Category: Bureaucraps

Why Does My ‘Efficient’ Dishwasher Take a Zillion Minutes for a Load?

For months, Donna King experimented with the various settings of her washing machine, trying to get her clothes to stop coming out covered in detergent residue. In the era of tightening water and energy standards, King thinks the machine just doesn’t use enough water, with clothes emerging nearly dry to the touch.

Counting down the hours

She regularly runs her T-shirts through the machine a second time. The hairstylist in Oak Ridge, Tenn., sometimes brings laundry loads into work to use the heavy duty setup there.
“I’m all for saving the environment but this ain’t the way to do it, if you got to do something two or three times,” the 59-year-old said. “The standard is great on paper, but when it comes to practical and real life situations, it’s a bunch of s—.”
King hacked her machine with a water pitcher—she now adds seven or more pitchers filled with water to the machine, both at the start and midway through the cycle. That extra water tricks the machine into thinking there is a bigger load, so the washer adds even more water.

Donna King hacked her high efficiency washing machine by manually adding water. PHOTO: DONNA KING

King says her clothes now come out cleaner. “There is nothing convenient about any of it,” she said.
Other consumers are also MacGyvering workarounds for their modern home appliances, as planned and current regulations make it harder and slower to wash pots, clean pants and boil pasta.
The Biden administration has proposed tightening federal water and energy use standards further for numerous home appliances, including refrigerators and ovens, in an effort to combat climate change and save consumers money. Under a proposed rule, dishwashers would be allowed to use around 3.2 gallons of water a cycle, down from 5 gallons currently. Appliance makers and environmental groups have put forward a joint proposal for less stringent efficiency increases.

Continue reading “”

How to Fix Damage Done to 2nd Amendment by Joe Biden

The Biden-Harris administration has done more harm to the Second Amendment than all previous administrations combined. Biden and his unelected, behind-the-scenes shot-callers have been methodical in their multifaceted war on our civil rights.

The next administration — if it’s one that actually respects the law and its citizens — will have a lot of work to do to restore the Second Amendment to what the Framers had in mind. It will be a daunting task. The Biden-Harris administration has hammered law-abiding Americans with dozens of infringements — aided and abetting by the legacy media and a variety of anti-civil rights groups, some of which received taxpayer dollars.

What follows is a list of suggestions for how to restore our civil rights. The list is neither complete nor comprehensive. It’s more of a starting point and, unlike the Constitution, a living document. It includes actions that can be taken immediately and long-term goals that may require Congressional support.

Continue reading “”

Of course they do, they’re bureaucraps

National Transportation Safety Board Calls For Speed-Limiting Tech in Cars.

The National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB) is an independent review agency in the federal government. They’re the group which get called when a plane crashes, or a train goes off the rails, or, in this particular case, when a speeding car crashes into a minivan in North Las Vegas and nine people die from this one wreck alone, as happened in 2022. After reviewing that wreck, the NTSB recommends that our cars warn us, inhibit us, or prevent us from speeding.

The NTSB said on Tuesday that the 2022 North Las Vegas crash “highlights [the] need for intelligent speed assistance technology and countermeasures including interlock program for repeat speeding offenders.” What is intelligent speed assistance technology? Here is the clarification, direct from the NTSB press release:

Intelligent speed assistance technology, or ISA, uses a car’s GPS location compared with a database of posted speed limits and its onboard cameras to help ensure safe and legal speeds. Passive ISA systems warn a driver when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit through visual, sound, or haptic alerts, and the driver is responsible for slowing the car. Active systems include mechanisms that make it more difficult, but not impossible, to increase the speed of a vehicle above the posted speed limit and those that electronically limit the speed of the vehicle to fully prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit.

It is not the NTSB’s role to carry out this recommendation. it is not a policy-making body. It is just an agency that reviews transportation disasters, figures out how they happened, and makes recommendations on how to keep them from happening.

The wreck itself that spurred this recommendation was particularly egregious but little about it sounds surprising. As the NTSB report notes, a driver and passenger in a 2018 Dodge Challenger ran a red light at 103 mph, hitting a Toyota Sienna with seven people inside. The light had been red for 29 seconds. All nine people died.

As the NTSB notes, some 12,330 people died in speeding-related crashes in 2021 alone, roughly a third of all traffic deaths in the U.S. What is abundantly clear is that something needs to change, and we all know that relying on cops to pull people over isn’t working for anybody.

The Gun Joe Biden Doesn’t Want You To Have Just Protected His Own Granddaughter

Secret Service reportedly opened fire Sunday night on three suspects attempting to break into an unmarked government vehicle parked in front of the Georgetown home of Naomi Biden, President Joe Biden’s granddaughter. Reports allege that the three offenders fled the scene after the gunfire started.

These types of scenarios are exactly why Americans advocate for the Second Amendment, but unfortunately, not all citizens have the same protection the Biden family is afforded.

Residents of Washington, D.C., are forced to navigate an onslaught of regulation and red tape before they can use firearms for self-preservation. According to D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, residents have the “authority to carry firearm[s]” only in “certain places and for certain purposes.” Concealed carry requires a variety of applications and training, while “open carry is prohibited.”

MPDC / DC POLICE DEPARTMENT WEBSITE

Continue reading “”

When some jihadi makes a spectacle of himself, don’t forget to put the blame where it belongs; a goobermint and its open border policy

FBI Director Confirms Hamas-Led Threats Against Americans in the U.S. Now at ‘Whole Other Level’

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified Wednesday before the House Committee on Homeland Security and revealed that, due to the Israel-Hamas war, “The threat of an attack against Americans in the United States” has been raised “to a whole other level.”

In his prepared remarks, Wray provided more context to those threats: “Since October 7th, we’ve seen a rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against Americans and our allies. Hizballah expressed its support and praise for Hamas and threatened to attack U.S. interests in the Middle East. Al-Qaida issued its most specific call to attack the United States in the last five years. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula called on jihadists to attack Americans and Jewish people everywhere. ISIS urged its followers to target Jewish communities in the United States and Europe.”

In short, Americans are under threat both at home and abroad; not surprisingly, Jews are most at risk from these threats.

During questioning from the House panel, Wray admitted that the threats could be tied to pro-Hamas elements and global bad actors.

WATCH:

TRANSCRIPT:

Certainly we’re in an environment where a number of tips and threats that are being reported to us have gone up significantly since October 7. We are already, as I testified earlier, already at an elevated threat environment even before October 7, and it’s gone to a whole other level since October 7.

The biggest chunks of the threats that have been reported in to us, but a good margin, are threats to the Jewish community. Synagogues, Jewish prominent officials, things like that. We also have a large number of tips and leads related specifically to Hamas and radicalization and recruitment.

As RedState has previously reported, Jews make up 2.4 percent of the total U.S. population but are the target of more than 50 percent of the religiously motivated hate crimes reported to the FBI. And this was before the October 7 massacre.

Worryingly, Wray also admitted at the Wednesday hearing that there are individuals on the terror watch list who may have slipped into the U.S. illegally and whose whereabouts are currently unknown. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) asked Wray, “Are there people that you don’t where they are that the FBI is searching for today? Yes or no?” Wray responded with a simple, “Yes.”

Despite Wray’s confirmation that threats against Americans by Hamas sympathizers have seen a dramatic rise in the past six weeks, the official threat level of the United States has not been raised since May 24:

The United States remains in a heightened threat environment. Lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and personal grievances continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat to the Homeland. Both domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and those associated with foreign terrorist organizations continue to attempt to motivate supporters to conduct attacks in the Homeland, including through violent extremist messaging and online calls for violence.

It’s worth reading Wray’s entire prepared statement; surprisingly, there are a lot of good nuggets in there about the precise nature and targets of these threats.

Here we go again
Same old *stuff* again…..

Gunman suspected of killing Texas SWAT cop and 2 hostages was reportedly on FBI terror watchlist.

The gunman who killed Texas SWAT Officer Jorge Pastore in a shootout that also left two hostages dead was wearing body armor and night vision goggles — and was on the FBI’s terror watchlist, according to reports.

A search warrant for the suspect’s south Austin home — the scene of Saturday’s deadly shootout — unearthed bomb-making materials inside, calling for help from the FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team, according to KXAN.

“Cutting instruments, body armor and any tactical gear to include firearms were all said to be worn or used by the suspect,” reads the warrant, which noted that it’s “not uncommon for people with a gun, body armor or night vision to make homemade explosives.”

Neither the suspect nor the dead hostages had been officially identified as of early Wednesday.

However, a local organization called the Round Rock Area Muslims said they were all family members of a “beloved brother” who was well-known in the local community.

Continue reading “”

While Hamas Planned Its Attack on Israel, Biden’s Intel Community Was Focused On Climate Change

While the Hamas terror group was working with Iran to launch its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Biden administration’s intelligence community was ramping up efforts to combat climate change, raising questions about America’s failure to detect the terror attack.

As the Israel-Gaza conflict enters its second month, congressional leaders are beginning to examine whether the Biden administration’s intelligence shift—which included adding a climate scientist to his Intelligence Advisory Board, a task force that tracks national security issues, and executive orders that required the intelligence community to assess security threats posed by climate change—may have contributed to America’s failure to spot Hamas’s planning beforehand. Hamas had been planning the attack for over a year, according to reports.

“The world faces unprecedented threats from Communist China, the Iran regime, and Russia yet the Biden administration is shifting intelligence and defense assets to focus on climate change,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R., Fla.), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told the Washington Free Beacon. “Just this past March, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified before Congress that climate was an intelligence priority. The blatant political posturing on climate change within our intelligence community endangers the U.S. and our allies by sidelining other threats.”

In January, President Joe Biden signaled his administration’s shift to climate change when he appointed the first-ever climate scientist to his Intelligence Advisory Board, a decades-old task force that tracks national security issues across the globe. Brown University professor Kim Cobb, an “expert on climate extremes and coastal flooding,” was tasked with reviewing “the work of U.S. spy agencies to make sure they are considering threats from all angles,” as well as policing the board “to make sure that the intelligence offered to the president is taking into account climate-related security issues,” the Washington Post reported.

Biden followed this with several executive orders that reportedly “required the intelligence community to assess the national security threats posed by climate change.” Biden’s focus on climate change also extended to the American military, with the Pentagon classifying these issues in 2021 as “a critical national security issue.”

Continue reading “”

FBI accused of targeting Trump types; agents who served in military deemed ‘disloyal’

More whistleblowers have stepped forward to tell Congress that high-ranking FBI officials are targeting agents, specifically former military members, for their political beliefs and trying to force them out of the bureau.

A Marine and other military veterans at the FBI have been accused of disloyalty to the U.S. because they fit the profile of a supporter of former President Donald Trump, according to two disclosures sent to lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee.

The Washington Times obtained copies of the disclosures.

The whistleblowers said Jeffrey Veltri, deputy assistant director of the bureau’s security division, and Dena Perkins, assistant section chief, specifically pursued employees who served in the Marine Corps or other military branches.

They stripped the agents of security clearances, which sidelined them on the job and pushed them toward the exit, according to the disclosures.

The whistleblower disclosures say Mr. Veltri and Ms. Perkins either declared or attempted to declare the Marine and other veterans as “disloyal to the United States of America.”

“In these cases there was no indication that any of the individuals had any affiliation to a foreign power or held any belief against the United States,” it said.

Other signs that an employee was a “right-wing radical and disloyal to the United States,” according to Ms. Perkins and Mr. Veltri, were failure to wear a face mask, refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccination and participating in religious activities.

Continue reading “”

Gun Hobbyists (and Liberty) Win Big in Court
Fifth Circuit judges slap the ATF for making up illegal rules against homemade guns.

The Biden administration’s scheme to threaten the public with tightened gun-control regulations by reinterpreting laws to mean what they never meant in the past is running into some speed bumps. Stumbling over one of those obstacles is an attempt by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to define unfinished firearm frames and receivers—functionally, paperweights—as firearms for the purpose of regulating homemade “ghost guns.” The courts aren’t buying the government’s argument and on November 9 delivered another slap to regulators and the White House.

Law Doesn’t Mean What You Claim It Means

“The agency rule at issue here flouts clear statutory text and exceeds the legislatively-imposed limits on agency authority in the name of public policy,” wrote Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt for three judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in ruling on VanDerStok v. Garland. “Because Congress has neither authorized the expansion of firearm regulation nor permitted the criminalization of previously lawful conduct, the proposed rule constitutes unlawful agency action, in direct contravention of the legislature’s will.”

Specifically, the court addressed portions of the ATF’s new “frame and receiver” rule which reinterpreted existing law, particularly elements of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The rule would extend the ATF’s reach and allow the government to restrict home construction of firearms in ways that the Biden White House wants as part of a crusade against so-called “ghost guns” but hasn’t been able to get through Congress.

In particular, the new ATF rule redefines firearms terms to incorporate modern devices that work differently than designs that were common when the law was written. The rule also treats unfinished parts that must be drilled, milled, and assembled by hobbyists to become working mechanisms—often called “80 percent receivers”—as if they are completed firearms. It additionally targets parts kits that can be combined with finished frames and receivers to make functioning guns. As I wrote last year, the rule’s language is “clear as mud” in seeking to subject as much activity as possible to regulation.

“The Final Rule is limitless,” wrote concurring Judge Andrew S. Oldham who agreed with the majority “without qualification” but wrote separately because he considered his colleagues insufficiently brutal to the ATF. “It purports to regulate any piece of metal or plastic that has been machined beyond its primordial state for fear that it might one day be turned into a gun, a gun frame, or a gun receiver. And it doesn’t stop regulating the metal or plastic until it’s melted back down to ooze.”

That was much the reaction of U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor who vacated the entire ATF rule in June. The appeals court panel upholds the district court’s findings, though it returns the case to the district “for further consideration of the remedy, considering this Court’s holding on the merits.” That might mean an outcome short of vacating the entirety of the rule, though Oldham’s concurrence suggests he prefers something rather more drastic to slap down the ATF for its presumption.

The ATF Gets an Earful

In fact, none of the Fifth Circuit judges were impressed by the ATF’s arguments.

“Both a ‘frame’ and a ‘receiver’ had set, well-known definitions at the time of the enactment of the GCA in 1968,” the court notes of the ATF’s efforts to extend its remit over unfinished components. “As written, the Final Rule states that the phrase ‘frame or receiver’ includes things that are admittedly not yet frames or receivers but that can easily become frames or receivers—in other words: parts… Such a proposition defies logic: ‘a part cannot be both not yet a receiver and a receiver at the same time.'”

The judges are equally scathing when it comes to the ATF’s efforts to regulate kits used by DIY hobbyists.

“Notably, the [privately made firearms] that play a central role in the Final Rule were not unknown at the time of the GCA’s—or, for that matter, its predecessors’— enactment,” they write, citing “The American Tradition of Self-Made Arms,” by Jospeh G.S. Greenlee, an article published this year in St. Mary’s Law Journal. “And in perfect accord with the historic tradition of at-home gunmaking, Congress made it exceedingly clear when enacting the GCA that ‘this title is not intended to discourage or eliminate the private ownership or use of firearms by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.'”

“ATF’s Final Rule alters this understanding by adding significant requirements for those engaged in private gun-making activities,” they add.

“The Government argues that ATF has historically regulated parts that are not yet frames or receivers as frames or receivers, thus making the Final Rule a valid extension of past agency practice,” the court continues. “Simply because ATF may have acted outside of its clear statutory limits in the past does not mandate a decision in its favor today.”

That’s doesn’t mean the Biden administration and the ATF have no recourse if they want to further restrict firearms or regulate popular gun-related hobbies.

“ATF, in promulgating its Final Rule, attempted to take on the mantle of Congress to ‘do something’ with respect to gun control,” the court cautions. “But it is not the province of an executive agency to write laws for our nation. That vital duty, for better or for worse, lies solely with the legislature.”

“This is yet another massive victory against ATF and a huge blow to the Biden Administration’s gun control agenda,” commented Cody J. Wisniewski, the Firearms Policy Coalition Action Foundation General Counsel and counsel for plaintiffs. “ATF has no authority to make law, and the Biden Administration cannot circumvent Congress and the rights of the People through federal agency rulemakings–a point the Fifth Circuit just reiterated. We look forward to defending this win and to continuing to deliver additional victories to the People in the future.”

Despite the Fifth Circuit decision, the ATF rule remains in effect while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up the case, as per an August 8 order by Justice Samuel Alito.

Another Overreach Slapped Down

In a separate but related ruling, another court slapped down the ATF’s effort to redefine pistol braces as shoulder stocks, rendering firearms so equipped as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act (NFA). Braces are intended to help disabled shooters more accurately handle weapons one-handed, but many designs very closely resemble shoulder stocks. That doesn’t matter, noted the court.

“Some form of protest can be expected when constitutional rights are allegedly infringed,” wrote Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in acknowledging that many braces are used as stocks by people opposed to stringent firearms regulation. But Kacsmaryk observed that the braces are in “common use” and so enjoy constitutional protection. He added that the proposed rule was not a logical outgrowth of existing law and, in keeping with a recent Fifth Circuit ruling, “must be set aside as unlawful.”

Ultimately, government officials are failing in their efforts to end-run Congress by jamming through restrictive new gun policies as regulatory “reinterpretations” of old statutes. If they want to threaten more people with penalties for owning and using firearms, they’ll have to do so through the hard work of legislating.

While they’re now nothing much more than a politicized secret police mostly used as a weapon against political enemies; In this case, it’s not the FBI showing up – quite ineptly I might add – wanting to talk to her, It’s that she has information that jihadis are training and crossing into the U.S. that should be of concern.
If you haven’t already been doing so, prepare to defend yourselves

The Unnerving Reason FBI Showed Up to This Journalist’s Home

The FBI has reportedly knocked down the door of a journalist who, in the past, exposed illegal activities along the southern border, including sex trafficking.

This week, Sarah Fields, a journalist with The Publica Now, revealed on social media that FBI agents came to her home on October 17 unannounced. She claimed the agency demanded that she talk with them about her coverage of an alleged Hamas training camp on the US-Mexico border….

In recent years, she has covered numerous on-the-ground stories along the U.S. border with Mexico……….

 

ATF ignoring machinegun-toting thugs, will ban legally owned ARs instead

More than 500 people have been shot and killed in Chicago this year. More than 2,220 have been shot and wounded. On any weekend, Chicago streets reverberate with the sound of fully automatic fire. It remains America’s deadliest domestic war zone.

According to one violence tracker, a Chicagoan is shot every 2 hours and 45 minutes. Someone in the city is murdered every 13 hours, and it is no secret who’s doing the killing.

There are more than 100,000 documented gang members in the Windy City, and the influx of plastic Glock switches has armed thousands of them with converted machineguns. The plastic switches attach easily to most Glock-type handguns, giving the weapon an incredibly high cyclic rate. The switches are sold openly on a few unscrupulous Chinese websites, and they’re also very easy to 3D print.

One recent viral video shows Chicago teens showing off their Glock switches, brazenly taunting police. Another video shows a young man spraying fully automatic fire into a crowd.

Anyone who has ever tried to shoot the Glock 18 – Glock’s factory-made machine-pistol – knows how difficult it is to control a full-auto 9mm handgun, even for an experienced pistoleer. In the hands of young gang members – a group not known for their accuracy or target discrimination – these converted Glocks are a recipe for mass casualties.

To be clear, innocent lives are at risk.

If anyone at ATF had even half a brain, you’d think they would flood the zone with Special Agents whose sole mission would be to rid Chicago’s streets of machinegun-toting gangsters. Unfortunately, the ATF has other plans and priorities.

ATF Director Steven Dettelbach announced this week his intent to ban legally owned semi-automatic rifles, which he called “assault weapons.”

Dettelbach’s comments came at a discussion called “Gun Violence in America,” which was held at Harvard University, of course.

“The president has also said, and I agree, that we should consider and reinstate a ban on certain types of assault weapons,” Dettelbach said, adding he also supported the president’s call for universal background checks.

Dettelbach’s comments conflict with his earlier testimony, which was given under oath before a Senate confirmation committee, when he promised skeptical senators that he would not use his position to advocate for new gun regulations or laws.

Wrong priorities

Dettelbach and his agents could use a real-world mission. Nowadays, they have plenty of time on their hands.

As we have previously reported, most of ATF’s criminal charges are filed administratively after the fact, after another law enforcement agency has made an arrest. For example, when local police arrest an armed criminal with a prior felony conviction, they may ask ATF to pursue federal charges, which usually carry a stiffer penalty. Of course, ATF takes credit for the arrest, the investigation and the subsequent prosecution, often by claiming it was part of a task force or its Project Safe Neighborhoods program.

Currently, ATF is keeping busy by intimidating and harassing law-abiding gun dealers. They recently sent a 12-man ATF SWAT team to the rural Oklahoma home of a federal firearm licensee who had committed no crime. The dealer was so terrified he relinquished his FFL.

Wouldn’t ATF SWAT assets be more useful in Chicago, where local police are understaffed, underpaid and under Democrat control?

ATF leadership loves to tout how helpful they are to their law enforcement “partners.” It’s time for deeds not words. Rather sitting in their comfy Field Division offices, waiting for the phone to ring with a routine trace request, maybe ATF should consider committing some actual police work. Maybe they should take the lead role in disarming an actual threat, instead of their current supporting role.

Given the millions of undocumented military-age males Joe Biden allowed to walk across our border, and the $7 billion in weapons and military equipment he gifted the terrorists, which are already showing up in Israel, we’ll hang on to our ARs and AKs, thank you very much. After all, we may need them.

If Dettelbach wants to separate himself from the other political toadies who have helmed the ATF, he should dispatch hundreds of agents to Chicago where they’re actually needed – where they can save lives – rather than using them to harass law abiding Americans just to satisfy the whims of a faltering president.
>

The judge’s concurring opinion in a case that enjoins the bureaucraps of ATF redefining what a ‘receiver’ is:

The Final Rule is limitless. It purports to regulate any piece of metal or plastic that has been machined beyond its primordial state for fear that it might one day be turned into a gun, a gun frame, or a gun receiver. And it doesn’t stop regulating the metal or plastic until it’s melted back down to ooze. The GCA allows none of this. I concur in the majority’s opinion holding the Final Rule is unlawful. And I further concur that the matter should be remanded to the district court to fashion an appropriate remedy for the plaintiffs.

Andrew S. Oldham
U.S. Circuit Judge
VanDerStok v. Garland
November 9, 2023

‘Ghost Guns’ Rule Exceeds ATF Authority, Appeals Court Holds

A federal appeals court Thursday tossed part of a rule targeting build-at-home “ghost guns” in a case advocates brought, holding the regulation exceeds “limits on agency authority in the name of public policy.”

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a lower court ruling that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives final “frame or receiver” rule targeting privately made firearms without serial numbers conflicts with the Gun Control Act.

“ATF, in promulgating its Final Rule, attempted to take on the mantle of Congress to ‘do something’ with respect to gun control. But it is not the province of an executive agency to write laws for our nation. That vital duty, for better or for worse, lies solely with the legislature,” Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt wrote for the court.

ATF must operate within the statutory text’s limits until Congress acts, the judge said. “The Final Rule impermissibly exceeds those limits, such that ATF has essentially rewritten the law,” Engelhardt said.

Continue reading “”

SCOTUS Grants Cert to Bump Stock Case

The Supreme Court will decide whether the Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks, implemented by the ATF in 2018 after the Route 91 music festival shootings in Las Vegas, was a proper exercise of agency authority or an overreach on the part of the administration. On Friday the Court granted cert in a case known as Garland v. Cargill; one of several cases that have been bouncing around the lower courts since the ban was first put in place.

The Court’s granting of the case wasn’t exactly a surprise, for a couple of reasons. The Solicitor General had sought Supreme Court review, but there are also splits in the federal appellate courts over the legality of the ban. The Fifth Circuit has ruled the bump stock ban was improperly put into effect, while the D.C. Circuit, Sixth Circuit, and Tenth Circuit have all allowed the ban to remain in effect.

The question before the Court is whether a bump stock can be considered a “machine gun” under the statutory definition provided by the National Firearms Act; “any weapon which 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. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.”

Continue reading “”

Republican spending bill would block gun background check rule
Proposed rule would implement a provision in the first bipartisan anti-gun violence package passed in years

As the Biden administration reiterates calls for tougher gun measures in response to the mass shooting in Maine last week, House Republicans updated a fiscal 2024 spending bill with provisions that take the opposite track.

House Republicans are looking to use the appropriations process to block a proposed rule to implement a provision included in the first bipartisan anti-gun violence package passed in years.

That gun package, which received the support of Republican senators such as Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, widened the definition of engaging in the business of firearm dealing, according to the Justice Department.

The law was enacted in the aftermath of a shooter killing 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and another shooter killing 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.

A proposed rule the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives published Sept. 8 would clarify the circumstances in which a seller would be required to obtain a federal firearm license and run background checks.

A new version of the House fiscal 2024 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill, posted on the House Rules Committee website, adds a provision that would prohibit federal funds from being spent to enforce that rule, along with at least two other provisions that would roll back ATF enforcement against firearms dealers.

Continue reading “”

ATF Director Calls for “Assault Weapons” Ban, But Won’t Define the Term

ATF Director Steve Dettelbach wants Congress to pass an “assault weapons ban”. Just don’t ask him to define what an “assault weapon” actually is.

While speaking at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics this week, Dettelbach was asked what’s on his “wishlist” of legislation that he’d like to see Congress adopt. Dettelbach, who was Joe Biden’s second choice to head up the ATF after it became clear that gun control activist and former ATF agent David Chipman didn’t have the votes to get confirmed, didn’t talk about increasing penalties for straw purchases or thefts from gun stores. Instead, he acted like Biden’s loyal lapdog by backing the president’s call for a ban on so-called assault weapons while declining to define the term.

“I think it would be helpful if we had universal background checks in this country. I think that’s something that makes some sense,” Dettelbach said.

He added that he supports a ban on assault weapons.

“The president has also said, and I agree, that we should consider and reinstate a ban on certain types of assault weapons,” he said.

“I am not trying to be cute when I say this. It is emphatically the job of the United States Congress to write a definition” of assault weapons, he added.

Oh, I don’t think too many people will think he’s being cute with his response. Duplicitous? Sure. Evasive? Absolutely. Cute, not so much.

If Dettelbach believes that “assault weapons” should be prohibited, then surely he must have some idea about what guns would be covered by such a ban. If Congress defined “assault weapon” as “long guns possessed by federal agencies like the ATF”, for example, Dettelbach’s support for a ban would vanish in an instant. So why won’t Dettelbach offer up his own definition of what makes a gun an “assault weapon”?

If nothing else, Dettelbach’s refusal to define the term is proof positive that the phase “assault weapon” has no real definition at all. It’s the opposite of a term of art; a catchphrase with no specific meaning beyond “a gun I want to ban”. California, for instance, has revised its “assault weapons” ban multiple times since lawmakers first adopted a ban back in 1989, and state-level bans vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Some states like Massachusetts ban guns based on both features and by specific models, while other states impose prohibitions based solely on the presence of one or more features like an adjustable stock or a flash suppressor.

So how would Dettelbach himself determine whether a particular firearm is an “assault weapon”? He won’t say, but my guess is it would be as expansively as possible, especially given some of his other comments at Harvard.

Dettelbach said an overemphasis on individual rights, including the Second Amendment right to bear arms, impairs the ability to address gun violence as a public safety issue.

“People who have the view that their rights, their individual rights, are the only thing that should be taken into account — it is just not who we are as Americans,” he said. “We care about our rights, of course, but we respect other people’s rights, too.”

That’s a helluva straw man that Dettelbach constructed on stage. If you don’t support a gun ban, however it might be defined, you’re just selfish; more concerned with your individual rights than public safety, obsessed with your guns and blithely unconcerned about violent crime or mass murder.

Dettelbach simply can’t accept that many of us understand that more gun control won’t make us safer. The promise of increased safety at the expense of our individual rights is simply false, and you only have to look at the sky-high homicide rates in cities like Washington, D.C. and Chicago over the decades when those locales had banned the possession of handguns.

I’m sure Dettelbach’s job would be much easier if the ATF could ignore our Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights, but that is not who we are as Americans. I’d say that we also don’t blame law-abiding citizens for the actions of violent criminals, but unfortunately that’s not true… at least for the anti-gunner-in-chief, his lackeys, and those Americans hoping we can ban our way to safety.

US Halts Exports Of Most Civilian Firearms And Ammunition For 90 Days

Now the US has halted the exports of a lot of civilian firearms and ammunition for a total of 90 days citing national security. It has been claimed that the halts are going to cover most of the guns and ammunition that can be purchased in the United States gun store. This news has been officially claimed by Johanna Reeves who is a lawyer who specializes in export controls and firearms with the law firm Reeves and Dola in Washington, D.C. This is a very shocking announcement which has been made by a lawyer. Now to know everything that the lawyer has shared with us, read this entire article without missing anything.

According to the Commerce Department, the United States has officially stopped issuing export licenses for most civilian firearms and ammunition for a total of 90 days for all non-government users. Commerce Department officially claimed this statement on 27th October 2023, Friday, citing national security and foreign policy interests. The Commerce Department (CD) has not given more details regarding the pause as it also includes shotguns and optical sights. However, the CD has claimed that the review is going to assess the risk of the firearms that are being diverted to the activities and entities that have promoted regional instability, fueled criminal activities, and violated human rights.

On Friday, The Commerce Department declined to give any statement on the posting on its website. A famous lawyer who specializes in export control and firearms with the law firm Reeves and Dola in Washington, D.C., Johanna Reeves has officially given a statement in which she has claimed that the halt covers most of the ammunition and funds that can be purchased from the United States gun stores. She has also claimed that she has never seen the Commerce Department taking a sweeping action like this. They might have some individual country policies but there is nothing like this.

According to the experts, the license exports for Israel Ukraine, and some other close allies are going to be exempted from the temporary halt in the exports. The US companies that sell the firearms are Strum Ruger & Co., Vista Outdoor, and Smith & Wesson Brands they might face a big impact because of the ban on exports. The exporters can submit, the license requests at the time of the pause but the requests are going to be held without the action till the pause is lifted.