Federal Firearms Serialization Is Sinful Tyranny
BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 4 months ago
As you likely know, Justice Alito has given the federal government until Tuesday, or in other words, extended the stay on Judge’s Reed O’Conner’s vacatur of the new ATF rule to serialize incomplete lower receivers. Of course, we don’t know where this is all headed. The SCOTUS could remand this for decision consistent with Bruen, or sustain the vacatur for parties involved, or they have other options. Since this emergency appeal by the DOJ has been accepted by the SCOTUS, doing nothing is now not possible. They will do something, but we’ll have to wait until Tuesday to find out (or perhaps Wednesday).
Below, professor Mark Smith does a service by reviewing the history of firearms serialization in both the U.K and America. There is basically no history of serialization in America, and certainly no history of requiring firearms to be serialized at the time of our founding. In other words, there is no analogue law to which the DOJ and ATF can turn. It isn’t enough to say that firearms loaned to the militia by the government were serialized. That was for a different purpose, i.e., tracking government property. The ATF rule pertains to privately owned firearms.
Watch all of Mark Smith’s presentation. But before you get to that, remember that the founders toted long guns to school with them in order to hunt on the way to and from classes. Those were either purchased from a smith (with no serialization) or self-made (of course, with no serialization). The founders would have opposed such schema.
In 1 Samuel 13:19f, we read this.
Now no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.” So all Israel went down to the Philistines, each to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, and his hoe. The charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to fix the cattle goads.
This is considered by commentators to be a great evil. Matthew Henry comments, “See how politic the Philistines were when they had power; they not only prevented the people of Israel from making weapons of war, but obliged them to depend upon their enemies, even for instruments of husbandry. How impolitic Saul was, who did not, in the beginning of his reign, set himself to redress this. Want of true sense always accompanies want of grace. Sins which appear to us very little, have dangerous consequences. Miserable is a guilty, defenceless nation; much more those who are destitute of the whole armour of God.” In Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, we read this. “Now there was no smith found throughout … Israel—The country was in the lowest state of depression and degradation. The Philistines, after the great victory over the sons of Eli, had become the virtual masters of the land. Their policy in disarming the natives has been often followed in the East. For repairing any serious damage to their agricultural implements, they had to apply to the neighboring forts.” John Gill remarks “this they did to prevent their having arms, and the use of them, that they might not rebel against them, and fight with them, and overcome them; it was a piece of policy to keep them subject to them.”
Subjection of others is always the goal. As I’ve observed before, the desire to control others is the signal pathology of the wicked. Men who would become the almighty desire to steal the power and authority of the most high God to themselves, and the result is always tyranny. Those rulers are always fake, a ghost of righteousness, a phantom, unreal, a vapor in the wind. There is nothing righteous about tyrannical rulers, but the history of tyranny is dark. In the twentieth century, some 212,000,000 souls were lost at the hands of tyrannical governments across the globe.
The firearms serialization schema is sinful, and points to deeper problems of the soul among those who call for such control over other men. Control over other men never leads to righteous results.
Never compromise with this wickedness. Oppose it at every turn. Take names and hold grudges.
On August 7, 2023 at 2:20 am, FeralFerret said:
“Subjection of others is always the goal.”
That is the absolute truth, both then and now.
On August 7, 2023 at 2:46 am, Phil Ossiferz Stone said:
Very nicely and completely put.
On August 7, 2023 at 5:21 am, jrg said:
My problem with serial #s is the requirement that registration of an item with the person that owns it. Permission from the government for transfer private property to another is wrong. People are not property of the government and laws that make them property are wrong.
Serial numbers do not make the item more or less deadly.
On August 7, 2023 at 7:31 am, Eric Martin Larson said:
Interesting historical perspective that fails to confirm that a lot of the serialization of firearms happened because it was a way for manufacturers to keep track of firearms, e.g., knowing how many were manufactured, using the serial numbers as inventory mechanisms, to identify various models and variations that used particular parts. I think the Gun Control Act of 1968 was and is an effort to enable the Government (and law enforcement) to identify and track firearms used in crimes; not just folks shooting each other, but more critically firearms trafficking, and provisions such as making it illegal for the resident of one state to buy a firearm in another state, in view of state laws that vary in their regulation (and, these days) prohibition of certain types of firearms, e.g., so-called “assault weapons” and the like.
On August 7, 2023 at 10:41 am, Latigo Morgan said:
Getting ready to make this comment, I started doing some online research to back up what I was taught in an Asian History class back in my college days. It is regarding the history of chopsticks and why Asians started using them.
Now, what I was taught in my history book is that some emperor or another enacted knife and sword bans, so chopsticks were what people started using. The peasants would have to take their food to a government approved butcher to have their foods chopped up for them.
Current online research had the reasons for chopstick adoption to be anything from Confucious teaching pacifism and vegetarianism to fuel conservation.
The King of Siam (present day Thailand) broke away from that tradition to be more like Europeans and ordered his people to eat with spoons and forks. Most Thai folks primarily use a spoon to eat their food, now.
Anyway, my rambling point is that chopsticks are a reminder of government control over sharp objects, despite what the history revisionists would like us to believe.
On August 7, 2023 at 4:04 pm, Sisu said:
This was a very interesting history lesson. I had suspected that “serialization” was founded on the government “piggy-backing” on manufacturers using “identifying sequencing” for product quality control, changes in design, etc., and only more recently for “warranty” / “product liability” reasons.
Regardless, I note Prof. Smith did not put any links on his Youtube post; and I do not post on Youtube. Here are relevant posts Prof. Smith mentions in his intro (beg. at approx. 1:43mn):
https://michellawyers.com/attorney-profile/konstadinos-t-moros/
https://www.stcl.edu/about-us/faculty/dru-stevenson/
https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/pa-history/article/90/2/155/352020/A-Moravian-Rifle-Goes-to-War-Disarming-and-Arming
On August 7, 2023 at 9:43 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Thanks for the links.
On August 8, 2023 at 6:53 am, Latigo Morgan said:
My take on serialization:
Great for inventory control for the manufacturer and the owners. Manufacturer finds a defect in a batch of serial #xxxx through xxxxx and issues a recall for those.
Owner has an extensive collection and uses the serial # to keep track of them. Serial # is also used to find date of manufacture for firearms, adding to collectible value; and in case of theft, can establish definitive ownership.
Serialization for government control, and tracking and charging someone with a felony and 10 yrs in prison for not having a serial number on their tools? Pure evil.
On August 8, 2023 at 9:38 am, PGF said:
Sisu, the history of car license plate tags is similar. The manufacturers kept track of units rolling off the assembly line with tags. The lower tag number numbers were a point of pride for early new car buyers of wealth, a lower number meant a first-run model. And, then, as you can imagine, the government loved the idea of tagging everyone’s car and now you pay a tax to use your own property.
On August 8, 2023 at 1:10 pm, Rick said:
This is quite stirring. I agree but object in part. Namely, to hold grudges.
Nay, I say. So does our Father who is LORD and Christ, Jesus.
We wrestle not against flesh, so do not personalize this struggle. Also, Matthew 6:14,15.
Otherwise, I am in full agreement with what is here written.