Business – Page 12 – MILESFORTIS

Preventing A Repeat Of The Firearms Shortage Nightmare
Toilet paper and automobiles aren’t the only goods affected by supply-chain disruptions.

Supply lines are critical in any military operation, and when self-defense-firearm sales soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, gun makers were caught in a historic battle to meet that demand. Their efforts were nothing short of heroic—often quite creative—and Shooting Illustrated asked several experts how they did it and if more problems are looming.

The attack was on multiple fronts. Shipping-container shortages, stalls at ports, raw-material production throttled during the height of the pandemic and many more created a perfect storm at every manufacturer. The firearm industry wasn’t immune.

“I don’t think we ever completely ran out of anything, but delivery times increased substantially so we had to order larger quantities than normal and order much earlier than we would have pre-pandemic,” said Bill Wilson, president and CEO of Wilson Combat. “The disruption of and huge increase in the cost of shipping actually hurt us more than any material shortages.”

“We did encounter raw-material shortages in all categories, but ammunition was the most impacted,” admitted Tom Taylor, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of sales at SIG Sauer. “As you know, this was industry-wide and it was very real. However, in most cases we were able to overcome shortages. The bigger issues were supply and demand and cost. We were able to maintain or increase in most categories, especially firearms, but we and the industry simply couldn’t keep up with demand. While we did the best we could to hold the line of prices, raw material costs and shipping fees skyrocketed.”

Chris Killoy, president and CEO of Ruger, explained during a quarterly investor’s conference call on May 5 that, “Our supply chain teams have done a fantastic job being able to, well, go over every nook and cranny in terms of suppliers and get what we need.” He added, “But we’re seeing some pretty heavy increases, things like stainless steel, we’re seeing as high as 7 percent increases last year. Alloy steel up 15 percent, aluminum up 20 percent. So those are some pretty heavy hits when you look at commodity prices, as well as things like freight costs and things of that nature.”

SIG Sauer is also feeling that inflation. “At this point, this struggle is more about cost than keeping raw materials in stock,” Taylor said. “We will figure out how to get raw materials, it’s the dramatic cost increases, fees and shipping costs that are the bigger issue.”

Increasing the amount of raw material on hand is expensive up and requires additional storage space, but that heavier inventory would provide some shelter in a wildly fluctuating market. That financially speculative approach isn’t a defensive posture the companies are in complete agreement on.

“I think we’re seeing our ability and our strong balance sheet to buy forward on raw materials helps us both in terms of something like protecting against inflation as well as making sure we have available steel, aluminum, etc. to weather any downturn from a supply standpoint,” Killoy told investors during a February conference call.

“We’re not necessarily keeping more raw material on site, but we’re booking a lot of material for release delivery as we need it,” Wilson explained. “Especially stuff like extrusions that have a long lead time.”

“SIG has taken many steps to keep more raw materials on hand and increase internal capabilities and capacity in order to be better prepared if something like this ever happens again,” Taylor emphasized. “We have been in a constant mode of trying to balance significant raw material and shipping cost increases and keeping our prices in line as best we can.”

Wilson said the biggest change is the realization that things no longer happen fast. “As an example, we’re building a new plant in Texas for Lehigh Defense. Roll-up doors and windows now take 6 to 8 weeks to get,” he said. “Pre pandemic, things like this were available virtually overnight when needed.”

A more ominous warning came from Taylor. “This is an ongoing issue and may only get worse as the large, name-brand shippers, unfortunately, consider their position regarding products like firearms,” he said.

‘Massive Fiduciary Breach’: Missouri Pulls $500M Worth of Pension Funds From BlackRock’s Control

Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick announced on Tuesday that the state’s pension fund is selling all of its assets that are managed by BlackRock, a move that will divest up to $500 million from the asset manager.

The Missouri State Employees’ Retirement System is withdrawing its assets from BlackRock’s control because the state believes that the company is using its control of pension funds to push a “left-wing” agenda, as opposed to making money for its clients, according to a press release.

Missouri joins several other Republican-run states that have also pulled funds from BlackRock for similar reasons.

“We should not allow asset managers such as BlackRock, who have demonstrated that they will prioritize advancing a woke political agenda above the financial interests of their customers, to continue speaking on behalf of the state of Missouri,” Fitzpatrick said in the press release. “It is past time that all investors recognize the massive fiduciary breach that is taking place before our eyes, and do something about it.”

Republican state treasurers in Louisiana, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Utah will divest a total of $1 billion from BlackRock by the end of 2022, according to The Financial Times. The removal of state money from BlackRock’s management comes after 19 Republican attorneys general accused BlackRock of boycotting the fossil fuel industry at the expense of its clients, according to a letter sent to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

BlackRock, which manages roughly $8.5 trillion worth of assets, denied such allegations and claimed that it has “hundreds of billions of dollars” invested in energy companies, according to a response letter the company sent. The company also stated that it was fully considering the interests of its investors in relation to its climate-focused investment agenda, as 90% of global governments are committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2050.

BlackRock is committed to achieving net-zero emissions by no later than 2050, according to its website.

“Fiduciary duty must remain the top priority for investment managers—a duty some of them have abdicated in favor of forcing a left-wing social and political agenda that has failed to succeed legislatively, on publicly traded companies,” Fitzpatrick said.

Large asset managers such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street are pushing private companies to adopt environmental, social and corporate governance standards. Republicans have previously claimed that those standards seek to force businesses to promote climate activism as well as diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

BlackRock did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Texas Gun Dealer Sues Biden For Shuttering Firearm Stores Over Paperwork Flukes

The Biden administration changed the definition of ‘willful’ to shut down gun stores over good-faith mistakes, but one dealer is fighting back.

A Texas firearms dealer is suing the Biden administration for weaponizing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to shut down law-abiding gun retailers over paperwork errors discovered during audits.

President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice in June of 2021 to enforce “zero tolerance for willful violations of the law by federally licensed firearms dealers that put public safety at risk,” but after a 500 percent increase in federal firearm license revocations for retailers over the last year, it’s clear the Biden administration isn’t just going after gun sellers who intentionally violate the law.

Punishing minor slip-ups, the lawsuit argues, draws on a drastically different interpretation of the law than the definition federal courts have held based on the Gun Control Act of 1968.

The lawsuit, to which the federal government has 60 days to respond, also argues that the Biden administration’s new policy sets an unreasonably high standard that is not applied to any other industry.

That’s why Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin, chose to bring this case.

“There’s no business that you walk into today in this country where they don’t make a mistake,” Cargill told The Federalist. “Everyone makes mistakes. It’s not fair — it’s not right — to single out gun stores, which is what I see this current administration doing right now.”

Continue reading “”

Gulp: Retail sales flat in September — unadjusted for inflation.

That third-quarter GDP report coming in a couple of weeks looms over the midterms and the Biden administration, and the portents look gloomier and gloomier. Even with gasoline prices descending rapidly in the three-month period, economic activity appears to have declined with them — especially in retail sales.

Today’s monthly report shows a flat September for consumer activity, but that report misses one key element:

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for September 2022, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $684.0 billion, virtually unchanged (±0.5 percent)* from the previous month, but 8.2 percent (±0.7 percent) above September 2021. Total sales for the July 2022 through September 2022 period were up 9.2 percent (±0.5 percent) from the same period a year ago. The July 2022 to August 2022 percent change was revised from up 0.3% (±0.5 percent)* to up 0.4 percent (±0.2 percent).

Retail trade sales were down 0.1 percent (±0.4 percent)* from August 2022, but up 7.8 percent (±0.7 percent) above last year. Gasoline stations were up 20.6 percent (±1.6 percent) from September 2021, while Nonstore retailers were up 11.6 percent (±1.1 percent) from last year.

So what’s missing? Inflation, as noted in the emphasis I added to the above excerpt. This report does not adjust for inflation, and so these numbers are not “real” in the sense used by economists. They are only seasonally adjusted, but the figures are nominal.

If year-on-year inflation runs at 8.2% and year-on-year retail sales increased by 8.2%, then it means that real retail sales were stagnant over that period. If CPI inflation went up 0.4% in September, according to yesterday’s report, and retail sales were flat in the same month, then it means that the same amount of money bought less goods and services. Economic activity declined in September, in other words.

And given the unadjusted results of the other two months in the quarter, this looks like a possibly recessionary result overall:

That doesn’t look good, but there’s one positive note. They see nominal retail sales rising 9.2% in Q3 overall, which is at least above the current rate of inflation. However, CPI inflation in July was 8.5% and it was 8.3% in August. That suggests that the US economy eked out a positive gain in real retail activity, but not by much. If it’s positive, it will be a very weak result in Q3.

Continue reading “”

Public Housing Complexes May Not Ban Gun Possession by Tenants

From [yesterday’s] decision in Columbia Housing & Redevelopment Corp. v. Braden, decided today by the Tennessee Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge Frank G. Clement, Jr., joined by Judges Andy D. Bennett & W. Neal McBrayer:

On April 19, 2018, Kinsley Braden signed a lease agreement with Columbia Housing for the privilege of residing at 103 West Willow Street in Creekside Acres. The lease agreement incorporated by reference the Community Housing Rules, which prohibited, inter alia, any resident from possessing a firearm on the premises. In relevant part, the Community Housing Rules read: “No Weapons & Firearms. The possession or use of any type of weapon, firearm, or dangerous object is strictly prohibited within the boundaries of the property.”

On November 4, 2020, Columbia Housing learned that Mr. Braden had been keeping a handgun in his residence. As a result, Columbia Housing filed a Detainer Summons against Mr. Braden, seeking to evict him ….

The lower court ruled for Columbia Housing, but the appellate court ruled for Braden, reasoning:

Columbia Housing is a government entity acting as the landlord of the Creekside Acres residences…. For this reason, the actions of Columbia Housing and the policies of Creekside Acres must conform to the Constitution….

Continue reading “”

JPMorgan Chase Closes Account of Religious Freedom Group, Demands Donor List: Report

JPMorgan Chase has reportedly closed the account of a religious freedom-focused non-profit group and demanded it hand over a list of its donors to secure the account’s reinstatement.

Former Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, the founder of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), told Fox News that the group’s account was closed with no explanation.

“We went into a Chase branch in the District of Columbia to open an account, no problem,” he said, per the outlet. “Then, several weeks later, I went to put another deposit in the account, and they said, ‘Your account has been canceled, we’ll be sending your money back to you.’“

A spokesperson for the bank said the bank did not close the account on the basis of the group’s political and social leanings. [Yeah Riiiight.]

“Of course, I’m not able to speak about confidential client matters. But what I can say is we have never and would never exit a client relationship due to their political or religious affiliation,” the spokesperson told the outlet.

Brownback, however, alleged that other groups had suffered similar treatment. “We’ve just heard of way too many groups and entities, particularly religious-associated ones, that have been canceled by their providers… And we want to start seeing some of these cases investigated.” His organization plans to appeal to state attorneys general to get involved,” he said.

The former lawmaker has requested that CEO Jamie Dimon explain the closure and address concerns that the firm may be closing accounts on the basis of faith or politics. “We are concerned that religious institutions, houses of worship, and people of all faiths are at risk of having their business, credit, or even personal or private bank accounts terminated for any or no reason at all,” he wrote, per the outlet.

3 Myths Debunked: Animal Agriculture’s Real Impact on the Environment.

I was sent this article from two years ago, and it is relevant to the debate on agriculture’s impact on GHGs:

The way the public and the media perceive animal agriculture’s environmental impact can, and should, change. New research from Oxford University and the University of California, Davis have recently debunked some of the most critical and long-standing myths surrounding animal agriculture. But can this breakthrough overcome animal agriculture’s bad reputation?

The current narrative about animal agriculture says that ruminant livestock animals (e.g., beef cattle, dairy cattle, etc.) produce methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Thus, animal agriculture is bad for the environment.

During a keynote presentation for the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience, Dr. Frank Mitloehner, professor at the University of California, Davis and air quality specialist, boldly proclaimed a path for animal agriculture to become climate-neutral.

Yes, “you heard me right — climate-neutral,” said Dr. Mitloehner. He said he would like to, “get us to a place where we have the impacts of animal agriculture that are not detrimental to our climate.”

3 myths about animal agriculture’s environmental impact debunked

Continue reading “”

3 banned from Greenwood Park Mall for carrying guns

It wasn’t all that long ago when Greenwood Park Mall was a huge topic here. More specifically, the heroic actions of a law-abiding, armed citizen who put an end to a mass shooting in progress with some really top-notch shooting.

However, in the wake of that incident, some lashed out. You see, the mall doesn’t actually allow people to carry guns.

In fact, three people were just banned from the mall for a year because they were carrying.

Three people have been banned for one year from the Greenwood Park Mall after police say they were caught carrying guns inside the mall.

The incident happened Saturday in the mall’s food court. Police said all three people were carrying guns. One of the people was wearing a backpack and he had a high-capacity magazine in it along with a gun.

While they were standing in line to order food, the magazine fell and hit the floor. When the magazine hit the floor, bullets fell out.

This caused some chaos, police said. A woman who saw what happened kicked the magazine across the floor and the man who dropped the magazine scrambled to grab it, police said.

The man then ran to the women’s bathroom and shoved the ammunition into his backpack.

Police were called to the scene and interviewed all three people, none of whom were prior felons.

The Greenwood Police Department said all three people were lawfully carrying guns under Indiana law and “at no time did the individuals display a weapon and no threats were made.”

Now, Elisjsha Dicken carried a gun in the mall, used it to stop a mass shooting, and was not banned, so I can kind of understand why these three might have assumed they could carry too, regardless of what signs might be up.

And, from a legal standpoint, they can.

You see, this incident really helps to undermine some of the narrative we saw after Dicken ended that mass shooting. Some, such as Shannon Watts, tried to claim Dicken was carrying illegally, that he was a criminal simply by being armed.

Yet here, we see none of these three arrested. They didn’t have the benefit of having stopped a mass shooting at the mall, either. Had this actually been illegal, they would have.

No, they were just banned from the mall.

And understand, that’s the mall’s right. It’s their property and they’re entitled to decide who can and cannot use their facility. Yes, that also means they can deny people exercising their gun rights there, much as they can also deny someone their right to free speech on their property.

That doesn’t make it right, though.

After all, Greenwood Park Mall officials should well have learned the benefit of armed citizens. Three people were killed in July but who knows how many more might have been killed had Dicken not been there and been armed?

Further, their decision not to ban Dicken from the mall likely sent mixed signals. Many likely figured ownership approved of armed citizens after that event.

Clearly, though, they didn’t.

So now folks in the area have a choice. They can either leave their guns at home, carry and hope no one notices, or just not go to the mall.

My guess is most will do one of the latter two.

Orchid News Update: NICS Enhanced Background Checks

Orchid FFL News

As a result of the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) of 2022, signed into law on June 25, 2022, the NICS Section is working towards the implementation of an enhanced background check process for persons between the ages of 18-20. The enhancement provides the opportunity for additional outreach and research to be conducted regarding the existence of any juvenile adjudication information and/or mental health prohibition. As a result, transactions on persons between the ages of 18-20 will initially be delayed.

In order to conduct the aforementioned outreach and research, the address of the individual will be collected so that the appropriate local and state entities may be contacted. All descriptive information, including address, will follow normal purge requirements (i.e., deleted from NICS within 24 hours of the FFL receiving a proceed status). If potentially prohibiting juvenile information is uncovered, the BSCA allows for the delay period to extend up to ten business days. However, if no potentially prohibiting information is located, the transaction will be proceeded as soon as possible.

The NICS Section is working in collaboration with numerous other entities in the implementation of all aspects of the BSCA, including firearm handler checks for FFL employees, and will keep industry members informed as additional guidance becomes available.

For questions, please contact (844) 265-6716 or nicsliaison@fbi.gov.

Can you speak to the fires and explosions at the food processing plants. I am usually pretty pragmatic but this has me feeling like a tinfoil conspiracy theorist who is probably right.

— Cyntax Queen of the Metaverse 🦋👑🦋 (@Cyntaxed007) May 2, 2022

Latest e-mail from the bureaucraps at ATF to a LGS

Short Version: 18-20 yr olds – automatic 10 day delay and info transmitted to fed, state and local law enforcement for possible investigation.

The enhancement provides the opportunity for additional outreach and research to be conducted regarding the existence of any juvenile adjudication information and/or mental health prohibition. As a result, transactions on persons between the ages of 18-20 will initially be delayed. In order to conduct the aforementioned outreach and research, the address of the individual will be collected so that the appropriate local and state entities may be contacted.

All descriptive information, including address, will follow normal purge requirements (i.e., deleted from NICS within 24 hours of the FFL receiving a proceed status.) If potentially prohibiting juvenile information is uncovered, the BSCA allows for the delay period to extend up to ten business days. However, if no potentially prohibiting information is located, the transaction will be proceeded as soon as possible.

The NICS Section is working in collaboration with numerous other entities in the implementation of all aspects of the BSCA and will keep you informed as additional guidance becomes available.

Thank you!

Firearms dealers now required to provide buyers’ addresses to feds for denied transactions
Newly implemented measures also mandate that the FBI pass on the personal information to local law enforcement.

As part of a sweeping change that has gun rights groups alarmed, federally licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) are now required to provide the FBI with the personal addresses of individuals whose attempted purchases were denied.

In turn, the FBI must now provide details of the failed transactions — not only those denied but also those just delayed — and the personal information of the rejected individuals to local law enforcement, raising fears of greater government infringement on the Second Amendment.

The changes were quietly implemented last week by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to comply with new federal law. NICS was established to determine if an individual is prohibited by law from receiving firearms and can either approve, deny, or delay a firearms purchase.

In March, Congress passed and President Biden signed a massive appropriations package for fiscal year 2022 that included the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act (VAWA). Tucked into the VAWA was a bipartisan measure called the NICS Denial Notification Act, which mandates that the FBI’s NICS Section alert state and local law enforcement of all denied attempts to purchase a firearm within 24 hours.

The stated purpose of the bill is to stop criminals and prevent gun crimes before they happen.

The FBI elaborated on how the law will be implemented in an email obtained by Gun Owners of America.

The NICS Denial Notification Act of 2022 requires the FBI’s NICS Section to notify state, local, or tribal law enforcement of all FBI NICS denied transactions within 24 hours,” the email reads. “The FBI must provide notification to law enforcement based upon the location of the FFL and if different, the purchaser’s address.

The email also explained that FFLs must provide the addresses of purchasers to the feds.

“To support the determination of what local agency should receive the notification, FFLs will be required to provide the buyer’s complete address to NICS as recorded on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Form 4473 when transactions are denied or delayed,” the message continued. “The address information will be required before the status can be provided or retrieved either by the NICS contracted call center or via the NICS E-Check.”

Previously, firearms dealers were only required to provide the state of residence of a customer rather than their full address in the event of a delay or denial.

Gun rights groups have expressed outrage at the changes, arguing they lay the groundwork for a registry of potential gun owners maintained by the federal government.

“The NICS process was never intended to hinder the ability of law-abiding firearms consumers by requiring the forced collection of unnecessary personal consumer data in bulk,” Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, said in a press release. “Neither the ATF nor the FBI can act beyond authority of Congress and violate the Constitution by furthering the ultimate goal of creating an illegal firearms owner database.”

Gun rights advocates have also noted the new law doesn’t actually require the reporting of addresses for delays.

“What the law actually says and how FFLs are being told they must implement it are totally different,” said attorney Emily Taylor on the Armed Attorneys podcast. “The implementation is far broader than the law itself — and of course very, very bad news for gunowners, because who wants their address shot out to local law enforcement because you’re trying to buy a gun.”

Cargill called for the feds to remove from their interpretation of the law their language regarding delays, arguing it “exceeds the scope of the plain language of the NICS Denial Notification Act” and “the constitutional rights of a customer’s privacy are being violated by extending this reporting requirement to delayed customers.”

Delays by NICS require the retailer to pause the transaction for three business days, allowing NICS more time to research the individual in question. The FBI is supposed to follow up with law enforcement if someone is erroneously delayed or denied.

One concern among gun rights advocates is the Biden administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for gun dealers that willfully violate the law. Officials have warned FFLs will have their licenses revoked if they try to skirt the law.

According to critics, however, FFLs are increasingly at risk of losing their licenses as regulations get more complex and dealers become more likely to inadvertently violate the law.

“If you create more and more complex rules that the FFLs have to follow, they will mess up, which means they’re licenses will get yanked,” said Taylor.

Just the News reached out to both the FBI and the ATF for comment for this story. The ATF referred Just the News to the FBI, which didn’t respond.

Another indication that we’re in the process of returning to the ‘normal’ massive increase in firearms sales.

NSSF STATEMENT ON COURT’S DISMISSAL OF MEXICO’S LAWSUIT AGAINST U.S. FIREARM MANUFACTURERS

NSSF is pleased the court dismissed Mexico’s misguided and baseless lawsuit against members of the firearm industry that sought to blame them for Mexico’s unwillingness and inability to bring Mexican drug cartels to justice in Mexican courtrooms. The court correctly dismissed the case by properly applying the bipartisan Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) that bars lawsuits against firearm manufacturers and sellers for the criminal misuse by remote third parties, here Mexican cartels, of lawfully sold firearms. Like the court, we sympathize with the plight of the Mexican people and the criminal violence involving illegal firearms they have endured. However, the crime that is devastating the people of Mexico is not the fault of members of the firearm industry, that under U.S. law, can only sell their lawful products to Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights after passing a background check.

The court also held firearm advertisements, which is commercial speech protected by the First Amendment, but that gun control advocates, like Mexico’s lawyers from the Brady Center, may dislike and find distasteful, are not “false, misleading or deceptive” nor are they “unlawful or immoral, unethical, oppressive or unscrupulous,” as alleged by Mexico.

Despite Mexico’s failed lawsuit, NSSF will continue to cooperate with law enforcement to prevent the criminal acquisition of firearms including our two-decade anti-straw purchasing campaign with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) entitled Don’t Lie for the Other Guy®. Last Month, at the request of ATF, NSSF relaunched the program in the greater Phoenix area. NSSF is also actively advocating that Congress provide the Department of Homeland Security with more resources to interdict firearms being illegally smuggled to Mexico from the United States.

IS GLOCK BUILDING A RIFLE? THE GUNWEBS AGAIN GO WILD

Over the weekend a fracas sparked in Europe over the British army rifle trials has led to a lot of speculation about Glock making a rifle.

While it is no secret that the Brits are looking to pick up an AR-ish rifle to equip their new Ranger units and Special Operations Brigade in lieu of the troubled SA80/L85 Enfield bullpup (I mean, who really likes bullpups, anyway?) Sean Odinson, a former British Army sniper and defense blogger on Saturday released supposed leaked images of a Glock-branded AR platform. This, of course, leaped over the Atlantic and appeared everywhere Glock-related over the weekend.

Dubbed the GR-115F, which probably will end up being the id of the troll who spoofed this whole thing together, the carbine adds fuel to the ongoing fire that Glock is entering the long gun market.

Glock rifle — The GR-115F, the story goes, is part of a tender for the British Army in a new Alternative Individual Weapon System rifle for Ranger and special operations units. (Photos: screen grab via Youtube)

The furniture and BUIS are Magpul while the receivers are a bit more geometrically refined and have ambi surface controls. The barrel length seems to run on the short side and is coupled with a suppressor, which gels with the contract tender that the gun be optimized to run with a suppressor. The handguard uses the same number of M-LOK slots that, as MrGunsNGear says in the below video, is also right on target for the AIWS tender.

In short, he thinks it could be real.

We’ve emailed our contacts over at Glock. Not holding our breath here for a response, but we’ll see.

Today Mexico’s frivolous lawsuit against members of the firearms industry, brought by the Brady Center, was dismissed by a federal judge in Boston Mexico sought to blame members of the industry for its failure to stop drug cartel violence in Mexico @NSSF @bradybuzz @EmbamexEUA

— Larry Keane (@lkeane) September 30, 2022

In VanDerStok v Garland, the judge told the ATF that they cannot complete the classification of Tactical Machining LLC's product because that would be implementation of the rule, which the Court already ruled is likely unlawful.

Read the entire order at https://t.co/dM58iIRZxc. pic.twitter.com/3fNQj5i2KE

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) September 28, 2022

I'm not a lawyer or expert so take it with some salt.

— EasternOregonDude (@EasternORdude) September 29, 2022

Well, I read it that way too, so………

Poll in Gun Control-Friendly Washington, D.C. Shows Americans Don’t Want Banks Monitoring Their Gun Purchases.

The recent news about major credit card companies tracking purchases at firearm retailers is ruffling feathers. That is, with everyone except the nation’s largest gun control groups and supporters.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced late last month it created a firearm-specific Merchant Category Code (MCC) and it’s gone over like a lead balloon. In the nation’s Capitol, a news station tried to gauge support for the code. What should’ve been a slam dunk in one of the country’s strictest gun control cities, the exact opposite happened.

Gun Control Praise

News outlets all covered the new MCC for firearm-related purchases. The Washington Post reported, “Visa, Mastercard, AmEx to start categorizing gun shop sales,” asserting the nation’s major credit card companies all agreed to implement the new tracking code. Gun control advocates praised the news.

“Today’s announcement is a critical first step towards giving banks and credit card companies the tools they need to recognize dangerous firearm purchasing trends,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said. “But this is only the first step.”

Moms Demand Action’s Shannon Watts praised the announcement too. “These new merchant codes will help banks and financial institutions track suspicious and potentially illegal gun purchases.”

New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James added, “Today’s decision requiring credit cards to categorize gun sales is a big victory.”

One of the biggest cheerleaders for the new tracking code is Priscilla Sims Brown, president and CEO of New York-based, union-owned Amalgamated Bank, the gun control advocacy bank that applied for the new code from ISO. “We won,” Sims Brown stated.

The Survey Says?

Law-abiding Americans see it as nothing more than overreach, even though gun control schemers are praising the code. There has been no definition by the code’s backers as to what “suspicious activity” means. No word on what the financial institutions will do with the information and what stores will specifically be coded. Americans see the ruse.

In Washington, D.C., FOX 5 News polled their audience on the new MCC. They asked, “Do you think credit card companies should track gun sales?” In a city that has some of the country’s strictest gun control laws, and whose citizens overwhelmingly vote for gun control-supportive politicians, the response was resoundingly clear.

All told, 75 percent of respondents voted “No.” That’s crystal clear. Americans understand the code isn’t about safety at all. It’s about tracking them.

Credit Card Companies Pushed

The MCC announcement came at a pertinent time. The CEOs of major banks were grilled by lawmakers last week in Washington, D.C., over the issue. Bank CEOs from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Truist Financial Corporation, U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial all faced questions, mostly dodged on answers and didn’t deny the banks’ consideration of implementing the code, while not outright dismissing the practice.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser provided only a vanilla acknowledgement while not saying the bank would reject using the code. “We respect the Second Amendment, as I said, we do not intend to use the code to restrict or limit any purchases or firearm sales by our credit card customers.”

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was similarly coy.

“We actually don’t know what they use it for, and we don’t want to be in the business of telling American citizens what they can do with their money. We understand your concerns over the issue,” he told members of the Senate Banking Committee.

In a letter responding to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and several senators supportive of the new tracking code, American Express Executive Vice President Brett Loper wrote, “We require merchants who accept American Express cards to adhere to all applicable laws. Our policy has been, and will remain, that our customers are able to make legal firearm purchases using our Cards.”

The announcement of the new tracking code for sales at federally-licensed firearm retailers has given the country’s largest banks just enough wiggle room to avoid being specific. In most cases, they acknowledge the code was created and state they won’t use it to deny law-abiding Americans the ability to buy lawful firearms, or that those Americans would be flagged by authorities for “suspicious activity.” Their answers are far from clear.

What is clear is that Americans don’t support the tracking code. Even in a gun-control city like Washington, D.C.

Collapse Of Energy, Food, Transportation Systems Prompt Calls for Government Nationalization of Industries – Echoes 1930s Push for Great Reset Style Reforms.

By: Marc Morano – Climate Depot September 21, 2022 11:01 AM

Climate Depot Special Report

The continuing fallout from COVID lockdown policies — from the economic collapse to the supply chain issues, to energy, transportation, and food shortages — is reigniting calls and prompting the nationalization of industries in Europe, the U.S, Canada, and Australia.

The modus operandi of the Great Reset (AKA Build Back Better) is to intentionally collapse the current system with policies designed to create a crisis, havoc, and shortages. And the world has descended into chaos since the COVID lockdowns of March of 2020.

See: Yahoo Finance: ‘Firewood is the new gold’ – prices & theft jump in Europe as Russia’s gas cutoff boosts wood demand ahead of winter – 1000% increase in EU energy prices &

NYT: ‘Crippling’ energy bills force Europe’s factories to go dark

The Great Food Reset has arrived: Expect ‘real’ food shortages, Biden declares

WHY IT IS FINALLY TIME TO NATIONALIZE AMERICA’S FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY TO END OUR SPIRALING ENERGY WAR

California car ban: ‘This is the planned rationing of vehicles’ – ‘They have energy shortages, food shortages, now they want vehicle shortages’ – Calif. borrows Cuban & East German policies

Once the inevitable societal chaos ensues, a huge coordinated push to promote nationalization or government takeover of the impacted industries ensues. It is always claimed that the “free market” failed, and now only government can come in and clean up the mess. The advocates of nationalization usually bill it as a “temporary” nationalization of the industries, much like “15 days to slow the spread” or “2 weeks to flatten the curve” were billed as temporary measures. See: Salon mag in 2022 noted “the long American history of taking over industries during a time of national crisis” and claimed that “temporary nationalization helped get America through the crisis” of World War II.

Stuart Chase, a key advisor to former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, envisioned an early version of the Great Reset in the 1930s and 1940s, complete with calls for government “control of energy sources—hydroelectric power, coal, petroleum, natural gas.; The control of transportation—railway, highway, airway, waterway; and the control of agricultural production.”

Chase loved the idea of managing all aspects of society. He asked at the end of his 1932 book, A New Deal, “Why should the Soviets have all the fun remaking the world?” Chase’s lust for Soviet ideology could be updated to 2022 by replacing the “Soviets” for “China”.

Here is Chase’s 2022 proposed updated motto:

“Why should China have all the fun remaking the world?”

Continue reading “”

“NASDAQ Nancy” holds up bills on congressional trading while the insider rot spreads.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hemmed and hawed again last week about the House plan to rein in sketchy trades by members of Congress and their families, making empty noises about getting it done in the wake of a brutal New York Times report ID’ing almost 100 members — nearly 20%! — who reported trades in apparent conflict with their duties as overseers of laws and regulations around American industry in 2019-’21.

She’s plainly stalling, and for obvious reasons: Pelosi’s a byword for such trades with her husband — financier Paul Pelosi — making moves that regularly beat the market, often in sectors highly vulnerable to legislation the speaker can advance or kill.

Indeed, she’s long blocked real action on this problem, saying she’s open to considering the various bills now proposed in the House but doing nothing.

Yet the Times report shows she’s far from the only legislator with a vested interested in stifling such bills.

Consider California’s shouty progressive Rep. Ro Khanna. He loves to chastise Wall Street on Twitter. But that sure didn’t stop him from reporting an eye-popping 10,500 stock trades involving nearly 900 companies via trusts under his wife and kids’ names — of which a staggering 149 may be conflicted, including moves in companies under investigation by committees he sat on. Typical hypocrisy from Khanna, who also enjoyed massive donations from the financial industry during his 2016 campaign.

And what about NJ Dem Josh Gottheimer? He reported massive trades in his former employer Microsoft while serving on a committee holding hearings on cybersecurity issues, including a hack that hit the software giant.

Don’t forget Tennessee’s GOP Rep. Diana Harshbarger, who (it was revealed last year) failed to report in a timely way trades worth between $700,000 and $10.9 million and is still, per the Times, mega-active in the markets. Oopsie!

Yes, dozens of members, per the Times analysis, report small-scale trades here and there, likely totally routine.

But the many major moves made by powerful politicians with access to sensitive information long before it becomes public — even if they were in good faith — stink to high heaven.

And credit where it’s due: Some members, again on both sides of the aisle, have for years been trying to address this very problem. The STOCK Act of 2012 made some inroads on this front — but as the Times report shows, it went nowhere near far enough.

Now a host of bills around the issue have been sponsored by GOP Rep. Michael Cloud, Dem Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others.

Pelosi’s reasons for standing pat on the House side are obvious. But the Times report shows that the whole body has a clear disincentive to make a move toward reform. As a DC insider told The Post, “You’re not getting members of Congress to self-regulate the money they can or can’t make. Why would they do something that doesn’t benefit them?”

The rot, in other words, is everywhere. And it’s going to take a wholesale cleaning — plus a lot of backbone, including the steel to take on knife-fighter Pelosi — to excise it. Absent real reform, Congress will keep losing ever-more faith and credit from the voters, who now face a skidding market without the benefit of insider info.