Tag: 2nd amendment

Appeals Court Strikes Down Bump Stock Ban in 13-3 Decision

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit handed down a 13-3 decision Friday striking down the regulatory gun control that banned bump stocks under former President Donald Trump.

Reuters reported that the court intimated that actions on guns should be taken by Congress rather than the executive branch.

Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote the majority opinion for the Fifth Circuit and also opined that the framers of the bump stock ban did not provide “fair warning that possession of a non-mechanical bump stock is a crime.”

On December 18, 2018, Breitbart News reported that the ATF finalized the language of its bump stock ban and gave people 90 days to hand the firearm accessories over.

Breitbart News possessed a copy of the DOJ’s summary of the ban at the time, and it stated:

The Department of Justice is amending the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to clarify that bump-stock-type devices-meaning “bump fire” stocks, slide-fire devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics-are “machineguns” as defined by the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968 because such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.

The summary says a bump stock allows the trigger of a semiautomatic firearm to reset between the firing of each round, but describes the bump stock-equipped “semiautomatic firearm” as “self-acting or self-regulating,” and therefore a “machinegun.”

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Biden Admin Expands Crackdown On Ghost Guns

The Biden administration has dialed up its crackdown on so-called “ghost guns” by issuing guidance that basically expands the definition of what “readily converted” means in a new federal rule and making more do-it-yourself pistol parts subject to restrictions.

In an open letter to firearms dealers (pdf) dated Dec. 27, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) told firearm vendors that nearly-complete handgun frames or receivers—basically the pistol grip and firing mechanism—will be treated the same as fully completed firearms.

Ghost Gun Rule

Firearm vendors who sell near-complete pistol frames and receivers—often as kits that can be relatively easily turned into untraceable homemade guns—were hit with the new rule in August, which required that frames and receivers that could be “readily converted” into fully operational guns are subject to the same regulations as traditional firearms.

The August regulation, dubbed the Ghost Gun Rule, meant that kits containing partially complete frames or receivers plus assembly tools and instructions were subject to licensing, background check, and serialization requirements.

But ambiguity around the definition of the word “readily” in the regulation meant that some vendors continued to sell nearly complete unserialized frames and receivers as standalone products while additional components needed to finalize their at-home manufacture were offered separately, or by third parties.

Such was the argument made in an October letter (pdf) by a dozen or so Democrat lawmakers to the ATF and Justice Department, which claimed that a number of ghost-gun companies were continuing to sell unserialized frames and receivers by interpreting “readily” in a way that amounted to a loophole.

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ANOTHER NASTY SURPRISE: GOP Sellouts Gave Biden Regime $11 MILLION to Target Gun Owners in Repulsive Omnibus Bill

We all are accustomed by now to the GOP treating conservatives like Chip Diller in Animal House (Thank you sir, may I have another!). So naturally the RINO sellouts in Congress decided to hand our God-given 2nd Amendment rights over to the most anti-gun regime in American history.

Gun Owners of America went through the 4,000+ page omnibus package and uncovered $11 million worth of weaponry to oppress law-abiding gun owners. 

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Banks Might Start Closing Accounts Of Customers Who Buy Too Many Guns Or Too Much Ammo

For more than half-a-century, Uncle Sam has been giving banks the legal tools to snoop into the otherwise-private affairs of their customers. Now, they are monitoring the exercise of their Second Amendment rights. 

Thanks to a recent move by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, headquartered in Switzerland), U.S. banks are starting to build databases on their customers’ purchases of firearms and ammunition. And, of course, they are ready and quite willing to share that information with federal law enforcement in the name of providing a public service to identify “mass shooters.”

This invasion of privacy began in earnest with enactment of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which mandated that banks assist federal law enforcement in uncovering, investigating, and ultimately prosecuting violations of federal law. 

Banks have long complained about the burdens of compliance with the 1970 law and several related laws signed since then due to the multi-faceted regulations they spawned. But the trove of data these procedures have allowed banks to gather and database has more than paid for the costs of compliance.

These laws’ main focus, according to the Treasury Department, which has primary responsibility to their enforcement, has been money laundering. Over the years, however, the many-headed hydra we call the system now includes virtually any banking customer activity that a bank employee might consider to be suspicious. In fact, banks’ primary tool in this regard is a document called a “Suspicious Activity Report” or “SAR.”

Then there is the USA PATRIOT Act, passed in the immediate aftermath of the 911 attacks.

The vast reach of the Patriot Act has been a shot of adrenaline to bank “secrecy” laws, creating new sets of problems for banking customers, especially those who operate lawful businesses overseas or engage in transactions with foreign persons or businesses. Banks have at times decided it is easier to simply close down accounts of customers with overseas connections, rather than run the risk of coming under suspicion from Uncle Sam.

The paperwork required of any current or prospective customer of a financial services institution looking to borrow funds for a home, car, or other legal purpose, has ballooned since the Patriot Act’s passage. 

As troublesome as this absurdly massive paperwork burden has become for homebuyers and vehicle purchasers, the banking sector is now zoning in on something far more problematic: customers’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights here at home.

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Bipartisan Bill Would Let Americans Voluntarily Give Up Gun Rights

Congress is trying to pass a bill to allow the federal government to pressure people to give up their Second Amendment rights in the name of suicide prevention. At the same time, newly released documents show multiple federal law enforcement agencies have effectively done this to people without congressional approval.

On Thursday, Gun Owners of America (GOA), put all its evidence online that shows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has permanently disarmed people. The gun rights group is lobbying on Capitol Hill to stop this practice from being codified.

The bipartisan bill called the “Preventing Suicide Through Voluntary Firearm Purchase Delay Act” passed the Judiciary Committee last week. It says the FBI would create a new database for people who volunteer to be blocked from buying or possessing a gun. The “delay” in the bill title refers to the period from which the person put themselves into the database and potentially subsequently took themselves out of it.

The FBI program, which claims it ended in 2019, and the House bill both use a “self-submission” program to make people prohibited who could not be blocked from having a gun under current law. The Brady Law of 1993 created the NICS system of background checks to help enforce the nine prohibited categories of people (from the Gun Control Act of 1968 ) from buying guns.

The House bill would upend federal background check gun law by making it arbitrary who loses the right to own or buy a gun. Under current law, a person is prohibited from buying or owning a firearm for mental health reasons only due to being adjudicated as mentally defective or involuntarily committed to a mental institution. The House bill makes it so people in this new FBI database who have not experienced these situations would still be committing a federal crime by possessing a gun.

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Rhode Islanders with high-capacity gun magazines face Sunday deadline

Rhode Islander gun owners have until Sunday to turn in large capacity magazines or modify them.

In June, Gov. Dan McKee signed a law that bans magazines with more than 10 rounds. It was upheld by a judge on the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

We are pleased with the decision. We expected that to be the case. Rhode Island is trying to make sure we get ahead of any potential problems, and we see them happening and occurring around the country on a regular basis with shootings,” McKee said.

Some local gun shop owners said their clients aren’t the ones who are causing trouble.

“Restricting the number of mags is not going to help in any way curbing any kind of crime, so people are frustrated. It made people feel they did something wrong, and they didn’t,” said David DeLoia, co-owner of Heritage Gun and Coin in West Warwick.

The attorney general’s office said magazines that hold more than 10 bullets can be dropped off at any police station. They can also be sold to a gun dealer or legal owner out of state.

Heritage Gun And Coin Co-owner David DeLoia said people keep buying.

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Washington man who had explosives in underground bunker to spend 42 months in prison

A man living in Washington state will spend 42 months in prison for having guns and explosives inside an underground bunker beneath his house.

The man, 42-year-old James Wesley Bowden, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle following his arrest in November 2021. The man was arrested after being involved in an altercation at his home that resulted in Bowden threatening another man with a gun, according to a statement from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

When officials responded to the initial report of the altercation, they discovered a room in the garage that officials likened to a “laboratory with various chemicals and equipment consistent with the manufacturing of homemade explosives.”

Once deputies secured the area from the explosives, they found a removable panel on the floor of the garage that led to an underground bunker, according to officials. Inside the bunker, officials found guns, ammunition, grenades, silencers, armor, and other equipment. Two of the weapons were altered to shoot as fully automatic machine guns, the DOJ said.

At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, noted that Bowden’s drug addiction likely caused a substantial portion of his criminal conduct.

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New ATF Rule Could Turn Millions of Gun Owners into Felons, Literally Overnight

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is set to release its final rule on Braced firearms later this month.

In Analyzing the proposed rule, which was released June 2021, it appears that ATF has intentionally designed its Factoring Criteria for Rifled Barrel Weapons with Accessories Commonly Referred to as “Stabilizing Braces” to effect a complete ban of every pistol-braced firearm currently on the market.

Masquerading as a helpful rulemaking “to assist” gun owners and the firearms industry in complying with the law, in reality the proposed rule is designed with the obvious and specific intent to largely outlaw the use of stabilizing braces on firearms, threatening millions of current owners with imprisonment and putting a large segment of the gun industry out of business entirely.

To accomplish this goal, the proposed rule creates “Worksheet 4999,” which contains three sections of analysis, each more restrictive than the last, designed to ensure that virtually no stabilizing brace is eligible for use on a non-rifle firearm, and thereafter ensuring that most firearms do not qualify to even use an allowed stabilizing brace.

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Biden Pushes To Ban ‘Semi-Automatic’ Firearms: ‘No Social Redeeming Value’

President Joe Biden said on Thanksgiving that he is going to try to curtail the Second Amendment freedoms of law abiding Americans by banning “semi-automatic” firearms after a couple of recent shootings.

Biden made the remarks after a recent shooting at a gay nightclub by a man who reportedly identifies as non-binary and after a store manager shot up a Walmart.

“I’m sick and tired of these shootings. We should have much stricter gun laws,” Biden told reporters. “Look, the idea that we’re not enforcing red-flag laws, period, just based on knowledge, not on parents saying or a loved one saying you should arrest this person now for his own sake, is ridiculous.”

“The idea — the idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick,” Biden continued. “It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.”

Biden has previously called for banning semi-automatic firearms, including handguns.

“The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon, whether it’s a, whether it’s a 9mm pistol or whether it’s a rifle, is ridiculous,” Biden said during a CNN town hall event last summer. “I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things, but I’m not likely to get that done in the near term.”

Biden has also previously suggested that a “rational policy” would be one that “that says you cannot have 20, 30, 40, 50 clips in a weapon.” Biden has also stated that he wants to ban “clips that have multiple bullets in them,” which critics argue would be an effective ban on most semi-automatic firearms.

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Lawmakers call on Biden to make it more difficult for people to download gun blueprints

Lawmakers in California, led by Congressman Mike Thompson, penned a letter asking the Joe Biden administration to hold manufacturers responsible for homemade ghost guns.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

Currently, it is relatively easy to buy gun parts, or make them at home with a 3D printer, and create an untraceable firearm. Ghost guns allow people to circumvent the background check requirement to own a gun.

“It is far too easy for anyone to download from the internet the computer code to 3D-print unserialized, untraceable, plastic ‘ghost guns,’” the letter said. “These 3D-printed weapons circumvent our system of gun safety rules and regulations, and pose a serious threat to public safety and national security.”

The question of banning the distribution of blueprints for 3D printed guns has been debated over the years, with much speculation that banning the sharing of blueprints is a First Amendment violation.

“President Biden can undo the Trump-era rule that has made the instructions for the 3D-printing of untraceable and deadly ‘ghost’ guns widely available online,” said Senator Markey. “The online distribution of these ghost gun blueprints only increases the risk of these weapons proliferating and poses a serious threat to public safety and national security. President Biden should fulfil his campaign promise and reverse the Trump administration’s weakening of these gun safety regulations.”

“They’re making firearms and they’re shooting and they’re killing people,” Thompson said.

“If you are a danger to yourself or to others, if you’re dangerously mentally ill, if you’re a criminal, you should not be able to get your mitts on a gun,” he added.

CBS13 asked Thompson about gun advocacy groups pushing back against manufacturers being held liable yet they did not commit the actual crimes.

“I have one word for these groups and that’s, ‘tough.’ We need these rules,” he responded.

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