic Hollywood sign. The LAPD badge is nearly instantly recognizable, but today we’re going to look at the interesting history of LAPD’s firearms.
Los Angeles endured a considerable amount of time in the late 1800s without any form of official police. The department that would eventually grow into LAPD found its roots in 1876, when the Board of Police Commissioners selected Jacob T. Gerkins as Chief.
Chief Gerkins brought with him the first regulation uniform for the department, taking what had been a loosely affiliated group and forming them into a real agency. There’s no record of an issued firearm at the time, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that a considerable number of Colt Peacemakers rode in holsters during this violent period in LA’s history.
From the 1900s to the 1930s LAPD survived without a standardized sidearm for their department, as officers were allowed to carry a wide variety of guns. .45 Colt revolvers were authorized, as the department still was very much an agency of wild west law enforcement.
It’s wasn’t until after World War II, with officers returning to duty from overseas that LAPD issued its first standard revolver, the S&W Model 10. Cadets at the police academy were issued a Model 10, and upon graduation had the option to keep that as an issue gun, purchase it from the department, or purchase their own revolver so long as it was a revolver chambered in .38 Special that had a 4 inch or 6 inch barrel.
During the 50s and 60s, under the leadership of Chief Parker, the public image of LAPD changed drastically from a corrupt department to the model of police professionalism. TV shows like Dragnet and Adam-12 greatly influenced the public image of LAPD as a model department; the guns carried in these shows accurately reflected the pistols issued to LAPD.
Again, LAPD kept with its policy of allowing officers to purchase individual weapons as long as they met the department’s standards. The standard issue gun was the Smith & Wesson K-38 Combat Masterpiece, with either a four or six inch barrel.
The K-38 would stay as the standard gun up until it was replaced by the Beretta 92 in the 80s. However, during the mid 70s, LAPD authorized officers to carry revolvers chambered in .357 Magnum so long as they were loaded with .38 Special ammo. Colt Pythons became status symbols, and among individual officer purchases, Colt Troopers and Pythons were very popular.
The adoption of the Beretta 92 in the 1980s signaled the end of the great wheelgun era of LA law enforcement. For a brief period, all new recruits were required to carry the Beretta, and there was no leeway for individual officer weapons.
This was loosened somewhat in the 90s when the S&W 5906 was accepted as a substitute standard weapon, and further loosened in 1997 after the North Hollywood Shootout when 3rd Gen Smith & Wesson semi-autos in .45 ACP were authorized out of a perceived need for more officer firepower.
This status quo held until 2002, when new Chief William Bratton was appointed. Bratton had previously led agencies that authorized the use of Glock pistols, and instituted policy allowing his officers to carry Glocks on duty.
In the modern age of LAPD, officers are issued either a Glock 22 or Glock 17 upon graduation from the Academy, but are still authorized to carry a considerable number of weapons. According to LAPD’s website, here is a complete list of the guns authorized for duty:
This doesn’t include various 1911s that are authorized for special units such as SWAT or SIS; I can only imagine what a headache all these different guns are for unit armorers within LAPD. Regardless, LAPD’s history of firearms has been as colorful and compelling a story as the history of the department itself.
From wild-west style shootouts with single action Colt revolvers to a modern LE agency with Glocks and weapon-mounted lights, the LAPD’s evolution of issued firearms parallels the evolution of the department itself.
ATF agents across the country have been working to track down thousands of guns and firearms parts that had been seized by law enforcement and were supposed to be destroyed but were stolen first, according to sources familiar with the effort.
The agents are searching for some of their own retired service weapons as well as guns from other federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and DEA.
All of the weapons had been sent to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ National Firearms and Ammunition Destruction Branch in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to be shredded, according to court documents and congressional letters.
A longtime guard at the ATF facility has admitted to carting off thousands of firearms, gun parts and ammunition and selling them over several years.
Christopher Yates, 52, a guard who worked as a contract employee for ATF for 16 years, was charged in federal court in West Virginia. He pleaded guilty in April to possession of a stolen gun and stealing government property.
Yates is set to be sentenced in August. He faces up to 10 years in prison on each count but is unlikely to get the maximum under federal sentencing guidelines.
The ATF has recovered more than 4,000 guns and parts that had been reported missing while Yates worked there, according to Yates’ plea agreement.
Yates admitted to stealing at least 3,000 slides, a key part of a gun allowing it to fire, from Glock semiautomatic handguns. He also admitted to stealing dozens of guns, including at least four fully automatic machine guns, which are closely regulated by the ATF.
It’s not clear from the plea agreement if all of those machine guns have been recovered.
Yates told prosecutors that when he was alone at the facility, he stole the weapons and parts and then sold them.
The agency did not provide many details to Congress on the scope of the theft in a letter to senators sent in March and obtained this week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In the March 28 letter, to U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), then-Acting ATF Director Tom Brandon said he could not say much because of Yates’ open case.
Johnson, chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Peters, the committee’s ranking member, had written a letter in March asking for answers from the agency, saying they had been told 600 guns and parts were stolen.
“We cannot at this time characterize the scope of the thefts from the Martinsburg facility,” wrote Brandon, who retired from the agency at the end of April.
Less than two weeks after Brandon’s letter was sent, many details of the case were laid out in Yates’ plea agreement filed in federal court in West Virginia.
The agency is still not publicly saying how many guns and gun parts have been taken, only disclosing that the loss was “significant.”
On Wednesday, ATF spokeswoman April Langwell noted in an email to the Journal Sentinel that “the total number cannot be released pending the ongoing investigation & recovery operations.”
Asked why the agency did not disclose details to Congress that were in Yates’ plea agreement, Langwell wrote, “The investigation was ongoing and the timing of the release of information was a result of the regular judicial process.”
In a statement issued Wednesday, Johnson and Peters said:
“The ATF is tasked with protecting our communities and the theft of a substantial amount of weapons, parts and ammunition from ATF facilities raises significant concerns. Our committee is seeking a full accounting of this situation, and we hope the ATF will be as transparent as possible while we continue to pursue answers.”
Agents have been “running around the clock” trying to find the weapons, which has taken time from other investigations, according to several sources familiar with the effort to find the stolen guns.
Each of the 25 ATF field offices around the country was assigned to look for the stolen guns, including Chicago, which has oversight for operations in Milwaukee.
In his letter to the senators, Brandon said that ATF has applied “necessary resources to maximize recovery of stolen property.” The agency also beefed up security at the gun destruction facility, he wrote.
On Wednesday, Langwell, the agency spokeswoman, wrote: “Most of the property has been recovered; however, the investigation is ongoing so we cannot provide additional details.”
She also said the ATF was not authorized to compensate people who may have unknowingly bought the stolen guns or parts. It is not clear the process by which agents are getting the guns from those individuals.
Sources familiar with the ATF’s efforts say stolen guns and parts have been recovered across the country, in Mexico and the Caribbean, including at crime scenes.
Several investigations have been launched into what happened.
The ATF has assigned a team to look into how Yates was able to brazenly steal the weapons and parts for years. They also are examining why a number of the guns were listed as being destroyed when they had not been.
Also investigating the case are the inspector general for both the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, along with at least one congressional committee. The agency reported the theft to both inspectors general.
“We continue to work closely with the Office of Inspector General to ensure full accountability in this review,” Langwell wrote.
ATF’s gun destruction examined
Last year, the Justice Department’s inspector general published an audit on the ATF’s controls over weapons and ammunition but did not find problems with the agency’s practices. The review apparently came before Yates’ theft was detected.
“We found that ATF generally maintains effective control over the disposal of seized firearms,” but the auditors acknowledged how “inherently risky” it was for ATF to ship all seized weapons to one location. It added, “we believe that utilizing a centralized destruction facility with all seized firearms is an effective control.”
The report went on to say that guns are destroyed using an industrial shredder. The process is witnessed by an ATF special agent and “credentialed employee or contractor” who signs a report certifying the weapon was destroyed.
The current case echoes a series of problems in ATF storefront operations in Milwaukee and nationwide, documented in a 2013 Journal Sentinel investigation. Those operations were intended to snare criminals selling guns and drugs but were fraught with problems across the country.
ATF-owned guns, including a fully automatic machine gun, were stolen and the machine gun was not recovered. Undercover agents used a mentally disabled man to promote the operation and later arrested him. Agents grossly overpaid for guns, some of which had been purchased the same day from Gander Mountain and other stores.
The investigation into Yates began in February, when Philadelphia police recovered a gun during a traffic stop. They recovered a Glock .40-caliber slide that was from a gun that had supposedly been destroyed, according to the plea agreement.
Yates, a roving guard, had access to the whole ATF facility and soon became the focus of the investigation. He later admitted he had been stealing firearms and parts since 2016.
He sold the stolen guns, parts and ammunition to others including Anthony Miller, a maintenance worker at the ATF facility, and Adam Schreiber, a gun dealer in Pennsylvania. Schreiber, in turn, sold the guns across the country, according to Yates’ plea agreement. Neither of the other two has been charged.
Langwell, the ATF spokeswoman, said more details will be released by the agency once the investigations are completed.
“There are lessons to be learned from everything,” she wrote. “No business or organization is immune to the damage that a corrupt contractor, especially a security guard, can inflict.”
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John Diedrich is an investigative reporter whose work has revealed injustices and wrongdoing including hospital policies that turn away ambulances, federal agents whose flawed undercover gun-buying stings took advantage of those with mental disabilities, and fight officials who failed to protect an amateur kickboxer who died in his first bout. Diedrich, who joined the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff in 2004, has been recognized with numerous national journalism honors, including a George Polk Award and a National Headliner Award for public service journalism. He is a Milwaukee native and graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Email him at jdiedrich@journalsentinel.com; follow him on Twitter: @John_Diedrich
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Injunction To Be Filed In Lawsuit Challenging California Ammo-Law Train-Wreck
