Charging “Gun Violence” to justify “Gun Control” is a violent lie

Charging responsible gun owners cotnribute to “Gun Violence” and using this as as justification for “Gun Control” is, in fact, a violent and immoral lie.

This chart documents the 90,000,000 subjects murdered by governments in the past 100 years as a result of citizen disarmament also known as gun control.

This is the discussion:

Death by “Gun Control”

If anyone throws the term “gun violence” at us, this should be our response when they try to justify “gun control” with the term.

“Gun violence” is emotional manipulation, completely forgetting the fact that the moral use of force, including a firearm,  is in self-defense of your own life and those that you love and are responsible for.

Using a gun to defend against criminals or a tyrannical government is not, and never has been “gun violence”.

Anyone saying so is immoral and lying.

Fact Check Like a Pro!

Ever wonder why the same story with Leftist supporting spin, very similar wording and positioning appears through a number of “news” outlets all at once on media outlets all over the place? 

I’ve often attributed the very similar wording of stories to the laziness of local editors that can’t be bothered to rewrite the material being disseminated from the same source. Well… here’s detailed evidence of what that source is… 

https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-public-diplomacy-and-public-affairs/global-engagement-center/

Now you can “fact check” with the “best of them”… 

We need Constitutional Concealed Carry Now!

In North Carolina, GRNC is working now to help pass Constitutional Concealed Carry. Please write North Carolina legislators to support H189 and H338. GRNC does “For the Children®” and frankly for everyone else!

The anti-gun crowd will paint this as the “wild west” incarnate, but the fact is that open carry without a permit has always been permitted and never has been a problem. Guns save lives. Keeping criminals guessing prevents crime.

The anti-gun crowd have been working to control the narrative by introducing replacement jargon. Gun violence” has replaced “gun crime” to focus more on fear than the criminal aspects of the problem. Successful self defense is sometimes violent, and that is what stops criminals. “Violence” is not a problem unless you’re a snowflake afraid of the sun.

The gun ban crowd care nothing about “gun safety” in this context. Only those of us that work to teach and train gun owners safe firearm handling and marksmanship own that.

More concealed carry guns will stop more mass murders. Even more will stop them if we eliminate the supposed “gun free” massacre zones, too.

Constitutional Carry laws won’t make it easier for prohibited people to carry guns. These people still remain prohibited. If we start prosecuting felons in possession (few of the 50,000 caught and charged in the last 5 years were actually convicted of this crime) crime will drop even more.

With more than half the states restoring Constitutional Concealed Carry, we know that crime will drop after we enact this law. If it got worse, we’d have heard about it by now – and the media and anti-gun “researchers” have been silent.

Police have no duty to protect you regardless of the catchy motto. You are on your own at home or in public as far as effective personal self defense.

Passing Constitutional Carry restores enumerated civil rights and allows citizens the freedom to protect themselves without a “permission slip” from government. An expensive and time delaying rights infringing process is eliminated. Nothing in governance is “weakened”.

The NC Concealed Carry Handgun permit system remains in place to allow reciprocity when visiting other states, and to permit carry within 1,000 feet of schools and onto school property and government property when carrying inside a locked motor vehicle.

Thoughts on Self Defense

The following post originally came from the AR-15 FORUM about 11 years ago. I post it here as food for thought. Some folks take issue with parts or all of it.

Lately in our group we have had two different board members find themselves looking down the barrel of a gun along with the GF of another ARFCOMMER in street robberies. Also one member got shot all to pieces last year.

While many say it is better to be lucky than good, no one is lucky every time. In this post I am going to attempt to provide some insight into street encounters. Other may have different viewpoints. I am not here to argue. I will say some of the comments I have seen posted in the threads about this sort of matter make me realize that while some ARFCOMMERS are clearly street veterans others are not. This is really for those who are not.

Background

First, my info. I worked in the street of one of America’s most violent, dangerous cities for 15 years. I usually worked in the worst part of that city. I spent 15 years in patrol. I liked patrol. It was wild. Most of the time I worked in areas covered in ghetto. By that I mean large housing projects combined with run down slum housing. I have worked all shifts. Later I became an investigator including a robbery investigator. I have spent countless hours in interrogation rooms talking to hold up men. I know them. I am still an investigator but have quit playing the Robbery game because my family was starting to forget what I looked like.

The Enemy

Some may object to me calling hold up men “the enemy”. You can call them whatever you like. I can assure you however they are as deadly an enemy as you will find anywhere but the battlefield. Even many soldiers probably lack the viciousness and utter disregard for life most hold up men possess.

No one wakes up in the morning one day and decides to become an armed robber. It is a gradual process that requires some experience and desensitizing. Before a man will pick up a gun and threaten to kill people who have done him no harm in order to get their usually meager possessions he has to get comfortable with some things.

He has to get used to seeing others as objects for him to exploit. He has to accept he may be killed while robbing. He has to accept the felony conviction for Robbery will haunt him all his life. He has to accept he may need to kill a completely innocent person to get away with his crime.

This is a process that starts with stealing candy at the corner store as a child. It progresses through bigger property crimes that may also involve violence. But one day G gets tired of selling his stolen property for nothing and decides it would be better to steal cash. Cut out all that tiresome sales stuff.

Keep in mind many petty thieves, auto burglars, residential and commercial burglars, paper thieves, and hustlers will get to that point and decide not to become armed robbers. Most will. It is a special group of outliers who decide threatening to kill people for a few dollars is the way to go.

Once a man starts armed robbing he has crossed a line most won’t. Don’t forget that when you are looking these psychopaths in the eye. Their decision to kill you is already made. Your life means nothing to him. Only his does. His sole motivation for not killing you is he doesn’t want a murder case. He has already accepted he may pick one up though.

We hunt hold up men around the clock once they are identified. We send teams of fire breathing fence jumper/door kickers to find them. We will bring their mother to the office and convince her she is going to jail if we don’t have Junior in our office in an hour. We have her call her son crying hysterically for him to turn himself in before she is arrested and held without bond as a material witness and her home seized for harboring him. Most of the time they won’t. They betray their own mommy.

We will hit all Junior’s friends and family’s houses. We make it so no one will harbor him. He is so hot no one will let him in their house or even talk on the phone with him. We put money on him so he knows he is right to be betrayed and set up. We do this because of one thing.

That thing is they WILL kill someone if they keep robbing. That is why the city is willing to pay all the overtime. They don’t want the murders. Think about that when you see Junior coming. The more robberies he does the closer he is to killing someone. Maybe you.

The guys who hit you on the street are gang members. They are Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Crips, Sureonos, many others. They do not see themselves as part of society. The street is all they know. They don’t expect to live long or stay out of prison. They take a delight in your fear and suffering. They are warped individuals for the most part. They can be extremely dangerous.

One time we were locking up a hold up man and having a conversation about how they target their victims. I was saying they pick easy ones, another guy was saying they preferred easy ones but would take anybody.

I pointed out a uniform Officer there was an NFL size guy to that hold up man. Frankly the dude was a monster. I asked hold up man if he would rob him. He said “If I needed the money”.

You

Chances are good you are a law abiding person except for maybe a little light weed smoking and maybe driving a little drunk every once in a while. Most of your life you have been taught to be nice and don’t point guns at people. You are the exact opposite of your enemy who was taught just the opposite. Remember a lot of street life is like prison life. Who’s the man is everything. Violence is the currency of the street.

You do not possess total disregard for the lives of others and do not want to kill anyone. You are concerned about the ramifications of shooting someone. Your family, your possessions and finances on the line. Your enemy has none of these concerns.

The laws that keep you from carrying your gun in bars or where ever you want to mean nothing to your enemy. Your reluctance to shoot someone works to his advantage. His greater experience in street violence and the element of surprise is on his side.

Everyone should call their local FBI office and get a copy of Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted. When it first came out it was ground breaking because it demonstrated to academics and other elites what street police knew all along. What did it show in interviews with cop killers? Nice guys finish dead. That’s right. Most of those offenders commented that the Officer they killed set himself up to be killed because of reluctance to use force early in the encounter.

You can probably find it online now. Alot of the victim Officers were a lot like other people, normal people. They were the opposite of their enemy.

Am I advocating becoming the enemy? No. I am saying the person who is robbing you has certain traits, attitudes, and background. That is all.

Dynamics of Encounter

Hold up men target victims on the street in an impulsive, opportunistic manner. They see someone and make a quick judgment call on whether to rob them. The time between when you are targeted and they are on you isn’t long. Therefore, situational awareness is everything.

If you see G coming you are in good shape. If you don’t you will be the victim who says “He came out of nowhere”. No he didn’t. There are many tricks to watching out but simply watching your back is the main thing. Watch your back. If you do it enough it becomes second nature and you won’t even realize you are doing it.

Watching out is great but unfortunately many self defense courses stop there. You have parked you car in a well lit area, are aware of your surroundings, and looky here, here comes three guys across the parking lot and they start to kind of fan out.

When you lock eyes with G the very first thing you need to do is indicate you have a weapon. It doesn’t matter if you do or not. If you are a woman put your gun hand in your purse and keep it there. If you are a man fan your shirt or coat tail with your gun hand. Make it clear to dude you are mentally prepared to draw and making sure your gun is clear. This will many times result in an about face by dude. It is the single best robbery avoidance tactic IMHO.

Not long ago I was walking down the sidewalk in my town to go get my car. I was holding a folding chair in my gun hand. A car slow rolled past me with 4 heads in it. The guys in the back seat turned around as they went by looking at me. They went a little farther and U turned in the street.

Here they come back. As they started to slow down I looked at them with as contemptuous a look as I could muster and switched the chair to my left hand and flicked my shirt tail with my right hand. They just drove on mad dogging me.

In another case I was at a Christmas party and walked a girl to her car about 3 am. As we said our good-byes two guys were walking across the parking lot. One went behind a dumpster. I though he was peeing. He came out from behind the dumpster with a bottle.

As they got closer I stepped clear of that girl and unzipped my jacket at those two guys. When I did the guy threw down the bottle and they walked by cussing at me. If someone challenges you after you indicate you are armed say “I don’t have a gun”. Then they will know you do.

Here is an opposite story. A girl my brother knows was walking her dog when a guy approached her. She was polite. Mistake. He talked to her about the dog and said she had pretty hair and reached out and touched her hair. She did not slap his hand down or aggressively object. Mistake. He asked her if her dog bit and she said “No”. At that time he slapped the **** out of her, drug her into a wooded area, and raped her.

The answer in the street is always “No”. Can I ask you something? No. Do you have a cigarette? No. Can you tell me what time it is? No. The answer is always “No”. Don’t be nice. Stop the encounter as soon as it starts.

When to draw

Despite warnings I often see on the Net I have yet to encounter an instance in which a hold up man called the police to report his intended victim threatened to shoot him. Thugs do not want to come into contact with the police. They may already be wanted or realize chances are good they have been identified in a recent robbery. Or what ever. They are not going to call the police if you draw on them.

Supposed two guys are approaching you in a parking lot and do the classic fan out maneuver. You indicate you have a weapon by clearing your gun hand and fanning your jacket at them. They are not discouraged. DRAW!

I am not saying you should pull your gun out, assume a Weaver stance, and scream “That’s close enough motherfuckers!” What I am saying is draw your gun and hold it beside your leg as you start to move to cover. I am very fond of telephone poles. Anything will do though. They will see this. They will remember they have to be somewhere else. They will not call the police.

Then you can just put your gun back in the holster and go back to whatever you were doing like nothing happened. Why? Because nothing did happen. A happening is when shots are fired.

Do not hesitate to draw. If you are somewhere you are supposed to be and someone appears who is not supposed to be there like a closed business show him the end of your gun. Could it be Mother Teresa looking for her lost cat behind your closed business? No it is someone up to no good. He won’t call the police to report he was prowling a location when a guy ran him off.

When to shoot

The time to shoot is immediately upon seeing his weapon. You are not a police man who has to try to arrest the guy. No need to scream at him. No exposure while you yell for him to drop the gun.

In deer hunting the experienced hunter takes the first good shot. May not be the perfect shot but it never is. Novices pass up a doable shot waiting for a better shot and then the deer is gone. Take the first good shot you are offered. Hopefully your alertness and hostile cues will prevent you ever having to fire. But once you see his weapon, shoot.

If a guy is coming at you with a gun in his hand shoot him. Shoot him right then. If you don’t shoot first you may not shoot at all. I have known more than one person who was shot and received life changing injuries and also shot their attacker. Their only regret was not shooting sooner. Like Bill Jordan said “Nothing disturbs your enemy’s aim like a slug delivered to the belt buckle area”.

Guns and weapons

The handgun is the best weapon you can carry easily. I understand it is not always possible to have one due to laws, restrictions, whatever. I am not telling anyone to disregard laws about carrying weapons. Each person has to decide for themselves what they are comfortable with. I will say there is no substitute for a pistol when you need one.

Also if you can not be trusted with a pistol after a few drinks you can’t be trusted with a pistol period. Booze is liquid bad judgment no doubt but it shouldn’t make you into a damn moron. If you are a moron sober I don’t know what to tell you.

Types of guns and ammo are always debated and probably always will be. I have seen people shot with all common calibers. My conclusion is if you hit someone between the collar bone and the tip of their ribs three times with anything, they are handled. Bigger is better but something is better than nothing. Get your front sight on his shirt and stay on him as long as he is standing with whatever gun you have.

Just have a gun with sure fire ammo. Draw early and fire immediately upon seeing his weapon. That course of action is about all you can do to up your odds of ending things favorably. Guns like the Ruger LC9, SIG 239, Glock 26/27 are examples of guns small enough to carry but with enough power and capacity to be useful. Do not be afraid to use a French Lebelle if that is the only gun you have. A gun is a gun. I like a Glock 19.

Training

We all want the best training. It can be expensive if you are having to pay for it and it can be hard to find the time to do it. There is a whole lot of BS out there. What can you do? First, pistol handling is not rocket surgery. If you will learn the basics and practice on your own you can be fine. Smooth draw, quick pairs, reload. If you know those things well you can be OK.

I know a young man who shot down two hold up men in 2010 at very close range while he and his GF were walking home from the store. He in Wyatt Earp like fashion ignored the fire coming from the gunman and killed him and wounded his accomplice. He nor his GF were injured. He like many was willing to give them the money until he picked up on nonverbal cues that because of his GF they were not quite satisfied with the money. He had a Glock 27.

He had only the most basic of training in gun handling but did do some draws and some dry fire a couple times a week and live fired maybe once a month. That basic skill combined with knowing what to do was enough. He shot at the first possible moment despite having let the guys get the drop on them. When the gunman turned his head because a car drove by that was the opening. A split second is a long time sometimes.

Work on some one hand shooting at close range. That is a skill not as popular as it once was and you want to use two hands when you can. Often you can find yourself doing something with your off hand though so be able to shoot with one hand out to 5 yards or so.

After

If it comes to pass you are forced to shoot someone do not feel bad. When the police come just tell them a guy threatened you with deadly force and you were forced to fire. I know there are bad police out there in some parts of the country who don’t support self defense. I can’t help you with that.

Do not talk to them until you have your attorney present. Now most young guys don’t have an attorney on retainer and you may have no idea who to call. That is OK. You will figure it out but in the mean time don’t talk about what happened other than to say you were forced to fire. You don’t have to be a jerk, just remember wait for your attorney.

Hopefully you will not give a statement for a couple days. Remember if you are put in jail that doesn’t mean you are charged. Most places can hold you 48 or 72 hours on a felony before charging you or letting you go. Breath deep and get an attorney.

Expect to never get your gun back. You may get it back one day but maybe not. Do not buy expensive guns for the street. Buy yourself a nice sporting gun if you want a nice gun. Keep your street guns basic. The factory Model 10 Smith and the GI 45 have done a lot of work over the years and aren’t fancy.

Worlds

We all live in different worlds. My world is filled with felons and gang members. Violence is common place. No one would be surprised if one of their friends called and said they shot a hold up man at a place of business or parking lot. In the past when I made calls the fact that the guy who is beating his GF is also on parole for 2nd degree murder flavored my world.

You may live in a smaller, less violent place where shootings seldom occur and it would be a rare to shoot a hold up man. I envy you and will be moving to a place like your town as soon as I can.

But be advised no matter where you are a hold man is going to be about the same. Whether he is a home boy or a guy who just exited the interstate into your town and needs some quick money. He is going to have a vicious streak and no regard for your life. Treat him like he treats you.

Giving them the money, doing what they say, all that may work but there is no guarantee. If you have never read Jeff Cooper’s book The Principles of Personal Defense I suggest you order a copy immediately. It is a short book but summarizes a lot of important things.

Last year we had a trial here regarding an armed robbery that occurred. Three or four guys took a young couple from a parking garage near a college out by some railroad tracks where they raped, shot, and beat them. Their lives will never be the same.

The lesser thugs all turned on the trigger man at trial. The trigger man’s statement in the paper was after all that had happened he felt like he was a victim. Think about that. That is the mindset you are up against.

The Aftermath of Ignited Gaslight

A few weeks ago, GRNC successfully helped marshal SB41 through our North Carolina legislature, eliminating a Jim Crow era discriminatory law that required citizens to go to their local Sheriff to get permission slips to purchase handguns.

For months before this, the politicians and media gaslighted citizens through an orchestrated campaign of lies about the bill, claiming all kind of things that included the complete falsehood that we were doing away with the gun control crowd’s precious background checks.

This was so often repeated and so thoroughly publicized that the lies were absorbed as something “everyone knows” by the general public that were not involved with the gun rights and freedom oriented community.

With passage of the bill, and the historic override of our gun hating governor, two things have happened:

  1. Gun shops statewide have seen an unprecedented uptick in handgun sales for several weeks
  2. The number of prohibited people trying to buy handguns has increased significantly

The simple fact is that the media gaslighting omitted the fact that SB41 simply changed our state from an obsolete paper permit system (that had significant flaws) to the NICS instant background check at time of purchase.

Felons and other prohibited people believed the gaslighting, and started showing up to try and buy guns thinking that they would no longer be subject to a background check. Sorry…. Signing the 4473 was a felony – and those acts were new crimes…

See how effective politicians and the media are at lying to the general uninformed public? Many have commented that the media must be owned by the government, but that’s not true in the US… yet..

In the United States, the government doesn’t own the media, but I think that those controlling the deep state may own the media.

The hypocracy is also remarkable. I listened to hours of legislative testimony and legislators speaking from the floor about the critical importance of “background checks” and how all chaos would break out in our state if we repealed this Jim Crow discrimination law. That came from dedicated Leftists in the Democrat party (the party that was in control in 1919 when the law was conceived and passed).

Not one of the felons that signed 4473 forms, perjured themselves, committed another felony and failed a NICS background check are likely to be prosecuted.

I looked up the records for the past 5 years (2017 to 2022) of people charged with the crime “Felon in possession of a firearm” in our state. It’s over 50,000 people arrested and charged with this felony. Less than 900 were convicted of this crime, and over 11,000 of the charges were dismissed for various reasons. This is how important stopping criminals actually is for the people running the “justice” system here. Many places with larger urban centers are worse.

It is likely that the media is owned by people that also influence the “deep state” of our government. These are effective controllers of the Federal agencies that never go away. They are lead by people that control government and have become power brokers that move between agency operatives and lobbyists, politicians and paid influencers of government. This now includes ownership of media in order to ensure longevity of power by influencing our system and the electorate. These are the people that essentially chose Biden to be president – mainly because he will do what they want him to do.

Our tax money, squandered on massive government programs plus debt that has grown to unimaginable levels lubricates this corrupt system.

There is power, personal fortune and influence at stake. Often when it comes to things like elections and legislative votes, “the fix is in” in a number of ways… This is why you saw the Democrats so stunned when President Trump was elected. They were likely gobsmacked because their “sure thing” didn’t work – spoiled by an overwhelming reaction by the American people. Techniques used in 2020 were less detectable. Not so the gaslighting campaign to cover for it.

Conservatives under Attack

This report, published in January 2023, with data from five years through 2020, is work essentially profiling the people that caused mass public attacks, looking into the situations and the backgrounds of the perpetrators.

https://www.secretservice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2023-01/usss-ntac-maps-2016-2020.pdf

Not all incidents involved firearms. They show that businesses were the primary targets, followed by open areas and then schools. This does help make the case for eliminating supposed gun free “massacre zones”. The report is worth studying.

The last few attacks this year points out more consistent patterns where Leftists are attacking Conservative institutions – and then Leftist Politicians and their media mouthpiece are blaming guns and conservative gun owners for the incidents. This transference is, of course, intentional.

Leftist gets fired from a Southern based bank for cause, kills people in a morning meeting; conservative gun owners get blamed… Right.

Leftist gender activist kills Conservative religious leaders and children in Southern church associated school; conservative gun owners get blamed… Right.

There is a pattern here. The Secret Service report confirms this pattern over a longer term. Conservative institutions are consistently under physical attack. Through transference, politicians and their media mouthpieces then blame conservative gun owners for these incidents, constantly parroting gun control rhetoric to disarm free citizens. This madness then inflames Leftists who continue to rail against armed self-defense.

There is nothing more self-destructive to a nation at liberty. Our national enemies must be looking on with glee.

Strategy and Tactics

Understand thoroughly the difference between strategy and tactics in this struggle – and it is a struggle.

The Leftists will never give up regardless of the setbacks that they are dealt. They feel that their position and issue it too important. This is why they still continue to flog a number of things that are considered settled law. For example, the “militia clause” of the Second Amendment. Leftists still argue that the Second only exists to protect members of a formally organized militia rather than every private citizen.

The strategy is to argue and oppose every single thing possible, and constantly invent new approaches to interfere with the fundamental effective self defense rights of law respecting citizens. New strategies are invented regularly, and they ripple through the states and Federal legislative bodies as soon as they are well defined by those that oppose us. Always play to your audience’s motivation, and you play to your strength.

Politicians at all levels of government work to be creative in so many ways. I got over that long ago. I try and figure out all the different ways they manipulate their audiences. Make the sly implication. Outright misrepresent the truth. Quote bogus statistics. Misdirect, misconstrue, and conflate. Leave the inconvenient question unanswered. Work to make your opponent think they are the problem. Make arbitrary and capricious rules that change on a political whim.

Tactics? How about:

  • Useless background checks
  • Registration schemes
  • Bureaucratic complexity in compliance
  • Permit systems for purchasing or carrying firearms
  • The concept of prohibited people
  • The ever expanding definition of those that are prohibited
  • Cosmetic bans based on things that “frighten” people
  • Magazine capacity bans
  • Cosmetic bans based on the size of barrels
  • Functional bans based on utilization shouldering firearms
  • Firearm confiscation without your ability to refute charges or accusations (extreme risk protection orders / aka Red Flag laws)

The list goes on. None existed in 1789 when the Second Amendment was defined or 1868 when incorporated by the 14th Amendment to the states.

Utilizing any number of government mechanisms is also part of the strategy. This most recent ATF rulemaking is the latest strategy playing out in an incredibly complex set of rulemaking and bureaucratic compliance. The industry and citizen response is here, but political response from those that support us will be impotent because we don’t have the political power to do more than get Congress to vote on the record for or against Congressional Review Act audit.

The Senate will likely never pass a bill to stop agency action, and Biden’s administration will veto anything that did pass. Overriding that veto would be very unlikely.

All this infringement is unconstitutional. The courts are our last resort. Leftists know this, and count on the cost, risk and all the delays that they can inject into the “justice” system. If you don’t believe in the interference that they can inflict on our nation, look at what they have done with their Soros funded DAs in our largest cities. They use the same unethical influence to scheme against liberty and citizen rights. They falsely feel justified to do it as well, especially as retribution for Jim Crow laws and past inequity to minorities. The same mechanisms were used then to infringe on citizen rights.

Politicians controlling the Biden deep state have likely pushed the most recent Pistol Brace rulemaking onto the ATF. It’s unlikely that they are funded with the capacity to deal with the bureaucratic workload it will generate, and the constitutional repercussions it is creating.

What should our strategy be? Hold the course. Never give up. Support organizations that are responding to the rulemaking with court action. Don’t be the one to be accused of violating the law. Stay informed.

Thick is the Propaganda – But Look Close and You’ll See “Crime City” Mismanagement

Here’s the AP story (without any links to the actual report):

https://apnews.com/article/bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives-crime-5797d08e27b4904c4a6b68d88cf544c1

Here’s the DOJ press release:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-publication-second-volume-national-firearms-commerce-and

The report is at:

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/national-firearms-commerce-and-trafficking-assessment-nfcta-crime-guns-volume-two

Be Afraid… Be Very Afraid… Playing with Balloons!

If you’ve paid attention to the media in the past two days you’ve seen them switch from leading with the Memphis police beating story to the new China spy balloon story. 

I lead on last night’s newscasts, and tonight as it drifts into Kansas it is leading on the PBS News Hour. 

That’s a lot of attention for a Chinese weather balloon that “Defense department officials are tracking across the central US”… 

So… Be afraid. Be Very Afraid! 

The truth? 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/why-would-the-chinese-government-be-flying-a-large-stratospheric-balloon/

While we can’t be sure, it’s probably a standard weather research balloon with a descent mechanism that has failed. 

When it comes to quality journalism, this unfortunate work reads like the product of today’s woke advocacy journalism schools where the students have all studied by copying text in the scriptorium illuminated only by gaslight. 

Well, it Seems They Always Have Been SBRs…

Friday, January 13, 2023, the ATF published the final rules for braced firearms, affirming that they are and always have been Short Barreled Rifles – regardless of prior advice from the agency.

https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/factoring-criteria-firearms-attached-stabilizing-braces

The ATF has agreed to “forbearance” of the $200 fee, which still stands… they just agree to not collect it during registration of braced pistols.

They state that these firearms have always been SBRs, and that they just errored in their analysis in the past. For that reason, when they were transferred to you by an FFL as an individual they are currently in your individual possession as an SBR now unless transferred to a trust prior to 1/13/2023. For that reason, you must generally register these as an individual on Form 1.They consider them to be SBRs now unless you take an action to make them not be SBRs (destroy the brace permanently; change the barrel to over 16 inches). Note that an AR-15 recoil extension behind the receiver may be considered something that can be shouldered on an AR-15 pistol since the surface area no longer is being analyzed.

You will need to provide correct form fingerprint cards by mail or the electronic format fingerprint file for each one you register, and send a notification packet to your CLEO. I don’t understand why new ones are necessary if you already have NFA items on registry, but they appear to be needed.

Consider waiting until after the rule actually publishes on the Federal Register before filing the Form 1. That is when the process will become official.

While GOA/GOF, SAF, FPC and a number of state organizations will likely file lawsuits against this rulemaking, resolving them will take time, involve risk and great expense. Support them as you can.

ATF makes interesting statements in their “Factoring Criteria” document. They indicate that in the last years, about 210 braced firearms involved in crimes have been analyzed by their laboratories. They also indicate an estimate of 3 million braced firearms exist in civilian hands. SIG submitted an estimate of 5 million. Even assuming ATF’s estimate, that means that .007 percent of these firearms were submitted after criminal incidents. That is remarkably low.

NFA is characterized as existing to register “particularly dangerous” “gangster weapons”. With over 3 million braced pistols in circulation over the last decade, it would seem that braced pistols are in “common use”, and that they are not rare, or “particularly dangerous”. It’s difficult to see from the ATF’s own statements, and from FBI statistics how these commonly used firearms should justifiably remain under the NFA.

There are possible Chevron Deference violations in this rulemaking. The questions is whether Congress expressly authorized the agency to define these firearms as SBRs after a decade of use under the GCA, potentially violating the concept of lenity for perhaps millions of citizens.

The ATF addresses all these things, and feels that they have the justification to proceed in their rulemaking. This will likely wind it’s way through a number of levels of courts, encounter disagreement between the Federal District Appeals Courts and then end up in the Supreme Court the way the Bump Stock rules have now in the Cargill v. Garland case.

By what’s key is that Biden’s DOJ simply does not care, and Congress cannot override this action at this point.

The brace is not being registered or  taxed. The pistol firearm with brace can now generally considered a SBR. The ATF has stated that it is an SBR, and has always bene a SBR and that they made errors in declaring them GCA firearms in the past.

They give owners choices. Register them within 120 days and they will “forebear ” (or forget to collect) the $200 transfer tax; or destroy the brace, or install a 16 inch barrel or turn in the firearm or destroy the firearm. If you register it on form 1, you submit fingerprints and notify your CLEO. Some states do not permit civilians to own NFA firearms.

If your FFL transferred the braced SBR to you individually you register it as an individual unless you transferred it to a trust prior to 1/12/2023. Registration involves submitting form 1 online, fingerprints and notification of your CLEO.

The rulemaking is sure to be challenged by GOA/GOF; SAF; FPC and a number of state firearms rights organizations.

Issues of Chevron Deference violation, Lenity and other legal principles were dismissed by the ATF in their order, but are sure to be brought up after the 5trh Federal Circuit ruling on Cargill v. Garland last week.

Understand that Congress cannot address this since the Senate will not pass a bill and the Biden Administration supports the ATF actions. Only the judiciary can reverse this, and that will take time and be expensive. That is, of course, what is anticipated by the agency.

Note that the “factoring criteria” anticipates that there are 3,000,000 of these in use today after a decade of general distribution under the GCA, and that there have bene two incidents of criminal use, and 210 braced firearms submitted to them in the last 5 years for analysis. Still, they describe them as “particularly dangerous” weapons controlled because of “gangster use” as identified for inclusion in the NFA in 1938.

In the post NYSRPA v. Bruen world, where rules didn’s exist about barrel length, how a user shoulders a weapon, and treatment of weapons in “common use” in 1789 when the 2nd Amendment was adopted and 1868 when it was incorporated to the States by the 14th Amendment, one might question how this possible  infringement might impact analysis by a court respecting the Supreme Court.

NYSRPA v. Bruen removes the concept of “Scrutiny” from the court’s analysis of government laws and actions. From June, 2022 on, the 2nd Amendment means what it says, and exactly what it meant in 1789 and 1868, There is no longer “wiggle room”. “Shall not be infringed” doesn’t seem compatible with the 300 pages of rules and explanation that are based on the length characteristics of a rifle or pistol when there were no traditions about this back when the 2nd Amendment was conceived and written.

The arguments in the ATF factoring criteria are tortured. The ruling is somewhat based on how a firearm is advertised and how you end up using something, not it’s physical characteristics. This is similar to regulating weapons because they are “scary” (something Maryland and others justify their “Assault Weapons” bans with).

In the end, the ATF makes it clear in their own argument that there is no evidence that the 3,000,000 weapons with these characteristics are in common usage, and that they are – in fact (based on the evidence from FBI statistics) not “particularly dangerous” and not the choice of modern day criminals as “gangster weapons”.