Cautiously Optimistic!

ATF is adjusting their stance on NFA and fingerprints.

With special love for us with NFA Trusts.

Linkydinky. 

Not That Shocked

Reason magazine reporting on ATF's back door gun registry made from digitizing out of business FFL's 4473's.

The only way to keep ATF, or others, from accumulating the information and making a registration database from it is to outlaw the collecting of it in the first place.

They'll NEVER do that. 

Annual ATF

Dissapator Dottie.

Coors Banquet Beer.

HC Cigars Series White Shadegrown.
 

Google Fu Fail

How many prosecutions for illegal machine gun possession are there?

Nothing I found on Google really says it distinctly and clearly.

This pdf from 1995 says 262,300 arrests for firearm offenses in 1993...  Real up to date information.

Google's AI answer is:

There is no single, regularly updated number for machine gun prosecutions, as this data is not tracked separately from other firearm charges. However, the increasing number of recovered illegal machine gun conversion devices (such as "Glock switches") suggests a rise in related cases. For example, the number of these devices recovered by the ATF at crime scenes jumped 570% from 2012-2016 to 2017-2021, increasing from 814 to 5,454. 

Machine gun conversion device statistics
• 2012–2016: 814 machine gun conversion devices recovered seized
• 2017–2021: 5,454 machine gun conversion devices recovered seized, a 570% increase
• 2019: 658 machine gun conversion devices traced
• 2023: 4,530 machine gun conversion devices recovered seized and traced by the ATF
Related prosecution and sentencing statistics
• While specific machine gun prosecution numbers are not available, overall federal weapons prosecutions have been rising.
• The number of federal felony convictions reached an all-time high of 9,559 in fiscal year 2022, continuing a trend of increases under the current administration.
• In 2023, the U.S. Attorney's office saw an increase in the number of felony arrests that resulted in prosecution. 

Notice they don't stick to apples or oranges in that answer?

It also doesn't mention a thing about arrests or prosecutions.

But... the five years of 2017 to 2021 gives 1,090.8 MG conversion devices traced a year.

If California is 28.3% of the gun owners in the US and the percentage of seizures* is even across the nation (yeah right!) then just 308.7 of those devices are from California.

Definitely need to harass the millions of legal gun owners there for that!

Even if ALL of the 1,090.8 devices were from California it's still bullshit to punish the innocent for the activities of criminals.  There's probably more than a million Glocks in private hands in California and that's only 1/10% of them.  Statistical noise even at the max annual rate.  Just half a percent if ALL of the 2017 to 2021 seizures were in Cali.  Even less for 2023...

Divide these numbers by 13 or so for the national estimate of 13 million Glocks in the USA.  0.03% of Glocks are seized with a switch if ALL MG conversion devices seized are Glock switchs!

But Glock's design needs to change.

But I'm willing to bet there's a substantial overlap in the Venn diagram between "gang member," "felon," "frequent offender," and "possession of illegal MG conversion device."

*I say seized and not recovered because recovered implies that the devices belonged to the government, who somehow lost them and is now retrieving them from the criminals.

The Army loses an M240 and finds it later = recovered.

MC Thug is arrested with a Glock switch from Temu = seized.

Annual ATF

Winchester Model 12 Heavy Duck.

Barriehaus Brewery Lousy Lager.

HC Cigars Series White Shadegrown.

Happy 2025!

Without Cheveron

922(r) compliance is going to get sporty.

The law says:

(r) It shall be unlawful for any person to assemble from imported parts any semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun which is identical to any rifle or shotgun prohibited from importation under section 925(d)(3) of this chapter as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes except that this subsection shall not apply to—

(1) the assembly of any such rifle or shotgun for sale or distribution by a licensed manufacturer to the United States or any department or agency thereof or to any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or

(2) the assembly of any such rifle or shotgun for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Attorney General.

 I don't see a list of parts or a minimum domestic content that changes it to American made instead of foreign made.

Two Years And Some Change

I wondered how long it would take before Glock switches would change the semi-auto pistols into readily restored machine guns.

Cam Edwards speculates too.

AR15 News mentions Mr Edwards article in the attached video.

Though I think that "restored" requires that it had to have once been made as a machine gun and isn't any more.  Without Chevron to let them lawyerize the word "restored" to mean "converted" we might just skate.

I think that "once a machine gun always a machine gun" is very vulnerable now since they pulled that right out of their asses.

Practical

Going from regulation to law is going to make some interesting practical changes.

The law says that the FFL cannot sell to a prohibited person.

The law says that a prohibited person cannot purchase or possess a firearm.

The law says that NICS has to be done 922(t).

The laws don't say what information has to be collected from the buyer.

The law would be satisfied with attesting that, "I am not a prohibited person," and submitting to NICS.

Here's where the wheels come off.

The law doesn't tell us how to tell one person from another when we submit to NICS.

Congress punted this to the regulatory agencies to figure out.

Now that punt is invalid.

They've got some work to do if they wanna keep their intrusive threads in the purchase of firearms.

Dear ATF

Now that Chevron is repealed, what does the law say about that 4473?

Or "once a machine gun always a machine gun?"

Is "redesigned" still synonymous with "repurposed?"

Is 5.45mm now smaller than .22 caliber?

Conflict

In the huge mess of "are you a dealer or not" that ATF just put out is a bit where keeping records of how much you paid for a gun is an indication of intent to profit from a future sale.

If you insure your guns, though, the insurance company is going to want to see how much you paid and track how much they are worth.

So anyone who insures their guns is a dealer?

Even more fun, Florida's statute to prevent government from making registration lists reads as if it bans individuals and companies from recording serial numbers on a spreadsheet.

Gotta love it!

Annual ATF

 

Selling One Gun Makes You A Dealer

The comment period just ended.

I didn't even bother to comment this time, it never matters.

That it never matters is a violation of the law that requires a comment period...

Who watches the watchers?

But the rule being proposed essentially makes you a gun dealer for selling even one gun.

We can thank Congress for not actually defining "engaged in the business" so that it could not be perverted by lawyers and ATF.

We can further thank them for opening the door to this rule with the more recent Safer Communities act.

Because the gun grabbers are fond of saying we should make buying a gun more like buying a car [sic] I find it odd that I can find the clear line between selling a car and being a car dealer, but I cannot find this line in the law about being a gun dealer.

The same applies to selling my house vs being a realtor.  Helping Harvey dye her hair vs being a hair stylist.

The examples are endless.

I think we have a good case to make for the "engaged in the business of" being constitutionally vague when a clear line between just selling a gun and operating a business cannot not made.

As others have noticed, this is clearly an attempt to chill private sales and force people to start using FFL's for every transfer to shield them from prosecution.

In other words, they're trying to back door universal background checks and build a registration list.

That list has been made illegal so many times now...

It's Actually Constitutional This Time (Well Some Of It)

Larry Vickers has this indictment.

He's plead guilty to some other charges as well, notably:

Vickers also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions against a foreign firearms manufacturer between July 2014 and March 2021, in the Southern District of Florida.

The firearms charges, prolly unconstitutional.

Sanctions violations?  Import sanctions are constitutional.

Even sanctions on gun parts or laser printer cartridges.

The roe at Arfcom over this keeps missing that point.

But some of the details that thread are revealing...

For someone who did what he did in the military for so long, you'd think he'd have internalized some fucking OPSEC and COMSEC.

There's emails between him and the sheriff's where they're talking about how they're doing an end-run on the laws openly.

At a time when ATF has been cracking down on this not-really-a-loophole in the FOPA restriction on new MG manufacture and transfers.

Yes, if you're the right kind of FFL/SOT, you can get brand new machineguns imported with an LEO letter.

Yes, if you're the right kind of FFL/SOT, you can make brand new machineguns with an LEO letter.

Yes, if you're the right kind of FFL/SOT, once they are done doing their testing and evaluation, you can keep the test article and play with it like you owned it.

But it's all about intent.

The agency writing the letter has to intend to test and evaluate the gun in question.

The FFL/SOT has to acquire the gun in question with the sole intention of providing it to the LEO agency for their testing and evaluation.

So when you write your buddy, the sheriff, and say, "write me a letter for a c.2022 Gigablaster, because I want one," and the sheriff does and you buy one with the intention of getting it to play with like you owned it and with no intention from you or the LEO to test or evaluate it for the LEO...

You broke the law.

An unconstitutional law, in my opinion, but it's still on the books and being actively enforced.

And you openly discussed it on an unsecure channel!

That was stupid.

Area Effect

My post speculating that the fine and punishment for owning an illegal machine gun is almost cheaper than the punishment of owning one legitimately has some interesting comments.

Something that comes up a lot about machine guns is people lamenting their lack of accuracy.

I think this stems from a misunderstanding of what a machine gun is for.

Despite firing bullets, they're not, primarily, point effect weapons.

A rifle is a point effect weapon.

Machine guns are area effect weapons.

This requires more dispersion between shots than a rifle so that the beaten zone is big enough to fix the bad guys in place with their heads down while the maneuver portion of the unit moves up on them.

Any hits that occur during this are bonuses.

The Army confuses the matter by putting scopes on some of their MGs.

The Marines REALLY confuse the matter by issuing a rifle, including a scope, as an LMG. 

None of this is clarified by the legal definition of machine gun, which doesn't match the military definition at all.

An Uzi isn't a machine gun to an Army, but it is to ATF.

An M16 is a rifle to the Army, but a machine gun to the ATF.

What's The Fine For An Illegal MG Again

 Morphy's has a transferable M249 up for auction.

Opening bid is $300,000.

Expected price is $600,000 to $1,000,000.

I can't help but think there's perverse incentives happening because of this.

The $250k max fine is still under the minimum bid... then there's the (up to) 10 year sentence.

First felony is free, they say.

When I speculate about this, I often wonder just how many unregistered machine guns are out there.

Not terribly long ago a search warrant for a completely unrelated to guns search found dozens of MG's at some guy's house.  And the evidence he was guilty of the crime they got the warrant for, but still.

He lived in the middle of nowhere and until the warrant, nobody appeared to be the wiser he was making MG's and shooting them on his property.

I want to say he was making M1919's, but I could be remembering wrong.

I've never been the target market for a machine gun.

I can barely afford to feed the semi-autos.

A giggle switch would lead to living in the dark.

Under a bridge.

In a refrigerator box.

With no guns at all.

Divorced.

And that's doing it by obeying the law!

If I was doing it illegally I'd have to hope the cops were faster than Harvey and got me into the police car before she cut my throat.

Not Today Mr ATF Man

Facebook, helpfully, keeps offering links to Temu to buy "fuel filters" which are obviously sound suppressors.

I know it's a suppressor.  You know it's a suppressor.  The ATF will sure as shit know it's a suppressor.

But I have an absolutely unreasonable desire to find a way to put it to innocent use on my car.

Just like the ad says it's for!

The best I've been able to come up with is a catch can to capture vapor from the PCV system.  The baffles would help to condense the vapors...

But I wont.  There's many better catch can designs out there which don't get you into potential trouble with the government.

I am also curious if that thing comes with instructions explaining how you install it as a fuel filter.  UNC threads are not the best solution for holding pressure...  NPT is far better.

Waco D+ 30 years

30 years ago agents of the ATF decided it'd be a good idea to assault David Koresh's place near Waco, Texas.

It did not go as scripted as "plan" reverted to its primary definition, "a list of things that doesn't happen."

It ended in a fire and many deaths.

The date of that fire led to more deaths two years later when the Alfred P Murrah federal building was truck-bombed by Timothy McVeigh.

To this day there are questions unanswered about the 28Feb93 raid.  There is speculation that spins into tinfoil hat conspiracy land...

But after Wu Ping Cough, conspiracies are sounding a lot more reasonable than they did thirty years ago.

Who Will Blink First

The clock has officially started on the 120 day "amnesty" to register your pistol braced gun as an SBR.

There's a fuck ton of, "I'm not going to register shit!" out there.

I dunno what will happen.

I think there's a strong chance that the owners will ultimately prevail in court, but...

Staring 10 years and $250k in fines in the teeth with a good chance you'll lose your dog and have your house burned down is daunting.

I know I couldn't do it.

It's why when I wanted an SBR, I paid for the stamp.

There's a lot of people who are in a tough spot from this.  They can't own an SBR because of the laws against NFA and they can't own an "assault rifle" neither.  A braced pistol based on an "assault rifle" was their only means of owning anything approaching a modern sporting rifle.

A lot of this assumes that this "amnesty" is on the level.

There's lawyers on YouTube saying they can't make heads or tails of what the BATFE has published, and that's not a good sign.

Never mind that you cannot trust them because they're too mercurial.

Today's ruling can be erased at a bureaucratic whim tomorrow.

It happens over and over.

I Have Altered The Deal

People are doing some in depth analysis of the pistol brace ruling from ATF.

Among the surprises is violations of 922r.

A rifle can't have more than 10 Godless foreign parts in it, but pistols can have as many as you want.

ATF is specifically saying that you can't just change the Godless foreign parts count to be in compliance because it was already made in violation.

So your choice is surrender or destroy.

Anyone else sick of the "once an X always an X" shit from ATF yet?  

PS: This is my 14,000th published post.  Damn!

Swing And A Miss

Representative Gaetz has introduced HR-374 to abolish the BATFE.

Here's the entire text from his office's website:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE

This Act may be cited as the "Abolish the ATF Act". 

SEC. 2. ABOLISHMENT OF THE BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS, AND EXPLOSIVES.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is hereby abolished.

Matt, that ain't gonna fix a goddamn thing!

Who takes over for them?

The FBI?  IRS?  Coast Guard?

The problem isn't the agency, though they do suck, it's the laws they're empowered to enforce.

Eliminate the gun laws they're being abusive about, and the problem solves itself.

I hate to admit it, but nuking the entire BATFE is throwing the baby out with the bath water.

The E part of it is valuable.