US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals has determined in a ruling that bump stocks are not machine guns in the case the United States v. Ali Alkazahg.
In an earlier judgment, Marine Corp Private Ali Akazahg was convicted for the possession of 2 “machine guns” in violation of articles 83, 107, and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
It was ruled that these “machine guns” owned by Akazahg did not meet the federal definition of the machine gun.
“Bump Stocks Are Not Machine Guns”
The three-judge panel agreed with the arguments made by the defense and unanimously ruled that bump stocks do not meet the definition of a machine gun.
The panel referred to a case that anti-gun activists pressured Congress to act on following the mass shooting in Las Vegas where 60 died. A bill was advanced by Congress, “Closing the Bump Stock Loophole” seeking to treat bump stocks as machine guns.
However, it rightfully failed to pass either chamber of Congress.
I Support Donald Trump, But This is His Fault
In its ruling, the judges pointed out that following the bill’s failure in Congress, there was considerable political pressure on former President Trump to act against bump stocks.
The panel also said that they don’t believe that President Trump had the authority to make de facto law banning bump stocks.
Here’s a quote from the ruling:
[T]he President directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives [ATF] to issue a new interpretation of a rule—that contradicted the ATF’s previous interpretation—governing legislation from the 1930s. This Executive-Branch change in statutory interpretation aimed to outlaw bump stocks prospectively, without a change in existing statutes
The judges have looked through the history of bump stocks and came to the conclusion that the ATF never considered bump stocks to be machine guns until Trump directed the bureau to reclassify bump stocks as machine guns.
The panel also inferred to the letter issued to William Akins in 2002 for his “Akins Accelerator” where the original version was used a spring.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R) pardoned Mark and Patricia McCloskey on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
The McCloskeys, both lawyers, will not lose their law licenses or their rights to own firearms.
In June, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who sought to protect their property and lives from the rabid BLM mob marching down their private street pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and agreed to forfeit the firearms they used in the showdown last year.
A livestream of the militant mob clearly showed they entered through a gate into a private community.
Mr. McCloskey explained during his on-camera interview last year that he announced to the Marxist mob that they were on private property and that’s when they became enraged.
“Somebody forced the gate, and I stood up and announced that this is private property. Go back. I can’t remember in detail anymore. I went inside, I got a rifle. And when they … because as soon as I said this is private property, those words enraged the crowd,” he said.
McClosky said one of the militants pulled out a loaded pistol magazine and clicked them together and said ‘you’re next.’
“We were threatened with our lives, threatened with a house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog’s life being threatened. It was, it was about as bad as it can get,” McCloskey said.
McCloskey believes that the only thing that stopped the crowd from approaching his home was his rifle.
In a new proposed rule late on Friday, the Biden administration is seeking to impose new restrictions on home-built firearms and aiming to redefine the “receiver”.
The latter strives to deliver the first new rules in what is expected to be a barrage of anti-gun regulations aimed at restricting the firearms industry and law-abiding gun owners.
A press release by the Department of Justice, Attorney General Merrick Garland spins the new proposal as an attempt to “update the definitions of ‘firearm’ and related parts for the first time since 1968.”
Attorney General Garland neglected to mention that the definitions that will be changed were part of the Gun Control Act of 1968; legislation passed by Congress – not imposed by executive action.
The new rules would require that manufacturers include a serial number on the firearm “frame or receiver” in easy-to-build firearm kits.
Moreover, it aims to cut the number of “ghost guns on streets” while setting out requirements for federally licensed firearms dealers to have a serial number added to 3D printed guns or other un-serialized firearms they take into inventory.
Even unfinished frames and receivers need to be serialized if they are sold as part of a kit,, though the Department of Justice (DOJ) has kept silent on whether or not the unfinished gun parts must be serialized if they are sold by themselves.
“These courts’ interpretation of ATF’s regulations, if broadly followed, could mean that as many as 90 percent of all firearms now in the United States would not have an identifiable frame or receiver,” the document said. “Those firearms would include numerous widely available models, such as Glock-type and Sig Sauer P32013 pistols, that do not utilize a hammer – a named component – in the firing sequence.”
The ATF spoke on the necessity to revise the definition of a receiver in ensuring it won’t “be misinterpreted by the courts, the firearms industry, or the public at large to mean that most firearms in circulation have no part identifiable as a frame or receiver.”
The proposed receiver definition calls on the need for one fire control component – such as a trigger mechanism, cylinder, or firing pin – instead of requiring multiple parts as the current definition does.
The ATF announced plans to keep in place the determinations on which specific parts would qualify as receivers for guns currently on the market and create a voluntary process for gun makers to submit new designs for determinations.
On the other hand, courts are not lending a misinterpretation to the ATF’s regulations and remain correct in the definition of what constitutes a firearm. Now, the DOJ wants to declare the words “frame” and “receiver” now mean something entirely different than what they’ve meant since 1968.
One reason as to why the ATF and DOJ didn’t make an effort to update the definitions before now is considered as a real stretch in coming up with something which isn’t a receiver and suddenly reversing 50 years of existing regulations.
Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, says that the firearms industry trade group will “carefully look at the proposed rule and will gather input from our members. The details will matter. We are fully aware of the impact that this proposed rule could have on the firearm industry and gun owners in general. We are interested to know if the proposed rule is consistent with what we saw in the leaked draft documents or if it has changed and what those changes might be. NSSF will file comments concerning the rule.”
The proposed rule is expected to wait for the 90-day public comment phase and once it is published at the Public Register website, comments would be made.
In the past, there has been overwhelming opposition that helped stop a bad draft from turning into a bad reputation. However, it is expected that Biden is prepared to move ahead, irrespective of the public feedback.
For the first time in 10 years, the Supreme Court has decided to take up a major lawsuit that challenges a New York law restricting individuals from carrying concealed handguns in public.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is backing the lawsuit.
It’s been more than 10 years since the Supreme Court weighed in on a significant case involving the Second Amendment.
This case comes in the wake of Biden’s recent push for more gun-control initiatives, including bans on so-called ghost guns, proposing models for “red flag” laws, and expanding and lengthening background checks.
“The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to the following question: Whether the State’s denial of petitioners’ applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense violated the Second Amendment,” reads a brief order (pdf) from the high court on April 26.
Over the years, the NRA and other gun rights groups have criticized the Supreme Court for not taking up any major lawsuits relating to the Second Amendment. In 2008, the court stated for the first time that the Second Amendment protects Americans’ rights to keep and bear arms for self-defense at home.
The Sad Reality of the Supreme Court’s 2nd Amendment Views
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, considered possibly the most conservative justice, wrote several years ago that courts have engaged in a “general failure to afford the 2nd Amendment the respect due an enumerated constitutional right.”
“If a lower court treated another right so cavalierly, I have little doubt that this court would intervene. … The 2nd Amendment is a disfavored right in this court,” he wrote.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, after the court dismissed a gun case last term, wrote in early 2020 he hopes the court will take up a Second Amendment-related challenge in the near future. “The Court should address that issue soon, perhaps in one of the several Second Amendment cases with petitions for certiorari now pending before the Court.”
On April 26, the NRA praised the court for taking up the legal challenge, describing it as a case that challenges “New York’s restrictive concealed-carry-licensing regime,” noting that it sets up the stage “for the Supreme Court to affirm what most states already hold as true, that there is an individual right to self-defense outside of the home.”
Here’s What the Case is About
The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Keith Corlett, challenges New York state’s requirement for applicants for pistol permits show “proper cause” to carry a gun, which they argue violates the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms.
“The NRA believes that law-abiding citizens should not be required to prove they are in peril to receive the government’s permission to exercise this constitutionally protected right,” the group wrote, noting that if the Supreme Court rules favorably, it will “affect the laws in many states that currently restrict carrying a firearm outside the home.”
Robert Nash and Brandon Koch, the two men who brought the lawsuit, both applied for licenses to carry handguns in New York state for self-defense but were denied. A district court later said that neither had proper cause to carry a handgun because they didn’t face “any special or unique danger to [their] life.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, wrote in a legal brief calling on the Supreme Court not to grant the case, saying the state law is consistent with prior rulings.
James said New York’s law was “supported by a centuries-old tradition of state and local measures regulating the carrying of firearms in public” and that it has existed in the same essential form since 1913. “New York’s law directly advances the State’s compelling interests in protecting the public from gun violence.”
The court is expected to take up the case during the next term.
A father pulled out his concealed carry gun in a “gun free zone” inside a Nebraska mall.
He was shopping there with his family when a fatal shooting unfolded.
“Every indication said our lives were in danger, and I was going to do everything in my power to make sure we got out of there OK,” Scott Tafoya said.
The Omaha Westroads Mall is a gun-free zone, but Tafoya said he had to pull out his legal concealed carry gun and “deal with the consequence later.”
“I knew that if I ever pulled that out, it would truly be a life-and-death situation, and I would deal with the consequences later,” he said.
The scene unfolded on Saturday while Tafoya was trying on a new suit for his daughter’s baptism and his wife and two daughters were shopping upstairs in the mall.
He saw a group of people running and made eye contact with a man who yelled, “Shooter!”
He ran to his family while unholstering his gun, and his wife told him she heard gunfire.
He then stood guard outside of a bathroom where mall officials had people shelter.
“I said I have a permit, I’m legal,” he said.
He later moved toward the escalators to draw any danger away from his family.
“Everyone else on the third floor just got added into that because the best way to keep my family safe was to make sure nobody with ill intentions came up that escalator,” Tafoya said, mentioning that he didn’t feel any fear during the shooting situation. “I was sad. Because I wasn’t expecting to. If it was real, I didn’t think I was going to come home.”
Police soon arrived on the scene, and Tafoya unloaded the bullets of his gun and put his hands up.
“I unloaded my weapon. I put it back in the holster where it was very visible that the slide was locked open. I put my permit in my hands and my hands above my head,” he said.
Law enforcement officers also did not charge him for having a gun in a gun-free zone, and he added that those zones put people at risk.
“I don’t condone anyone breaking the law. I made the decision that was right for my family, and I stand behind it. I may still get in trouble for it. If I do, it was worth it,” he said.
Two brothers, both teenagers, were arrested in connection to the suspected “gang-related” shooting, which left one person dead and another injured.
“The investigation indicates this was an isolated incident and not a random attack,” Omaha police said.
As you know, Joe Biden announced the Executive Powers and Actions designed to:
Require “Ghost Guns” to be serialized and go through a background check
Adding Arm Braces to the National Firearms Act (NFA) and determine their use to create an SBR and require a background check and tax stamp
Creating an expanded Federal Red Flag System where your friends and family can report you and get your guns taken away without due process
Reducing black and brown gun crimes; Reducing gun violence in urban communities through tools other than incarceration,” through MEDICAID.
The question remains: “what are the implications for an average citizen?”
People like you and I.
Based on an earlier precedent set by former President Donald Trump’s, “Bump Stock Ban” conducted in the same via executive order for the DOJ to act and set against the context of a citizen owning a firearm self-manufactured or bought and build one before the DOJ acts in less than 30 days, one will be called to declare the firm arm, fill in the 4473 form and secure a background check after putting a serial number on it.
It will be interesting to see the implications in terms of items sales to be restricted or in the event of the same to be banned or if the definition of a firearm to be altered encompassing partially manufactured receivers.
Anyone acquiring an arm brace on a pistol shooting a rifle caliber will be most likely be eligible for NFA amnesty as the ATF and DOJ made a few months earlier in their Proposed Rule Making which stipulates that the decision impacts on whether an arm brace on a weapon should be classified as a pistol or NFA weapon. It implies that the owner of the machine has a minimum of 60 days to legally acquire and run the risk to pay a $200 tax stamp in converting it to an SBR or be granted amnesty and get a FREE SBR for EVERY ARMBRACE YOU OWN.
The slippery slope remains the Federal Red Flag laws reportedly mentioning to give “Friends and Family” the right and ability to report someone as a threat and risk of taking away all guns, removing the need for no due process. It is pointed that both in theory and at face value that it makes sense to most Karens.
In the case someone threatens a mass shooting or suicide, their guns should be confiscated until they get help or arrested. However, this program puts friends, family, law enforcement as the judge and jury while the threat definition seems to be so vague that someone on Facebook can file a complaint on a user making a tongue in cheek joke while running the risk of police knocking on the door, weapons seized as it has already occurred in the several Red Flag States or alluding the person can be allegedly killed in their own home.
The Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made fun of President Joe Biden’s fresh executive actions on gun control, calling the proposals a mere ‘show’ that fails to tackle crime involving guns.
Duh.
Democrat gun control is the biggest lie.
The Governor observes:
“I think that there is no acceptable way that a president by executive order can infringe upon Second Amendment rights or alter Second Amendment rights. If the president wanted to do something more than a show—if the president really wanted to do something substantively, what he really could do by executive order is to eliminate the backlog of complaints that have already been filed about gun crimes that have taken place.”
He further explained that Americans use guns for self-defense more than ever, hinting at the border crisis being cashed on by Mexican drug cartels, the “Defund the Police” movement, and bail policies allowing what he terms as “very dangerous criminals to be released back on the streets.”
“Texans and Americans know they need their Second Amendment rights to defend themselves at a time when the United States government and other governments are doing less to defend our fellow Americans. That is exactly why we should not have any further limitations of our Second Amendment rights,” he told.
Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted: “It’s time to get legislation making [Texas] a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary State passed and to my desk for signing.”
The FBI reveals that background checks for firearms reached a new high in March with some 4.7 million checks done this month, surpassing an earlier record of 4.3 million clocked in January. The numbers provided by the FBI entails background checks for firearms, permits, and other purposes pertaining to guns.
Figures were adjusted from the National Shooting Sports Foundation which reveals that gun checks alone in March stood at 2 million and constituting the highest following 2.3 million done on the corresponding period of last year.
Mark Olivio of the Foundation stated:
“The COVID-19 pandemic conditions and the push for gun ownership restrictions are propelling Americans to buy more guns. As long as you continue to see these misguided calls for gun control to chip away the rights of law-abiding citizens and not look at legislation that’s going to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, firearms on the hands of those who are adjudicated mentally defective, you’re going to continue to see Americans go out and exercise their right before that right is seized from them by their government.”
An alternate view was offered by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “The latest data released by the FBI shows that Americans continue to react to uncertainty by seeking self-protection with a firearm. This reaction follows decades of public posturing by the gun industry and the National Rifle Association (NRA) who have fueled a year of panic purchasing by promulgating fear and paranoia,” according to Kris Brown, president of the group.
“These new statistics similarly do not reflect the many firearms sold without a background check in private transfers, potentially dangerous sales that are currently legal. Those sales are not regulated and therefore not accounted for in the NICS data. We need comprehensive gun safety laws, such as universal background checks, to ensure that firearm sales are conducted safely and that individuals prohibited from buying a firearm do not obtain one,” Brown added.
Together with swelling sales of guns, NRA memberships witnessed a massive increase in recent months.
Set against mass shootings last month, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, are clamoring for both new gun control laws and executive action designed to curb gun ownership. There have been few mass shootings in 2020 since most American citizens spend the most time at home following the imposition of strict restrictions set against the pandemic.
However, crime saw a surge in selected cities coupled with a significant rise in murders coupled with movement to slash police funding.
Piss Off a Liberal: “Grab Your One Gun Two Gun Red Gun Blue Gun” Gear Below
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a gun protection law this week as part of efforts to protect residents from tyrannical federal gun laws.
It comes after the White House making a move to restrict Second Amendment rights in all 50 states.
“The state of Arizona and its political subdivisions are prohibited from utilizing any financial resources or state personnel to administer, cooperate with or enforce any law, act, order, rule, treaty or regulation of the federal government that is inconsistent with any law of this state regarding the regulation of firearms,” according to the text of the legislation.
“If the federal government does anything that tries to infringe on our second amendment in the state of Arizona, we’re not going to comply. I was voted into office to protect our constitution the Biden Administration was clear that they want to ban AR-15s, high-capacity magazines, and we don’t think that’s right. Our Arizona gun laws are strong and we believe that law-abiding gun owners have the right to bear arms,” Biasiucci said.
This comes after President Joe Biden announced a slew of executive actions and legislative proposals on gun control while asserting that gun violence is “a public health crisis” while the administration’s actions do not stand in contravention to the Second Amendment Rights.
Biden: No Amendment to the Constitution is Absolute
Pursuing further the President stated: But no amendment to the Constitution is absolute … From the very beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the very beginning the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons. So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending stand against the Constitution.”
An official from the Biden administration enumerated detailed actions to reporters on Wednesday and one told that the President will ask the Department (DOJ) to propose a month’s span a rule to stop “ghost guns.” The latter entails, “Kits that people can buy through legal means and designed to assemble a functioning arm that doesn’t carry a serial number.
Here’s a Breakdown of These New Orders… and Why They Won’t Work
The Biden administration today announced 6 new executive orders they are taking on firearms.
Which… is really suprising.
Here’s a video where Biden was secretly recording condemning using executive orders.
Oh, and he specifically says that the 2nd Amendment CANNOT be used against the 2nd Amendment.
WATCH (1 minute): Joe Biden Caught Slamming Executive Orders Against the 2nd Amendment
Gun Violence is NOT an Epidemic – Not Even Close
The new executive order begins by saying, “Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing six initial actions to address the gun violence public health epidemic.”
Let’s do the math.
Experts agree – on average in America, there are 40,000 fatalities each year with firearms.
60% are suicides – which means we need to REMOVE these numbers from the 40,000 number – because suicides are NOT gun violence.
So, 60% of 40,000 is 24,000. So let’s remove the 24,000 suicides from the 40,000 number.
We get a whopping total of 16,000 ACTUAL instances of firearm accidents and murders.
Another Google search shows that 16,000 is the comparative number of people in the USA who die every year from the overuse of ANTIBIOTICS.
Here are REAL epidemics in the USA:
OBESITY: 300,000 deaths a year.
CANCER: 606,000 deaths a year.
OVERDOSE: 81,000
Gun violence doesn’t even come close.
Brainless Executive Action #1: The Justice Department, within 30 days, will issue a proposed rule to help stop the proliferation of “ghost guns.”
Here’s a copy and paste of the exact wording:
We are experiencing a growing problem: criminals are buying kits containing nearly all of the components and directions for finishing a firearm within as little as 30 minutes and using these firearms to commit crimes. When these firearms turn up at crime scenes, they often cannot be traced by law enforcement due to the lack of a serial number. The Justice Department will issue a proposed rule to help stop the proliferation of these firearms.
This is blatantly untrue.
Let’s break it down.
First, this is talking about “3D Printed” guns, or “ghost guns.”
Individuals in this country have been making their own guns for centuries.
The practice is deeply rooted in our constitutional history and tradition.
Legal scholars have recognized that the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms would be meaningless in practice unless we have the ability to exercise that right—which includes making our own guns.
Is Joe Biden actually suggesting that criminals are buying up their own 3D printing machines and science-ing the crap out of guns?
NOPE.
Want to know where they get them?
A 2019 survey conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that some 43 percent of criminals had bought their firearms on the black market, 6 percent acquired them via theft, and 10 percent made a retail purchase – 0.8 percent purchased a weapon from a gun show.
In 11 percent of cases, the criminal had someone else buy a gun for them – known as a straw purchase – while an additional 15 percent got guns from a friend or relative. Some 12 percent of weapons found on a crime scene had been brought there by someone else.
The only people building these “ghost” guns are hobbyist law-abiding citizens who have a knack for engineering.
Not street thugs or mass murderers.
Brainless Executive Action #2: The Justice Department, within 60 days, will issue a proposed rule to make clear when a device marketed as a stabilizing brace effectively turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle subject to the requirements of the National Firearms Act.
The exact text reads:
The alleged shooter in the Boulder tragedy last month appears to have used a pistol with an arm brace, which can make a firearm more stable and accurate while still being concealable.
Here’s an AR pistol with an arm brace:
Are we saying that this arm brace makes the gun more lethal?
More deadly?
First it was bump stocks they are after.
Now it’s arm braces.
JOE BIDEN: “We can’t ban AR15s… they we are just going to take them away piece by piece.”
(That’s not a real quote… I made it up.)
Again, this will do NOTHING to stop any mass shooting or violent crime.
Brainless Executive Action #3: The Justice Department, within 60 days, will publish model “red flag” legislation for states.
Here are the exact quotes:
Red flag laws allow family members or law enforcement to petition for a court order temporarily barring people in crisis from accessing firearms if they present a danger to themselves or others. The President urges Congress to pass an appropriate national “red flag” law, as well as legislation incentivizing states to pass “red flag” laws of their own. In the interim, the Justice Department’s published model legislation will make it easier for states that want to adopt red flag laws to do so.
When you actually read this…
…it’s less scary than you think.
There’s actually nothing happening.
The Justice Department will publish a “model” of red flag laws.
…it doesn’t say they are going to implement anything.
Nothing is actually changing on this one.
…So why the hell did they bother writing it?
Brainless.
Brainless Executive Action #4: The Administration is investing in evidence-based community violence interventions.
Here’s the exact text:
Community violence interventions are proven strategies for reducing gun violence in urban communities through tools other than incarceration. Because cities across the country are experiencing a historic spike in homicides, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking a number of steps to prioritize investment in community violence interventions.
The American Jobs Plan proposes a $5 billion investment over eight years to support community violence intervention programs. A key part of community violence intervention strategies is to help connect individuals to job training and job opportunities.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is organizing a webinar and toolkit to educate states on how they can use Medicaid to reimburse certain community violence intervention programs, like Hospital-Based Violence Interventions.
Five federal agencies are making changes to 26 different programs to direct vital support to community violence intervention programs as quickly as possible. These changes mean we can start increasing investments in community violence interventions as we wait on Congress to appropriate additional funds. Read more about these agency actions here.
Look at these words…
“…strategies for reducing gun violence in urban communities.”
It’s as if they finally see it!
Chicago. New York. Baltimore.
These are the cities with the highest crime rates…
…and the strictest gun laws.
There’s no coincidence there.
Brainless Executive Action #5: The Justice Department will issue an annual report on firearms trafficking.
Here are the exact words:
In 2000, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) issued a report summarizing information regarding its investigations into firearms trafficking, which is one way firearms are diverted into the illegal market where they can easily end up in the hands of dangerous individuals. Since the report’s publication, states, local, and federal policymakers have relied on its data to better thwart the common channels of firearms trafficking. But there is good reason to believe that firearms trafficking channels have changed since 2000, for example due to the emergence of online sales and proliferation of “ghost guns.” The Justice Department will issue a new, comprehensive report on firearms trafficking and annual updates necessary to give policymakers the information they need to help address firearms trafficking today.
So…
…this executive action is just a report.
No big deal.
Moving on.
Brainless Executive Action #6: The President will nominate David Chipman to serve as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
Exact words:
ATF is the key agency enforcing our gun laws, and it needs a confirmed director in order to do the job to the best of its ability. But ATF has not had a confirmed director since 2015. Chipman served at ATF for 25 years and now works to advance commonsense gun safety laws.
This is ALL BAD.
This guy is an absolute GUN GRABBING NUT.
He used to be an ATF agent, and used the botched WACO incident to push for more gun control.
He’ll be leaving the gun-control group Giffords to head up the ATF.
He once claimed in a post on the social media site Reddit that Branch Davidian members shot down two government helicopters using .50-caliber Barrett rifles.
This is the worst part of the entire order.
Grab Your, “I Am 1776% Sure No One Will Be Taking My Guns” T-Shirt
