Be Careful

The court in Texas has ruled that with the tax set to zero, it cannot be justified under the taxing power.

Which means that if there was any tax at all on the NFA items, it would have been just peachy.

Even 1¢.

This is the amount we should worry about, not Congress cranking it up from the 1934 $200 to an inflation adjusted $5,000.

A penny tax justifies registration.

Of anything!

They will say, "It's only a penny, why are you being so unreasonable?"

We're going to need a 2nd Amendment ruling to end this shit, and I think that the Texas court punted on this to avoid the actual ruling that would end it on purpose. 

What If There's No Law?

Seeing as I am a GOA member and a PSA customer, the injuction should cover me with regards to silencers, short barreled rifles and short barreled shotguns.

A silencer, according to 790.001 (9) is just another firearm.

That means it's an FDLE check away from over the counter, same day purchase.

Short barreled guns, however, have 790.221.

790.221 Possession of short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or machine gun; penalty.—

(1) It is unlawful for any person to own or to have in his or her care, custody, possession, or control any short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or machine gun which is, or may readily be made, operable; but this section shall not apply to antique firearms.

(2) A person who violates this section commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

(3) Firearms in violation hereof which are lawfully owned and possessed under provisions of federal law are excepted.

Does the injunction eliminate the provisions of the federal law, making short barreled guns illegal without a tax stamp?  Or does the injunction serve as the provision going forward?

IANAL.

When Do We Get To Fill Out A 4473 For A New Suppressor?

I cannot find any news that the government appealed the ruling in Texas to the 5th circuit, so the as applied ruling stands?

Next we get to see who is actually named in this.

I remember at least one video naming Palmetto State Armory's customers, and I have been a frequent PSA customer.

We're about an hour and a half from the first transfer in Texas without a Form 4.

Are they live streaming it?

I should check. 

So They're Just Guns Now?

 GOA got a great ruling from a Federal Court in Texas that appears to nuke the NFA for items where the stamp was dropped to $0 for a large swath of specific people and likely everyone!

Summation here:

 

The government has 7 days to file an appeal to the, generally, pro-gun 5th circuit.

Tax ID

If the entire point of the NFA process is about taxes and proving the tax is paid; why is it the only tax that requires fingerprints?  And photo ID?  And a background check?

I don't need any of that to pay my property taxes.

I don't need any of that to pay my income taxes.

"But this is the registration of an item!"

I don't need any of that to register my car.

In fact, after decades of open border nonsense, they don't even check to see if it's actually ME who's paying my taxes.

All of this adds up to prove that the tax power justification is bullshit.

That was before the taxes on some NFA items dropped to $0.

Now there isn't even a tax power justification to this.

I've also noted silence on getting SBR's and Silencers removed from the NFA lately.

Were we so easily distracted? 

Cautiously Optimistic!

ATF is adjusting their stance on NFA and fingerprints.

With special love for us with NFA Trusts.

Linkydinky. 

Straight Forward But Still Confused Me

In GURPS, subsonic ammunition and suppressors are rated with a negative number to indicate how much quieter they are from normal shooting.

For example, subsonic ammo is a, "-2 to hearing."

The explanation for how hearing stuff is on page 358 of the Basic Set and 158 of High Tech, with gun specific sounds in High Tech.

Things are expressed in range steps based on the kind of sound, like a "light pistol".  Every time the range is doubled, -1 to hear; every time the range is halved, +1 to hear. 

The example is a Walther PPK, a light pistol.  At 256 yards, you make a hearing roll to hear the shot at +0.  With subsonic ammo you'd roll at -2.

At 7 yards, though, you are five "steps" closer so a +5 to hear the gunshot, +3 to hear a subsonic bullet.

Since they also give the decibel value for the sounds, you can also figure out how good your suppressor is in GURPS terms from the dB reduction.

A rifle, like an M16A1, is shown as 150 dB.  If I put my HEL E4A, TL7 detachable baffle suppressor on it, that'd reduce it to 124 dB, which is a two step reduction in sound pressure, thus a Hearing -2 value!  SCIENCE!  A more modern suppressor would drop it to 110 dB and get a -4 to hearing.

The +0 range for a rifle is 512 yards, so +2 at 100 yards and +5 at 10 yards.

The average person has a hearing roll of 10, so they only notice a +0 hearing roll half the time.  At +2 they hear it 74.1% of the time.  At +5 they hear it 95.4% of the time.

Is suppressing a rifle worth it?

In the M16A1 and HEL E4A example, the -2 means the average person will hear the shot at 512 yards 25.9% or the time, half the time at 100 yards and 83.8% of the time at 10 yards.  It's not insignificant.

A better suppressor changes the percentages to 9.3% at 512 yards, 25.9% at 100 yards and 62.5% at 10 yards. 

Don't forget the list of modifiers on High Tech p.158!  They can matter a lot. 

 

This is Kaylee.

Kaylee is my first AR-15.  She started life as an attempt to make a clone of an XM177E2.  Unfortunately, I didn't know much about XM177E2's when I started; in fact I thought CAR-15 was the proper designation.  I later made a much more faithful clone of an XM177E2, and then I decided to make Kayee more of an Israeli  carbine.

This Israeli carbine, in fact.

But as time passes, plans change.  Kaylee was entirely too similar to The Lovely Harvey's Cheyenne.  Cheyenne is a clone of an R653-P because Harvey loves the carbine carried by SSG Barnes in the film Platoon.

Because she felt I was stepping on her toes, I changed Kaylee's furniture.  Then did some swapping with some Arfcommers and ditched the carry handle.

What we have here is a Del-Ton carbine kit that I have modified.  The 16" HBAR barrel that came with the kit was replaced with a 14.5" 1:7 nitrided Palmetto State Armory barrel with an A2 flash-hider (not shown is the $200 piece of paper that lets that be legal).  The C7 upper has been replaced with an Aero Precision flat-top and Matech BUIS.  The lower receiver came from Anvil Arms, who are no longer in business.  Surplus Colt M4 pistol grip, Damage Ind. M4 stock with QD and Colt M4 handguards.  Bravo Company mil-spec receiver extension and H Buffer.

Complete history after the fold.  There have been a lot of starts and stops along the way while I figured out what I wanted to do with her.  And yes, I give my rifle's girl's names.  And yes, you've seen this post before, it gets bumped and updated as I make changes.

Click Me For The Full Post

But Is It

Apex Gun Parts has M219 parts available.

The question is: "Is the M219 a machine gun?"

Because the definition of a machine gun is, "A machine gun is defined as any weapon that shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot automatically more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of the trigger."

I've seen the M219 in action and it fails the shoot and readily restored to shoot more than one round per trigger pull.

I guess because it was intended to be a machine gun, it legally is one...

The scariest thing is the old silverback tankers insisted it was a huge improvement over the M73.

They all loved the M240. 

Lightning Link

Dun dun dun!

Legally, that's a machine gun and if you didn't spend $200 and get one made, and registered, before May 19, 1986; you're breaking the law.

So...

DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME IN THE REAL WORLD!

But we're talking about GURPS and Twilight: 2000 where the government has, largely, collapsed and even where it hasn't little to no effort is given to gun control.

To make one you need Armoury/TL7 (Small Arms).  A successful roll gets you one that converts most semi-auto AR-15's to full-auto only.  Change Rof from 3 to 13!.  Also change malf to 16.

A critical success means you don't have to change the malf.

You can also eliminate the malf penalty by fitting the link to the gun, Armoury/TL7 (Small Arms) -5, or by spending the extra time during manufacture to create a fine (reliable) version.

$50, neg. for Malf 16 version.

$100, neg. for Malf 17 version.

$250, neg. no Malf version.

DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME!

Shiny Let's Be Badguys

It's recently come to my attention that Pam Bondi's office thinks that SBRs are just for criminals.

What a waste of $600 on tax stamps and being all law abiding and shit.

I guess I'm just a very odd criminal that lets the government know what I'm doing...

Not so odd in putting my "crime" on the internet.  I've seen many real criminals do that.

That Did Not Take Long

 

The things are barely on the shelves and someone has already managed to make a switch for one despite all of the anti-Glock Switch provisions Glock made to change from Gen5 to GenV. 

With enough effort, any semi-automatic firearm can be converted to full auto or select fire.

Even the more complicated 1911 has been so converted.  All the way back in the 1920's!

PS: You will note that I did not tag this post with the "crime" label.  This Glock Switch appears to have been made by a licensed SOT/FFL, and is thus perfectly legal.

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.

Any GURPS Cliffhangers Player Could Have Told You

 

 

The Colt R75 Monitor, a variant of the BAR, was first offered for sale in 1925.

All you needed was money.  No background check.  No waiting period.  No tax stamp.

Just plunk down your cash on the counter and head home to bankrupt yourself buying .30-06 to feed it.

Did I say counter?

Mailing a check to Colt could get you one delivered by the Post Office in six to eight weeks! 

We Should Celebrate This Because There's No Supreme Court Ruling Against Us

I'm not watching his channel any more, but I wonder if Mark Smith is celebrating this loss too.

 Because if he's not, then he's not internally consistent.

Don't Piss In My Pocket

Attorney Mark Smith of the Four Boxes Diner YouTube channel is thrilled that we keep losing at the circuit level over whether machine guns can be banned.

Core of his excitement seems to be that we're avoiding it going to SCOTUS, where we're sure to lose.

Dude.  We're already losing.  You're celebrating another loss.

I recognize the philosophy he's using.  As soon as we have the perfect defendant to fight this all the way to SCOTUS, THEN we pull out all the stops and...

I've been waiting for Mr or Ms Perfect since 1986.

They don't exist.

The kind of person they're looking for doesn't have illegal machine guns.  The perfect client doesn't break the law.

The thing about how our rights are supposed to work, and I cannot get lawyers to grasp the philosophy, is they also apply to the scummiest of the scum.

So, no, a scumbag should not be punished for breaking a law that's unconstitutional and they are the people who need to be protected from the government more than the beatified saintly law-abiding citizenry at large.

The Bill of Rights is for everyone, not just the best of us. 

I Have A Stalled Project

International Milspec has beat me to production.

 

I can see several differences between the real E4A and what they've done; and I might just steal their changes for mine when I finally get around to making it.

It Might Just Work

Kevin shares US v Rock Island Armory.

The Central District of Illinois dismissed the charges and the government did not appeal.

Read the whole thing.

It's something.

It's not dicta.

The suits over SBR, SBS, and AOW have a precedent in this case.

Veddy intresting. 

It's Not Raining

Dear GOA:

Getting the tax on, some, NFA items knocked down to $0 while keeping the registration and enhanced background checks is a, mostly, good thing...

It is not a major victory for our rights.

It is NOT what you set out to accomplish.

You bragged about how you got the language for full removal of short barrel rifles & shotguns and suppressors into the Senate version of the bill before the parlimentarian squished that plan.

Now that we have crumbs rather than cake you're bragging like this was what you planned all along?

Gods it ticks me off the way you guys try to communicate. 

If This Were Us

If I got busted selling an NFA item without a Form 4, or selling a non-transferable NFA item to a normal person:  I'd be in jail!

But Bradley Wendt, police chief of Adair, Iowa, is not in jail.

Is he?

Hey!  WAIT!  He is!  Or will be once he loses his appeal.

But something he says worries me.

"If I'm guilty of this, every cop in the nation's going to jail."

Exactly how widespread is cops selling NFA stuff without the proper taxes and licenses?

And, honestly, how can we get more of it because, clearly, the sales aren't feeding crime beyond the malum prohibitum violation of the NFA.

The only reason I wouldn't be getting an M134 from the trunk of my local LEO's car is I can't afford the $6,000 a minute rate of fire.  But I'd damn sure like a couple lowers with giggle switches.

I think that this conviction and the statement of the former police chief are evidence enough to end the stupidity of the NFA and let us have our liberty back.