Free Republic

It’s starting. As promised, President Obama is using executive actions to impose gun control on the nation, targeting the top-selling rifle in the country, the AR-15 style semi-automatic, with a ban on one of the most-used AR bullets by sportsmen and target shooters. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this month revealed that it is proposing to put the ban on 5.56mm ammo on a fast track, immediately driving up the price of the bullets and prompting retailers, including the huge outdoors company Cabela’s, to urge sportsmen to urge Congress to stop the president.

A quick glance at the Federal Register (Vol. 80, No. 37, p. 9987-88) today reveals that Attorney General Eric Holder, who earned cautious praise last month for a small reform to the federal equitable sharing program, has now delegated authority to the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to seize and “administratively forfeit” property involved in suspected drug offenses. Holder temporarily delegated this authority to the ATF on a trial basis in 2013, and today made the delegation permanent while lauding the ATF for seizing more than $19.3 million from Americans during the trial period....

Jeff Knox explains why latest move by BATF is 'ridiculous' The Obama administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, or BATF, recently announced its intention to ban the manufacture, importation and distribution of popular SS109/M855 ammunition commonly used in AR-15 type rifles, based on the construction of the projectile it uses. This ammo served as the standard issue, 5.56 x 45mm round used by the U.S. military and most NATO countries around the world. It is commonly referred to as “Green Tip” because the military puts a bit of green paint on the tip of the bullet to help...

In the winter of 2012-13, Barack Obama went to war against the AR-15. Every liberal establishment ally in the country was mobilized to ban the rifle and destroy what they dismissively called “the gun manufacturers' lobby.” In the end, fewer than 40 senators (in a Democrat-controlled Senate) voted to ban semi-automatics. So what do you do when even a Democrat-controlled Senate will not support your lunatic agenda? What do you do when your agenda runs contrary to the law and the Constitution? You just ignore your opposition and go on the offensive, which is exactly what the Obama Administration did...

As it wanes, the Obama administration grows bold, and even reckless, on matters that send a thrill up the leg of its most leftward supporters. Its new attack on so-called armor-piercing ammunition — which is, in reality, a very broad attack on ammunition across the board — is a dangerous and destructive example of the administration’s late-days slide into rule-by-decree. A little background, which is unavoidably weedy: In 1986, Congress revised the Gun Control Act, inserting prohibitions against the manufacture and import of “armor-piercing ammunition.” Armor-piercing ammunition does not mean ammunition designed to defeat body armor — that would be...

ATF Trying to Ban AR-15 Ammo Under Guise of "Law Enforcement Safety" Katie Pavlich | Feb 16, 2015 In its never ending goal to ban modern sporting rifles, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has proposed new regulations banning common AR-15 ammunition, arguing it's necessary to protect the safety of law enforcement officers. The NRA sounded the alarm late last week: You can read the bureaucratic language justifying the proposal here. The new proposal will allow Attorney General Eric Holder to determine if the ammunition in question qualifies under the broad definition of "sporting purposes." Current law gives ATF...

On Wednesday, February 11, the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (BATFE) suffered a humiliating federal court defeat that struck at the very core of its power. In response, it took the DOJ and the BATFE only two days to petulantly strike back at gun owners in the form of a late Friday order intended to ban a major type of ammunition for the single most commonly purchased rifle. (The BATFE’s “framework notice” released Friday evening is embedded at the bottom of this post.)Last week’s federal court summary judgment against the government in...

It looks like the ATF is once again trying to make it as difficult as possible for hunters and target shooters to enjoy their Constitutionally protected activities. Last week the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives posted a white paper on their website which attempted to do some very shady wordsmithing, the end result of which would be a ban on some of the most commonly available 5.56 NATO ammunition in the United States — ammunition used regularly for bona fide “sporting purposes.” Yet the ATF doesn’t seem to give a damn about that. Which is worrying, since the...

"Some ammunition that was previously exempted as “primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes,” specifically 5.56mm constituent projectiles of SS109 and M855 cartridges, will again be regulated as “armor piercing ammunition.” Except as provided by law, no person may manufacture or import such ammunition, and manufacturers or importers may not sell or deliver such ammunition. ATF will maintain the exemption for 30-06 M2AP cartridges Proposed change to ATF regulatory framework for "armor piercing" ammunition.

I’ve been a reporter for 30 years at CBS News, PBS, CNN and in local news. My producers and I have probed countless political, corporate, charitable and financial stories ranging from Iraq contract waste and fraud under Bush to green energy waste under Obama to consumer stories relating to the drug industry. Some of these reports have been recognized for excellence in journalism—most recently, investigative Emmy nominations and awards for reporting on TARP, Benghazi, green energy spending, Fast and Furious and a group of stories including an undercover investigation into Republican fundraising. But the job of getting at the truth...

As a candidate on 2008 Obama claimed to support whistleblowers. His website claimed that whistleblowing events were "acts of courage and patriotism" that "should be encouraged rather than stifled as they have been during the Bush administration." If back then we had used our Obama Bullshit Decoder Ring and applied DrJohn's Law, we would have known how that was going to go. The Obama regime has conducted a war on whistleblowers like none in history. It's so aggressive that even Common Dreams says the Obama administration has reached "a new low." "The Sterling case...sends a clear message to people in...

A federal judge angrily accused Justice Department attorneys in newly unsealed documents of "fraud upon the court" by intimidating a witness in a case involving a former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent who alleges the agency trashed his reputation. Judge Francis Allegra, who was appointed to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in 1998 by President Bill Clinton, is presiding over a suit brought by former ATF agent Jay Dobyns against the government agency, which he claims retaliated against him and damaged his reputation. Dobyns infiltrated Hell's Angels and worked on cases involving the Aryan Brotherhood and...

Late last week reporter Tim Steller of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson published a piece about alleged serious misconduct and intimidation from DOJ attorneys during the trial and lawsuit of former ATF agent and whistleblower Jay Dobyns against the government. One of the recently unsealed documents, a Dec. 1 opinion by Judge Allegra, finally explains why in October the judge voided his original decision, made in August, to award Dobyns $173,000. (He later reversed his decision to void the judgment, which still stands.) The reason: The judge believed that Justice Department attorneys had “committed fraud on the court.” One...

The first ATF ruling of 2015 is a vast expansion of its already considerable power.  It maintains that an entity that rents or leases equipment or tools that are under kept under the entity's control, must be licensed as a gun manufacturer and keep gun manufacturing records, if it allows other people to use its equipment to perform work that complete a frame, receiver, or complete firearm.  From the ruling (pdf): An FFL or unlicensed machine shop may also desire to make available its machinery (e.g., a computer numeric control or “CNC” machine), tools, or equipment to individuals who...

In its first ruling of 2015, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has held that businesses may not allow individuals to use their equipment to further process incomplete firearm blanks, frames and receivers , attorney Joshua Prince reported Saturday. Such businesses may not assist or provide machinery access to unlicensed individuals without being licensed firearms manufacturers. The ruling, signed by ATF Director B. Todd Jones on Friday, also holds that the businesses must “identify (mark) any such firearm and maintain manufacturing records,” and that Gun Control Act requirements may not be avoided by allowing persons to perform processes...

Just as Second Amendment civil rights activists feared, federal government bureaucrats were supplying illegal firearms to Mexican drug cartels in the expectation that it would led to pressure for more regulation. Analyzing a 60 page document release in response to a FOIA action by Judicial Watch Attkisson writes:

Full title: Judicial Watch Obtains Fast and Furious Crime Scene Photos from Phoenix 2013 Gang-Style Assault with Rifle Supplied by Obama Justice Department Photos include close-up shots of Fast and Furious AK-47 rifle, blood-stained apartment, victim with massive head wound (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained graphic crime scene photos taken at the site of a 2013 gang-style assault on a Phoenix, AZ, apartment building, including a close-up photo revealing the serial number of the AK-47 rifle used by the assailants. As a result of Judicial Watch’s October 2, 2014, public records lawsuit, the weapon...

Stonewalled in Obama’s Garden of Beasts Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington, by Sharyl Atkisson, 2014In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, by Eric Larson, 2011 “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ~~George Santayana “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~~Attributed to Mark Twain, unverified “Goddammit, Sharyl! The Washington Post is reasonable, the L.A. Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, you’re the only one who’s not reasonable! So, Sharyl Atkisson is the only...

Full title: Judicial Watch Joins Sharyl Attkisson in Lawsuit against Justice Department to Obtain FBI Records about Attkisson Earlier FOIA records obtained by Judicial Watch show award-winning journalist was targeted by Obama White House and Justice Department over critical reporting (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on November 19, 2014, it joined investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson to file a Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking “any and all records” relating to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background checks and other records on the award-winning correspondent. The request includes correspondence between Attkisson and...

In her book Stonewalled, Sharyl Attkisson reminds readers of the Fast and Furious debacle: the issue of corruption, coverups, and government misdeeds. Early in the Obama Administration, ATF officials came up with a plan to secretly enlist the help of licensed gun dealers in Arizona and encouraged them to sell firearms to suspected traffickers for the Mexican drug cartels. Part of the plan was to allow these guns to be used in crimes that would lead to the arrest of major drug cartel figures. American Thinker interviewed journalist Sharyl Attkisson and John Dodson, the Fast and Furious whistleblower who helped...