The Paradox and Absurdities of Carbon-Fretting and Rewilding

Herschel Smith · 28 Jan 2024 · 4 Comments

The Bureau of Land Management is planning a truly boneheaded move, angering some conservationists over the affects to herd populations and migration routes.  From Field & Stream. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released a draft plan outlining potential solar energy development in the West. The proposal is an update of the BLM’s 2012 Western Solar Plan. It adds five new states—Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming—to a list of 11 western states already earmarked…… [read more]

Mark Smith and Stephen Halbrook Review the ATF Frame & Receiver Rule

BY Herschel Smith
8 months, 2 weeks ago

This is an informative video.  For example, I was unaware of the need for placing additional information on the frame, and the follow-on need for retooling in the factories.

Sinister move by ATF should serve as warning

BY PGF
1 year, 8 months ago

Tom Knighton, at Bearing Arms, is a Statist shilling for the ATF:

Now, the law they’re citing does indeed require gun stores to report all denied NICS checks. This is one of those things that few people really have an issue with in the grand scheme of things. After all, a denied check is grounds to at least see if the individual in question is a criminal trying to commit an illegal act.

If it’s not, then hopefully whatever led to the denial can be fixed.

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.

The ATF shouldn’t exist at all, in any form, yet in this, we are supposed to put our hope? That’s laughable. I’m one of the “few” that has a huge problem with this! Hope in government is the very definition of the Idolatry of State worship.

From the article:

 

Senate confirms Steve Dettelbach as Biden’s pick to lead BATF

BY PGF
1 year, 9 months ago

Story at WoG:

“Looks Like He’s Going to Get the Chance to Raise His Hand and Lie”

Via CNN: The Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Steve Dettelbach as President Joe Biden’s pick to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Successful confirmation of the nominee is a victory for the Biden administration and comes in the wake of a string of recent mass shootings – in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas and Highland Park, Illinois – that have shocked the nation and led to calls for further action to address gun violence in America.

The confirmation vote marks a major milestone since the ATF has operated under a series of acting directors since its last Senate-confirmed leader stepped down in 2015, and the Senate last confirmed an ATF nominee in 2013.

ATF Pistol Brace Ruling: Collusion With Joe Biden?

BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 5 months ago

Did the hopeful administration of His Fraudulency Joe Biden collude with the ATF to stir the waters with pistol braces?

November 10th, 2020, during an ATF conference call, Acting Director Regina Lombardo told those in attendance that the anti-gun Biden transition team has reached out to the ATF to get the agency’s “top priorities”.

AmmoLand News’ anonymous source said Lombardo told those on the call that her priorities would be pistol braces and 80% lower receivers.

The Department of Justice told the ATF’s industry side not to move on pistol braces until the agency could be worked out regulations (sic). SB Tactical and other companies have been working with the federal government to clarify the rules surrounding braces. Currently, the rules are very subjective, which means it depends on the reviewer that gets assigned the review to determine if a brace is legal. There is no set standard.

Instead, the rogue ATF’s law enforcement side sent letters to multiple companies stating that their pistol brace firearms were short-barreled rifles (SBRs). Q LLC, which makes the Honey Badger AR pistol, went public with the cease and desist letter that the ATF sent to the company. Because of pressure from the Trump administration and the general public, the agency walked back their demands and gave Q a 60-day reprieve.

[ … ]

Through an executive order, he created Schedule F. The order allows the President to move government workers into the new category to more easily fire them. Trump could send a message by using Schedule F to remove the rogue ATF leadership.

It sure looks that way from where I sit.  And it causes things to make a lot better sense.  Something like pistol braces and SBRs wouldn’t have even been on Trump’s radar screen.

BATFE,Gun Control Tags:

An Opportunity Presents Itself With The ATF Pistol Brace Ban

BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 6 months ago

David Codrea.

It also provides an opportunity to get to the bottom of who exactly at ATF has been behind the move before the suspension is withdrawn. That’s because my attorney, Stephen Stamboulieh, filed a Freedom of Information Act request on my behalf asking for documents that could reveal who authorized the determination that the  National Firearms Act had been violated and that Q, LLC, and thousands of gun owners could be considered in criminal violation.

The window of opportunity could close before the 20-business days ATF has to respond to the FOIA have passed if Joe Biden wins the election on November 3. That’s because certain facts, and the absence of certain information, have led to the speculation that the move was made by entrenched ATF employees seeking to demoralize gun owners by having “Trump’s ATF” enact another negative ruling against them.

This is a great idea and I wish I had thought of it.

Not, by the way, that I have any confidence that anything will really be done about it, even if rogue employees or directors are proven to have intentionally poisoned the well.

BATFE,Politics Tags:

ATF Now Going After Pistol Braces

BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 6 months ago

Control.  It’s what controllers do.

Change. It’s what menstruating people do. Maybe it’s their time of the month.

BATFE Tags:

Congressmen Question ATF Brace Restriction Plans

BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 10 months ago

David Codrea.

“[W]e have determined that firing a pistol from the shoulder would not cause the pistol to be reclassified as an SBR,” ATF’s Firearms Technology Branch Chief replied. “Generally speaking, we do not classify weapons based on how an individual uses a weapon. FTB has previously determined that the firing of a weapon from a particular position, such as placing the receiver extension of an AR-15 type pistol on the user’s shoulder, does not change the classification of a weapon. Further, certain firearm accessories such as the SIG Stability Brace have not been classified by FTB as shoulder stocks and, therefore, using the brace improperly does not constitute a design change.”

Then in 2015, NRA-ILA reported on ATFs “Open Letter on the Redesign of ‘Stabilizing Braces’.”

“Any person who intends to use a handgun stabilizing brace as a shoulder stock on a pistol (having a rifled barrel under 16 inches in length or a smooth bore firearm with a barrel under 18 inches in length) must first file an ATF Form 1 and pay the applicable tax because the resulting firearm will be subject to all provisions of the NFA,” the reversed position stated.

Suddenly we had a problem. A huge problem, with life-destroying felony implications for anyone innocently caught up in a ridiculous bureaucratic net cast by people who either can’t make up their minds or have their minds made up for them by hidden, politically-motivated string pullers.

Fast forward to 2017 and it appeared everyone was happy again. Per a press release from SB Tactical:

“An NFA firearm has not necessarily been made when the device is not reconfigured for use as a shoulder stock – even if the attached firearm happens to be fired from the shoulder,” the reversed (yet again rule) assured everyone. “To the extent that the January 2015 Open Letter implied or has been construed to hold that incidental, sporadic, or situational ‘use’ of an arm-brace (in its original approved configuration) equipped firearm from a firing position at or near the shoulder was sufficient to constitute ‘redesign,’ such interpretations are incorrect and not consistent with ATF’s interpretation of the statute or the manner in which it has historically been enforced.’”

Go read the rest.  Now they’ve got their pink panties in a wad over “length of pull.”

My beloved dog Heidi, the best dog on earth before she passed, was all about “let’s fight, let’s fight, let’s fight, nap time, love me, love me, love me, let’s fight, let’s fight …” until the day was over.  Wake to do it all over again.  One neighbor remarked that it must be like having a girlfriend on crack.

The ATF is no girlfriend.  They’re like that obnoxious, troubling, unfriendly neighbor on crack.  This way one day, the other way the next day.  Isn’t there a medical diagnosis for this kind of behavior?  Shouldn’t these people be medicated by a professional?

BATFE Tags:

ATF Secretly Crafting Rules That Restrict Pistol Braces

BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 10 months ago

Rep. Matt Gaetz.

The @ATFHQ is crafting secret rules restricting the possession of certain pistol braces by American citizens, which would turn millions of law-abiding gun owners into felons overnight. I sent a letter today demanding they stop.

Here is selected quotes from the letter.

ATF initially welcomed the advent of pistol arm braces. In 2012, ATF correctly determined that the attachment of arm braces to large pistol platforms does not constitute the manufacture of a short barreled rifle. This determination, consistent with law, clarified that attachment of a pistol-affixed arm brace did not constitute the making of a Short Barreled Rifle (SBR) subject to registration requirements under the National Firearms Act (“NFA”), 26 U.S.C. §§ 5801–5872, and made these important safety tools more readily available to those who need them. Central to ATF’s determination was its finding that arm braces are not synonymous with shoulder stocks and thus not designed or intended to be fired from the shoulder. Since ATF’s initial determination, over two million arm braces have been sold to gun owners. Additionally, hundreds of firearm manufacturers have sold over one million firearms pre-configured with arm braces.

Despite initially welcoming the introduction of pistol arm braces, it has come to our attention that ATF is now attempting to restrict some of the most popular arm brace configurations by creating non-public standards that are not based in statute or regulation. For example, in determining whether an item is an arm brace or stock, ATF has, through private letters, created an inexhaustive list of what it considers “objective design features.” With no basis in law, one of the “indicators” chosen to make these determinations is “length of pull,” which is the distance from the rear of the stabilizing brace to the trigger. Unbeknownst to the general public, ATF has ordained in private determination letters that it considers “any firearm with a ‘length of pull’ over 13-1/2 inches to be designed to be fired from the shoulder,” thereby making it a short-barreled rifle. However, ATF has also privately proclaimed that even firearms under this length of pull can be classified as a short-barreled rifle, if ATF identifies other (and often unspecified) applicable “indicators.” It is not clear what authority ATF has to establish these hidden standards.

We understand that ATF is currently considering restricting one arm brace model owned by over 700,000 Americans, despite it being functionally no different from the more than ten arm brace designs already approved by ATF. Were ATF allowed to proceed with issuing this determination letter or others, close to one million law abiding Americans could be made felons overnight.

What is left unsaid is exactly what brace design is being reconsidered for this classification.  Stay tuned.  It would be just like the ATF folks to state, restate, bait and switch, and then restate again in order to entrap innocent people.

It’s their bread and butter.

BATFE Tags: ,

ATF: Enabling A National Gun Registry?

BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 2 months ago

GOA.

The ATF has issued new rules that will alter the format for Form 4473’s and make it easier to create a national gun registry.

Here’s what we know. ATF agents have used annual inspections to electronically record the contents of Form 4473’s being kept by federal gun dealers. See here and here.

We also know that a software company exhibiting its wares at the Shot Show in Las Vegas has crafted a system where ATF can take the contents of all the dealer’s Bound Book entries (which contain all of the buyer’s personal information and gun information which is on a Form 4473) by simply capturing them on a thumb drive.

And we know that the ATF is now trying to put the names of gun owners on the same page of the 4473 as the identifying information of the gun. See here.

But if they’re successful with changing the 4473 in this way, it will be much easier for ATF to create a national gun registry by photographing paper documents.

So it appears that we have an answer to the almost inexplicable question of why ATF is crawling over glass now to reincarnate the format for the 4473 which was junked decades ago.

Thanks to GOA for a good analysis of this.  It’s more than about allowing non-binary as a sex option, which in this case is obviously a misdirect.  It was magician’s trick to focus the eye somewhere else.

The only real solution for any of this is to abolish the ATF.  On top of that, abolishing DOJ, CIA, FBI and DHS would also be a good solution to many ills.

BATFE Tags: ,

ATF Recognizes “Non-Binary” As Sex Option

BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 2 months ago

Changes come to form 4473.

“Non-binary” is added in the sex field options, too. The section inquiring if the transferee is under indictment for a felony would also now ask, “…or are you a current member of the military who has been charged with violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and whose charges have been referred to a General Court Martial?”

In addition, the question regarding whether the person has ever been convicted of a misdemeanor of domestic violence would, if approved, include,“…or are you or have you ever been a member of the military and been convicted of a crime that included, as an element, the use of force against a person as identified in the instructions?” A variety of boxes and questions have been moved for clarity and continuity, apparently, and the “county” of residence field now includes “Parish/Borough.”

So what if you were referred to a general court martial and were acquitted?  I’ve never agreed with the notion anyway that problems with a dishonorable discharge should affect recognition of God-given rights.  But that’s the difference, yes?  I see this right as God-given, the state sees itself as the source.

But thank goodness that “Non-binary” is now officially recognized as a sex option.  I won’t have to lose sleep over that any longer.

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