by Bill Cawthon

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has proposed nearly three dozen changes to its rules: The shrieks from gun control addicts could drown out a chorus of scorched cats.

Everytown for Gun Safety (aka Control — “every town, every gun”) wasted no time accusing the ATF of selling out to the firearms industry.

Gun writer-turned-quisling Greg Lickenbrock wrote a response to the ATF’s actions in The Smoking Gun, Everytown’s version of the National Enquirer:

The ATF has only released summaries of the rules so far, but like past deregulation efforts by the Trump administration, many will likely put public safety at risk and hamper law enforcement efforts to solve gun crimes and stop traffickers.

(T)he rules are clearly designed to benefit the gun industry, whose surrogates were all in attendance at the press conference announcing the rules — including some representing extreme groups dedicated to undoing all gun laws. Leaders from the American Suppressor Association (ASA), National Rifle Association (NRA), National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and Gun Owners of America (GOA) surrounded Robert Cekada, the ATF’s new director, as he signed the rules.

Last time we looked, Gun Owners of America, the NRA, National Association for Gun Rights, and the Second Amendment Foundation weren’t part of the gun industry. There have even been times when the industry and the organizations have been at odds. Lickenbrock apparently is unaware of the reactions to Bill Ruger or to the “Lawsuit Locks” on Smith & Wesson handguns.

On another note: Trump taps BFA-backed Ohio Judge Matthew Byrne for federal district court

Lickenbrock claims the ATF is abdicating its role as the archenemy of the gun industry and gearing up to give gunmakers their best Christmas ever. He was aghast that the ATF reached out to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) for input on the proposed regulations.

It will probably come as a shock to the folks at Everytown, but regulatory agencies and the industries they regulate are supposed to communicate. They are even supposed to work together—fancy that!

Everytown’s propaganda pros have mad skills when it comes to shaping public opinion. They’ve mastered the art of the big lie; they make monsters virtually out of thin air; and turn tiny numbers into existential threats. Greg Lickenbrock’s article is a prime example of this.

“For example, the ATF estimates that 3.28 million gun buyers would take advantage of one of the agency’s most troubling proposals: allowing FFLs to ship guns directly to a buyer’s door without visiting a brick-and-mortar location, in what is known as a ‘non-over-the-counter’ (NOTC) transaction.”

Ooohh! Scary, huh? Well, if you didn’t know, the ATF is simply expanding an existing regulation, it might be.

Gun-grabbers have a nearly pathological fear of any firearm transfer that hasn’t been blessed by the FBI/NICS. They might become totally unhinged if someone told them 29 states have concealed-carry permits that exempt the holder from background checks.

“The agency has also proposed a new, significantly shorter version of the Form 4473, the decades-old firearm transaction record, that dispenses with several questions used to stop illegal straw purchases and allows a gun dealer to determine if the customer can legally purchase the gun,” Lickenbrock wrote.

The questions supposedly used to stop illegal straw purchases are:

A requirement for the purchaser to use their biological gender in answering Part 1, Section A, Question 6;
An expanded explanation of the status of the federal marijuana prohibition in Question 11.e.

Those are sure to reveal lots and lots of straw purchasers.

Lickenbrock is also concerned about the ATF’s proposed doubling the time a NICS decision remains valid from 30 days to 60 days.“Incredibly, the ATF states that the proposal increases the risk that a prohibited person will obtain a firearm and use it ‘to inflict mass casualties’ when they ‘would have been prevented under the current baseline requirement to renew the background check.’”

Someone should remind Mr. Lickenbrock that a prohibited person with a firearm is still a prohibited person with a firearm. In the event of a glitch in the system, the ATF already has the statutory authority to retrieve the gun.

There’s no way to predict whether or not there will be any mass shootings attributable to the extra 30 days. However, there have been two mass shootings that can be blamed on law enforcement failures to act.

A shooter took possession of a Glock pistol on April 11, 2015, 67 days before he used it to murder nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. When the 72-hour NICS deadline for a proceed/deny decision expires, the FFL can opt to transfer the gun. If the NICS examiner later discovers the transfer should have been denied, the FBI sends a retrieval request to the ATF.

Calling this the ‘Charleston Loophole’, gun control addicts demanded almost unlimited time for the NICS to process inquiries. The other mass shooting incident was at the Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, Illinois, in 2019. In that incident, the Illinois State Police dropped the ball. In fact, they dropped enough balls to fill a McDonald’s play pit.

Illinois requires a Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card to purchase and/or possess a firearm. When the ISP revoked a citizen’s FOID card, the agency would send a letter informing the citizen of the action and directing them to turn in any guns they owned.

And that was it. The police never followed up; never verified the guns had been surrendered or disposed of in some other legal manner. The holder of one of those revoked cards used the gun he purchased when his card was still valid to murder five people and take his own life after he lost his job at a valve manufacturing company in Aurora, Illinois.

Lickenbrock’s rant next moves on to the ATF’s rescission of the 2023 “stabilizing brace” rule.

At this point, Lickenbrock’s case abandons any credibility it might have had.

Lickenbrock claimed the rule was, “(F)inalized to stop gun makers from selling easily concealed short-barreled AR-15s, AK-47s, and other assault weapons as ‘pistols’ — instead of short-barreled rifles that must be registered under the National Firearms Act (NFA) — when fitted with arm braces that can be used like shoulder stocks. While brace-equipped AR-15s have been used in at least five mass shootings, the ATF says that rescinding its prior rule would allow “small entities” to “experience an increase in revenue due to weapons with brace configuration no longer undergoing NFA requirements such as enhanced background checks.”

If that isn’t a lie, it’s profound ignorance with malice aforethought.

The ATF isn’t making the change to help the gunmakers. They’re making the changes because the previous version was thrown out by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Turns out the ATF violated federal law when it created the new rule.

“Additionally, the ATF is proposing to simplify the process for spouses to apply for NFA weapons like silencers, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and other concealable firearms; cross state lines with them, and notify local law enforcement of one’s intent to make or purchase them. Taken together, these proposals may make NFA weapons more appealing to customers and easier to own, again benefiting the gun industry.”

The National Firearms Act of 1934 was passed as a tax measure. This was affirmed by the Supreme Court in Sonzinsky v. United States and United States v. Miller.

Last year, Congress reduced the tax on short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and suppressors to zero. There’s a question about all the compliance hoops and hurdles. They were designed to confirm the tax was paid. With no tax being due, can they be justified?

I doubt any of this is going to go the way Everytown wants. Good.

Lickenbrock is angered that the ATF is removing bump stocks from its definition of ‘machine gun’. Apparently, he hasn’...

Buckeye Firearms Association

Message History

Delivery option(s)