Tag: gun control

New ATF rule on pistol stabilizing braces will effectively ban millions of rifles

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives released a new rule on pistol-stabilizing braces that will effectively ban millions of rifles and has Second Amendment supporters up in arms.

The ATF had previously ruled that pistol braces were legal, but a new rule was sought by President Joe Biden as part of his promise to reform gun laws.

The 296-page document outlines several options that gun owners with stabilizing braces have to avoid prosecution.

“Any weapons with ‘stabilizing braces’ or similar attachments that constitute rifles under the NFA must be registered no later than 120 days after date of publication in the Federal Register,” read the rule, “or the short barrel removed and a 16-inch or longer rifle barrel attached to the firearm; or permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the ‘stabilizing brace’ such that it cannot be reattached; or the firearm is turned in to your local ATF office. Or the firearm is destroyed.”

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Illinois governor warns cops on gun ban law: ‘Will do their job or won’t be in their job’

With a new ban on certains guns now in place in Illinois, some have said they won’t comply. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has a message for law enforcement: Do your job or else. Gun-rights groups say the ban won’t last long.

With counties across the state saying they won’t enforce a gun ban, or are Second Amendment sanctuaries, and some publicly saying they won’t comply with a looming registry, Pritzker said Illinois State Police will be responsible for enforcement.

“As are all law enforcement all across our state and they will in fact do their job or they won’t be in their job,” Pritzker said.

While Pritzker said he’s confident the law will survive a legal challenge, Guns Save Life Executive Director John Boch said it’s unconstitutional and they’ll prove it in court.

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Illinois Senate Approves Ban on Commonly-Owned Firearms, Bill Heads Back to House

Lawmakers in Illinois on Monday night approved a bill to ban the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic weapons, which critics say are commonly used for self-defense and recreation.

The Protecting Illinois Communities Act passed the Illinois Senate on Monday night by a vote margin of 34–20.

The legislation will now return to the state House of Representatives, which passed it on a vote of 64–43 on Jan. 6, for a final vote before it goes to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, who has supported the legislation and is expected to sign it into law.

In the House, the bill was sponsored by state Rep. Bob Morgan, a Democrat. The version that passed the lower chamber was changed slightly before the vote. A provision to raise the age for receiving a Firearms Owner Identification Card from 18 to 21 was removed.

However, the governor criticized the proposed changes on Sunday, arguing the Senate’s version fell short of what was needed, Bloomberg reported. House Speaker Chris Welch described the measure that reached the upper chamber as a “watered-down version” of the bill.

Lawmakers ultimately reached a deal that would immediately ban the manufacturing, selling, importing, or buying of a range of semi-automatic weapons, and ban attachments that increase the rate of fire.

Illinois state Senate President Don Harmon said in a statement that lawmakers reached a deal on “one of the strongest assault weapons bans in the country.”

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Federal judge blocks enforcement of many parts of NJ’s new carry restrictions

It’s far from the last decision in the case, but Second Amendment advocates and gun owners in New Jersey won a big victory on Monday as a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking several aspects of New Jersey’s latest restrictions on the right to carry from being enforced for the time being.

The lawsuit, which was brought a coalition of Second Amendment groups including the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, and New Jersey Second Amendment Society, doesn’t challenge every part of the new laws. Instead, it takes aim specifically at the number of newly designated “sensitive places” enacted by Gov. Phil Murphy and the legislature in late December, and U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb believes that many of these “gun-free zones” aren’t likely to pass constitutional muster. From today’s opinion:

As Plaintiffs lament, the challenged provisions force a person permitted to carry a firearm in New Jersey to “navigate a ‘veritable minefield.’” [Pls’. Br. at 12.] Their view is a legitimate one. The Court knows of no constitutional right that requires this much guesswork by individuals wanting to exercise such right.

With such sweeping legislation that includes catch-alls, Plaintiffs cannot decipher what constitutes a “sensitive place,” and so they have abandoned their constitutional right to bear arms out of fear of criminal penalty. Relatedly, Plaintiffs argue that these provisions sweep so broadly that the legislation “effectively shuts off most public areas from carrying for self-defense.” [Pls.’ Br. at 30.] In the final analysis, at some point on the line, when a constitutional right becomes so burdensome or unwieldy to exercise, it is, in effect, no longer a constitutional right. Plaintiffs have made a convincing case that this legislation has reached that point.

Bumb enjoined enforcement of the ban on concealed carry in libraries and museums, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, and entertainment facilities, as well as the de-facto designation of all private property as “gun-free zones” and the portion of the new law requiring concealed carry holders to unholster and unload their firearm and keep it stored in a “secure container” while they’re in a vehicle. In her opinion, Bumb pointed out that the historical record as established has led other courts to conclude that banning concealed carry in public transportation is a no-no, and the evidence for government barring the lawful bearing of arms in private transportation is in essence non-existent.

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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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Guns for Me but Not for Thee

It’s 2023, and two of America’s deep-blue governors are still having conniptions over the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen that threw out the need for a justifiable reason to receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon (CCW). While bound to follow the Bruen decision, both are doing everything they can to sidestep the ruling through legislative and executive fiat.

New Jersey, New York, and California are America’s triumvirate of extremely gun unfriendly states.  They are led by Democrat governors and legislatures that march to a progressive drumbeat, promote economic and social policies onerous to businesses large and small, and force their overtaxed, working residents to subsidize sanctuary policies that have turned their states into strongholds for illegal immigrants and vagrants.

All three governors have retained their emergency powers into the post-pandemic era, reviving them as needed to invoke programs and policies that regulate many aspects of their constituents’ lives.  Above all, they harbor an intense hatred for a citizenry under arms, in keeping with their dim view of the Founding Fathers who understood in framing the Second Amendment that to “disarm the people was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”

One month after the Bruen decision, New York acting Governor Kathy Hochul thumbed her nose at the Court by signing a gun law that designated when and where you could carry a concealed weapon.  The new rules created a list of “sensitive locations,” prohibiting weapons at government facilities, parks, churches, schools, public transportation, and entertainment venues.  Intruding on private property rights, Hochul banned weapons in all establishments serving alcohol and ordered that commercial businesses of all shapes and sizes must post signage in plain view giving explicit approval to carry weapons on the premises, going so far as to provide a downloadable sign for posting on a government website.  Absence of a storefront notice would be taken as a presumptive gun prohibition lacking the proprietor’s express consent.  In the stroke of a pen, all of New York City had become a gun-free zone, as well as anywhere else in the Empire State where constituents go about their social and professional lives.  Legal challenges immediately followed, as the law is patently unconstitutional in its scope and severity, but a federal judge refused an injunctive stay pending an appeal.

New Jersey governor Phil Murphy is a garden-variety progressive Democrat of privilege who has freely admitted to his ignorance of the Bill of Rights and has often adopted the disastrous policies of his New York counterparts rather than think through the consequences to his own state; for example, the COVID nursing-home scandal, emptying jails, and free money and welfare programs for illegal immigrants. In December, Murphy latched on to Hochul’s post-Bruen CCW restrictions, enacting the same list of barred locations that add on to an already existing regulatory burden of multiple background investigations and approvals, mandatory training, ammunition limits, waiting periods, and storage requirements for home and transport that puts locked and unloaded weapons out of an owner’s reach during a critical need for self-defense.  Permit fees are now skyrocketing in the Garden State, and new liability insurance requirements will have a disparate impact upon low-income residents, creating for them an economic deprivation of their Second Amendment rights in populated areas and urban settings where self-defense against violent crime sees its most acute need.

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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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