Tag: atf

Federal Judge Smacks Down Biden’s ATF AR-15 Gun Ban

A Trump appointed federal judge just smacked down an attempt by Biden’s ATF to ban AR-15 pistols with arm braces.

It’s amazing. No matter how bad crime gets, the Democrat left is still intent on trying to disarm law abiding Americans.

Gun sales are through the roof right now, as Americans were horrified by the attacks on mostly unarmed Israelis by Hamas in October.

The Washington Examiner reports:

Judge crushes ATF AR-15 gun ban

A federal judge late Wednesday gave millions of gun owners breathing room when he slammed the Biden administration’s effort to ban a big slice of the AR-15 market.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk blocked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from enforcing its ban on AR-15 style “pistols” equipped with arm braces, calling the agency’s new rule unlawful.

“Public safety concerns must be addressed in ways that are lawful. This rule is not,” said the Trump-appointed judge.

The nine-page decision is the latest to challenge the ATF over its rule requiring millions of owners of braced guns to register the firearms and pay a $200 tax, or face 10 years in jail. Kacsmaryk’s decision is the most sweeping, covering the whole country.

At issue is the ATF’s rule issued earlier this year to ban the braces on the guns. The agency claims it turns a pistol into a dangerous rifle and supporters have cited how the weapons have been used in a handful of mass shootings.

However, for years before its ban, the ATF allowed the braces to be sold, and they have become so common that some estimate 40 million or more are in circulation, making the AR-style pistol one of the most commonly held firearms in the nation.

This tweet includes an image of the guns in question.

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Feds Threaten To Make It Harder For Medical Marijuana Patients To Get State Gun Permits In Arkansas

Arkansas’s recently enacted law permitting medical cannabis patients to obtain concealed carry gun licenses “creates an unacceptable risk,” and could jeopardize the state’s federally approved alternative firearm licensing policy, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) says.

The Arkansas law took effect in August, clarifying that a person’s status as a qualified patient in the state cannot be used “in determining whether an applicant is eligible to be issued a license to carry a concealed handgun.”

The policy change has apparently attracted the critical attention of federal officials at the Justice Department, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported. A letter sent by Marianna Mitchem, chief of ATF’s Firearms and Explosives Industry Division, to the operations director for the Division of Arkansas Crime Information this week said there are “public safety concerns” with the law.

Mitchem advised the state official that Arkansas has been previously notified that a condition of its alternative gun licensing scheme, which allows gun buyers to receive approval by the state without going through a federal background check, is that firearms cannot be purchased by a “controlled substance user.” In the eyes of the federal government, that includes medical cannabis patients.

The letter contained a veiled threat, stating that if the state department did not answer two specific questions, it would warrant a reevaluation of Arkansas’s alternative gun permit policy.

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ATF Agents Carrying Rifles Raid Oklahoma Gun Dealer’s Home, Confiscate Guns

As agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) left Russell Fincher’s house with 50 legally-owned firearms and his freshly relinquished Federal Firearms License (FFL), they offered him a tip.

“They said, ‘Tell all your FFL friends we’re coming for them next,’” Mr. Fincher told The Epoch Times.

An ATF spokesman said he could not comment on the June 16, 2023, raid at Mr. Fincher’s home in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma.

“We are not allowed to comment pertaining to ongoing investigations. I can assure you once we can discuss the case, you will be notified,” Ashley N. Stephens, resident Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Tulsa Field Office, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.

According to Second Amendment advocacy groups, the raid indicates a coordinated effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to throttle legal gun sales to advance a gun control agenda.

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“Even One Firearm Sale” Could Land You In Jail Under Biden’s New ATF Rule

We hate to say we told you so, but it’s official. The Justice Department announced a new rule to amend ATF regulations and expand the definition of a firearms dealer to include those who sell even a single firearm. 

The original rumors of the rule suggested anyone who sold five or more firearms could have to register as an FFL and conduct background checks, however the official released version says selling even ONE FIREARM without a license would be illegal.🤯

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 31, 2023

While earlier versions of the rule leaked to the public via the Biden administration’s allies in the corporate media hinted at a target of about five firearms sold without a license before requiring an individual to register as an FFL, the published rule seems more restrictive. Those who have sold or even “offer to engage” in a single transaction could be prosecuted for unlicensed activities.

That’s not all. The rule is also full of unclear language that gives ATF wiggle room to prosecute gun owners as they please. Examples of actions that ATF could use to define activity as operating as an unlicensed dealer are listed, but ATF notes that the list of examples is not exhaustive. This creates a system where gun owners must prove they are not dealers to be able to sell a firearm legally.

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Twitter Roasts ATF For Posting Image Of Agent Loading Nazi Gun Pointed At Testicles 

Twitter users are roasting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for an image tweeted by the Houston field office this week of an agent improperly following the basic rules of firearms safety: Always treat every firearm as if it is loaded and always keep your firearm pointed in a safe direction. 

The ATF agent appears to be at an indoor range in Austin. The agent is on the wrong side of a loading table while he loads a magazine for a Nazi MP 40 submachine gun. You will notice that the sub-gun is pointed at the agent’s testicles. 

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Federal Court Delivers Blow to ATF’s Ban on ‘Ghost Guns’

A federal judge delivered a blow to the Biden administration’s gun control policy by reversing a federal ban on so-called “ghost guns” and argued that the ATF overstepped its authority.

Texas-based United States District Court Judge Reed O’Connor on Friday ruled that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) erred by saying that unfinished gun parts are guns and can, therefore, be regulated. His ruling said that parts aren’t guns under federal law.

“This case presents the question of whether the federal government may lawfully regulate partially manufactured firearm components, related firearm products, and other tools and materials in keeping with the Gun Control Act of 1968,” wrote O’Connor in his order (pdf). “Because the court concludes that the government cannot regulate those items without violating federal law, the court holds that the government’s recently enacted final rule … is unlawful agency action taken in excess of the ATF’s statutory jurisdiction. On this basis, the court vacates the final rule.”

His order also stated that the ATF is trying to regulate a gun component as a “frame or receiver,” even after the agency determined “the component in question is not a frame or receiver.” Elaborating, he wrote: “It may not. Logic dictates that a part cannot be both not yet a receiver and receiver at the same time. Defendants’ reliance on that logical contradiction is fatal to their argument.”

Pro-firearms groups and websites cheered the ruling, saying that it was an attempt to claw back what they described as attempts by the Biden administration to grab guns via federal rulemaking. The case was brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition, a pro-Second Amendment group.

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ARMED ATF & IRS AGENTS HIT MONTANA GUN STORE WITH “SOVIET-STYLE INTIMIDATION RAID”

Heavily armed agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) raided a gun store in Great Falls, Montana, last week in what was described by a local lawmaker as a “Soviet-style intimidation raids.”

Tom Van Hoose, the owner of Highwood Creek Outfitters, told the local media outlet KRTV that 20 heavily armed agents swarmed his gun shop on Wednesday morning, confiscated 13 years of 4473 forms, and copied the firearm acquisition and disposition book.

“The fact that they think we make so much money as a gun business that they had to come investigate all the thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars whatever it is we supposedly absconded with, anybody that knows the margins in the gun business knows they’re not that high,” said Van Hoose.

He said the reason for the raid is unclear. He believes it could be part of a nationwide trend by Biden’s ATF:

“I can only assume that it’s because of the style of weapons that we have and the press that’s so against them.

“The current administration seems to be hell-bent on getting those guns out of the hands of average Americans.”

Van Hoose spoke to the firearms blog The Truth About Guns, stating that the IRS claimed he had underreported and failed to report millions of dollars of income. The shop owner denied the accusation.

On Friday, Congressman Matt Rosendale sent a letter to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, asking for answers and calling the raid “outrageous.”

“Under Director Dettelbach’s leadership of the ATF, a pattern of intimidation and harassment against hardworking Americans has emerged – Montanans will not tolerate these political witch hunts. I remind both Director Dettelbach and Commissioner Werfel that Congress has the power of the purse, and I will ensure that funding for these agencies is not weaponized against the American people,” Rosendale said in his letter.

He continued: “I request that the ATF and IRS cease conducting these Soviet-style intimidation raids.”

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ATF Says a Quarter Million Guns Registered Under Pistol-Brace Ban

Only a fraction of the guns affected by the ATF’s new rule were registered with the agency during the four-month grace period that ended this week.

The ATF told The Reload on Friday it has received just over a quarter million applications to register pistol-brace-equipped firearms. Registering the affected guns was one path toward avoiding possible criminal punishment for possessing the guns under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) after the agency implemented a rule reclassifying the firearms as subject to NFA restrictions. The ATF waived the tax requirement for registration to encourage owners to comply before the deadline.

“The final rule provided possessors of such firearms the option to comply with the registration requirements of the National Firearms Act through a tax-free process using either the ATF eForms System or a paper application process with a deadline for such applications of 11:59 PM (ET) on May 31, 2023,” Erik Longnecker, Deputy Chief of the ATF’s Public Affairs Division, told The Reload. “As of June 1, 2023, ATF received 255,162 applications for tax-free registration.”

That number represents just a fraction of the braced guns believed to have been sold in the decade since the ATF first classified a version as outside the scope of the NFA. In the impact assessment for the rule, the ATF estimated that three to seven million devices exist. However, the Congressional Research Service puts the number much higher at somewhere between 10 and 40 million.

That puts the registration rate for pistol-brace-equipped guns at between 0.6 percent and eight percent.

Longnecker noted that owners of the affected guns could also comply with the rule by either dismantling the firearms and destroying the braces or turning them over to the ATF. He said the agency does not know how many Americans may have taken those routes.

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ATF: Marijuana users in Minnesota can’t own firearms despite new law

Just one day after Minnesota legalized the recreational use of marijuana, an agency that regulates the use of firearms warned that any current user of marijuana is prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.  

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (AFT) field office in St. Paul, Minn., issued the clarification Tuesday shortly after Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed a bill legalizing recreational marijuana. The clarification states that under federal law, current users of marijuana are prohibited from possessing, receiving, transporting or shipping firearms or ammunition.  

“Until marijuana is legalized federally, firearms owners and possessors should be mindful that it remains federally illegal to mix marijuana with firearms and ammunition,” Jeff Reed, ATF’s acting special agent in charge of the St. Paul Field Division, said in a statement.

“As regulators of the firearms industry and enforcers of firearms laws, we felt it was important to remind Minnesotans of this distinction as the marijuana laws adjust here in the State of Minnesota.” 

According to an analysis by the RAND Corporation, nearly 40 percent of residents in Minnesota reported owning a gun between 2007 and 2016. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 18 percent of Americans reported using marijuana in 2019.

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“Were You Expecting Us?”: ATF Agents Go ‘Door To Door’ To Confiscate FRT-15 Triggers

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) under the Biden administration continues its ‘door-to-door’ operation to seize Rare Breed FRT-15 triggers from private citizens. The latest example comes days ago when ATF agents, noticeably armed and wearing ballistic plate carriers, showed up at a person’s home, demanding the surrender of the FRT-15 trigger.  

A man who claimed to be the owner of Moonlight Industries, a company specializing in making chest rigs for special forces operators, posted a video on Moonlight’s YouTube channel of two ATF agents visiting him at his home.

The conversation begins with the woman ATF agent saying, “Were you expecting us?”

The man responded, “Well, it doesn’t surprise me with a guy wearing a plate carrier showing up…” 

The woman ATF agent (who does most of the talking) said, “The reason why we’re here … that just recently, the ATF, classified the FRT as machine guns.” 

She said, “We are aware that you might have purchased some of these FRTs.” She admitted, “Like the whole agency is basically ‘reaching out’ to these purchasers, and we have to pick them up.” 

After all that, Moonlight’s owner responded, “Well, I won’t be answering any questions today … and I don’t have any comments on this subject … and I won’t be giving you anything.” 

In a split second, the male ATF agent asked Moonlight’s owner, “Are you refusing to give us the trigger?”

Moonlight’s owner said, “I’m not refusing to give anything. I just won’t be answering any questions.” 

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