Articles by Herschel Smith

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.

News.

Making matters worse for Ellison’s professional reputation is his son, Jeremiah Ellison, who is himself embarking on a political career. On Sunday, the younger Ellison, who is a member of the Minneapolis City Council, tweeted this beauty: “I hereby declare, officially, my support for ANTIFA. Unless someone can prove to me ANTIFA is behind the burning of black and immigrant owned businesses in my ward, I’ll keep focusing on stopping the white power terrorist THAT ARE ACTUALLY ATTACKING US!”

You might imagine that his attorney general father would encourage him to keep his trap shut about his radical beliefs, but that advice would come off as a bit hollow. After all, Papa Ellison tweeted out a picture in 2018 of himself standing in a bookstore and holding up “Antifa: The Antifa-Fascist Handbook.”

His father is of course the schmuck Keith Ellison.  It’s nice to see enemies self-identify.

David Codrea has some coverage on this.  This is raw video of the goings-on, albeit shaky at times.

So as best as I can figure, a dude associated with the New Mexico Civil Guard tried to defend a monument along with his fellow members, and ended up retreating from rioters and eventually having to shoot an assailant.

The governor of New Mexico is livid.

One man was shot in Old Town as a protest over the “La Jornada” sculpture in front of the Albuquerque Museum erupted into violence Monday evening.

The shooting occurred during a clash following a peaceful protest to remove the controversial sculpture, a monument that features conquistador Juan de Oñate. The FBI is assisting in the investigation, according to an APD spokesman. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, meanwhile, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the shooting.

The night began with peaceful protest and prayer but tensions began to escalate when protesters took a pickaxe to the statue and members of the heavily armed New Mexico Civil Guard, a civilian group, tried to protect the monument.

Before the night was over Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other officials condemned the violence and those who instigated it.

“Although we are still learning more about the situation, I am horrified and disgusted beyond words by the reports of violence at a protest Monday night in Albuquerque,” Lujan Grisham said late Monday in a statement. “The heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a ‘civil guard,’ were there for one reason: To menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force. To menace the people of New Mexico with weaponry — with an implicit threat of violence — is on its face unacceptable; that violence did indeed occur is unspeakable.”

Mayor Tim Keller reacted swiftly following the shooting, tweeting that the city would be “removing the statue until the appropriate civic institutions can determine next steps” in order to contain the public safety risk.

“The shooting tonight was a tragic, outrageous and unacceptable act of violence and it has no place in our city,” the mayor wrote in a statement. “Our diverse community will not be deterred by acts meant to divide or silence us. Our hearts go out the victim, his family and witnesses whose lives were needlessly threatened tonight.”

It didn’t look peaceful to me.  So the rioters got their way, the members of the militia were face down in the street and are currently under arrest (I presume), the state wanted to allow the destruction of public property under diversity, and refuses to support the only people who attempted to stop it.

This is humiliating for the militia.

I don’t have many comments, except: [a] don’t go into crowds, [b] don’t carry weapons if you don’t intend to use them, [c] if you intend to retreat, then retreat, don’t waste time, [d] know when your battle will be a losing battle.  Without vastly superior projection of force to both the rioters and police, it was always going to end this way.

The rioters were … well, rioters.  The police were there in greater numbers and were organized, and were there to protect the rioters anyway, not the militia or state property.  The individual cops were there to protect their rank and pensions.  By the way, take a look at the armored vehicle in the background.

If you cannot or do not intend to engage in force projection, then operate discretely.  As it is, the militia has done damage to their cause, whatever that was.

Another perspective – or not so much.  I’ve remarked that within a week it will look like Lord of the Flies, and I think I was right.

Reason.

That inaction continued today. Once again, the Court refused to hear a major Second Amendment case. And once again, the Court’s failure to act prompted a sharp complaint from Justice Clarence Thomas, who upbraided his colleagues this morning for “prolonging our decade-long failure to protect the Second Amendment.”

Thomas’ complaint came in the form of a dissent from the denial of certiorari in Rogers v. Grewal. The case dealt with New Jersey’s requirement that any person seeking to get a handgun carry permit must first demonstrate to the satisfaction of the authorities “that he has a justifiable need to carry a handgun.” Among other things, the applicant must “specify in detail the urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidence by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant’s life that cannot be avoided by means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun.” Under the rules, “generalized fears for personal safety are inadequate.”

Thomas Rogers, who operates a business that services automated teller machines, wanted to carry a gun for self-defense while out on the job. But he failed to meet the state’s exacting standards. The Supreme Court today declined to take up his constitutional challenge to the gun control regulation.

“In several jurisdictions throughout the country,” Justice Thomas observed of Rogers’ case and others like it, “law-abiding citizens have been barred from exercising the fundamental right to bear arms because they cannot show that they have a ‘justifiable need’ or ‘good reason’ for doing so. One would think that such an onerous burden on a fundamental right would warrant this Court’s review.” Indeed, Thomas continued, “this Court would almost certainly review the constitutionality of a law requiring citizens to establish a justifiable need before exercising their free speech rights. And it seems highly unlikely that the Court would allow a State to enforce a law requiring a woman to provide a justifiable need before seeking an abortion. But today, faced with a petition challenging just such a restriction on citizens’ Second Amendment rights, the Court simply looks the other way.”

Justice Clarence Thomas.  The last remaining honorable man and scholar on the Supreme Court.  Kavanaugh signed on to the dissent, excepting section 2.  Go read section 2.  There is no good reason any liberty minded patriot should refuse to sign on to section 2.

The Supreme Court has become a college of swine, a gaggle of clowns; frauds, liars and shysters in robes of tyranny.  Roberts is the head clown, the high priest of swindle.

The best indication is to look at fellow crooks and collegial liars.

States can do literally anything they want without being held accountable by the highest court of clowns in the land.

Via Kenny.

Funny, that.  I thought these guys wanted their wealth redistributed.  Or maybe they just want YOUR wealth redistributed.  Sort of like the politics of the French Revolution.

Don’t fret.  I’m sure the Twitteratti will fix everything, or else the CHAZ “police” will get you justice.

City Journal.

The new state of CHAZ has evolved. Over the past week, following Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan’s decision to abandon the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct Building, left-wing protesters have transformed the surrounding neighborhood into the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), hoping to create a new political authority based on social-justice principles. On its first night, the new micro-state was led by the armed paramilitaries of Antifa and the John Brown Gun Club, but after preventing the return of police and securing defined borders, the CHAZ has sought to implement civilian rule.

Almost immediately, activists established a social structure based on a “reverse hierarchy of oppression”: Native American, black, and trans women are the highest authority; diversity determines individual social status; and whites are called upon to perform rituals of atonement. Through a series of speeches and community gatherings, activists have sought to implement the social theory of “decolonization,” which, in the words of Black Lives Matter activist Nikkita Oliver, means overthrowing capitalism, eliminating the structures of “patriarchy, white supremacy, and classism,” and returning the land of the autonomous zone to displaced Native American tribes.

Let me be clear that I don’t think skinny bois would last two minutes against the various militias across America.

But that’s not the point.  Right now, they have the support of the pols.  And this is what the prog pols want.

Does that sound like something you can grok?  If not, you’d better prepare now.  You won’t have a chance to do it later.

Ten cases they denied.  Count them.  Ten.

But make sure to note that they expanded the Civil Rights Act to include transgenders.  So here are my predictions based on this ludicrous move today.

First, every military MOS must now be opened to transgenders, in every branch.

Second, there will be quotas just like there are for hiring, college admissions, and everything else.  Companies will be searching for transgenders to hire.  It will be a badge of honor to have transgenders on staff.

Third, this will affect churches.  Churches will now have to hire transgenders in order to maintain tax exempt status.

Fourth, it will affect other aspects of church life.  If a transgender wants to teach a Sunday School class on “Why I Became A Transgender,” s/he must be allowed to do that in order for the church to maintain tax exempt status.

Fifth, self mutilation will become a norm in the upside down world of anti-Christians.

The Supreme Court has now fully and completely thrown off the face of being anything other than an arm of revolution.  The French Revolutionaries in CHAZ want to hang people.  The Supreme Court still hides behind the vestiges and accouterments of robes, but they are no less thugs.

Fine gentlemen, each and every one, I’m sure. If there was a gun ban, I’m sure they would all turn them in.