And I helped!

Explosion of Silence: ATF Gets 150,000 eForm Submissions On First Day of Zero Dollar Tax Stamps.

Gun owners from all across the country—except, of course, for California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.—can celebrate the New Year with a bang! Or, at least a suppressed bang, that is.

After Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed into law, the One Big, Beautiful Bill last summer, the extra $200 tax on firearm suppressors, short-barrel rifles and short-barrel shotguns is no more.

During the final few months of 2025, many suppressor companies were known to cover the tax for suppressor buyers if they chose to make their purchase ahead of January 1 and the numbers noticeably increased before the holidays.

But with the ringing in of the New Year, suppressor purchases skyrocketed as expected. All signs suggest 2026 will be the Year of the Suppressor.

Not A Typo

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives informed NSSF that on Thursday, January 1, 2026, alone, an unprecedented surge in e-Forms submissions were being processed. That total was approximately 150,000 e-Forms. For an eye-popping comparison, last year, ahead of the $200-to-$0 tax change, typical daily volume on e-Forms for suppressors, SBRs and SBSs would hover closer to around 2,500.

That’s not a typo. Americans are taking advantage of the tax reduction on National Firearms Act (NFA) items—including firearm suppressors, SBSs and SBRs—in a big, big way.

That data tracks with other data points NSSF has seen in recent years and all expectations are that growth in the number of Americans who own a suppressor will explode.

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On This Day: Washington asks Connecticut to help defend New York

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Anxious over the fate of New York, George Washington wrote to Connecticut Gov. Jonathan Trumbull, warning that British ships fitting out in Boston were, in his judgment, bound for New York. Washington cautioned that if the British seized the city and the North River, they would command the country and reopen communications with Canada. He therefore “begged the favor” of Trumbull’s prompt assistance so he could dispatch Maj. Gen. Charles Lee with volunteers willing to join in fortifying and defending New York.

“There is great reason to believe that this Armament, if not immediately designed against the City of New-York is nevertheless intended for Long Island; and as it is a matter of the utmost importance to prevent the Enemy from possessing themselves of the city of New York, and the North River, which would give them the command of the Country, and the Communication with Canada.”

ON THIS DAY: COL. HENRY KNOX

“I beg the favor of you to interpose your good offices and interest in the matter, and to encourage men to go on this important business, and as expeditiously as possible, for counteracting any designs our enemies may have against us in that quarter—Every necessary expense attending their march and stay will be borne by the Public.”

Washington also wrote to John Adams, urging prompt attention to the situation and seeking his judgment both on the wisdom of the plan and on whether it fell within Washington’s authority as commander in chief. As events moved quickly, Washington awaited Adams’s counsel.

 

NYC mayoral aide Cea Weaver who says whites owning houses is racist bursts into TEARS when asked about her mother’s $1.4m Craftsman home

A woke aide to New York City‘s new socialist mayor burst out crying when confronted over her assertion that it is racist for white people to own homes – despite her own mother owning a $1.4m Craftsman house.

Cea Weaver, who runs Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Office to Protect Tenants, was overcome with emotion when confronted outside her apartment in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning.

The 37-year-old began running down the street after seeing a Daily Mail reporter outside her home, then said ‘No’ through tears when asked if she wanted to comment on her professor mother Celia Appleton’s ownership of the $1.4 million property in fast-gentrifying Nashville.

Weaver appeared to be walking towards a nearby subway station, but then turned back and ran inside her home, which has a ‘Free Palestine‘ poster taped to one of its windows.

She was subsequently seen peering out the same window with the poster in it.

Weaver previously tweeted that ‘homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy’ and that ‘homeownership is racist’ in social media posts that also urged people to ‘impoverish the white middle class.’

In another Twitter missive from 2018, Weaver wrote: ‘There is no such thing as “good gentrifier,” only people who are actively working on projects to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism and people who aren’t.’

Weaver further called on people to ‘seize private property’ and called for the election of communist lawmakers.

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Tracing of Brown University Killer’s Gun Should Shatter Tracing Myths

The mainstream media has a real thing for gun tracing. They’re quick to quote anti-gunners, both activists and politicians, who say that so-called ghost guns are a problem because they can’t be traced. This supposedly deprives law enforcement of a serious tool they need.

Of course, no one has ever found a case that’s been broken by gun tracing, and even if there is one, the truth is that tracing only really works to find the original buyer.

This was just illustrated rather well in a report about how the tracing of the Brown University shooter’s gun has been completed.

The origin of the 9mm pistol that [the killer] fired in a Brown University lecture hall is not known to the public.

But investigators have completed their trace of the gun, which means they have identified the first person who purchased the weapon after it was manufactured and distributed, according to Andrew Wozniak, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

If that first purchaser was [the killer], then investigators already know where he procured the gun that he fired on Dec. 13, killing two people and injuring nine.

However, if [he] was not the first purchaser, what investigators know is not as clear, based on Wozniak’s limited comments.

“ATF has completed traces of the firearms in this case,” he said, adding that the agency “cannot publicize the details of those firearm traces at this time.”

In the lexicon of the ATF’s tracking center, a complete trace means that investigators tracked the gun along a path from either its manufacturer (or an importer, if it was foreign-made); through a chain of distribution, which typically involves a wholesaler as well as one or two retailers; and on to the first purchaser, Wozniak said.

And if it went beyond that initial purchase, even in a universal background check state, things get virtually impossible.

In this case, they know who had the gun and are trying to see if they can find a link to someone who may have helped him. Unless the gun was originally purchased by a third party a few weeks or so before the shooting, or if the original buyer reported the gun stolen, then there’s not a whole lot else to be learned.

Once a gun leaves the hands of the original buyer, the trail largely dies. That’s true even in universal background check states, where people might be required to go to a gun store to transfer a firearm, but they’re not required to remember which one they went to or anything else. Depending on how long ago such a purchase was, the original buyer may legitimately not remember anything about the transaction.

And that’s if everyone is trying to do everything lawfully and you have a near-totalitarian regime in place to make everyone do everything exactly like they’re supposed to.

Realistically, though, even that wouldn’t be the case in most states.

For all the hysteria about gun tracing, the people screaming the loudest don’t actually understand how tracing works and what its limitations are. In this case, we see a report that explicitly outlines what the ATF can learn from a trace, and that ain’t much.

While it’s a tool law enforcement uses, they don’t bank on that solving crimes, and they have never gotten a conviction based primarily on gun-tracing data. They do actual police work because that’s what puts criminals behind bars.

In this case, they hope they can find anyone who helped, but let’s be real, they’re not likely to find one. The only reason they found one in the Columbine case was that the killers were underage, and they needed someone older to buy the guns. That’s it, and that’s rare.

I’ll be shocked if they learn anything useful this time.

Chief Justice Roberts Is Not Defending The Second Amendment—He Is Containing It

New York – Let us dispense with the pleasantries.

The United States Supreme Court’s handling of Second Amendment cases is not “confusing,” not “complicated,” and not the product of innocent happenstance. It is, rather, the predictable output of discretionary power being used to avoid decisive confrontation with state defiance of the Court’s own landmark rulings.

And in that avoidance, the Second Amendment is being bled—slowly, methodically, and with a degree of institutional self-protection that should alarm every citizen who understands what the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms is, and what it is for.

This companion article is necessarily short. The full argument is set forth in our original Arbalest Quarrel article, (Chief Justice Roberts Is Strangling The Life Out Of The Second Amendment) which we urge you to read in full. But the essentials are plain enough, and they must be stated plainly.

The Battle Is Not Only In The Merits—It Is In The Docket

Most Americans do not understand that the Supreme Court is not a forum of automatic justice.

The Court selects what it will hear. It grants or denies petitions for writs of certiorari at its discretion. And although Supreme Court Rule 10 pretends to supply a neutral architecture for that discretion, the reality is that Rule 10 functions as a judicial escape hatch—a convenient justification for declining the very cases that demand intervention.

In no domain is this more destructive than in Second Amendment litigation.

If the Court refuses to take the cases that matter, then Heller, McDonald, and Bruen become museum pieces—praised as “historic” while states openly devise end-runs around them in real time.

A Right that cannot be enforced is not a Right in any serious sense. It is a slogan.

The “Rule Of Four” Is Real—But The Strategy Is Realer

We discuss at length in the original article the Supreme Court’s so-called “Rule of Four”—the traditional practice that four Justices may grant certiorari.

This is not a trivial procedural detail. It is supposed to preserve the integrity of the Court’s appellate function by ensuring that a substantial minority may bring a matter before the Court for decision on the merits.

But in Second Amendment cases, the deeper reality is this:

Those Justices who cherish the Natural Law Right codified in the Second Amendment do not, as a general matter, vote to grant review unless they believe they have the votes to win.

And those who detest the Right will happily grant review when they believe they have five votes to shred it.

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NRA sues the NRA Foundation.

Synopsis:

NRA is suing its charitable arm (the Foundation), accusing the Foundation’s leadership of trying to do their own thing instead of benefiting the NRA, and diverting money intended for NRA programs into other things.

Specifically, there’s $160 million that the NRA says the Foundation promised donors would go to NRA education programs, but now the Foundation is trying to cut off funding and run its own competing programs.

Other accusations involve changing the bylaws improperly, making the Foundation’s trustees “self-perpetuating” (self-electing), and cutting the NRA out of any say in who the Foundation’s people are.

gov.uscourts.dcd.288159.1.0

I would have called the rifles ‘Phoenix’ as it’s Anderson rising from the ashes.

Ruger Rings in New Year with Re-Engineered Harrier AR Rifles

alling its new AR-pattern guns a “completely re-engineered line of modern sporting rifles,” Ruger announced the arrival of its Harrier line of AR-pattern guns on New Year’s Eve.

The new 5.56 NATO/.223 Rem AR-15s are manufactured at Ruger’s recently acquired Hebron, Kentucky, factory – i.e., the now-defunct Anderson Manufacturing in disguise. There will be two models on offer to start in 2026.

Model 28600 comes with a mid-length gas system, Magpul MOE-K2 grip, Magpul DT Carbine stock, and a handguard with a full-length STANAG-spec top rail. Model 28601 will offer a carbine-length gas system, classic A2 grip, M4 collapsible stock, and a light-profile handguard, minus the full-length top rail.

“Introducing Harrier rifles marks an important step in advancing the quality and performance of our modern sporting rifle line,” said Todd Seyfert, Ruger’s president and CEO. “Ruger Harrier rifles combine the rugged reliability Ruger is known for with modern adaptability, making them an ideal choice for shooters seeking precision, durability, and customization – and we are excited that this is only the beginning.”

Ruger Harrier Rifle
The Harrier Model 28600 sporting Magpul furniture is on the top. The lightweight Model 28601 with the interrupted top Picatinny rail is on the bottom. (Image: Ruger)

Both Harriers feature free-floated 15-inch handguards with M-LOK slots. They are made with forged 7075 aluminum upper and lower receivers that meet mil-spec standards. The guns are finished with a Type III hard-coat anodizing.

The triggers are a GI single-stage affair with a standard left-side safety selector and flat trigger guard. One unique twist is an integrated tension screw that enables users to fine-tune their upper-to-lower fitment.

Other mil-spec features include the carbine buffer tube with a staked castle nut and a recoil spring with a carbine-weight buffer.

The guns come with 16.1-inch, black-nitride-coated barrels with a 1:8 twist and 1/2×28 TPI threads, topped with an A2 flash hider. The bolt carriers are also finished with black nitride and host a chrome-plated firing pin.

MSRP for the 6.6-pound Model 28601 comes in at $699. The Magpul-furnished 6.8-pound Model 28600 is set at an MSRP of $749.