Archive for the 'BATFE' Category

Courtesy of JWR.

Did they see this kerfuffle coming from way back and try to poison the well?  You be the judge.

News from Texas.

The first case testing a Trump administration edict outlawing bump stocks failed during a brief federal bench trial in Tuesday in Houston.

A federal prosecutor withdrew the unique charge before the trial began for a Houston man accused of owning the device. However, the defense was prepared to call an ATF expert to testify that bump stocks, attachments that cause a rifle to fire more rapidly, do not render a semiautomatic gun a machine gun.

Senior U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller convicted Ajay Dhingra, 44, on three remaining counts that he lied when he purchased a handgun, rifle and ammunition, and illegally possessed a weapon as a person who had been committed for mental illness.

Experts had conflicting views on the matter, said defense attorney Tom Berg. But Rick Vasquez, a retired ATF agent and firearms expert, would have told the court the bump stock did not meet the statutory definition of a machine gun. The prosecution dismissed case, he said, because the government couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt the bump stock was a machine gun.

Prosecutors don’t indiscriminately drop cases.  They do it if they think they have a bad case and a non-trivial chance of losing, coupled with high consequences of a loss.

This continues a pattern of cases where the ATF feels that continued prosecution of a case could possibly cause a loss in court and a restriction of their ability to enforce other regulations.

It’s good to see this loss, as the bump stock ruling should never have even seen the light of day.

Did the hopeful administration of His Fraudulency Joe Biden collude with the ATF to stir the waters with pistol braces?

November 10th, 2020, during an ATF conference call, Acting Director Regina Lombardo told those in attendance that the anti-gun Biden transition team has reached out to the ATF to get the agency’s “top priorities”.

AmmoLand News’ anonymous source said Lombardo told those on the call that her priorities would be pistol braces and 80% lower receivers.

The Department of Justice told the ATF’s industry side not to move on pistol braces until the agency could be worked out regulations (sic). SB Tactical and other companies have been working with the federal government to clarify the rules surrounding braces. Currently, the rules are very subjective, which means it depends on the reviewer that gets assigned the review to determine if a brace is legal. There is no set standard.

Instead, the rogue ATF’s law enforcement side sent letters to multiple companies stating that their pistol brace firearms were short-barreled rifles (SBRs). Q LLC, which makes the Honey Badger AR pistol, went public with the cease and desist letter that the ATF sent to the company. Because of pressure from the Trump administration and the general public, the agency walked back their demands and gave Q a 60-day reprieve.

[ … ]

Through an executive order, he created Schedule F. The order allows the President to move government workers into the new category to more easily fire them. Trump could send a message by using Schedule F to remove the rogue ATF leadership.

It sure looks that way from where I sit.  And it causes things to make a lot better sense.  Something like pistol braces and SBRs wouldn’t have even been on Trump’s radar screen.

Ammoland.

Gun Owners of America recently filed a lawsuit against the ATF, after the agency blocked Alabama firearms dealers from allowing buyers to use their concealed handgun permits in place of going through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Federal law says that state concealed handgun permits (CHP) that meet or exceed the requirement of section 922(t)(3) of Title 18 can be used by dealers instead of requiring background checks. Alabama’s concealed firearms permit statute meets the federal requirements because sheriffs are supposed to run applicants through NICS before issuing a permit.

The ATF discovered that some sheriffs in Alabama were not using NICS. Some of these sheriffs were running applicants through The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and other federal databases, but not NICS. Yet NCIC is the same database that NICS pulls its information from before returning with a denial or approval. The ATF decided to revoke dealers’ ability to use CHPs because of a few sheriffs’ actions.

[ … ]

… as ATF records show, multiple ATF employees decided it was worth the litigation risk because of “public safety.

Oh it has nothing at all to do with “public safety” and they know it.  That’s a smoke screen.

But it does go to show just how much the ATF is feeling its oats.

Wiley Law.

Despite ATF previously stating that there is no limit to how long or heavy a handgun should be to qualify as “sporting” under section 925(d)(3), ATF private classification letters issued within the past few months indicate that the agency has shifted course by reinterpreting what constitutes a “handgun.” In company-specific letters, ATF takes the position that if a submitted firearm is too long or too heavy, it fails to meet the definition of “handgun” under the Gun Control Act, as it is not “designed to be held and fired by the use of a single hand.” The Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division (FATD) of ATF—which conducts importability evaluations—says that it is taking a subjective approach to the statute by allowing individual examiners to determine if he or she can fire the weapon with one hand without difficulty.

This approach is resulting in inconsistent determinations, of which the regulated community should take note. Within the past few months, at least one HK91 pistol-style submission as light as 8 pounds, with a barrel length of 8-3/4 inches and an overall length of 21-3/4 inches, has been determined to fall outside the definition of “handgun.” This is a change from previous determinations where firearms weighing over 8 pounds, with 20-inch barrels, and an overall length of approximately 31-1/2 inches were held by FATD to be “handguns.” Since the letters are not publicly available, it is impossible for regulated companies to know the full range of FATD’s determinations. This has serious implications for regulated businesses.

In some of the new letters, ATF has begun listing the following “objective design features” when making its evaluations:

• Incorporation of rifle sights;
• Utilization of “rifle caliber ammunition” (both 5.56mm and 7.62mm have been considered as such);
• Incorporation of “rifle-length barrel;”¹
• The “weapon’s heavy weight;”
• Ability to accept magazines that range in capacity from 20 rounds to 100 rounds, “which will contribute to the overall weight of the firearm”; and
• Overall length of the weapon which “creates a front-heavy imbalance when held in one hand.”

However, ATF also noted in the most recent private ruling that the above design features are “neither binding on future classifications nor is any factor individually determinative[.]” ATF explained without elaboration that “the statutory and regulatory definitions provide the appropriate standard in classifying the firearm.” ATF concluded that “a firearm that is too large, too heavy or . . . otherwise not designed to be held and fired in one hand (as demonstrated by the objective features) cannot be a handgun under the statutory definition and cannot be subject to importation criteria governing handguns.” In light of ATF’s subjective and inconsistent analysis of size and weight, it is difficult to predict how the agency will classify any given firearm under this standard.

As was always the intent.  The bureaucratic state is always the implementing organ of communism, and law enforcement is always the underwriter of its rules and regulations.

Ammoland.

In 2019, according to multiple sources including those at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATF), the former Department Assistant Director of Enforcement Programs and Services, Curtis W Gilbert, discussed pistol braces at multiple meetings with other ATF employees.

In his opinion, pistol braces, specifically the SB Tactical SBA4, are stocks. He hinted that the ATF would take regulatory action against the devices designed to help disabled people use firearms.

The current Department Assistant Director of Enforcement Programs and Services Andrew Graham has also expressed hostility to pistol braces in internal ATF meetings with staff members. The same sources believe that the ATF didn’t move on the pistol braces earlier because the agency didn’t think they had the political capital to regulate braces.

It’s sad that Americans have put up with such tyranny.  It’s even more sad that some of the tyrants are in the House and Senate, and that all of this infringement couldn’t have been dealt with sooner.

Ammoland.

Internal ATF documents obtained by Gun Owners of America show that the agency, once again, is asserting powers not given it by Congress.

This time, the agency appears to be gearing up to force out-of-business federal firearms licensees (“FFL”) to turn over their remaining firearms in inventory to other dealers — even though federal law explicitly allows former dealers to transfer these firearms to their own personal collection.  ATF has even threatened prosecution of former dealers who do not comply with ATF’s unlawful requirement.

For years, ATF operated within the rules Congress established.  When an FFL ceases business operations, any firearms remaining in inventory may be transferred either to another dealer or to the licensee’s own personal collection.  Either way, the disposition for each and every firearm must be recorded in the dealer’s “acquisition and disposition” (A&D) book.  The A&D book, along with other records, must then be transferred either to the ATF out-of-business center, or to a successor licensee who takes over the business.

This is the system set up by federal law.  For example, 18 U.S.C. Section 923(c) makes clear that it is perfectly acceptable for a dealer to maintain a “personal collection” of firearms, and even to transfer firearms from business inventory to that collection.  And, of course, once a dealer goes out of business, he is no longer a “licensee” under the Gun Control Act, and has no record-keeping duties under the statute.  He is entirely a private party, and any firearms that have previously become part of his personal collection are treated no differently than for any other gun owner.

Only the real tyrants get to make the rules.  The petty tyrants are the House and Senate.  The real controllers are the ones who can make up laws out of whole cloth and do anything they want to do about “violators.”

David Codrea.

It also provides an opportunity to get to the bottom of who exactly at ATF has been behind the move before the suspension is withdrawn. That’s because my attorney, Stephen Stamboulieh, filed a Freedom of Information Act request on my behalf asking for documents that could reveal who authorized the determination that the  National Firearms Act had been violated and that Q, LLC, and thousands of gun owners could be considered in criminal violation.

The window of opportunity could close before the 20-business days ATF has to respond to the FOIA have passed if Joe Biden wins the election on November 3. That’s because certain facts, and the absence of certain information, have led to the speculation that the move was made by entrenched ATF employees seeking to demoralize gun owners by having “Trump’s ATF” enact another negative ruling against them.

This is a great idea and I wish I had thought of it.

Not, by the way, that I have any confidence that anything will really be done about it, even if rogue employees or directors are proven to have intentionally poisoned the well.

Dean Weingarten.

One source confirmed the AmmoLand article by John Crump on 8 October was “on the money”.  It was claimed Associate Deputy Director Marvin Richardson was quite upset with John Crump’s AmmoLand article.

In the article, sources inside the ATF state Acting Director Regina Lombardo is “not loyal to the president”.  They state Associate Director Marvin Richardson believes pistol braces “violate the NFA”.

An Acting Director of the ATF is not required to be personally loyal to a President, but they should be expected to follow DOJ directives.

Lombardo was next in line after Acting Director Thomas B. Brandon retired at the end of April of 2019. The simplest thing to do was to make her Acting Director while waiting for approval of a direct appointment by President Trump.

GOA actively worked to prevent the appointment of Chuck Canterbury.  That meant Lombardo continued on as Acting Director, at least through the election.  The Giffords organization, which seeks numerous restrictions on gun ownership and use, approved of Lombardo’s appointment as acting director.

Don’t take at least part of the blame off Trump.  He didn’t have to nominate controller Canterbury.  He also didn’t have to do the “easy” thing and nominate this traitor Lombardo to head the ATF, even in the interim.

Trump could stop listening to his awful aids, Wayne LaPierre, and everyone else who is either (a) ignorant on how a nominee will affect the gun community, or (b) wants ill affects on the gun community and a reduction of liberty.

But give a controller and inch, and she’ll take a mile.  Part of the blame goes to Lombardo, as well as the fact that life bureaucrats cannot be fired.  This is the administrative state at its worst.

The comments are interesting, from people who blame Trump (in which they are at least partially correct) to others who are willing to make concessions (Fudds, we would call them).

Ok, so I have read all the responses and most are ban the ATF and other alphabet organizations. How about this. Lets just make it law that all hand held firearms are legal so long as they are not automatic. If you want auto, get the stamp, pay the fees and make your AR AK auto, no more of this bullshit law about how it has to have been made before a certain date. That was just another ploy to keep them out of the hands of commoners like me. I can’t afford 15,000 for a fully auto and there are so few that they go for more than that and the rich people are the only ones that can afford them.

This is a mind-numbingly daft comment.  So the infringements are what caused the elevated prices he complains about, causing him the complete inability to obtain fully automatic weapons (1986 GCA).

That follows the first part, where he is willing at a moment’s notice to give up (” … all hand held firearms are legal so long as they are not automatic”).  In other words, as long as I have gotten used to the infringements on my liberty, we’ll keep those going forward as long as you spare me a few crumbs of freedom.

How about this.

No.

Eradicate the alphabet agencies, which have no basis or legitimacy in the constitution.

We covered the idea that the recent ATF movements to regulate AR pistol braces as NFA items would have some blowback of Trump support.  There has been further development.

Washington Examiner.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has temporarily backed off criminalizing a type of gun used by 3-4 million people in the United States until after the presidential election, likely stoking the issue of gun control.

The New Hampshire maker of a popular styled AR-15 “pistol” today said that the ATF suspended its surprise decision made last week to outlaw the gun, called the “Honey Badger” pistol.

Q, LLC told customers, “Our attorneys received a letter from ATF Chief Counsel Joel Roessner ‘temporarily suspending the Cease and Desist letter’ associated with the Honey Badger Pistol by Q. The letter states that the suspension, will remain in effect for a period of sixty (60) days … unless withdrawn or extended by ATF.’ The stated purpose of the suspension is to allow the Department of Justice an opportunity, ‘to further review the applicability of the National Firearms Act to the manufacture and transfer of the model Honey Badger Pistol firearm.’”

It said the move will delay, though not reverse, the earlier cease and desist until after the election, a tactic the company decried.

“We believe this 60-day suspension is an effort to put manufacturers, distributors, and consumers at ease, and to postpone the issue past the presidential election in hopes that a new administration will take a different view,” said the company, adding, “using licensees as political pawns is unbecoming of a regulatory agency and ignoring the underlying evaluation in this letter is simply irresponsible. Q will not succumb to this level or irresponsibility. Therefore, without further clarification from ATF on their evaluation, we will not continue manufacturing the Honey Badger Pistol.”

[ … ]

Trump officials had been concerned that it would look like the president’s team was targeting the weapon in a move that could turn the 3-4 million owners into felons unless they dismantled or changed their weapons.

However, it is expected that if Joe Biden wins election, the ATF will move forward, likely targeting all of the makers of AR pistols, and even ban the AR-15, dubbed by liberals as an assault weapon.

Well this is fascinating.  The article clearly says that “Trump officials had been concerned …”

So apparently they took notice, and noted that this would involve millions of gun owners should this interpretation become finalized.

The article also hints at the fact that the ATF believes that pistol braces violate the NFA, and want to push this in a potential upcoming administration.

They’re banking on a specific election outcome, and clearly signaling their intentions.

Trump officials should have divorced themselves from Wayne LaPierre and taken notice much earlier concerning their bump stock ban.  That involves half a million bump stock owners who became felons overnight.

They’re slow to react and have poor character judgment, not to mention poor proclivities regarding the 2A.

But of course, a Biden administration would be worse, and the ATF knows it.  They have the cover they need should the election outcome go their way.