Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

Thomas Massie writing at Red State on Red Flag Laws and Unintended Consequences.

But red flag laws remove all these due process protections. Based only on a written complaint, which could come from a relative, friend, neighbor, or police officer, a judge decides whether to take away a person’s guns. There is no ability to challenge claims or to offer testimony from a mental health care expert. Gun control advocates argue that the person should not even know that the judge may be deciding to take his or her guns. When a hearing finally takes place up to a month later, if the person in question cannot afford an attorney, they will not be provided with one.

When faced with the costs for a hearing, which may be up to $10,000, few people find that fighting red flag laws to keep their guns makes sense. Few defendants obtain legal representation, but the courts still overturn a third of the initial orders. The actual error rate is undoubtedly much higher, because many of those wrongly prosecuted don’t have a lawyer.

Oh, I don’t think these are “unintended consequences” at all.  I think it’s all by design.

Nobody is surprised by this via The Gun Feed.

In the years before the Biden-Harris administration took over the White House, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives usually revoked an average of 40 Federal Firearm Licenses (FFLs) per year. But, in the 11 months since Joe Biden declared war on “rogue gun dealers,” the ATF has revoked 273 FFLs – an increase of more than 500%. However, rather than targeting the true rogues, Biden’s ATF is revoking FFLs for the most minor of paperwork errors, which were never a concern for the ATF until Biden weaponized the agency.

He goes on to explain that the “Vast Majority” don’t like it. That’s hilarious. We don’t believe that for a second! Perhaps it’s just a few bad apples?

“This has nothing to do with the ATF and everything to do with the DOJ,” said John Clark of FFL Consultants. Clark is a firearm industry expert who said the ATF announced the number of revocations at a recent Firearm Industry Conference.

“The vast majority of the ATF don’t like this any more than the industry does,” he said. “It’s Biden.”

The Vast Majority strikes again. Somebody, please notify Mr. Codrea at WoG.

Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) thinks he can fight the permanent bureaucracy, the foot soldiers of Woodrow Wilson’s administrative apparatus. Hawley will lose, or if he oversteps, we know what the regime does to those trouble makers.

Senator Hawley asked, “What steps does ATF intend to take to ensure that any new information that may be retained by FFL dealers pursuant to Final Rule 2021R–05F is not subsequently used for the targeting of lawful gun owners by federal authorities or other politically-motivated purposes?”

The government(s) is in open insurrection against the people and a state of anarchy, doing what it pleases while ignoring its laws, branches, and departments.

There’s already a database.

David Codrea.

“Donald Trump Jr. launches gun rights group, vows to fight Democratic gun control proposals,” Fox News reports. “The Second Amendment Task Force plans to build its operation around Trump’s high social media visibility and following, as well as his national media appearances.”

“The Second Amendment Task Force is the first advocacy group that Trump has launched and been directly involved with,” the report elaborates. “The group plans to make a push in the upcoming midterm elections this year, especially in the voter registration sphere.”

Except it’s not the first. Remember that “Second Amendment Coalition” his father announced and made him chairman of back in 2016?  The one he co-chaired with fired NRA-ILA honcho and bump stock “regulator” Chris Cox? If you don’t recall that group, it’s probably because it didn’t actually do much of anything and the webpage was taken down a half-a-year later.

As for “plans to make a push,” it’s fair to ask for whom. His father’s Mehmet Oz pick comes to mind. Are there any other candidates gun owners may have concerns about?

[ … ]

It would be greater to see him using his New York City concealed carry permit as a springboard to highlight how unjust and un-American it is to limit such permits to the sell-connected elites and to lead the charge for demanding change. For someone presuming to be a leadership voice for gun owners, it would be not just appropriate, but crucial for Trump Jr. to also explain in principle and detail:

• If he agrees his father has been flat-out wrong on bump stocks;

• Where he agrees with his father on which gun laws should be enforced;

• Why he didn’t weigh in on “red flag laws” when his father said “Take the guns first, due process second”;

• If he agrees with his father on raising the gun purchase age to 21; and

• How he differs from his father’s White House position on where the right to bear arms comes from (see photo, above).

David goes on to say, “The object here is not to attack him or start a feud with dad.”

I don’t mind doing so.  Trump will always trumpet his permit as something glorious, when the rest of the peasants who can’t afford highly paid lawyers in NY are left with nothing.

He should be ashamed at heralding his permit as something to be proud of rather than an example of something that should be changed.  Far from being a sign of support for gun rights, it’s a sign that he has no idea what gun rights means.

I don’t mind saying it at all.  I don’t trust anything Trump is involved with pertaining to 2A rights.

He can go pound sand.

He does a rundown of Maryland’s argument on why the Supreme Court should not take up this case, but rather, allow the ban to stay in place.

Frankly, I’m tired of hearing the so-called “common use” argument.  That has nothing to do with anything and certainly wasn’t in the minds of the founder when they told the FedGov to stay out of the business of regulating weapons.  Common use is entirely a fabricated phrase to assist the controllers.

Second, I’m tired to death of hearing the phrase “assault weapons” (which is also a fabricated phrase) and the routine response by gun rights advocates that “assault weapons” don’t meet the three rules for considering them an “assault rifle” (which based on DoD definition, includes (1) intermediate cartridge, (2) select fire capable, and (3) mild recoil).

It doesn’t matter since in order to make that argument, gun rights advocates stipulate up front that civilians have no right to own such a firearm (e.g., select fire).  In other words, it makes no sense to contrast “assault weapon” and the formal definition of “assault rifle” unless you admit at the outset that the very difference itself is justification for being able to own a semi-automatic version of the same weapon, which in fact, I don’t admit at all and thus do not use that argument.

Eh, whatever.  I really don’t care whether the SCOTUS takes this case up or not.  If they do and come to a good decision, states like Maryland and New York will have to allow the firearms to be owned, but it won’t change the fundamental nature of the state.  If they SCOTUS makes a bad decision, it won’t change the fact that these weapons will still be legal in S.C., N.C., Ga., Miss., La, Tenn, W.V., and on and on the list could go.

In other words, this is all a continuation of the Balkanization of America, with some states racing left, while others pass constitutional carry.

It isn’t policy on firearms that is ripping America apart at the seams.  Firearms is just a symptom, not the cause.

David Codrea’s article at Ammoland should be read, entitled “Ask Dettelbach Tough Questions about ‘AFT’ Abuses During Confirmation Hearings.”

I also enjoyed reading this comment.

On that note, admit there is no epidemic of gun violence and that all 23,000 current laws are totally ineffective. The United States’ 1931 population was 124 million, and we had 11,160 murders and manslaughters, 7,533 committed with firearms.  The United States’ 2019 population was 328 million, and we had 13,927 homicides, 10,258 via firearms.

So…Over the course of 90 years, we increased population by 204 million, citizens built or purchased over 250,000,000 additional firearms, yet America experienced only 2,725 more homicides by use of guns in 2019 than we did in 1931.

Per population growth alone, much less Gun purchases, we should expect around 28,000 murders.  Yet the murder rate has plummeted.

The guns in law abiding hands are NOT a problem; they are employed in defensive means to prevent a crime against persons more than 5 times as often as guns in the hands of criminals are used to perpetuate a crime.

Source data:

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortstatsh_1931.pdf (page 53)

Any time you hear something like that, they’re trying to scare soccer moms.  Be a man.  Chuckle, point out the truth to people, and then ignore the hysterics.

I think he makes it clear that he hasn’t been through all of it and there’s more to come.

BLUF.  The rule is a mess, with massive vaguery throughout (probably by intention).  Lack of clarity is always the friend of overbearing regulators and controllers.

For now, until and unless the ATF decides otherwise, they have a calculated mess for manufacturers to deal with, but AR-15 upper receivers are not included in this mess and do not require serialization.

If you’re a mechanic and like to work on things, the FedGov hates you.

UPDATE: The rules are as clear as mud.

I was discussing this with Len Savage today and no one knows yet the extent of this.  I was speculating that it will declare 80% lower receivers to be illegal unless serialized.  Len thinks that’s just the beginning.

The Biden administration will come out with its long-awaited ghost gun rule — aimed at reining in privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up at crime scenes — as soon as Monday, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

[ … ]

For nearly a year, the rule has been making its way through the federal regulation process. Gun safety groups and Democrats in Congress have been pushing for the Justice Department to finish the rule for months. It will probably be met with heavy resistance from gun groups and draw litigation in the coming weeks.

Another reader on this same discussion thread was speculating that they will require that uppers and lowers be serialized the same, making it illegal to purchase uppers and lowers separately.

We’ll see.  Either way, this is as obvious an infringement as could be imagined.

So that’s the way it happens.  Completely without Congress, if you want to make something illegal, you just declare it so, sort of like Trump did with bump stocks.

He set the standard, so all of you Trump sycophants have no room to complain about this upcoming ruling.

After the Chipman Debacle, Biden Has Reportedly Found Another Candidate to Head the ATF.

During an unsuccessful run for attorney general of Ohio in 2018, [Steve] Dettelbach called for reinstating the assault weapons ban and universal background checks on gun purchases—two positions that have sparked GOP opposition to past nominees. A U.S. attorney from 2009 to 2016, he sought a return to that post last year. He has supporters in high places. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has been pushing him as a nominee for ATF director, according to four people familiar with the conversations.

And: Not even ATF can verify ATF’s ‘ghost gun’ claims

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has a unique reputation among federal law enforcement agencies. Quite frankly, the ATF is well known for not always telling the truth.

It’s shocking; imagine our surprise.