Category: Gun Fearing Wussies
This is an assault rifle. It is already massively regulated in America.
I understand the motivation. I really do. It seems some deranged psychopath is shooting up a school every week. However, despite that sordid reality there are three major reasons why we really shouldn’t try to ban assault weapons.
First, banning assault weapons would be like outlawing foul language or sunburn. Doing so might make us feel good, but it in no way affects reality. We seem incapable of devising a cogent definition for just what an assault weapon even is. “Just because it looks scary” seems dangerously vague in a legal document.
Such a ban might have made a difference half a century ago. Today, there are 440 million guns in America — rifles, pistols, shotguns, et al. If each of those guns was a typical GLOCK pistol it would be 8 inches long. If you stacked those guns muzzle to butt they would stretch from the surface of the earth to the International Space Station and back 109 times.
According to 1994 definitions, there are roughly 25 million assault weapons in circulation. If each of those was an AR15 stacked end to end they would stretch from New York City to Los Angeles and back 2.3 times. Non-gun guys have no idea the true scope of guns in America. They haven’t a clue. No amount of legislating will ever touch firearms in this country. Outlaw assault weapons tomorrow and the bad guys will have assault weapons when the sun burns out. The gun control ship sailed a couple of hundred million guns ago with the election of President Obama. There’s no putting that back in the box now.
This is what the Left would call an assault weapon. In reality, it is simply a
semiautomatic sporting gun owned by tens of millions of law-abiding Americans.
Second, mass shootings are the physical manifestation of the post-modern moral darkness that seems to be engulfing our nation and the world. Such horrors rightfully touch a visceral chord in any parent. I honestly cannot imagine the pain of something like that. However, there is the issue of scale.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control group, there were 1,363 people killed in mass shootings in America from 2009 through 2020. That’s 123 deaths per year on average in a nation of 328 million people. During the same time we lost 478,000 people PER YEAR to smoking. We lose 40,000 non-smokers (think little kids with asthma) to secondhand smoke per annum. So, it’s really not about the body count. It’s not about saving children. It’s about virtue signaling. Non-gun people believe themselves more virtuous than gun people.
When something horrible happens you always want something to vilify, someone to hate. We humans are hardwired to want a villain. For gun control types they see that awful stuff and hate the NRA. The NRA isn’t some faceless corporate entity. It’s just several million of their fellow Americans who disagree with them.
Lastly, and this is the big one, an assault weapons ban will actually make things worse. In medicine we call it First Do No Harm. No matter what you do, ensure your actions do not exacerbate the problem.
We are losing 123 Americans a year to mass shootings. There are 25 million assault weapons in America. Without confiscation an assault weapons ban is lyrically ineffective. If those guns are suddenly made illegal who exactly is going to enforce that law? You really can’t make a fresh new law if you don’t have a plan to enforce it. Laws without enforcement make a mockery of the system.
I have any number of good buddies in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A huge percentage of assault weapon owners simply will not comply with a ban. Are we going to send my ATF pals to go knock their doors down? Are we willing to incinerate their families to ensure that Beto O’Rourke’s grandiose confiscation scheme is enforced (“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47…”)?
123 deaths a year are undeniably horrible. Forcibly disarming otherwise law-abiding Americans would create literally millions of new criminals out of thin air and would be Waco on steroids from coast to bleeding coast. There is so much hatred and paranoia online nowadays that if even a tiny percentage of gun guys pushed back it would be a bloodbath.
There are 77.4 million gun owners in America — about one third of the adult population. For comparison purposes, there are nearly three times as many gun owners in America as there are soldiers on the entire planet. That’s every person in all the uniformed armed services in the world.
Guns in America have nothing to do with hunting. Nothing. Guns in private hands, especially the scary sort, have everything to do with a monopoly on power. The reason America has done such amazing things in the past 246 years is our unprecedented levels of personal freedom. Gun ownership is a critical part of that freedom. Real freedom is messy, ugly, bloody, and gross, but that’s the reason we have been the most powerful force for liberty the world has ever seen. You really can’t have one without the other.
Look at our recent crop of professional politicians. All they need is an excuse to forcibly impose their will on the American people. That will never, ever happen here, because 77 million of us own guns. Absent the will of the governed an armed populace is ungovernable. That’s the reason the founders designed it the way they did 246 years ago. And that’s why you really don’t want to try to ban assault weapons in America today.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), points to a photograph of a rifle with a bump stock during a news conference to announce proposed gun control legislation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Oct. 4, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)The U.S. government was wrong when it said a ban on machine guns applied to bump stocks, a federal court ruled on Jan. 6.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in 2018 claimed that two laws banning machine guns meant bump stocks were illegal, reversing its earlier position. The move, backed by then-President Donald Trump, came after a man carried out a mass shooting in Las Vegas, using bump stocks to fire more rapidly.
Michael Cargill, a Texas resident who had to surrender bump stocks due to the reversal, sued in 2019, arguing that the ATF and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, violated the Constitution by usurping the role of Congress in defining the machine gun ban as extending to bump stocks.
“Cargill is correct. A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machine gun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in its new ruling.
Machine guns are defined as a weapon that shoots, or is designed to shoot, or “can be readily restored to shoot,” more than one shot automatically without manual reloading by “a single function of the trigger.” The term includes “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,” according to the Gun Control Act of 1968, one of the laws cited by the ATF.
The ruling noted that semi-automatic weapons do not fall under the definition because one pull of the trigger corresponds to the firing of a single bullet.
Bump stocks are accessories that, when attached to a weapon, let a shooter speed up the firing mechanism of a semi-automatic weapon, enabling a quicker discharge of bullets. But it does not change the mechanics of a semi-automatic weapon, or the crucial aspect of needing to re-engage the trigger to fire an additional bullet, U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee writing for the majority, wrote.
“Without a bump stock or the use of an alternative bump technique, the user must provide manual input by pulling the trigger with the muscles of his trigger finger. With a bump stock, the shooter need not pull and release his trigger finger. But the shooter must still apply forward pressure to the weapon’s forebody in order to maintain the shooting mechanism,” Eldrod said. “Again, the manual input remains, even though its form changes.”
Weighing against the government was how the ATF for years after bump stocks were invented in the early 2000s decided they did not fall under the machine gun ban. That changed under public pressure following the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, which left 60 dead and hundreds wounded. The ATF’s final rule stated that the term machine gun “includes a bump-stock-type device, i.e., a device that allows a semi-automatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semi-automatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.”
Not Unambiguous
Cargill argued in his suit that the government’s interpretation of machine gun was wrong. Even if it may have been right, Cargill offered, the text of the statute was not unambiguous, which means the rule was not allowed under court precedent.
Courts have been split on whether the ATF’s actions were legal. Several appeals courts had sided with the government against the rule, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, while several other courts, including a different appeals court, had said the agency overstepped its authority because the law was ambiguous.
In the new ruling, the majority said that the rulings for the government—including one that reasoned “single function of the trigger” could mean “a single pull of the trigger from the perspective of the shooter”—were based “on words that do not exist” in the law, and that a plain reading means bump stocks do not certainly fall under the definition.
“The first thing to note is that the ultimate subject is machine gun, and the subject complement is weapon. In other words, a machinegun is defined by reference to what kind of weapon it is. But identifying the subject of the sentence is only our first step. We next look, second, to the fact that the term weapon is defined by how it shoots. So, again, the definition refers to the device being made to shoot, not the person or thing doing the shooting. Third, the manner of shooting must be automatic. Fourth—and critically—the prepositional phrases define the firing process’s requirements from a mechanical perspective. The process must occur by a single function, and the single act must be by the trigger. In short, there is no mention of a shooter,” the majority said.
“The grammatical structure continuously points the reader back to the mechanics of the firearm. The statute does not care what human input is required to activate the trigger—it cares only whether more than one shot is fired each time the trigger acts.”
Because of the mixed rulings from circuit courts, Cargill’s lawyers expect the government to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has previously refused to take up cases against the rule.
“We are pleased that a circuit court has finally—and decisively—recognized that Congress must be the one to pass any bump stock ban,” Mark Chenoweth, president and general counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which has been representing Cargill, said in a statement. “The resulting circuit split should bring this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court’s attention promptly and supply a suitable vehicle for deciding this issue once and for all.”
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
The ruling does not have an immediate effect because the court remanded the case to a district court, which had ruled against Cargill, with orders to enter a judgement for Cargill.
Elrod was joined by Chief Judge Priscilla Richman, a George W. Bush appointee, and Circuit Judges Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee; Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee; Carl Stewart, a Clinton appointee; Leslie Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee; Catharina Haynes, a George W. Bush appointee; Don Willett, a Trump appointee; James Ho, a Trump appointee; Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee; Kurt Engelhardt, a Trump appointee; Andrew Oldham, a Trump appointee; and Cory Wilson, a Trump appointee.
Other Opinions
In a one-sentence concurring opinion, Haynes, joined by Richman, said, “I concur in the judgment only because I reluctantly conclude that the relevant statute is ambiguous such that the rule of lenity favors the citizen in this case.”
In a separate concurring opinion, Ho, joined by Richman and Southwick, said that due to the ambiguity, “Congress must take action if it wishes to criminalize bump stocks.”
In a dissent, Circuit Judge Stephen Higginson, an Obama appointee, joined by Circuit Judges James Dennis, a Clinton appointee, and James Earl Graves Jr., an Obama appointee, said that statutory language can be ambiguous enough to bear multiple interpretations but that shouldn’t lead to a ruling that one is incorrect.
“Today, our court extends lenity, once a rule of last resort, to rewrite a vital public safety statute banning machineguns since 1934. In conflict with three other courts of appeals, our court employs its new lenity regime to carve out from federal firearms regulation the bump stock—a device that helped the Las Vegas shooter fire over a thousand rounds during an eleven-minute long attack,” Higginson said.
“Therefore, our court uses lenity to legalize an instrument of mass murder. This is evident from our court’s attempt to confine its new lenity regime only to this statute, giving machinegun owners immunity from prosecution that is not shared by other offenders under the federal code.”
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. —The Illinois House passed a bill early Friday that would ban assault weapons statewide.
It came six months after the deadly mass shooting at Highland Park’s Fourth of July Parade. The House voted around 12:50 a.m. Gov. JB Pritzker was present for the entire debate and expressed confidence that the bill would reach his desk.
The Protect Illinois Communities Act outlaws the manufacture, sale, delivery and purchase of assault weapons — as well as magazines that hold 12 or more rounds.
Current owners of legally purchased weapons would have to register them with the state within 300 days.
For now, the minimum age to get a Firearms Owner ID card will remain at 18 and require parental approval.
Pritzker released the following statement after the bill was passed:
For months lawmakers and advocates have been hard at work negotiating two very critical pieces of legislation to keep Illinoisans safe. Tonight, with the leadership and support of Speaker Welch, the Illinois House passed critical reproductive health protections and an assault weapons ban. The people of Illinois send us to Springfield to tackle tough issues and these bills are historic steps in the right direction. I look forward to working with our colleagues in the Illinois Senate to get bills addressing these issues to my desk so I can sign them as soon as possible.
I’d like to thank Rep. Cassidy for her tireless work to protect reproductive healthcare and Rep. Morgan for his work to get weapons of war off our streets.
GOVERNOR JB PRITZKER
The bill now heads to the Illinois Senate.
Also passed was a bill that would strengthen reproductive rights and gender affirming care in Illinois.
California planning gun microstamp database
(The Center Square) – On July 1, 2022, California Penal Code section 31910 was revised. The change required semiautomatic pistols sold in California to have microstamping technology. A microstamp acts like a fingerprint in identifying ammunition cartridges and the gun from which it
Anew era of gun sales is taking effect in California.
On July 1, 2022, California Penal Code section 31910 was revised. The change required semiautomatic pistols sold in California to have microstamping technology.
A microstamp acts like a fingerprint in identifying ammunition cartridges and the gun from which it was fired. The firing pin imposes an identifying stamp on the round’s primer as it’s discharged.
The revision now only requires one microstamp in the interior of the handgun instead of two. Supporters hoped that this change in the penal code would encourage manufacturers to employ the technology in their firearm products.
Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with the California Department of Justice, is proposing an additional rule to bolster the use of microstamping. The new rule proposes that the unique microstamp of every handgun in California be kept as a record with the Department of Justice to identify firearms used in criminal activity.
A statement released by the California Department of Justice addressed to “Firearm manufacturers and Interested Parties,” invites comments on specific questions “in developing new regulations to achieve the law’s objectives in the most effective manner.”
The department does not ask whether the rule should be made but rather poses questions on procedure once it is implemented. They invite input on questions such as:
Who is best suited to provide the microstamp to the DOJ?When should the microstamp be provided to the DOJ?How should the microstamp be provided to the DOJ?If a microstamp part needs to be replaced, should the regulated replacement part have the same microstamp as the original?
The department will accept comments from interested parties until 5:00 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2023.
Several high-profile mass shootings and a sustained rise in gun violence across the United States in 2022 have spurred law enforcement officials and lawmakers to push for more gun control measures.
President Joe Biden in June signed into law the first major gun safety legislation passed in decades. The measure failed to ban any weapons, but it includes funding for school safety and state crisis intervention programs. Many states — including California, Delaware and New York — have also passed new laws to help curb gun violence, such as regulating untraceable ghost guns and strengthening background check systems.
The year 2022 is the second-highest year of mass shootings in the United States on record, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit tracking gun violence incidents across the country.
There have been at least 647 mass shootings through December 31 this year. The country saw 692 mass shootings in 2021, the worst year on record since the Gun Violence Archive began tracking mass shootings in 2014.
The Gun Violence Archive, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
There is a direct correlation in states with weaker gun laws and higher rates of gun deaths, including homicides, suicides and accidental killings, according to a January study published by Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit focused on gun violence prevention.
Not everyone agrees increased gun control is the answer. Some Americans advocate for their right to keep and bear arms, enshrined in the Constitution, while others argue gun control measures save lives and do not infringe citizen rights.
Amid the debate, some lawmakers have forged ahead with passing gun control laws.
“States continue to lead on gun safety, passing new and innovative policies that we will work to replicate across the country while continuing to secure significant investments in community violence intervention programs,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, which has been fighting for gun safety measures since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, which killed 20 children and six educators.
“This progress and our electoral victories in November shows that the gun violence prevention movement is stronger than ever and sets the stage for continued progress in the new year,” Watts continued.
Here is a summary of the state and federal laws approved in 2022:
Federal legislation
On June 25, Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act after the House and the Senate approved the measure. The package represents the most significant federal legislation to address gun violence since the expired 10-year assault weapons ban of 1994.
“God willing, it’s going to save a lot of lives,” Biden said at the White House as he signed the bill.
The package includes $750 million to help states implement and run crisis intervention programs, which can be used to manage red flag programs, as well as for other crisis intervention programs such as mental health, drug and veteran courts.
Red flag laws, approved by the federal measure, are also known as Extreme Risk Protection Order laws. They allow courts to temporarily seize firearms from anyone believed to be a danger to themselves or others.
The legislation encourages states to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which would provide a more comprehensive background check for people between 18 and 21 who want to buy guns.
It also requires more individuals who sell guns as primary sources of income to register as Federally Licensed Firearm Dealers, which are required to administer background checks before they sell a gun to someone.
The law bars guns from anyone convicted of a domestic violence crime who has a “continuing serious relationship of a romantic or intimate nature.” The law, however, allows those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes to restore their gun rights after five years if they haven’t committed other crimes.
California
California was ranked the top state in the nation for gun safety in 2021. It has the strongest system in the nation for removing firearms from people who become prohibited from having them, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom in July signed a package of five bills on gun safety after they were passed by the California State Senate.
On July 1, Newsom signed AB 2571, which prohibits the gun industry from marketing firearm-related products to minors, as well as AB 1621, which further restricts ghost guns, including the parts used to build them.
On July 12, the governor signed AB 1594, legislation establishing a firearm industry standard of conduct to promote “safe and responsible firearm industry member practices,” the bill states.
Also included in the package is AB 2156, signed on July 21, which cracks down on the manufacture of firearms by prohibiting any person, regardless of federal licensure, from manufacturing firearms without a state license. It also prohibits unlicensed individuals from using 3D printing to manufacture any firearm or precursor part.
The last bill, signed on July 22, is SB 1327. It allows private citizens to bring civil action against anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports or imports assault weapons or ghost guns, which are banned in the state.
Colorado
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 22-1086, or The Vote Without Fear Act, on March 30.
The law prohibits a person from openly carrying a firearm within any polling location or central count facility.
It also bans individuals from open carrying within “100 feet of a ballot drop box or any building in which a polling location or central count facility is located,” while election activity is in progress, according to the legislation. Violations are punishable by a maximum $1,000 fine, up to 364 days imprisonment in the county jail, or both.
Delaware
Delaware Gov. John Carney on June 30 signed a package of gun safety bills including legislation to prohibit assault weapons, regulate high-capacity magazines and strengthen background checks.
The Delaware Lethal Firearms Safety Act of 2022 prohibits the manufacture, sale, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, receipt, possession or transport of assault weapons in Delaware, subject to certain exceptions, according to HB 450.
The package also includes legislation to raise the minimum age requirement to purchase or possess a firearm from 18 to 21, ban the use of devices which convert handguns into fully automatic weapons and hold gun manufacturers and dealers “liable for reckless or negligent actions that lead to gun violence,” the bill states.
Illinois
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed two bills to address secure storage of firearms and regulating ghost guns.
On May 18, the governor signed HB 4383, which prohibits individuals from selling or possessing ghost guns and ensures all firearms are serialized, allowing law enforcement to better trace them.
Pritzker later signed HB4729 on June 10, which requires the Department of Public Health to develop and implement a two-year public awareness campaign focused on safe gun storage, which includes sharing information about safe gun storage, the bill says.
Maryland
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced on April 8 he would allow Senate Bill 387, which bans the sale or possession of ghost guns, to become law without his signature, noting it doesn’t go far enough in taking “decisive action to hold violent criminals accountable.”
The bill, which took effect on June 1 after bipartisan support, expands the definition of “firearm” to include an unfinished frame or receiver. It requires the Secretary of State Police to maintain a system to register firearms imprinted with serial numbers and “prohibits a person from purchasing, receiving, selling, offering to sell, or transferring an ‘unfinished frame or receiver’ or a firearm unless imprinted with specified information,” the bill states.
The law also requires the governor to allocate $150,000 in the annual state budget to fund registration proceedings.
New Jersey
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on July 5 signed seven gun safety bills, six of which were part of his Gun Safety 3.0 package he introduced to the state legislature in April 2021.
The package includes legislation which would allow the state’s attorney general to sue members of the firearm industry for violations stemming from the sale or marketing of firearms, the bill states.
Also included in the package is legislation to regulate the sale of handgun ammunition, developing a system of electronic reporting of these sales; and require training prior to the issuance of a gun purchaser identification card with a validity date of 10 years.
Another bill in the package mandates firearm owners who become state residents to obtain a Firearm Purchaser Identification Card and register out-of-state acquired handguns, according to the bill.
On December 22, Murphy signed another gun safety bill strengthening the state’s firearm licensing laws and established a list of ‘sensitive places’ where concealed carry is prohibited, including playgrounds, bars and restaurants serving alcohol, train stations, and polling places.
New York
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a package of bills and an additional piece of legislation to address a wide range of gun safety issues.
Hochul signed a gun safety package on June 6, which includes bills requiring microstamping on handguns, strengthen the state’s extreme risk and firearm purchase permit law, raise the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic rifles to 21 and enhance information sharing between state, local and federal agencies when guns are used in crimes.
Following the Supreme Court decision on June 23 to strike down a New York gun law enacted more than a century ago which places restrictions on carrying a concealed handgun outside the home, Hochul signed legislation to strengthen the state’s gun laws and bolster restrictions on concealed carry weapons.
The law, which takes effect on September 1, will expand eligibility requirements in the concealed carry permitting process, restrict the carrying of concealed weapons in sensitive locations and establish state oversight over background checks for guns and regular checks on license holders for criminal convictions, according to the legislation.
Oregon
In the November 2022 US midterm elections, Oregon voters enacted a gun safety ballot measure, Measure 114, which strengthens background checks and prohibits the sale and transfer of ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds.
The measure also closes the “Charleston Loophole,” which allows gun purchases to move forward by default after three days even if a background check has not been completed. It requires state police to complete background checks on individuals before a gun sale or transfer is made.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee signed three gun safety bills on June 21. They prohibit high-capacity magazines, ban the open carry of rifles and shotguns in public and raise the legal age to purchase firearms or ammunition from 18 to 21, with exceptions for law enforcement officers.
One of the bills also changes the definition of “rifle” and “shotgun” consistent with federal law.
Vermont
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed into law a package on March 25 banning firearms from hospital buildings and prohibits the transfer of firearms between unlicensed people.
The governor vetoed a similar bill, S.30, in February which would have closed the “Charleston Loophole.”
The new law, S.4, addresses the policy by extending the time period to seven days for the federal government to complete a background check before an individual can purchase a firearm. It also strengthens protections for victims of domestic violence, according to the bill.
Washington
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed three gun safety bills into law on March 23.
HB 1705 prohibits the manufacture, sale, purchase or possession of ghost guns, while HB 1630 prohibits the open carry of firearms at local government meetings and restricts them at school board meetings and election-related locations.
The third bill, SB 5078, prohibits high-capacity magazines, defined as an “ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than 17 rounds of ammunition,” the bill states.
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “A federal grand jury in Des Moines returned an indictment … charging Adair Chief of Police Bradley Wendt with unlawfully obtaining and possessing machine guns,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Idaho announced in a mid-December press release. “According to unsealed court documents, Wendt … exploited his position … to acquire 10 machine guns purportedly for the official duties and responsibilities of the Adair Police Department, but later resold several of those machine guns at a significant profit.”
He also, per the release, “acquired 13 machine guns for his Denison-based gun store, BW Outfitters, through false statements to the ATF that the machine guns were being demonstrated for future potential purchase by the Adair Police Department … sought to demonstrate or purchase approximately 90 machine guns for the Adair Police Department, which serves a town of less than 800 people [and, with an accomplice] hosted public machine gun shoots, where they charged patrons money…”
Nice work if you can get it. The problem is, without a badge, you can’t, and therein lies the crux of police as “Only Ones.”
That’s a term I started using (and trying to get others to adopt) after a DEA agent explained to a classroom full of school children that he was “the only one professional enough” to carry a Glock and then shot himself in the foot trying to re-holster it. As I explain to readers on my The War in Guns blog:
“[T]he purpose of this feature has never been to bash cops. The only reason I do this is to amass a credible body of evidence to present when those who would deny our right to keep and bear arms use the argument that only government enforcers are professional and trained enough to do so safely and responsibly. And it’s also used to illustrate when those of official status, rank, or privilege, both in law enforcement and in some other government position, get special breaks not available to we commoners, particularly (but not exclusively) when they’re involved in gun-related incidents.”
Over the years, and without particularly trying, that body of evidence just keeps growing, and growing, and growing. As the character Brant from the dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner noted:
“You know the score, pal. If you’re not cop, you’re little people.”
They sure do make it tough to “Back the Blue” sometimes, don’t they? For those gun owners who wave that flag and insist it’s just “a few bad apples,” what percent would not obey orders to confiscate your guns? Show your work.
The Adair indictment also illustrates another danger, particularly in jurisdictions where police officials are either enthusiastically on board (or even driving) the citizen disarmament bandwagon.
“What Would Happen if ‘Battle of Athens’ Round Two Ever Becomes Necessary?” I asked back in 2014. That article looked at the militarization of police departments with surplus equipment from the feds. It focused on recent acquisitions by the McMinn County Sheriff’s Department and speculated on how the World War Two veterans trying to ensure election integrity against a corrupt sheriff and deputies would have fared had they been greeted by full autos, grenade launchers, and MRAPs.
Let’s keep working for freedom to reduce the need to ever have to find out. Let’s not forget that things may come down to resistance or surrender.
While the charges against Chief Wendt are just that, while he is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and while the Justice Department and ATF have given gun owners very little reason of late to trust any charges they bring as anything other than tyrannical overreach and/or in-your-face political rape, it’s not out of line to speculate that exploitation of the badge was going on.
There is one thing that is provable, and this one that I’m quoting from The Captain’s Journal is beyond the shadow of a doubt:
“There is a solution to all of this, of course. Undo the infringement of the NFA, GCA and Hughes Amendment. Then no one will be able to enrich themselves this way by selling machine guns.”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The BATFE has released a letter to FFLs and the public, “clarifying” their new rules regarding so-called “80% receivers,” which were adopted earlier this year. The general understanding within the industry has been that the new regulation had the impact of requiring “unfinished receivers” to be treated as “firearms” if they were sold together with the parts and tools needed to turn them into functional firearms.
The industry responded by separating the “unfinished receivers” from the tools and parts kits and selling them separately, with no jigs, tools, or any other parts needed to finish them. The regulatory changes were not authorized by Congress and are currently being challenged in court as an unconstitutional overstep by the BATFE.
This new letter moves the goalposts yet again. Now they are claiming that, with regard to “unfinished receivers” for striker-fired handguns, they consider these “partially completed receivers” to be “readily convertible” into functional receivers, and therefore they must be treated exactly the same as completed receivers.
This means the manufacturers are now required to be licensed by the government to manufacture and sell guns and that each receiver be marked with a serial number and manufacturer information, sold only through licensed firearm dealers. Now purchasers will be subjected to identification and background checks.
The letter graciously invites anyone unsure whether the “unfinished receiver” they own or are manufacturing meets the nebulous criteria of being “readily convertible” into a firearm to send them a sample. They’ll be happy to let you know…eventually.
What they absolutely refuse to do, is publish a clear definition of exactly where the line is between a “receiver” and a “receiver-shaped object.” For several years they had a relatively clear standard, with people occasionally testing the borders of the standard.
It was understood that, as long as certain holes were not drilled, and certain sections weren’t machined to size and shape, the item was a paperweight, regardless of what tools, parts, or accessories might come along with it and regardless of how it might be advertised. Manufacturers who made “80% receivers” with drill hole positions marked were slapped down, as were those who manufactured their items with two separate colors and densities of polymer, which the BATFE said were too easy to finish. And some manufacturers loudly marketed their products as complete, do-it-yourself, “untraceable” gun kits, requiring no background checks or any registration – which really annoyed the control freaks.
The BATFE’s new regulations, adopted last April, threw much of the previously established understanding right out the window.
It cracked down on advertising that promoted the items as a way of avoiding gun control laws and required that “kits” be treated like guns, regardless of how complete or incomplete the receiver might be. But that wasn’t good enough for them, so now they have gone a step further, redefining “receiver” to include “unfinished receivers,” which they say are “readily convertible” into “receivers.”
The BATFE’s “reimagined” interpretations of the Gun Control Act of 1968 were already a serious overstep of their authority. The entire federal gun control regulatory scheme was unconstitutional from the get-go, not just for its violation of the Second Amendment, but for Congress’s failure to do their job of fleshing out the details of their legislation, instead delegating the lion’s share of that work to bureaucrats in the BATFE.
For the time being, this latest “clarification” of their regulations only applies to “unfinished receivers” for striker-fired handguns, like those made by Polymer 80 and Lone Wolf, but another “clarification” applying the same nebulous standards to “unfinished receivers” for other pistols and rifles, will almost certainly be forthcoming.
All of this nonsense is being challenged in court, but there’s no telling how long it might take for these matters to make their way to the Supreme Court for final resolution. Since the Bruen decision striking down New York’s arbitrary concealed carry requirements and establishing a clear standard for judging Second Amendment cases, it appears that some of the Circuit Courts of Appeal – particularly those that serve anti-rights-dominant areas like New York and California – are intentionally dragging their feet and doing their best to keep Second Amendment challenges from getting to the SCOTUS.
Are they hoping for Democrats to follow through on their threats to “stack the Court,” hoping for hard-line originalists like Justice Clarence Thomas to retire or kick the bucket, or just trying to allow the most damage possible before the eventual smackdown of their hubris? That’s all anyone’s guess, but while we wait for this BS to be rectified, companies like Polymer 80 and Lone Wolf are under the gun and at risk of being driven out of business, criminally prosecuted, or both.
Republican Representatives in Congress need to address this abusive, bureaucratic corruption as soon as the new Congress is seated in January, and not just with a strongly worded – and easily ignored – letter, but with real reform legislation. With Republicans holding a majority in the US House, they should be able to force a bill out of that body in pretty short order. Getting it through the Senate would be a challenge but not an impossibility, and even if they can’t get it through, the attempt would highlight the BATFE’s excesses and inconsistencies.
This type of bureaucratic overreach is a total violation of the process, ideals, and objectives of the founders and must be reined in by Congress. That’s not likely to happen unless your cowardly elected servants hear from you loud, long, and unequivocally. The Congressional Switchboard can be reached by calling 202-224-3121.
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father, Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalitio
The Biden administration has reportedly ordered an ammunition manufacturer to stop selling Americans some 5.56mm rounds, which is the most common for the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
In an effort to severely limit the sale of ammo used in AR-15s, the U.S. military has ordered Winchester – which manages the U.S. Army’s Lake City ammunition plant – to stop selling its excess M855/SS109 (5.56mm) ammo to the public, The Truth About Guns reported citing a source close to the matter.
The Lake City plant, located in Independence, Missouri, produces nearly 30 percent of the commercial market’s sales of 5.56 ammo.
Larry Keane, the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s general counsel and senior vice president, first revealed the administration’s plans in a tweet on Wednesday.
“The U.S. Military is actively considering shutting down the sale is M855/SS109 ammo from Lake City to the commercial market. @NSSF @NRAILA #GreenTipAmmo @POTUS @JoeBiden,” Keane tweeted.
The cartridges that Keane mentioned are very popular forms of 5.56 ammo. The Biden administration’s new order will likely disrupt the supply of 5.56 ammo and cause prices to increase.
The Lake City plant is owned by the federal government but operated by private contractors, according to the National Rifle Association, and produces “well over a billion rounds of ammunition per year.”
“Ammunition in excess of the government’s requirements has long been made available to the private commercial market. Lake City’s output, according to some estimates, accounts for one-third of the 5.56 caliber ammunition available to U.S. consumers,” the NRA continued. “Needless to say, this attack on America’s ammunition supply is just the most recent in a long line of anti-freedom attacks by the Biden Administration.”
The restriction of Americans’ ammo supply is the latest anti-gun action supported by President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly called for the outright ban of AR-15 rifles. Biden praised a recent bipartisan agreement on new gun control measures – which includes incentives for state-run gun confiscation – but argued it still isn’t enough.
“Obviously, it does not do everything that I think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction, and would be the most significant gun safety legislation to pass Congress in decades,” Biden said in a White House statement on Sunday. “With bipartisan support, there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House. Each day that passes, more children are killed in this country: the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives.”
