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What will ATF criminalize next?

Talyn

SAINT
Founding Member
From an safalerts email.

What will ATF criminalize next?
by Lee Williams

House Republicans tried to stop the massive overreach by unelected bureaucrats at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who turned more than 40 million law-abiding Americans into felons overnight, but the normal operation of our Constitutional Republic has been perverted by a doddering old buffoon who would rather rule by imperial decree than submit to the normal checks, balances and separation of powers, which have proven so effective for nearly two-and-a-half centuries.

This week, the House passed H.J. Res. 44, which should have sent a strong warning to the Biden-Harris administration that Congress makes law, not ATF or the Executive Branch. The joint resolution would overturn ATF’s final rule, “Factoring Criteria for Firearms With Attached ‘Stabilizing Braces,’” which was published in January. ATF’s rule requires anyone who owns a pistol brace to permanently install a longer barrel, remove and discard the brace, turn it in to ATF, destroy the brace or register it under the National Firearms Act. Those who fail to comply risk federal felony charges.

Kudos to Congressmen Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) for sponsoring the joint resolution, but on Monday the White House announced that Biden would use his veto pen if it ever reached his desk, and a brief glimmer of hope for 40 million Americans disappeared.

For more than a decade the ATF had no problems with pistol braces, and issued several official letters stating that braced pistols were not short-barrel rifles and did not need to be registered under the NFA. But after Biden was elected, the ATF changed its mind, of course.

What we’re left with is an unconstitutional mechanism whereby ATF can now criminalize any firearm or accessory they want – even those in common usage – and Biden will block Congress from stopping the overreach.

Therefore, if you want to know what ATF will criminalize next, the answer is simple: Any damn thing they want. Our only recourse is the courts, and that process can be both lengthy and extremely expensive, and it offers no guarantee of success. There may be some who will claim that an ATF rule is not a law, but anything that can land you in federal prison for a decade is law-like enough.

To be clear, this is a full-blown constitutional crisis. Joe Biden usurped the law-making role of Congress, and his power grab was aided and abetted by the legacy media, who turned a blind eye to his unconstitutional decree, because guns. Same-same for other alleged constitutional watchdogs like the American Civil Liberties Union. If Joe’s overreach infringed on any Amendment other than the Second, the ACLU would be screaming like gut-shot blue banshees.

Several courts have already issued preliminary injunctions barring the ATF from taking enforcement against members of the pro-gun groups that brought the lawsuits. In SAF, et.al. v. ATF, et. al., United States District Judge Jane J. Boyle specifically noted this plethora of litigation, writing in her preliminary injunction that “plaintiffs are not alone in their concerns regarding the Rule.”

“The Court is aware of at least two other cases in the Northern District of Texas alone where similar plaintiffs – handgun users, nonprofits, and/or firearm manufacturers – are challenging the Rule on identical or similar grounds,” Judge Boyle wrote.

Pistol braces were originally designed to make shooting easier for disabled veterans. While veterans have never been a priority for the Biden-Harris administration, some of these men and women left chunks of their bodies on foreign battlefields, and they deserve to be respected for their sacrifices. Banning pistol braces robs them of their ability to enjoy shooting sports and defend themselves and their families.

Today it’s pistol braces. Tomorrow, who knows. Biden and his ATF toadies can now criminalize whatever they want, whenever they want, and Congress is powerless to do anything about it.
 
I agree with the original post. The only bright side for us is that the Supreme Court has shown that it supports the 2nd Amendment and also is against government overreach.
I suspect that this current rule change on pistol braces will eventually be overturned, but in the meantime it could seriously affect the lives of anyone who the ATF decides to make an example of. It is already affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of gun owners, retailers, and manufacturers.
The only one which it is not affecting is the criminal. The criminal is never affected, only the law abiding citizens.
As to the question of what will the ATF criminalize next, if they get away with this the sky's the limit. That's why it's more important than ever for the Supreme Court to support the 2nd Amendment and also to stand up to big government overreach.
 
When we all signed up to purchase a pistol platform with an arm brace years ago, it was approved, accepted pursuant to the 4473. No lyin’, no cheatin’, no deception, legal to own, legal to possess and there was a simple rule that “shouldering” (assume when in operation and not a static demonstration) of an arm brace would be verboten and a misuse of the attachment.

They changed a Rule and not a Law…or is it the other way around?
By the legal standard, a 4473 is a document establishing when the ATF becomes aware of firearm ownership. Change whatever they want, they do not get to reset the date on the 4473 and that’s what I believe is important.

There are millions of possessors of the wicked arm brace. Possess a gadget that’s attached to a firearm is the issue and does that gadget make the firearm any more or less safe to warrant a rule/law change and they’ve yet to establish a criteria of this. There’s no established statistic I know of that incorporate arm braces or SBR as a means of documenting criminal firearm use. Get stabbed with a knife, it’s not reported as a fixed blade, switchblade, cleaver or parring. That sort of detail comes out in the criminal trial.

The ATF rule/law change is based on a broader political issue rather than the length, shape or name of the firearm because someone says so.

The statute of limitations for certain lesser criminal prosecution is three years from the date of a crime is known to have been committed. We all know this because a certain someone (I won’t mention any names but they were forbiden to legally purchase one) that is months away (Oct) from getting away with lying on the 4473 under the statute of limitations.

The ATF today, knows of all the legal braced pistol owners since 2012 and up until recently when they offered up “amnesty“ - yes, you were already a criminal without any official notice, warrant or arraignment (since when is there a proxy for criminality) and they know and have your dated 4473. Legal in 20212, Banned in 2015, unbanned in 2017, banned again in 2023.

Has anyone ever been officially informed by ATF in 2015 that they were in some violation because there want anything on the 4473 that stipulates “subject to changes” or “offer not valid” if DOJ says otherwise.

Hence ATF knew of all the possessors who were deemed in violation of that rule/law back then as they know today. At minimum and reasonable, just by definition of the legal code and process, that anyone purchased, owns, possesses an arm brace prior to the proclaimed amnesty period from three years prior to the last day of amnesty is within the scope of the statute of limitations.

It’s a stretch and they know it, but they have the money, time and court to bury anyone with legal fees that tries to exercise a challenge.

Next ban will be buffer tubes, springs, hand grips or in general, any components of long barreled pistols made from metals extracted from protected lands that such were once extracted by fossil-fueled equipment by entities that were not in compliance with DEI/ESG guidelines.
 
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