Alphabet Bois Pt IV
Where angels fear to tread
When I started writing this series I didn’t really expect to spend so much time writing on firearms and the ATF.
The thing is, it’s not really just about firearms and the ATF…
Well, okay, it is, sorta.
But what it’s really about is government in general.
I follow the ATF and its many and varied shenanigans out of self-defense, mostly. Ever since they got away with making any owner of a Bump Stock an ex post facto felon, it was pretty clear that wouldn’t be the last time they played that card.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 of The United States Constitution:
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
The ATF would argue that no ex post facto law was passed, and technically that’s true. No new law was passed, an un-elected bureaucrat decided to interpret an already existing law in a way that not only had it never been interpreted before, but in the exact opposite way the law had previously been interpreted.
This fiction is rhetorical pablum, a pretend way of not violating the constitutional prohibition againt ex post facto laws by not making an act retroactively illegal, but an item. It just so happens that then owning the item, even if it was perfectly legal and acceptable when you bought it, makes you a felon.
Bummer for you, huh?
Previously such things were mostly done via law. The laughably named Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, for example, banned the private ownership of automatic firearms, but, because it was a law, excluded:
18 U.S.C. § 922 (B) any lawful transfer or lawful possession of a machinegun that was lawfully possessed before the date this subsection takes effect.
Any automatic weapon owned before the passage of this law was essentially exempt from it, thus it was not ex post facto.
Trump’s banning of Bump Stocks was done by way of Executive Order. Basically the Trump Administration told the ATF to alter the deal, to turn what they had previously declared to be a legal accessory into an illegal machine gun, giving owners 90 days from the publication of the alteration to either destroy their legally purchased and, previously, legally owned property, hand it over to the feds, or be a felon.
The whole mess has been winding its way through the courts ever since, primarily as Gun Owners of America v. Garland, with various courts batting it around like cats chasing a laser. Its current status is unclear, with an En Banc hearing by the 6th Circuit splitting, overturning-by-default a prior 6th Circuit decision throwing out the rule and instead affirming a lower court ruling allowing it. GOA will presumably appeal to SCOTUS (again), a lengthy and expensive process that may go nowhere if SCOTUS decides not to grant cert.
The long and short of it is that there are a lot of people out there who have Bump Stocks sitting in their closet, have no knowledge of any of this, and at any time could find themselves facing 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for something that was perfectly legal when they bought it.
That is an Alphabet Bois’ dream.
Recall that much of our federal firearms law goes back to the NFA of 1934. The NFA was originally going to tightly control the private ownership of pistols and revolvers. To avoid people attempting to circumvent this, ‘cut-down’ rifles and shotguns were included in the NFA as being tightly regulated. There weren’t enough votes to pass the NFA with the limitations on pistols and revolvers, so those were dropped. The language regarding ‘cut-down’ rifles and shotguns, which now made no sense, was not.
And thus were born SBRs.
Legally speaking a rifle is a firearm with a butt-stock and a barrel with a length of at least 16”. Why 16”? Who the hell knows? There’s no logical reason to pick that particular length, more than likely it was a number someone who’s long-dead pulled out of their rectum and everyone said “Sounds good!”.
Any rifle with a barrel length of less than 16” is considered an SBR (Short Barreled Rifle) and to legally own one you must fill out and submit various forms, finger prints, and $200 (which was, in 1934, a serious chunk of change) for the ATF to put you on Grandpa SniffyHair’s naughty list and slow walk the paperwork, eventually giving you a tax stamp — I’m told these days it’s a six month to year+ process. Possession of an SBR without a tax stamp is an NFA violation carrying that famous 10 years, $250,000 fine penalty.
In 2012 a guy named Alex Bosco designed what he called a Stabilizing Pistol Brace to help a combat disabled friend. This device went on the buffer tube of standard AR- or AK-style pistols, typically with 8 - 10” barrels, that were and are extremely popular. The brace has Velcro bands and fits around the forearm, allowing someone with limited mobility to relatively safely and accurately fire the weapon.
Alex Bosco submitted his design to the ATF who responded:
[…] the submitted brace, when attached to a firearm, does not convert that weapon to be fired from the shoulder and would not alter the classification of a pistol or other firearm. While a firearm so equipped would still be regulated by the Gun Control Act … such a firearm would not be subject to NFA controls.
Peachy, all nice and legal. The ATF said so and they wouldn’t go back on their word, right?
…Right?
Taking the ATF at their word, Alex Bosco and his friend Grant Shaw started SB Tactical to manufacture and sell Pistol Stabilizing Braces. They sold like hotcakes, there are tens of millions of firearms out there that came stock with a brace and you can’t go into a gun store without seeing a few dozen examples on the wall.
There was a problem, because of course there was. A Stabilizing Pistol Brace works well if you’re disabled and use it around your forearm, but it also can be shouldered and used as a rifle. Shouldering a pistol with a Stabilizing Pistol Brace turned it into an illegal SBA, but that’s not quite how the law works… At least not yet. As manufactured, a Stabilizing Pistol Brace was made to help disabled persons, most frequently disabled veterans, something the ATF said was perfectly acceptable. How people were using them in practice, well there was no easy way for the ATF to go after one without going after the other.
Wrap it around your arm and it’s legal, put it to your shoulder and it’s ten years in jail?
That was a hard sell, even for the ATF.
Hasn’t stopped them from trying, though. See, gun owners were using one of those grey areas that agencies like the ATF like to use to put you in jail, only they were using it to avoid ATF over reach and control.
We can’t be allowing that, the peons might think they have rights or something!
So round ‘n round the whole Brace mess has gone for several years now, with the ATF trying to declare Braces, which they had several times declared legal and acceptable, as illegal, without being seen as taking something away from disabled veterans.
They tried various shenanigans towards the end of the Trump era, only to get slapped down by several senators. Many of whom are now asking why the ATF is keeping an illegal gun registry. That might be a big deal, federal law enforcement blatantly violating federal law, but there’s a new sheriff in town. Grandpa SniffyHair likely neither knows nor cares about any of this, the only thing he can reliably be said to know is when the Remington Steele reruns air, but his minions and the literally fascistic fact check boot lickers will make sure that’s not really an issue for our brave Alphabet Bois.
Never happened, fact checkers said so.
What is going to happen is the ATF has announced when they’re going to release new laws… Oh, I’m sorry, rules on the favorite items on their naughty list.
Starting in June 2022 they’re going to redefine “Frame or Receiver” in a pathetic attempt to stop the very, very scary ghost guns.
As I have already discussed at some length, that’s a battle they’ve lost and are just too damn stupid to realize. In fact with the ATF trying to bring the hammer down on Forced Reset Triggers, someone got around to designing a 3D printed version.
Good job, ATF.
The second thing on the ATF’s naughty list is “silencers”, what most are more accurately referred to as suppressors or, more commonly, cans.
Contrary to the movies, silencers do not silence, not even close. As a gross generality what they do is reduce the sound of a gunshot from something that will permanently damage your hearing, if you aren’t wearing protection, to something that will be somewhat painful, certainly still loud, but not permanently damaging to your hearing.
That’s it.
In many countries it’s considered disrespectful or even illegal to hunt without a suppressor, but here in the US a silencer is an NFA item requiring genuflecting before the crown, paying your $200, and waiting around for a year.
I’d love to have cans for all my weapons, but I’m averse to being on Uncle SniffyHair’s naughty list — well, any more than I already am — and the ATF really, really, really loves to go after anything that maybe, could be, might be used as a suppressor. Which, as it happens, includes a whole lot of things. Do a search for “solvent trap” and see what I mean. Half the entries are obvious law enforcement honey pots. Then there’s lawn mower mufflers and a host of other wink-wink ‘silencers’ that will land you a stint in clubfed, no questions asked and no need to pack a bag.
You can even, and I’m sure no one reading this will be surprised, 3D print suppressors, there are a number of designs out there. They have a limited lifespan, but given it costs pennies to print one, who cares?
So personally, given that suppressors are on my “It’d be nice, but not worth the bother” list, I avoid the subject like the plague. I wish it wasn’t that way, but, well, it is.
Lastly on the list is Stabilizing Pistol Braces. It looks like the ATF is going to go with an oldie but goodie they trial ballooned before, but backed off of. Basically it’s a form with ‘points’ for various features. If a weapon has too many points, it’s an illegal SBR and off to the gulag for you, Kulak scum!
The beauty of this system is how subjective and contradictory it is. You’ll never know if your weapon is legal or not, just the way the ATF likes it. Your firearm might be legal, but it might not, depends on our mood. Our decision today is wholly non-binding, we reserve the right to change our minds and throw you in jail at any time.
How many millions of Americans are, with this ‘rule change’ by un-elected bureaucrats, going to become felons overnight and never even know it?
A metric crapton.
This is how the ATF has handled the Stabilizing Pistol Brace, and so many other issues, from the beginning. Once they got their ugly noses under the tent with the ex post facto change to the status of Bump Stocks, it was clear that was going to be their modus operandi going forward. Passing laws, after all, is so messy and someone might be called to account for their vote, so much easier just to have an unaccountable bureaucrat “re-interpret” a law for you, the sky is the limit.
Handing the government a backdoor way around the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws is an extremely dangerous line that we’ve well and truly danced right by.
So I’ve watched the ATF fairly carefully over the last few years. I’ve honestly been surprised at their blatant disregard for the constitution and the law and I suspect even they are a bit shocked at just how much they get away with.
Mostly I just like to know when someone decides I’m a felon, even on those rare occasions when I actually do my best to follow the law. I’m funny that way. I could, of course, just obey, submit, curtsy before the crown and ask for their permission, at least for as long as they deign to give it, but, for better or ill, I’ve never been very good at any of those things.
Well, I do a decent, if sarcastic, curtsy.
The ATF doesn’t work for the people, it has no interest in protecting anyone and will happily snipe a woman who has committed no crime and burn a building full of women and children to the ground with nary an apology, let alone any sense of having done wrong. They work for people like George Soros and Michael Bloomberg. Important people who drop bags of money in all the right places, certainly not you. You are the enemy, a perpetrator, and if you aren’t an outright criminal now, well just give them time to get around to it.
It’s not just the ATF, it’s all the many and myriad Alphabet Bois
Unfortunately that’s the sad reality.
How we can fix that, preferably without things going kinetic? I don’t know. There are options — a national divorce or Constitutional Convention, to name two — but I don’t see those going anywhere.
Absent that, you can obey, submit, curtsy before the crown and ask for their permission, but if you do so realize that their permission can and will be revoked at any time, and if they can, will, and do alter the deal any time they like… You have no rights.
The amusing thing is that if the ATF got their wish, if they banned guns, all that would do is make people like me very, very rich and increase the chances that people like them, when they come a knockin’, well..
