What Kash Patel Should Do As Acting ATF Director

I spent the weekend with a number of Second Amendment advocates, including some names you’ll probably recognize. That’s where I first heard that Kash Patel, in addition to being director of the FBI, was named to helm the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He wasn’t who I thought would get tapped, but the general consensus was that this was a good thing.

And I agree.

But now that Patel is in charge, what is on the agenda?

He started at the FBI by getting rid of some of the dead weight in that agency as well as some who used their positions to push their own agendas. Now, he’s got a chance to do that again.

With Kash Patel now in the position of Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the agency is in for a shake-up.

One thing that Patel can do is get rid of problem employees who have gone out of their way to infringe on the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. This purge has already started with the firing of the ATF’s Chief Council, Pam Hicks. Hicks was a rabid anti-gun attorney that chose to defend very constitutionally dubious rules. Although Hicks was a good first step, without removing other problem members, nothing will change.

The first person that Patel should remove from the Bureau is the ATF’s Deputy Director, Marvin Richardson. Mr. Richardson has been behind some of the ATF’s most controversial rules. He was the driving force behind the reclassification of pistols equipped with braces. Mr. Richardson proposed reclassifying pistols with braces and unfinished firearms frames during a 2020 meeting with the Biden transition team without President Trump’s knowledge….

Mr. Patel should look at Matthew Varisco. Mr. Varisco is the ATF Assistant Director for the Office of Field Operations. When he worked out of the Philadelphia Field Office, he pushed the targeting of companies selling firearms precursor parts, including issuing a cease-and-desist letter to JSD Supply. This action was taken before the rule change of pistol frames. He pioneered the idea of firearms “structuring.” According to Varisco, if someone buys firearms parts from multiple companies to build a working firearm, that is “structuring.” This use of the term was the first time it was used outside banking crimes. He claimed that the possibility of “structuring” meant that all 80% firearm frames needed to be treated like completed guns. Mr. Varisco’s idea of “structuring” made it into the final rule.

Other names are, of course, mentioned, and I happen to agree. Far too many people achieved success in the ATF by supporting gun control, which would expand the agency’s authority by virtue of trampling on the rights of the American people and by reinterpreting rules as much as possible to expand it.

And a lot of names went into that.

However, there’s a lot more to be done than just clean house. Patel needs to also purge the ATF of some of the problematic interpretations of federal law, and do so in the way Brandon Herrera talked about in a video regarding what he would do as ATF director. No, the AK Guy isn’t calling the shots at the ATF, but Herrera says he came up with this after close consultation with groups like the Firearms Policy Coalition and Gun Owners of America and they happen to be smart ideas.

Whether the end goal is to merge the ATF with the FBI and get rid of the agency entirely or not, the truth is that we have a golden opportunity to preserve gun rights for the next generation. Kash Patel strikes me as the kind of guy who would be interested in doing it just this way, too, so I’m incredibly hopeful going forward.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s appointment of Kash Patel (and Dan Bongino at the FBI), we’ve got the opportunity to make the FBI great again and bring the ATF to heel. The two-tiered system of justice that we’ve seen from the Biden administration is a thing of the past and the bureau is on its way back to being America’s premiere law enforcement agency.

Sixth Time the Charm for Snope at SCOTUS?

We can only hope. The Supreme Court has once again scheduled both Snope v. Brown and Ocean State Tactical v. Neronha for debate in conference this week, keeping hope alive that the justices will grant cert to one or both cases next week.

This Friday’s conference will be the sixth appearance for Snope (which is the challenge to Maryland’s ban on so-called assault weapons), while Ocean State Tactical (taking on Rhode Island’s ban on “large capacity” magazines) is up for its seventh go-round behind closed doors as the justice decide what cases they’ll accept. The good news is that neither of these cases were disposed of in today’s orders, but that still doesn’t mean that either or both are guaranteed to be heard by SCOTUS in the future.

I have to say that I’m still cautiously optimistic as well. Both Snope and Ocean State Tactical have been heard in conference since mid-December (December 4, in the case of Ocean State Tactical), which is more than enough time for Justice Thomas, Gorsuch, or Alito to write a dissent from denial of cert.

Of course, that’s also plenty of time for four justices to vote to hear one or both of these cases, and that doesn’t appear to have happened yet either.

We have no idea what’s being said during conference, or what’s causing the hold up, but there’s a slate of other Second Amendment cases that are heading the Court’s way, so the justices will have plenty of 2A topics to choose from in the near future.

A cert petition was filed in Antonyuk v. James (taking on New York’s post-Bruen carry laws) last month, and a reply is due from the New York AG this Wednesday, so that could be heard in conference in early March.

The Court has requested a response from the University of Michigan in Wade v. UofM, which challenges the university’s ban on concealed carry, and that response is due on March 10. That’s the same day that the Firearms Policy Coalition and Second Amendment Foundation must submit their response to the state of Minnesota in Jacobson v. Worth. The challenge to Minnesota’s ban on carrying for under-21s was successful at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, but Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is intent on defending the ban til the bitter end.

The DOJ has a deadline of March 17 to reply to the cert petition in Perez-Garcia v. United States, which is an as-applied Second Amendment challenge to firearms-related pretrial release conditions. It’ll be interesting to see how AG Pam Bondi responds to the lawsuit and whether the Justice Department will defend the current law that allows for defendants to be prohibited from possessing a firearm before they’re convicted of a crime.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have a March deadline of their own in B&L Productions v. Newsom, which takes on the state’s prohibition on contracting for, authorizing, or allowing the sale of any firearm or ammunition on state-owned property. The law is designed to kill off the biggest gun shows in the state, and has been upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The state’s reply brief is due on March 20, about one week before the federal Justice Department’s deadline to reply in the last 2A-related case to come before the Court’s attention next month.

On March 28th the DOJ’s reply brief in Missouri v. United States is due before the justices. Missouri is seeking to defend the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which lower courts have thrown out a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. The law was mean to block local and state law enforcement from cooperating with the feds in enforcing constitutionally suspect firearm statutes, but Missouri argues that the state has the power under the Tenth Amendment to decide which laws should be treated as null and void in the Show Me State.

As great as it would be for the Court to greenlight every one of these cases, that’s not likely to happen. Heck, at this point it’s an open question as to whether the justices will grant cert to any of these lawsuits. Fingers crossed that by this time next week we’re celebrating a grant in Snope and Ocean State Tactical instead of gritting our teeth in frustration.

Gov. Rhoden Signs Pro-Second Amendment Bill into Law

Gov. Rhoden Signs Pro-Second Amendment Bill into Law

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Larry Rhoden signed SB 81, which prohibits the use of a firearms code for transactions involving firearms, accessories, components, and ammunition and to provide a civil penalty therefor.

“I am proud to protect our Second Amendment rights with the signing of this bill,” said Governor Larry Rhoden. “South Dakota has seen strong growth of our firearm industry, and this bill will help that continue. I am grateful that both the bankers and the firearm industry came together on this issue.”

A private signing ceremony was held this morning and included representatives from South Dakota’s growing firearms industry, South Dakota’s banking industry, the National Rifle Association, and prime sponsors of the bill. You can find a picture of Governor Rhoden signing SB 81 here.

Governor Rhoden has signed 35 bills into law this legislative session.

Woman shoots man in self-defense,

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – A woman accused of shooting and killing a man in a neighborhood southwest of Gainesville was released on the grounds of self-defense.

Alachua County Sheriff’s Office officials say a man was shot in the Westchester Manor neighborhood near Southwest Fourth Place around 3 p.m. Sunday.

Deputies detained the suspected shooter, a woman who lived at the home. Investigators interviewed her and witnesses inside the home and in the neighborhood.

Detectives concluded the woman acted in self-defense. The assistant state attorney also agreed with their findings.

The woman was released from custody as detectives continue the investigation.

Aging Members of Congress Refuse to Disclose Details of Their Top Secret Hospital
The Office of the Attending Physician gives politicians nearly unlimited medical care for about $54 a month.

After a presidential election that saw an 82-year-old commander in chief unable to complete sentences in a debate or instill confidence in the public that he could carry out his duties, elected leaders in Congress are faring no better.

In the past two months alone,
82-year-old Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) was discovered to be living in an assisted-living facility with a dementia ward in her final months in office;
74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) won a high-profile leadership position on the House Oversight Committee after revealing he is battling highly terminal esophageal cancer;
82-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) fell twice on Capitol Hill just months after blacking out during a press conference;
84-year-old former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) fell and broke her hip in Luxembourg;
and 76-year-old Rep. John Larson (D-CT) appeared to suffer a stroke on the House floor. (Larson’s staff has said it was a bad reaction to a new medication.)

What has eluded attention is the highly secretive hospital, housed on Capitol Hill and funded by taxpayers, that provides both emergency and primary care to an aging political class, which some have come to describe as a gerontocracy. It also runs classified programs known only to some members of Congress.

In 2023, Congress designated $4.2 million to the Office of the Attending Physician (OAP), a Navy-staffed hospital with multiple branches spread across Capitol Hill. The current attending physician, Dr. Brian Monahan, who serves as a rear admiral in the Navy, oversees a staff of dozens of Navy doctors, nurses, and technicians whose primary responsibility is providing care to members of Congress and the Supreme Court.

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Bill Prohibits Tennessee Doctors From Asking Patients About Gun Ownership.

A new bill introduced in the Tennessee Legislature will prohibit healthcare providers, if passed, from asking patients whether they own or possess firearms or related items. Not only would HB 0387 defend Tennesseans from being asked an annoying and irrelevant question, but the law would come with some teeth, by way of a $1,000 fine and more if they do choose to pry.

Representative Ed Butler introduced the bill and has previously sponsored measures dealing with education, taxes, and infectious disease. HB 0387 prohibits any inquiry into a patient’s ownership, possession of, or access to firearms, ammunition, or accessories, including the denial of treatment based on knowledge of the aforementioned circumstances. It also forbids entering into the patient’s record any of the information described in the prohibition unless relevant to the patient’s medical care, safety, or the safety of others. Lastly, the bill prohibits the sharing of any such information with an insurer and requires that the healthcare provider disclose all of this to a patient before treatment.

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The Hard Part of Armed Defense

I wrote about this story earlier. Now we know a little more after the defender spoke to local reporters. A mom with two kids was attacked in her home at night. She announced to the robbers that she was there. She shouted that she was armed. The robbers shot at her about a half-dozen times and wounded her twice. She was wounded as she held her infant daughter on her hip. She shot back and retreated. She huddled in her bedroom as she was protecting her two small children. The wounded mom begged the robbers to leave. Eventually, they did, but not before they shot at her home 30 times.

One of the robbers was wounded. All three were arrested. This is what we can learn.

Bad guys avoid a fair fight. If they responded to fairness and justice, then they wouldn’t have broken into your home in the first place. Your priority is to be there so you can take care of your children when this is over. You want to avoid being shot, and even being shot at. You definitely want to avoid facing multiple attacker at the same time. The sooner your attackers can’t hurt you the less shot you’ll get.

You don’t have to announce that you are home. You don’t have to announce that you have a gun. You don’t have to say anything to three men who broke into your home in the middle of the night. This isn’t an old-time radio drama. This isn’t a movie where the good guys and bad guys give a monologue before the fight scene. You don’t have to shoot the bad guy from the front or from a position where they can see you at all.

For example, it is hard to get shot if you’re shooting from the back of a dark bedroom and the bad guys are standing in a lighted hallway. Consider that situation for a moment. Some people think that a gunfight is won by the person who draws and shoots the fastest. That tells me you have been watching too many late-night westerns. The person who wins is usually the person with a better plan.

The hard part of self-defense is being ready for a serious but unlikely event.

Notice that the bad guys had to break into this home because the doors and windows were locked. They made noise. That noise alerted the mom and gave her time to react. She called her partner on the phone and then grabbed their gun.

You want to know when you can legally use lethal force to defend yourself. Study that enough so that you recognize a situation rather than having to think it through as it unfolds. Learn if you can shoot a stranger who breaks down your bedroom door in the middle of the night. Knowing what you can and should do makes you faster.

Practice a safety plan with your family. There are good plans and bad plans. Avoid a plan that puts you in a gunfight where bullets are going both ways. Don’t stand in the middle of your hallway and talk to people who broke into your home. Your children will be less frightened if they have rehearsed the family safety plan with you several times.

Let us imagine a very different encounter than this news story. This defender would have a huge advantage if-

  • her children were under her bed,
  • she was crouched down behind the bed,
  • she had her gun pointed at her locked bedroom door,
  • and 911 was on the phone.

How would your safety plan make you and your family safer?

This mom did a lot of things right. She and her child are also lucky to be alive. She was shot twice while she had a child in her arms and either shot was a few inches from being a fatal wound. This was the first time she had held a firearm. Give yourself every advantage so you survive even if you don’t have luck on your side. Practice with your defensive tools before you need them.

As a final aside, the robbers broke into her home looking for drugs and money. Lose your roommates who have a drug problem.. and then change the locks.

The AP’s feelings get hurt; it’s a First Amendment crisis!

The Associated Press (AP) makes its money selling stories to other media outlets. It pays “stringers”—reporters and photographers—around the world to submit stories, which it makes available to its subscriber outlets who can’t afford to send reporters and photographers around the globe.

That’s a good thing for smaller media outlets like local new stations, but it’s also a very bad thing because then the AP makes mistakes, or goes woke, so do its subscribers who have no way of knowing they’re making those mistakes. They do know they’re going woke, but even if they’d rather not, their choice is to play along or drop the AP feed. A good example of the AP’s wokeness and anti-Americanism is this:

Shira Bibas’ sons “died in captivity.” An honest and accurate account would say Bibas and her boys, 4 and 10 months, were savagely strangled by Hamas terrorists, and their bodies were clumsily mutilated so Hamas could claim they died in an Israeli airstrike, a perversely stupid and easily exposed lie.

The AP also uses its style guide to enforce wokeness and media outlets, including the majors, happily go along. It’s an enviable perch atop the media hierarchy and the AP has become used to certain perks, among them, a prominent chair in the White House Press Room.

Until, that is, the AP decided to keep calling the Gulf of America the Gulf of Mexico, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, surely with the permission of President Trump, banished them, also from Air Force One and other places and events. This is also surely a part of Leavitt’s reshuffling the Press Room deck, booting established outlets replacing them with new media.to give new media a chance.

The horror.

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For the moment, Bibi backs off

The genocidal mania of Hamas and its supporters revels in murder and humiliation of the enemy. The ecstatic bloodlust is palpable. The impetus of degradation is manifest. Thus Hamas has staged the release of hostages under the current ceasefire with Israel in a manner that comports with the mania. They have turned each release into a celebratory production that degrades and humiliates hostages captives who have been starved and tortured in captivity. Hamas lets them go, but Hamas gets the last laugh. The silence of “the world” is remarkable.

Last week’s events brought us Hamas’s staging of the production of four corpses. CNN characterized it as a “macabre handover ceremony.” That doesn’t capture the quality of the event, but it’s hard to capture. We need a psychiatric successor to Freud who can give us The Psychopathology of Everyday Islamism.

Following the “ceremony” and the delivery of the corpses, the Israelis discovered Hamas’s alleged mixed-up confusion about the corpse of Shiri Bibas. Hamas had turned over a random Gazan in place of the corpse of Mrs. Bibas. The creative juices of the genocidal psychopathology are flowing.

The corpse production was followed on Saturday by the staging of this week’s release of living hostages. The hostages appeared onstage attired in fake army uniforms, though they were not soldiers when kidnapped. One of the hostages was ordered to kiss two of his masked captors on the head while holding his official Hamas release certificate. Only the Israeli Arab hostage was excused from the onstage production.

And that’s not all. Eve Barlow comments: “In one of the most barbaric acts since October 7, Hamas today brought two hostages, Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal[,] to witness the release of the six other hostages onstage and filmed them adjacent in a van pleading to camera for their release before they were returned to the dungeons of Gaza…” She adds: “The people of Gaza are the most depraved people on the planet and the people of the West have allowed them to sink to lower levels of depravity by choice and by complicity.” And this: “We will never forgive you or take your ‘humanitarian’ work seriously ever again.”

 

Ms. Barlow reflects the intensified anger that this week’s humiliations have aroused in Israel. Early this morning Prime Minister Netanyahu halted the scheduled release of this week’s tranche of 602 convicted terrorists from prison in exchange for the six living hostages.

The Prime Minister’s Office has posted on X: “In light of Hamas’s repeated violations, including the ceremonies that humiliate our hostages and the cynical exploitation of our hostages for propaganda purposes it has been decided to delay the release of terrorists that was planned for yesterday until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies.”

The use of the passive voice is unfortunate. One infers that this is Netanyahu’s decision for the moment. The Times of Israel has much more here. If they are not mutually irreconcilable, Israel’s goals of recovering hostages and eradicating Hamas remain difficult to reconcile.