The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vs. the ATF

On Sunday's Gun Talk Radio, Tom Gresham talked about last week's court decisions that came out of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.  He mentioned that it is becoming, as Cam Edwards said, the 5th Circuit vs. the ATF court.  Tom said since the Bruen decision, everything has changed.  They said that the ATF's pistol brace rule is unconstitutional.  They threw it out completely.  They have also said the Trump era "bump stock" rule is unconstitutional.  The 5th Circuit has also thrown out the so-called "ghost gun" rule ATF announced this year.  Take a listen.

Biden Never Misses a Chance to Push Gun Bans

Over the weekend through Independence Day the nation saw more shootings in several metropolitan areas. It happens somewhere in America every single weekend. Biden's answer? Ban so-called "assault weapons", so-called "high capacity magazines" and universal background checks. The usual gun ban talking points. On radio last night, talk show host Mark Levin took these on and explained what is really at work, control.  That's what they want.  They don't care about you or our right to defend ourselves.  Take a listen below.

Biden constantly repeats lies about his gun control, lies that even and CNN has fact checked and said were untrue.  Gun owners need to remain active to push back on the constant attacks.  Use the information in the audio above and from the CNN fact check and write letters to the editor to your local paper and get the message out that law abiding gun owners are not the problem.

No, Guns Are Not the Leading Cause of Death for Children.

It has become a familiar refrain for the gun ban lobby as well as Joe Biden, and after the Nashville trans terrorist killed three children and three adults at the Christian Covenant School, former President Obama tweeted “We are failing our children. Guns are now the leading cause of death for children in the U.S.”  There are several sources for this false claim and podcaster Matt Christiansen debunks it in the video below:

Until We Stop Focusing on the Tool Instead of the Individual, Mass Shootings Will Continue

Last night, Mark Levin talked about the latest shootings in California and how we are never going to solve these things as long as one side's default position is to ban a certain type of gun:

The fallback position for the Democrats, for the media, Pelosi today is we need an assault weapons ban. We had a so-called assault weapons ban in 1994. We’ve had John Lott on this program before with his genius and his ability to comprehend and explain statistics like nobody else. And it made no difference. But why did it make no difference? Because if you’re a career killer or you’re a member of a gang, or you’re plotting to kill people. You’re not going to acquire a gun necessarily, legally maybe, or steal it from somebody, a family member. Maybe you’ll get it on the black market. There’s just enormous numbers of ways they assume, to do this sort of. And so their default position is assault weapons ban. So we’re never going to resolve this as long as there’s an ideological default position. I don’t know that we can ever solve it, period. Given there are nutjobs out there, there’s evil people out there and so forth and so on. 

You can listen to the entire clip here.

Jim Geraghty wrote over at National Review that you can't ban something that is already banned.  You see, the firearm that was used was already on the list of banned firearms in California:

The shooter in Monterey Park reportedly used a Cobray M11 9mm semi-automatic weapon, which is designed to look like, and is often mistaken for, the MAC-10. Cobray purchased the rights to the design from the Military Armament Corporation and created its own smaller, lighter, cheaper version. Those who take shooting seriously consider the Cobray M11 “one of the most useless handguns in existence” and conclude that, “Everything about this gun just makes it hard to shoot accurately, so it’s much better to fire from the hip and keep your enemies guessing.”

Both the MAC-10 and the Cobray M11 are illegal to possess in California.  

 He continued:

Gun-control advocates have a problem here, in that they are calling for the ban of a weapon that is already illegal. The state can increase the criminal penalties for possessing one, but it cannot ban it harder. ...This is the distilled essence of the modern gun-control movement: throwing additional civil penalties atop the considerable criminal penalties imposed on illegal-gun dealers, in the hopes of keeping guns out of the hands of those who, because they are not in their rights minds and don’t necessarily plan on living long enough to face justice for the crimes they intend to commit, will go to nearly any length to procure weapons.

As Levin noted, Democrats are focused like a laser on banning guns with Gavin Newsom calling the Second Amendment a "suicide pact" and Joe Biden using the shootings to push for banning so-called "assault weapons".

Both Levin and Geraghty make a good point.  The individuals who commit these heinous crimes don't care about the law.  They are intent on doing evil.  And no amount of gun control is going to change that fact.   

Gutowski: What's in Biden's "Ghost Gun" Kit Ban

 (Editor's note: The article discussed here is part of the Member Exclusives at TheReload.com)

Earlier today, The Reload founder, Stephen Gutowski posted an analysis of what's in Joe Biden's rule that redefines the definition of a firearm under federal law and thus expanding ATF’s power.  According to Gutowski, the bulk of the rule did not change much from when he posted a leaked draft of the rule last year. He notes that ATF did modify significant portions, and clarified others, however. He wrote that in some things, ATF has pulled back, while expanding their "theoretical" authority in others. Below is a list of things included in the new rule that Gustowski discusses:

Expanding the ATF’s Power to Determine What is a Receiver or Frame:

The most significant change is in vastly expanding the definition of what could constitute a regulatable “firearm” under federal law. While this hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention in the political sphere, it is really the core of this new rule. That’s because, in recent years, the ATF and Department of Justice have run into legal trouble over how they’ve long applied the definition of “firearm.”

Banning “Ghost Gun” Kits:

The other aspect of the definition change in the rule deals with an even greater expansion of the ATF’s authority. This time into the territory of determining what’s “readily convertible” into a firearm frame or receiver. The target is unfinished and unserialized “ghost guns.”

Homemade Guns Are Transferable, Even Sellable:

Somewhat surprisingly, the rule also explicitly states that homemade guns (which they call Privately Made Firearms or PMFs) are legal to both make and sell. The ATF points out that people who are not otherwise prohibited from possessing guns due to a disqualifying criminal or mental health record can legally build them in most states. They can even give or sell them to other people depending on the circumstances.

Increasing How Long Gun Dealers Have to Keep Background Check Records:

If the PMF serialization requirement sounds like extra work, mainly for licensed dealers, that’s because it is. The same is true for the new record-keeping requirements in the rule.

Reducing Silencer Regulation:

The rule isn’t all about implementing more burdens on gun owners and the industry, though. The ATF is also seeking to reduce the amount of paperwork and regulation involved in silencer manufacturing, dealing, and ownership. Instead of treating every part of a silencer, often called suppressors, the same as a fully completed and functional silencer, the ATF wants to pick just the outer tube as the regulated part.

Gutowski closes by noting that while Biden announced the rule last week, it has not been published in the federal registry. After the publication, it is going to face lawsuits from multiple pro-rights organizations that could delay the rule's implementation or repeal it out right.

Th article expands on each of the topics beyond what is shared above.  If you want to read the entire article and full analysis, as well receive more of his member exclusives, you can subscribe to The Reload.

Rob Pincus Talks Privately Made Firearms with NPR

On April 18, after Biden announced his new rule related to the private manufacture of firearms, NPR talked to several gun ban advocates, including failed ATF nominee David Chipman, and also spoke interviewed firearms trainer Rob Pincus.  You can hear Pincus's comments by clicking here.  NPR led off with Chipman and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, and at around the 18 minute mark, they play the pre-recorded comments of Rob Pincus.  Because his part was pre-recorded, Rob had no opportunity to discuss anything that had been said before and no opportunity to defend himself when Chipman took cheap shots when he was asked what he thought of Pincus' comments.  Chipman demonstrated once again why he never should have been nominated to head ATF.  Rob did a great job explaining why regulating kits used to build privately owned firearms should not be regulated by the federal government.  If you are interested, in the entire program, you can find that by clicking here.

Beware Biden's ATF

With legislation to restrict our rights basically a no-go at the federal level, it looks like the Biden Administration is turning to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fireams, and Explosives (BATFE) to do what he can't do legislatively.  In an article posted today on The Reload, Jake Fogleman lays out the latest action by the firearms regulatory agency:

The latest example is an open letter sent Thursday to all federally-licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) revealing the ATF has determined many forced-reset triggers (FRTs)—drop-in replacement triggers that increase the speed a semi-automatic gun can be fired—are considered machine guns under federal law. That will subject the previously-unregulated trigger devices to heavy regulation under the National Firearms Act (NFA).

“ATF’s examination found that some FRT devices allow a firearm to automatically expel more than one shot with a single, continuous pull of the trigger,” the letter reads. “For this reason, ATF has concluded that FRTs that function in this way are a combination of parts designed and intended for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and hence, ATF has classified these devices as a ‘machinegun’ as defined by the [National Firearms Act] and [Gun Control Act].”

Illegal possession of a machine gun carries a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison. And it appears the agency is ready and willing to enforce those provisions.

“Based on ATF’s determination that the FRTs that function as described above are ‘machineguns’ under the NFA and GCA, ATF intends to take appropriate remedial action with respect to sellers and possessors of these devices,” the letter reads.

Fogleman points out that the letter explains that individuals who already own the devices legally should contact ATF to work out a way to dispose of them. If those folks fail to comply, the ATF may be knocking at the door in the future.

He continues that:

The veiled threat of future raids by federal agents over a niche firearms accessory calls into question recent attacks from gun-control organizations and The New York Times that the agency is too friendly to the industry. Major gun control groups Brady and Giffords have criticized the ATF’s work with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry’s trade group, and asked President Biden to direct the agency to sever ties with the group.

Fogleman notes that all of this has occurred without anti-gun David Chipman at the head of the agency, and there is likely more to come, with the rules on pistol braces and homemade firearms still to be finalized.

Gun Ban Advocates Frustrated with Biden

We don't usually put much stock in anything posted at the Bloomberg gun ban mouthpiece known as The Trace, but in this case, it is probably pretty accurate when they write today that gun ban advocates are disappointed in the lack of results from Biden on their issue.

Many gun reform advocates say they are disappointed by how little Biden has accomplished in his first term. His record pales in comparison to the expansive agenda he ran on in 2020. He had promised, amid a surge in gun violence, to enact sweeping overhauls that gun reform advocates like Oliver supported. Biden’s gun agenda was central to his campaign, and distinguished him from competitors like Senator Bernie Sanders, which raised expectations even higher.

Leaders of major gun reform groups predicted that his first year in office, with Democrats also controlling Congress, would be an unprecedented period of progress. Now Democrats are expected to take losses in the House and Senate midterm elections — and Biden could be running out of time.

Biden has been reduced to so-called "executive actions" and rule making (which can be just as bad a legislation) but the big promises like banning modern sporting rifles can't be achieved without legislation.

When faced with repeated high-profile mass shootings, President Barack Obama turned to executive actions to promote his policies in areas where Congress wouldn’t budge. Biden is pursuing a similar strategy, but with less vigor. Earlier this year, as part of a first set of actions on guns, Biden directed the ATF to crack down on unserialized, difficult-to-trace ghost guns. The agency issued a proposed rule in May.

And in June, the ATF proposed new regulations on stabilizing braces, a type of device that effectively turns handguns into short-barreled rifles. The shooter in a March supermarket shooting in Boulder, Colorado, used this configuration. Biden directed the ATF to crack down on gun dealers who have a history of breaking rules, and he directed the Department of Justice to issue model laws that allow law enforcement to temporarily seize guns from dangerous people, known as red flag laws. Another rule requiring gun stores to sell secure firearm storage devices compatible with the firearms they’re selling is set to go into effect in February.

The gun ban groups don't think Biden has used the full force of his office.  

Still, there are questions about whether Biden is using the full might of the executive branch to curb gun violence. These actions fall short of his campaign promises, some of which he could fulfill without legislation: Using the power of the presidency, Biden could create a voluntary gun buyback program, enhance background checks, prohibit the importation of assault-style weapons, and reinstate an Obama-era policy aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people unable to manage their affairs for mental health reasons.

Gun owners need to continue to be vigilant as we enter this election year.  The closer to the election we get, the harder it will be for Biden to get anything through legislatively, which means he will continue his "executive" overreach approach. 

Bearingarms.com: Firearms Industry Responds to Biden's Latest Attack

Over the weekend, Joe Biden gave a big middle finger to America's gun owners.  In the midst of a continuing ammo shortage, Biden banned ammo and firearm imports from Russia.  Go back to last year when Putin critic Alexei Anatolievich Navalny nearly died after he was poisoned by Novichok, a powerful Russian nerve agent.  This chemical is only available from the Russian military. Now, Biden has used this to target gun owners by issuing an executive order banning the import of Russian arms and ammunition.  Yesterday, this latest salvo against gun owners was the topic of Bearingarms.com's Cam and Company.  Host Cam Edwards spoke with the National Shooting Sports Foundation's Larry Keane where they covered everything from the new sanctions on Russian arms and ammo to the next steps in the AFT’s attempt to redefine common gun parts and even the word “firearm” itself, at least as it’s defined by the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Keene details that the immediate impact is that distributors who already have approved import contracts will still be able to import items.  It only affects any new contracts.  Keene said from his contacts, most said gun owners may not see a real impact on availability for about two years.  You can see the full interview below.

Joe Biden's Middle Finger to American Gun Owners

Lee Williams writes about Biden's move to ban Russian made firearms and ammo from America.   You can read it here.

Mark Levin and Dr. John Lott Discuss Biden's Gun Control

On Wednesday's Mark Levin radio show, Dr. John Lott, President of the Crime Prevention Research Center, called in to explain how the gun ban lobby now wants to go after firearm manufacturers and firearm retailers for shooting liability.  Levin said while the administration is attacking manufacturers and dealers,  there is no accountability for George Soros and the likes of similar activist donors electing passive district attorneys that are soft on crime and hard on gun owners and dealers.  The audio of the conversation is below.

VSSA · Mark Levin Talks with Dr. John Lott on Biden's Gun Control

After Georgia Runoff Disaster Will Gun People Need to Follow This Path?

On Monday's Bearingarms.com's Cam and Company, host Cam Edwards talks about a piece written by 10th Amendment Center’s Matt Maharrey.  In the column, Maharrey urged gun owners to follow the lead of cannabis activists in going around federal law.  

Maharrey begins his open letter to “gun people” by acknowledging that Joe Biden poses a threat to the Second Amendment rights of Americans, even if the Senate were to remain in Republican hands. After all, he writes, “there are quite a few liberal Republican senators who might just go along with more gun control, especially if there is some kind of tragic shooting incident that gets people all riled up about guns again.”

We know that much is true. In fact, we’ve already seen Republicans like Sen. Pat Toomey embrace the idea of “universal background checks,” even if there’s no way for the federal government to easily police private transfers of firearms. And Maharrey is also correct when he points out that “modern presidents have proven that they don’t really need Congress to implement gun control. They can do a lot of damage to the Second Amendment via executive order,” pointing to Donald Trump’s ban on bump stocks, which took effect in 2019.

None of that matters, according to Maharrey, “because the weed people have given you the blueprint to stop federal gun control in its tracks.”

Cam then goes on to lay out what Maharrey proposes. It is worth the time to listen.

Gun Ban Groups Pushing Biden to Take "Executive Actions" on Gun Control

Bloomberg's gun ban online publication "The Trace" writes this morning that gun ban groups are urging Biden to take seven steps to enact gun control without legislative approval:

With control of the Senate hinging on the double-feature runoff in Georgia and Democrats positioned for a slim majority at best, party officials and advocates — as well as a collection of 85 gun reform organizations — are pressing the incoming Biden-Harris administration to take swift executive branch actions to curb gun violence. As my colleague Chip Brownlee breaks down, Biden does have significant power to direct agencies, launch rule-making processes, and appoint leadership around the agenda of strengthening gun restrictions and increasing resources for reducing shootings. Among the possibilities: cracking down on untraceable “ghost guns,” creating an interagency task force, banning the importation of assault weapons, and restructuring the ATF to enforce existing gun laws.

This is the second piece this week that mentions ATF's regulatory ability. Earlier this week, John Crump wrote at Ammoland.com that during an ATF conference call, Acting Director Regina Lombardo told those on the call that the Biden transition team has reached out to the ATF to find out what the agency’s “top priorities” are.  

Also this week, Mark Oliva appeared on Bearingarms.com's Cam and Company to dicuss the possibility of a Biden backdoor gun ban.  Oliva told host Cam Edwards that there's reason to believe that Biden and his anti-gun allies are already looking at ways to do a run around Congress and the Constitution.

The idea of "Executive Actions" just stands our Constitution on it's head.  The Founders did not envision as system of government where the executive branch could create laws.  That is the purview of the legislative.  Elections indeed have consequences.

When It Comes to Gun Control, Facts Don't Matter to Biden

 After the horrific attempted execution of two Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies by a thug this past weekend, Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden took to Twitter to call for a ban on "weapons of war":

Weapons of war have no place in our communities.

We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 14, 2020

Never mind the fact that a handgun was used by the attacker.  Did Biden tip his hand that he thinks all guns are "weapons of war" and call for a complete gun ban?  Probably not but you get the picture.  The term "assault weapons" just means "guns I don't like" so what actually passes as an "assault weapon" is a moving target as we saw with Delegate Mark Levine's HB961 in the General Assembly this year.

Today, Larry Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, writes about this over at The Federalist.

Biden is purposefully conflating handguns and criminal activity with lawful firearm ownership. The concern is why. Biden’s tweet clearly labels what he sees in the video as a “weapon of war,” and Biden’s backers, including anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who funds the gun control groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, don’t want everyday Americans to own firearms.

Bloomberg said Americans can’t be trusted with their constitutional right to own a gun. He made this outrageous claim just days after Jack Wilson, a concealed carry permit-holder and member of the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, responded immediately to a murderer in his church and neutralized the threat just six seconds after it began. Bloomberg is now dumping $100 million into Florida to buy the state for Biden and Bloomberg’s gun control fantasy.

Biden and Kamala Harris have an extreme plan when it comes to gun control.  As Keene said at the end of his piece, if Biden has his way, Americans will be disarmed and helpless against the criminals that Democrats in our cities refuse to confront.

Biden Says "Assault Weapons" Are Only for Killing People

Once again showing just how clueless he is, Joe Biden said yesterday that the only reason to own an AR-15 or AK-47 is to kill people.

That might surprise shooters like Cheyenne Dalton who is a young female competitive shooter that competes in 3-Gun.  Modern sporting rifles are used in 3-Gun.  He also apparently doesn't know about Natalie and Meredith Gibson of Iowa who also use the rifles in competition.

There are many uses for semi-automatic rifles.  Biden's comments just show that most people trying to restrict our rights have absolutely now clue about that which they wish to legislate.

Looking to 2016, Biden Says Obama Has Not Given Up on Gun Control

Yesterday, Vice President Joe "Buy a Shotgun" Biden held a gathering at the White House to tell supporters of gun control that he and Obama have not given up.  This from the Washington Times:

“The most important message to take from here today is the president and I are a team,” Mr. Biden said. “We have not given up. Our friends in the House and Senate, they have not given up.”

He blamed the failure on the "perverted" Senate rule that requires 60 votes to proceed, known as the filibuster, the same "perverted" rule that Biden supported as a senator to block judicial nominees and other measures when George W. Bush was President.  It should be noted that it was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who decided that the 60 vote threshold had to be met.

Biden continues to claim that the politics have changed and that those who blocked Obama's gun control scheme would pay a political price.  But the Washington Post suggests that Biden has another motive for continuing to push gun control even when others don't believe the votes can be found despite New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spending gobs of money attacking a handful of senators:

The issue of guns is hugely important to the Democratic base. And that matters, especially considering that Biden is by all accounts weighing a run for president in 2016. Regardless of whether tighter gun laws — most notably expanded background checks — are passed by Congress during Obama’s presidency, if Biden is seen as the guy who never gave up on a topic that moves the Democratic base, it would only help his chances heading into a primary campaign.

That wasn't the only reason pointed out by the Post but it is likely the most important to Biden.

Update: Video of Biden't remarks.