David Codrea:

“We have the avenue to attack both the machine gun ban and the NFA with the BATFE’s recent approval of a number of Form 1s,” Stamboulieh advised on his GoFundMe page. “I have a number of clients that I will be filing a lawsuit on behalf of to seek to overturn the ban and the NFA in different states.”

The Hughes Amendment is certainly an unconstitutional abomination, but in this case I have my doubts that any federal court will overturn it based on the weakness of D.C v. Heller.  That’s a shame for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the U.S. will fall behind the rest of the world in the development of automatic weapons technology.  Who makes the M249 SAW, and why is a foreign company the only one who can design an open bolt machine suitable for that purpose?

Kurt Hofmann:

As home manufacture of guns becomes more and more accessible to more and more people, “gun control” laws will become more and more irrelevant. A southern California radio station, KPCC, recently interviewed UCLA Constitutional law professor Adam Winkler, who has never been what anyone would call a staunch defender of private ownership of firearms. He doesn’t sound happy.

Kurt is all over the democratization of firearms ownership, this liberty being a positive sign.  For those of use who can afford it, fine precision-machined weapons made from the finest engineered alloys that we can hand down to our children’s children is the best bet.  But I look forward to future developments in home manufacturing.

Via Uncle, Joe Biden says we need another James Brady.  He just makes you shake your head, doesn’t he?

Mike Vanderboegh:

As the article notes, in the aftermath of the OKC bombing elements within the Clinton administration wanted to use the excuse to suppress the constitutional militia movement by measures that would have demanded — with all the force of the federal government backing it up — that we publish our memberships lists, required us to register as “paramilitary organizations” with the Feds and to get permission from them before doing any training.

On 6 Oct 1995, the Clinton political operative Dick Morris wrote in a memo to White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, as well as Deputy Chiefs of Staff Erskine Bowles and Harold Ickes:

“The public overwhelmingly supports a significant expansion in the FBI’s ability to investigate militia groups. If you and the Justice Department believe such an expansion would be in the public interest, I would recommend that we go ahead with it with a high profile announcement.”

Read the rest at Mike’s place.  There was significant disagreement over this strategy for reasons that Mike explains.  But what’s interesting to me is the actors (Leon Panetta, Erskine Bowles, Dick Morris, all of whom are collectivists) and what they were prepared to perpetrate.  The heart of the totalitarian is violence as an exclusive-use procedure, exclusively used to deal with perceived problems and exclusively in the hands of those in power.