Dean Weingarten.

A three-judge panel issued an opinion on the case in the Fifth Circuit on December 14, 2022.

The three judge panel refused to consider either the separation of powers issues, or the Chevron doctrine, claiming they were irrelevant because the panel ruled bump stocks were machine guns.

The Fifth Circuit was asked to consider the case en banc,  which is to say, before the entire court, by a member of the Court. A majority of the members of the Fifth Circuit agreed to hear the case, en banc.

The trend of the case follows the GOA case in the Sixth Circuit. The Sixth Circuit agreed to hear the bump stock case en banc. The Sixth Circuit split evenly, with eight members voting to rule the bump stock regulation invalid and eight-member voting to rule for the government.  In the case of a tie vote, the district court ruling was upheld. The GOA case was denied a writ of certiorari on October 3 of, 2022.

The Cargill v. Garland oral arguments were heard by the Fifth Circuit, en banc, on September 13, 2022.

There is a good chance the Fifth Circuit will reverse the opinion of the district court. A majority of the Court agreed to hear the case, starting fresh, en banc. If the Fifth Circuit reverses the opinion and finds for Cargill, the case will create a split in the Circuits between the Tenth, the Sixth, and the Fifth circuits.

This gives the Supreme Court a strong incentive to hear the case.

Maybe.

But it’s either cowardice or mere stupidity that anyone can look at the description of a machine gun in the law and conclude that a bump stock turns a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun.

The Supreme Court isn’t immune from cowardice and stupidity.  Therefore, I hold out no hope that the SCOTUS will reverse this awful decision.

As I’ve said before, I have no bump stocks and no arms braces.  But that’s not the point.

It doesn’t matter whether I have them – the only thing that matters is whether free men should have to suffer the infringement of controllers who want to disarm them.  And … whether a federal bureaucracy has the authority to make law in lieu of the Congress.

I don’t know why he didn’t shoot (maybe licensing or permitting), but he certainly had nerves of steel to be bluff-charged by a bear like that.

Source.

Source:

More than 500 retired U.S. military personnel — including scores of generals and admirals — have taken lucrative jobs since 2015 working for foreign governments, mostly in countries known for human rights abuses and political repression, according to a Washington Post investigation.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, 15 retired U.S. generals and admirals have worked as paid consultants for the Defense Ministry since 2016. The ministry is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, who U.S. intelligence agencies say approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist, as part of a brutal crackdown on dissent.

Saudi Arabia’s paid advisers have included retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, a national security adviser to President Barack Obama, and retired Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who led the National Security Agency under Obama and President George W. Bush, according to documents obtained by The Post under Freedom of Information Act lawsuits.

Others who have worked as consultants for the Saudis since Khashoggi’s murder include a retired four-star Air Force general and a former commanding general of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Most of the retired U.S. personnel have worked as civilian contractors for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf monarchies, playing a critical, though largely invisible, role in upgrading their militaries.

Seems that K Street (US Government Lobbying Firms) doesn’t pay what it used to. The article is very long and detailed.

The Drill, Clint Smith

100 rounds

Targets Standard white paper plates and a 3” X 5” index card at 15 yards for all exercises will be used. Stack dinner plates one above the other with the index card placed above the top dinner plate.

Marksmanship “Shoot well not fast” From the ready position fire 10 singles on chosen target. From the ready position fire 5 sighted doubles. (Practice your trigger reset.)

Loading Put one round in your handgun, fire, when the gun goes empty keep the muzzle on the target and reload. “An empty gun is not bad luck; it’s simply a reality of being in a fight.” Keep the gun between you and the target and reload. Do this Drill 10 times.

Non-Compliant Threats From the ready position fire 2 shots on the center plate and 1 shot on the card. Do this 2 times. Fire 3 shots on the center plate and 1 on the card. Do this 2 times. Fire 2 shots on the center plate, 2 shots on the lower plate and 1 shot on the card. Do this 1 time. Slow down for your head shots. “Remember the head is not a smaller target, it’s just different.”

Drawing Practice our drawing stroke smoothly, speed comes with practice. Fast is spelled SMOOOOTH. With an UNLOADED firearm draw 10 to 15 times correctly, and smoothly, following through to include a sight picture and hammer fall. (Remember your dry fire practice rules.) Load, draw and fire 10 singles, holstering between shots. Remember safety on and finger straight while holstering. While drawing take one step back and fire 1 shot. Do this 10 times. Remember: M & M. “Maximize the distance, minimize the threat.”

Malfunctions “Fights and family vacations have something in common, they rarely come out the way they were planned.” Leave the magazine unseated with one in the chamber and fire when ready. Stick a piece of brass in the top of the ejection port. Set up a double feed. The response is always the same, when the gun does not fire. Tap the magazine. Rack the slide harder and attempt to fire. If it still doesn’t work, remove the magazine and place under your strong hand little finger. Rack the slide 3 times and reload the gun and fire if you have a valid target. Run variations 5 times and after clearing, fire 1 shot to complete the cycle of operation in your head. Go slow and do it correctly. You have 21 rounds for this portion.

Strong and Support Hand Fire 5 shots strong hand only from the ready position, carefully transfer the gun to your support hand and fire 5 shots. Go slowly and carefully, speed and skill will come with time – and practice. Depending on your skill level lessen the distance if you’re not hitting the target. Only hits count!! Beginners should start at 5 yards and move back as skill increases.

Source:

“A $1,000 fine for simply exercising your God-given right to keep and bear arms unless you bow down, buy insurance, and kiss their ring is simply atrocious,” said one opponent about the city’s new rules.

There are better ways to frame the argument both to TPB and as a way to educate CCW holders. We’ll warn you one more time; carry insurance will lead to registration of at least the firearms you intend to carry.

San Jose’s new gun control law just got a bit stricter.

Gun owners in the nation’s 10th largest city who disobey a requirement to carry liability insurance and pay a yearly fee will have to fork over up to $1,000 in fines as part of San Jose’s unique and controversial push to combat gun violence — a novel legislative approach that has triggered a challenge in federal court and has 2nd Amendment supporters up in arms.

This is akin to saying; we’ll stop hit-and-run, uninsured Mexican drivers by requiring law-abiding drivers to carry extra insurance. Oh, wait, that’s already the law in TN and other states.

The insurance and fee requirements — first approved by council members in January — make San Jose the first city in America to impose such rules against gun owners.

Proponents of the new mandate, championed by Mayor Sam Liccardo since 2019, argue that it will motivate safer gun handling and help counter the public cost of gun violence, which health officials found in a May report amounts to $72 million a year for Santa Clara County.

But opponents, who filed a lawsuit against the requirements moments after the council passed them in January, argue that the rules are unconstitutional, burdensome and that the city hasn’t proven they will prevent gun violence. Plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit are the Colorado-based National Association for Gun Rights, the state’s Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and San Jose resident Mark Sikes.

And if we visit, *checks notes*; never mind, we don’t go to communist California. But what if somebody did want to visit San Jose; do they need insurance?

This is surely illegal:

The ordinance also mandates that gun owners pay a $25 fee every year to a nonprofit that will distribute funds to mental health and suicide prevention services for those who own a firearm or live with someone who does. The nonprofit is being set up by local health officials and academics will provide a bi-annual report on its work.

How do they know who has guns and who pays? King Charles, to his credit, was at least straightforward about his intent.

Via WoG

 Source:

The Netherlands has deployed four armed ground robots or unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), making it the first NATO country to do so. The robots are Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry Systems (THeMIS) UGVs built by the Estonian defense company Milrem Robotics. It has treads like a tank and can use a variety of weapons. Photos provided by the Dutch military show their UGVs outfitted with machine guns.

The three pictured here at TCJ are not necessarily the same model that’s being fielded.

Here’s a video with the companies involved shown at the end. Here’s another video of the UGV in multiple terrains, weather conditions, and various configurations. And here’s a robot “dog” with, what the article claims, is a mounted Russian PP-19-01 “Vityaz” submachine gun.

The UGV looks fairly easy to de-track.

Janes, a military and intelligence trade journal, first reported the story. The UGVs were first deployed on September 12 and, according to the Dutch Ministry of Defense (MOD), are an experiment. 

“We have deployed four weaponised [unmanned] machines within an operational experiment”, Lieutenant Colonel Sjoerd Mevissen, commander of the Royal Netherlands Army’s Robotics and Autonomous System, told Janes. “To my knowledge, we have not seen this before in the West…the machines have been handed over for experimental use in an operational unit in a military-relevant environment. These are not simply tests on a training ground. We are under the direct eyes and ears of the Russians, and as such in a semi-operational environment.”

The machine-gun-toting robots aren’t the first the world has ever seen. Estonia first deployed an unarmed version of THeMIS in Mali in 2019. This Russian MoD confirmed it deployed armed UGVs in Syria in 2018. Iran has also been developing its own UGVs and showed off its Heidair-1 on social media in 2019. Iran’s small beetle-like drone seems designed to roll under tanks and APCs and explode.

There’s a lot of modularity to the design, which is good. It’s also helpful because they keep increasing the loadout of a soldier’s pack while lowering the physical standards. Perhaps each soldier should get, um, her own robot personal assistant. It was better when America was a serious country. In all seriousness, the modular design enabling conversion to various roles seems like a worthwhile feature.

Both Russia’s Uran-9 and Estonia’s THeMIS are bigger and can carry more deadly equipment. The Uran-9 is capable of carrying a 30mm 2A72 automatic cannon and four 9M120-1 Ataka anti-tank guided missiles, which makes it look like a frightening and deadly killer robot. However, early reports indicate that Russia’s UGV didn’t work well in Syria and repeatedly lost connection to its controller.

Via Instapundit

Source:

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee announced on Thursday that they would be calling a former top FBI official to testify before Congress to address claims that the Biden administration pressured agents to label cases as domestic extremism or a white supremacist threat even if they did not meet that criteria in order to match Joe Biden’s rhetoric.

The seal of the F.B.I. hangs in the Flag Room at the bureau’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Last month, current and former FBI agents came forward claiming the Biden administration has been deliberately exaggerating the danger posed by white supremacists. According to the whistleblowers, high-ranking FBI officials were pressuring field agents to fabricate domestic terrorism cases and label people as white supremacists in order to “meet internal metrics.”

“The demand for white supremacy” coming from FBI brass “vastly outstrips the supply of white supremacy,” one agent told the Washington Times. “We have more people assigned to investigate white supremacists than we can actually find.”

The Republicans are big proponents of supply-side reasoning; perhaps they can help?

Maybe, just maybe, there are a few good apples left? But we’re not counting on it; that would be unwise.

Note: Tagged Gospel Witness with the other posts in this series.

If you haven’t read the Gospel Witness posts, start here. You need to learn how to share the Gospel clearly and with purpose. The harder times get, the more people will be looking for answers. If you’re God’s, you’ve got the answers they need.

“Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” – Acts 16:29-30

If the lost sinner asks questions during your talk, that’s usually a good indicator of their involvement. However, it’s not necessarily a bad thing if they don’t. Some come under very hard conviction and receive what the word of God says in short order without much fuss. But some get more involved in the conversation as you explain the shared verses.

What we’re doing is having a directed conversation. We don’t want to get off of our current topic or off point, which has the potential to disrupt the conversation. Remember, the dialogue is between the lost sinner and the Holy Spirit of God. Don’t get distracted. This prevents the lost sinner from also drifting. Stay on topic (1 Corinthians 2:2).

“Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?” – John 4:10-11

The Samaritan woman at the well asks Jesus a great question. It’s both constructive to the conversation and within the context of the immediate discussion. She asks; where is this living water?

If a lost sinner asks questions within the context of that truth being discussed, simply answer the question. It’s a good indication that they understand and want to know Jesus. Good questions will help the lost sinner confess their understanding and need for salvation.

As with questions in context, if a question is somewhat out of context but nonetheless constructive to driving the point of their need for salvation through Jesus Christ on the cross, these questions should also be answered. Questions not out of scope should be answered. This helps the witness build the case for salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and is an excellent opportunity to drive home the lost sinner’s need for salvation.

If the question doesn’t help the topic at hand, the best thing to do is tell the lost sinner that you’ll come back to that question. You can answer the question after your talk. Regardless of how the conversation goes, bring the topic back up at the end of the discussion.

You can also defer if you don’t know the answer to a question. You will be asked questions that you can’t answer. Stay calm when this happens. It’s important that the lost sinner not lose confidence in the witness. We tell them, again in this case, that you’ll come back to that. After your talk, simply admit that you don’t fully know the answer. You can offer to meet them again or invite them to church with you, where you can provide a researched solution.

Those are the simplest ways to handle the most common situations with questions. It doesn’t matter if they ask you to explain a more profound or different doctrinal truth than is in the verse you’re discussing. And it doesn’t matter if we know the answer or not. And it doesn’t even matter if a question is out of context or not constructive to the case for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In these several ways, handling a lost sinner’s question can apply to any type of enquiry.

Every question has the potential to be asked again by somebody else. Some questions are common, so we should incorporate that knowledge into how we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ while learning and growing as a Soul Winner.

That’s a clue: when you are asked the same question more than once. We should treat each of the people we contact as also being a messenger to us. When asked about any topic in your talk with a contact, be they lost or saved, there may be at least one of three things happening.

1. God is demanding that you be able to answer this question. This is the most likely reason. If you are faithful, His purposes in this will be evident to you soon.
2. Your presentation of this concept is incomplete and needs a supporting verse or a more thorough explanation as you share it.
3. Holy God is preparing you to be able to share this point later with somebody else that He will save. God will plant a seed in you that is a pivotal truth your next contact needs to hear so that they realize salvation by faith and get saved. You have to see these workings of Holy God to believe them.

The faithful witness is often given things to say and verses to share ahead of time because God has prepared the heart of the next soul that you contact to hear this message and be converted. You can see the Kingdom of God in action firsthand, being part of God’s plan to see souls converted!

Finding correlating verses that support the concept of that truth solves all three potential reasons. Your ability to relate the idea within the question may be used shortly with another lost soul to help that lost sinner make the hurdle of faith in Jesus Christ. Don’t regret forsaking the research that’s needed. Any questions or areas of trouble should be examined that same day. This will have you working with the Holy Spirit as you go to share the Gospel the next time.

You’ve all heard about FFLs and gunsmiths being pressured to tell the FedGov everything about everyone, as well as banks in the pocket of big government and tracking gun and ammunition sales.  Yes, you have.  Well, there is nothing new about this.

The colonies fought a war over this sort of thing.  But then, I think they were of stouter stock than we.

Always remember the roots of the desire to control others.

Source.

In the 1840s and 1850s, companies in Liege, Belgium, produced thousands of double-barreled percussion shotguns. These imported 12-gauge models were popular among American hunters. At the onset of the Civil War, there is no evidence that state or national entities purchased these weapons in any significant number, but many merchants would for private sale.

While most of these imports did not have many markings on them, some did bear the popular Liege stamp, and a few had information linking them to American dealers inscribed on their barrels. Markings were typically located on the gun’s lock. Some, however, displayed markings on the barrel rib, the piece connecting the two barrels.

When they enlisted, many mounted Southerners brought their personal shotguns with them. The 52-inch length allowed a cavalryman to reload easily while riding, and the two barrels delivered heavy damage at close range. They could also be reloaded quicker than the 20 seconds it usually would take to load a rifled musket.

Southern blockade runners continued importing inexpensive Belgian shotguns throughout the war, as verified by the presence of several cases among many U.S. naval vessels’ prizes-of-war lists. Some of these captured shipments show markings of the Confederate gun companies to which they were being shipped, put there by an agent who had inspected the weapons for his company before it was shipped from a European port.

At the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Mo., in August 1861, and during the 1862 New Mexico Campaign, close combat favored Confederates armed with shotguns against Union troops carrying rifled weapons.

Shotguns have always been, and will continue to be, used in warfare.  It’s a great CQB weapon and for that reason also a great home defense weapon.

My understanding is that it takes a shell of 2.5″ in length, or more precisely, 2 + 9/16″.  You cannot shoot modern 2.5″ shells in it.  It’s also my understanding that these go for around $200 – $300, although when someone tells you that “This gun was used in the civil war,” that’s almost impossible to prove unless it has papers and was associated with some well-known officer.

But if you could find such a gun with papers and proof or ownership and history, it would be a nice find as a C&R.