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Posted on 10/09/2020 8:21:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
President Trump’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, in a move his own son has warned could alienate hardcore supporters, has taken the first step to regulate and tax one of the nation’s most popular weapons for plinkers and hunters, the AR pistol.
Without notice and citing unexplained concerns about “public safety,” the Justice Department’s ATF has ordered the maker of several popular AR pistols to “cease and desist” in the production of the top seller “Honey Badger.”
The order, which maker Q LLC complied with to avoid criminal prosecution, has jarred the gun community.
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Rep. Matt Gaetz @RepMattGaetz In June, my colleagues and I sent a letter to the ATF demanding they stop crafting secret rules restricting the possession of pistol braces by American citizens.
I sent a follow-up letter yesterday after receiving no response. The ATF must stop abusing its enforcement authority. Image Image 3:23 PM · Sep 30, 2020 956 521 people are Tweeting about this
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While only Q LLC has received a cease-and-desist letter, most AR makers also produce a version of the shorter-barreled Honey Badger pistol. And if all of those guns are reclassified to rifles by the ATF, 3 million to 4 million owners could become felons overnight, according to the industry group Gun Owners of America.
“President Trump needs to do something,” said GOA’s Alan Rice. “This serious stuff. We’re talking about making law-abiding people into felons,” he added.
The ATF told Secrets that only New Hampshire-based Q LLC’s Honey Badger was the target. But, a spokeswoman added, “regarding other firearms or manufacturers, ATF cannot comment until we see the platform and what accessories may be attached to said platform.”
At issue is the National Firearms Act, a holdover from the Prohibition era and gangland machine gun shootings, and the modern AR pistol. Under the act, rifles with barrels shorter than 16 inches are designated “short-barreled rifles” and require a federal permit and a $200 tax. Permits can take months to get, making the weapons unpopular.
Pistols, nearly always with shorter barrels, are not subject to the act. Working with those rules, AR makers developed a special arm “brace” for users to make short-barreled versions into a “pistol,” a difference long endorsed by the ATF.
Technically, the braces, needed because AR pistols are heavier than normal handguns, are not rifle stocks, standard on the regulated short-barreled rifles. Still, some braces are adjustable and can be used on a shoulder like a stock and are, by some hunters, a loophole of sorts.
What seemed to get Q LLC into trouble with the ATF was its marketing campaign. Most AR pistol makers have posted videos showing their AR pistols being used like rifles. AR rifles are the most popular rifles in the world.
The company’s lawyer said the decision was a shock and unjustified.
Gun owners, notoriously suspicious of the ATF, feel the move was a signal of more to come, especially if Trump loses the election to gun control advocate Joe Biden.
“I urge the ATF to step back from what appears to be a snap decision, as it looks to have been made in a vacuum and goes against previous decisions regarding pistol braces. Though there is likely a lot we don’t know about how this decision was made and gun laws are never black and white, perception is reality in the world today. It would help if the ATF would publicly clarify this decision,” said Justin Anderson, the marketing director for Hyatt Guns of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The National Rifle Association and GOA are also fighting to stop the ATF, as are several lawmakers, led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a close Trump ally. In a letter to Attorney General William Barr, Gaetz said the ATF's decision was made "in secret."
In a recent interview, Donald Trump Jr. told Secrets that it’s not the president who wants any change to the AR pistol rules, but the so-called swamp. “It feels like someone rogue there trying to play games prior to an election on the gun issue.”
My bumpfires came with a letter from Obamas ATF approving them.
You are mistaken.
Obama’s BATF turns out more pro gun then Trump’s, but who is counting.
I suspect that the issue that the ATF had with the Q Honey Badger was the way that their particular brace was designed.
The Q brace, unlike other pistol braces, can be extended and collapsed. The ATF says that makes this particular brace one that is “designed to be fired from the shoulder.”
This determination, while stupid, DOES NOT affect the millions of other fixed type braces that the ATF has already approved.
No, I am not. Read 5 U.S.C. Chapters 43 & 75 and 5 C.F.R. §731.202.
It is very, very, very difficult to remove an entrenched federal employee. They have due process rights that the vast majority of Americans do not.
I guess you are vote for Biden then. Why don’t you just say it instead of playing coy.
This Ping List is for all things pertaining to infringes upon or victories for the 2nd Amendment.
FReepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.
More 2nd Amendment related articles on FR's Bang List.
Reassign all commies to “F Troop” at full pay. Send them to fight fires and rioters and border patrol within the ranks of good guys. Maybe they will take retirement instead.
Thus, that FReeper’s comment (where he expressed disappointment with some decisions made) doesn’t necessarily negate mine (where I state President Trump is the only option). He really is, even when he may annoy some. He really is the only option.
Well said. Thank you for posting.
When they find all the weapons they smuggled to Mejico under the Obammy/Holder doctrine of ‘Who Me A gun smuggler?’ ‘turn your head and cough’ approach.. maybe then the ATF can get around to doing an internal investigation of why they became so corrupted themselves and who should be fearing who and about what? Who do they think they are, CONgre$$?
Absolutely, this is the heart of the argument period. All they can do is restrict any new firearms like this from being manufactured. They cannot go retroactive with a law like this against those that have already been sold legally.
Ca started this ex post facto tactic in violation of the constitution and they were allowed to do it so now everyone is following suit. The agenda should have been nipped in the bud first time they tried it. But instead everyone turned their heads and have now let it set precedent.
Can't be "guilty" after the fact.
Unfortunately, that’s not what “ex post facto” means.
Ex post facto involves making past conduct illegal, not future conduct.
Example: You eat a hamburger on October 1, 2020. Congress passes a law that says, “Anyone who ate a hamburger before October 2nd, is guilty of a felony.”
A ban on future conduct is not “ex post facto.” It may violate the 2nd Amendment, but it isn’t “ex post facto.”
If Congress banned all Pistol braces tomorrow, it wouldn’t be criminalizing the conduct that you already committed, but future conduct going foward.
It’s still unconstitutional, but not on ex post facto grounds.
And there we have it, just as I suspected.
These are Bathhouse Barry “RESIST” ATF Swamp creatures pulling this stunt.
The headline indicates 3M to 4M current gun owners could be felons.
That is wrong precisely because it is "past conduct".
Patriots are reminded that the corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Congress is the real problem in this issue, not the constitutionally undefined ATF.
More specifically, the states have never expressly constitutionally given Congress the specific power to do probably most of the mischief that the ATF is now doing imo.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
In fact, the congressional record shows that Rep. John Bingham, a constitutional lawmaker, had clarified that, until the 14th Amendment (14A) was ratified, the states had never expressly constitutionally given Congress the specific powers (my wording) to make peacetime penal laws, not even for murder.
"Our Constitution never conferred upon the Congress of the United States the power - sacred as life is, first as it is before all other rights which pertain to man on this side of the grave - to protect it in time of peace by the terrors of the penal code within organized states; and Congress has never attempted to do it. There never was a law upon the United States statute-book to punish the murderer for taking away in time of peace the life of the noblest, and the most unoffending, as well, of your citizens, within the limits of any State of the Union. The protection of the citizen in that respect was left to the respective States, and there the power is to-day [emphases added].” —Rep. John Bingham, Congressional Globe. (See bottom half of third column.)
Note that the only people who can violate Section 1 of 14A are activist state officials who abridge constitutionally enumerated protections imo.
Again, corrupt, anti-2nd Amendment Congress is hiding behind ATF by letting that agency get away with exercising constitutionally nonexistent federal government powers. Pelosi is not about to impeach anyone in ATF imo.
Corrections, insights welcome.
No. No one could be criminally punished for engaging in conduct that was legal at the time. They would be punished for future conduct going forward, if they didn’t cease the conduct.
Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 386 (1798) explains ex post facto quite nicely.
In a recent interview, Donald Trump Jr. told Secrets that it’s not the president who wants any change to the AR pistol rules, but the so-called swamp. “It feels like someone rogue there trying to play games prior to an election on the gun issue.”
I expect that this is a way for TPTB at ATF to ingratiate themselves with the (hoped for, in their eyes) incoming Biden Administration. If (as I expect) Trump wins, this will go away pretty quickly.
However, regardless of what happens, this shows that the Deep State bureaucrats at ATF have never changed, and that they are interested in reducing or eliminating the 2A rights of all Americans. IMHO, the entire agency should be eliminated - as part of legislation that repeals all, or at least most, of the 1934 NFA and the 1968 GCA.
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