Category Archives: BATFE

Will Someone Please Reign This Agency In

May 28, 2010

The BATFEces is at it again. They have changed a 40 year old interpretation of a law.

Reversing an interpretation of the Gun Control Act that has been on the books for more than four decades, ATF today posted a ruling declaring any shipment of a firearm by a manufacturer (FFL) to any agent or business (e.g., an engineering-design firm, patent lawyer, testing lab, gun writer, etc.) for a bona fide business purpose to be a “transfer” under the Gun Control Act of 1968.  As a consequence, legitimate business-related shipments will now require the recipient to complete a Form 4473 and undergo a Brady criminal background check.  In many instances, these requirements will force shipments to a third party, thereby lengthening the process and the time that the firearm is in transit.

What do I find troubling about this? It is not that this ruling will affect a large number of people. It is the arbitrariness (Is that a word? If not, it should be.) of it. There is no reason to have made this change. Not one firearm transferred under these conditions has been used in a crime. Yet, they feel the need to suddenly change the interpretation.

Also posted in 2nd Amendment, Tyrrany, weapons – Comments Off

Ever Wonder If Obama (and other Dems) Want to Tell People In His Administration “Shut Up!”

February 28, 2010

Attorney General Eric Holder states that the administration will seek a permanent “assault weapons” ban and other gon control measures.

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

“As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters.

I will pick apart some of the things that he is attributed as saying in the article:

  1. The AR15 is now one of the most common rifles in the USA. Part of the Heller decision was that firearms in common use can not be banned. Thus, this would fail the test. The same can probably said for other firearms they seek to ban.
  2. The infamous “cop killer” bullets – This usually refers to ammunition designed to pierce body armor, which is already illegal to sale to civilians. The only other thing I can think they are referring to is rifle ammunition. Except for SWAT teams, police officers generally don’t wear body armor that can stop rifle ammunition. The reason is simple, it is extremely unlikely that a street cop will face rifle fire. The only other round I can think they would be wanting to ban is 5.7x28mm round. This round is often called a “cop killer” round because it was originally offered in an armor piercing configuration. Before the law changed, they stopped selling the armor piercing version of the round.
  3. The gun smuggling to Mexico – This has repeatedly been proven to be a red herring. The vast majority of weapons in the drug cartels’ hands are stolen from the Mexican military (these were sold to them legally and with US government support). So, of course they show up as coming from the USA. Their is weapon smuggling. But, it is not the major source of cartel weaponry.
  4. The “gun show loophole” – There is no loophole for gunshows. This is the right of every day citizens to transfer property between each other without government interference. These transactions are still illegal if the seller knows, or even has reason to suspect, that the buyer can not legally possess the weapon. Any firearms dealer at a gunshow has to still perform background checks on any buyers. Just because they are not in their normal storefront location does not change the law.
  5. Right now many Second Amendment rights supporters are willing to give Democrats the benefit of the doubt right now. If the administration and/or party leadership manages to strongarm the Democrats in congress into passing this legislation. The next elections will make the Republican take over of Congress in 1994 look mild by comparison. Most likely, unless the Republicans completely screw up their choice for President, the next Presidential election would also go to them. The fact is, the majority of people in this country do now see gun control measures as being useless and strongly object to them. The Democrats who have been elected to Congress recently have largely been put there with understanding that they will not pass gun control. If it passes, it might destro the Democratic party for a long time.

A not inconsequential side note. The companies that produce the assault weapons (and all of the side gear), employ a good number of Americans in well paying jobs. In the current economy, passing a new AWB will hurt the economy.

Also posted in 2nd Amendment, AR15, America, Fascism in America, Government, Heller, Obama, President, Supreme Court, Tyrrany, civil rights, discrimination, firearms, politics, weapons – Comments Off

Another Person Railroaded by the BATFE

April 7, 2009

Gun Shop Owner Serving 27 Years for an Arson Who Most likely Did Not Commit

Curtis Severns, the former owner of a firearms store in Plano, Tx., has been accused and convicted of arson by BATFE investigators. This is despite the facts that he did not have a motive and leading national arson experts say that the fire was caused by a frayed electrical cord. This man is another victim in the BATFE’s war against firearms dealers and owners.

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Only 17.63% of Firearms in Mexican Crimes Traced to USA

April 2, 2009

Only 17.63% of Firearms in Mexican Crimes Traced to USA

Boobs and Pistols

Boobs and Pistols

I know many of my readers don’t trust Fox news. So, I have pulled the relevant quotes from the article:

What’s true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency’s assistant director, “is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S.”

“Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market,” Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced — and of those, 90 percent — 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover — were found to have come from the U.S.

But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.

Now, let’s do the math. 5114 (the number of firearms traced to the USA)/ 29000 (the number of firearms “recovered”) X 100 (to give us a percentage) = 17.63%

The 17.63% number traced to the USA is a far cry from the 90% number given by several different sources. And, the question is, of that 18% (I’m being generous and rounding up), how many are actually obtained through legal purchases? I doubt the number (or percentage) is high. The simple fact is, why would the Mexican drug cartels spend over $600 for a semi-automatic clone of an AK47, when they can get a fully automatic AK47 from Central America for less?

I do not know why some politicians and reporters want to make it seem like we are the source of the weapons in Mexico, but I have my theories. What we need to do is let our elected representatives know that the numbers some people are giving are false. Let the media outlets know that we know that these numbers are false. The worst thing that could happen is legislative and law enforcement actions be taken based on these lies.

Also posted in 2nd Amendment, Government, Mexico, freedom, media, weapons – Comments Off

Not a Smart Pick

November 21, 2008

President-elect Obama has chosen Eric Holder to be his Attorney General. Here are a few facts about Mr. Holder:

At the oral argument before the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Emerson, the Assistant U.S. Attorney (Holder) told the panel that the Second Amendment was no barrier to gun confiscation, not even of the confiscation of guns from on-duty National Guardsmen.

As Deputy Attorney General, Holder was a strong supporter of restrictive gun control. He advocated federal licensing of handgun owners, a three day waiting period on handgun sales, rationing handgun sales to no more than one per month, banning possession of handguns and so-called “assault weapons” (cosmetically incorrect guns) by anyone under age of 21, a gun show restriction bill that would have given the federal government the power to shut down all gun shows, national gun registration, and mandatory prison sentences for trivial offenses (e.g., giving your son an heirloom handgun for Christmas, if he were two weeks shy of his 21st birthday). He also promoted the factoid that “Every day that goes by, about 12, 13 more children in this country die from gun violence”–a statistic is true only if one counts 18-year-old gangsters who shoot each other as “children.”(Sources: Holder testimony before House Judiciary Committee, Subcommitee on Crime, May 27,1999; Holder Weekly Briefing, May 20, 2000. One of the bills that Holder endorsed is detailed in my 1999 Issue Paper “Unfair and Unconstitutional.”)

After 9/11, he penned a Washington Post op-ed, “Keeping Guns Away From Terrorists” arguing that a new law should give “the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms a record of every firearm sale.” He also stated that prospective gun buyers should be checked against the secret “watch lists” compiled by various government entities. (In an Issue Paper on the watch list proposal, I quote a FBI spokesman stating that there is no cause to deny gun ownership to someone simply because she is on the FBI list.)

After the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the D.C. handgun ban and self-defense ban were unconstitutional in 2007, Holder complained that the decision “opens the door to more people having more access to guns and putting guns on the streets.”

Holder played a key role in the gunpoint, night-time kidnapping of Elian Gonzalez. The pretext for the paramilitary invasion of the six-year-old’s home was that someone in his family might have been licensed to carry a handgun under Florida law. Although a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo showed a federal agent dressed like a soldier and pointing a machine gun at the man who was holding the terrified child, Holder claimed that Gonzalez “was not taken at the point of a gun” and that the federal agents whom Holder had sent to capture Gonzalez had acted “very sensitively.” If Mr. Holder believes that breaking down a door with a battering ram, pointing guns at children (not just Elian), and yelling “Get down, get down, we’ll shoot” is example of acting “very sensitively,” his judgment about the responsible use of firearms is not as acute as would be desirable for a cabinet officer who would be in charge of thousands and thousands of armed federal agents, many of them paramilitary agents with machine guns.

This is a man who will probably instigate a new Ruby Ridge or Branch Davidian incident with his heavy handed tactics and lack of respect for individual rights.

Also posted in 2nd Amendment, Fascism in America, Government, Pres. 2008, Tyrrany, crime, freedom, politics, society – Comments Off