Posted on 02/21/2010 9:46:46 AM PST by fight_truth_decay
We all predicted this would happen.
In a move typical for that fear-mongering organization with an ever-swelling acronym, the BATFE has written gun dealers in the states of Montana and Tennessee to let them know the BATFE will be disregarding the states' sovereign gun laws.
The "Montana Made" law, just like Tennessee's Firearms Freedom Act, is very simple.
Much of the claimed federal authority to regulate firearm sales and transfers stems from a liberal interpretation of every American tyrant's favorite subterfuge, the "interstate commerce" clause. In essence, this is what gives the BATFE its nasty teeth.
With this in mind, Montana correctly understood that any weapon made in Montana by Montana residents and sold in Montana to Montana residents is Montana's business and Montana's business alone.
Montana thus sought to take charge of its firearms industry with the application of a simple truism:
Any gun made in Montana by Montana residents and sold in Montana to Montana residents is intrastate commerce, not "interstate commerce," and thus does not full under the purview of the federal government.
Potentially, the state would be able to say goodbye to NICS checks; Brady background checks; NFA taxes, bans and NFA databases -- and most importantly, federal "assault weapons" bans, which Montana and Tennessee rightly anticipated.
In effect, the "Montana Made" law would have permitted Montana gun companies to manufacture any kind of weapon banned by federal law -- including so-called "assault weapons" -- and sell them to fellow Montana residents.
Moreover, in this scenario, no one -- neither the manufacturer nor the dealer nor the buyer -- would have to kowtow to the BATFE by paying them a $200 tax and surrendering one's privacy to their notoriously inaccurate and oft-abused National Firearms Registry.
It was a new day for freedom -- and other states besides Tennessee were thinking of following suit: Alaska, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.
Well, the BATFE -- never one to have its power downplayed (or acronym belittled)-- has written letters to both Montana and Tennessee gun dealers letting them know that they proceed at their own risk.
We can only guess what new horrors those words portend -- probably more dead housewives and children as disgruntled ATF thugs shoot-to-kill anyone suspected of perhaps owning a firearm not properly taxed and regulated by Washington, D.C., power brokers.
What else would be new.
A few of our members expressed interest in contacting the BATFE to vent some righteous anger -- the same thing we did when the Department of Defense said they were going to ban all once-fired military brass for resale.
Remember how the DoD reneged on that commitment after just a few days due to the widespread backlash from gun owners and law enforcement?
Well, this is a bit different. Writing the ATF and providing them with your information is akin to giving thieves your home address and the hours you won't be home.
We're going to take a different, less dangerous approach.
We've been talking to state officials from both Montana and Tennessee today to try to figure out the best way we can help these state laws succeed.
For now, click here to read Luke's commentary on his blog and leave a comment as this development unfolds.
*Snip
In Liberty,
Dudley Brown Executive Director National Association for Gun Rights
Can anyone show me where the existence of the BATWTF is justified in the Constitution?
“Every state should pass the same laws and tell the Feds to F - off.”
If your approach were followed and then applied to ALL areas where the feds sticks their noses, the feds would be so hugely outnumbered that they would either have to quit or have to declare martial law.
Yep,
Exactly.
Whoriuchi is but one of many in that group of killers.
You care to learn about our vaunted BATF?
Read, The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge.
NEVER have I been so ashamed of our gun mint.
I’m aware of the IRS acquiring shotguns.
Like so many other gub mint agencies there is NO NEED for these gestappo tactics. Unless it is THEY who are trying to pucsh it.
IRS, BATF, FBI and so many other gub mint agencies, they are murdering garbage.
While in S. Korea at the command Center at YongSon I dealt with blue helmets far too much.
Pathetic.
As a kid I use to go up near your cabin with my dad fishing.
We lived in Canoga Park at the time.
Camped in Sequoia National Park MANY times also.. Breathtakingly beautiful.
Huntington Lake, California?
Guard your piece of heaven well my friend.Few places on this earth are as fine.
He will not back down from patriots and US citizens.”
No , he won’t. He and all socialists would like us all dead.
Isn’t the murderer now working for a gun manufacturer here in the U.S. now?
or have to declare martial law.”
And under Obama, they will declare martial law.
“Is the BATFE going to go Waco on the whole state of Montana?”
That won’t last long but it will be extremely painful.
HS Precision of South Dakota used him to endorse their work. See too, HS Precision comments, when confronted by public outrage.
As far as I know, Horiuchi has a good paying job with the BATFE. IIRC, he was promoted after his action at Ruby Ridge.
“only anly agent or contractor working on behalf of the fedgov is guilty of a Class B Felony.”
Oh... that is good. I really like that. It is way beyond time that the Federal government is “taken down a notch or two” in its relationship with the states.
I'm in favor of the dynamic changing. I just don't want to be the one to initiate the change.
I don't think anyone sane does.
Most decent people just want to live their lives in peace, and will put up with a lot of difficulties thrown in their way without doing much about it because of not wanting to get into a big mess trying to fight it. I know I am that way, and the vast majority of the people in society are that way.
Which is good, as we really need to trust each other to abide by the rules in order to live in a society such as ours.
The change is going to come when a group of people who know what they are doing and are able to do it decide that they have had enough and are willing to sacrifice everything they have and act with purpose.
Kind of like our founding fathers, but with modern technology...
“And under Obama, they will declare martial law.”
Then they better hope the military doesn’t live up to its sworn duty to defend the Constitution.
Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942). The fact pattern worth knowing in order to see how much it diverges from laws that criminalize certain arms possession, and prohibit it outright in others. Although, OTOH, the premise of centrally managed agriculture as a "constitutional power of the federal government" doesn't agree with me, it is much less offensive that making a felon out of a person who fails to buy a gun-tax stamp, owns a short barrel shotgun, etc.
The controversy in Wickard was over payment of a fee. Filburn could have paid the fee, or "stored the excess" in order to avoid the fee. There was no "crime" involved. I'd have to check commodity prices at the time, but I think 49 cents a bushel was a substantial amount, relative to the price of a bushel. But also note, Filburn was aware of and agreeable with a fee for planting excess acreage. The argument was over the government increasing the fee, with the increase coming after he planted the excess acreage.
I linked the case above, in case anybody wants to read enough details to understand the nature of the controversy. Excerpts follow:
In July of 1940, pursuant to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as then amended, there were established for the appellee's 1941 crop a wheat acreage allotment of 11.1 acres and a normal yield of 20.1 bushels of wheat an acre. He was given notice of such allotment in July of 1940 before the Fall planting of his 1941 crop of wheat, and again in July of 1941, before it was harvested. He sowed, however, 23 acres, and harvested from his 11.9 acres of excess acreage 239 bushels, which under the terms of the Act as amended on May 26, 1941, constituted farm marketing excess, subject to a penalty of 49 cents a bushel, or $117.11 in all. The appellee has not paid the penalty and he has not postponed or avoided it by storing the excess under regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture, or by delivering it up to the Secretary. The Committee, therefore, refused him a marketing card, which was, under the terms of Regulations promulgated by the Secretary, necessary to protect a buyer from liability to the penalty and upon its protecting lien.The court below held, with one judge dissenting, that the speech of the Secretary invalidated the referendum; and that the amendment of May 26, 1941, 'in so far as it increased the penalty for the farm marketing excess over the fifteen cents per bushel prevailing at the time of planting and subjected the entire crop to a lien for the payment thereof,' should not be applied to the appellee because as so applied it was retroactive and in violation of [due process] the Fifth Amendment ...
Adding one point, the Wikipedia treatment of this case is abominable. It radically misrepresents the underlying facts.
"Abide by the rules" is a two way street, and when it comes to the 2nd amendment, the federal government is corrupt, rotten to the core. That includes all three branches. They lie, distort, and misrepresent in ways that are stunning for being so brazen.
In 1939, Miller's indictment is quashed, and the 1934 NFA is said to NOT apply to weapons that DO have a military use. Come 2008, the Supreme Court (in Heller) says Miller was CONVICTED (he wasn't even TRIED!), and that it would be stunning to read the case as being critical of the 1934 NFA.
The government has no moral authority in this area, and governs from pure threat and use of force against the public.
Trust the government? Heh. No way. The Mafia has a better code of honor than the government does.
Bump for later.
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