This thread had nothing to do with guns, but with subsidies for battery powered cars.

But he felt the need to dismiss a valid argument because the accout making it was pro gun, and then doubled down by advocating for sending pro gun people to gulag.

It’s always, ALWAYS, about their desire for total control.

They hate you and want to work you do death in a camp.

The only reason they haven’t yet is because you own guns.

Hopefully, a short one.

4473 and the Gun Control Act of 1968, as amended

All of us have had the pleasure of filling out a form 4473, waiting for some bureaucrat decides that we are good enough to exercise our right to keep and bear arms, and finally give us permission. Most of form 4473 is bogus. It is designed to do a few things.

To capture owner identification and associate it with one or more firearms, a registry. To for the seller to keep an accurate inventory. And to catch people out in lies or mistakes.

The ONE reason it supposedly exists, is to allow the government to do a background check. Are you a prohibited person?

Now, let’s say you or I go in and lie on the 4473. It doesn’t matter where, it is a lie designed to allow us to purchase this particular firearm. If we are not prohibited people, we are guilty. On the other hand, the courts have ruled that it is a Fifth Amendment violation for a prohibited person to self report on a 4473.

Yep, if you are an actual prohibited person, and you lie about it on a 4473, you don’t get in trouble. If you are not a prohibited person and lie, you do get in trouble.

All the authority for the ATF to force the 4473 on us comes from the Gun Control Act of 1968, as amended. In particular, §922(g).

§922(g) is the list of things that make you a prohibited person.

§922(g)3 is the prohibition on being an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance. I.e., they partake of marijuana or other drugs.

Our Story

Our story begins when Patrick Darnell Daniels, Jr, was driving along, minding his own business, when a couple of LEOs pulled him over. They pulled him over for driving without a license plate.

It just so happened that one of these officers was a DEA agent. It is almost as if the DEA agent was looking for reasons to “investigate” vehicles he was interested in.
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Me and Jerry at the range.

Me and Team Sig.

Lots of people there.

Lots of guns.

Lots of shooting.

Amazing that nobody Chris Kyled a gun culture celebrity.

Actually, it’s not.

This is precisely why I have no faith in a YouTube gun influencer becoming a Congressman.

He made his fame and fortune with gun porn, getting people to watch videos of him shooting guns they could only dream of (the very essence of porn).

When the opportunity came to have a big shoot at a public range, he decided with his YouTube gun influencer friends, that you non-famous people were just too dangerous to be allowed at the range.

What happened to Chris Kyle was a tragedy but also unbelievably rare.

Knob Creek let people fire off belt feds and artillery, and nobody got shot.

I’ve been at matches open to the public where famous competitive shooting celebrities were there and they were cool.

Jerry Miculek is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.

But Donut and Herrera are special.

They won’t deign to share a range with the hoi polloi.

Maybe he will be a good pro-gun politician.

But right now he still reeks of “I’m special because I’m rich and famous and you’re not” and we already have way the fuck too much of that in DC already.

B.L.U.F. A follow on to the Hoover case regarding sentencing.

Yesterday, in Policies are not laws, we discussed how sentencing guidelines work. A short recap:

The courts use a rubric to decide the range of sentences that should be imposed. One axis is the “level” of the crime, the other is the category of criminal. Before sentencing, the court gathers all the information required to use the table. This is done by the Bureau of Prisons using local community resources.

Once the PSR is completed, the prosecutor reviews it, makes changes where required, presents it to the defense. At a hearing, the parties argue over the PSR, and then it is in the Judge’s hands.

The prosecutor will recommend a sentence based on the guidelines. The judge gives the final sentence.

The facts in this case are that Dayonta McClinton and his friend robbed a pharmacy. Afterward, the two got into a dispute and McClinton’s friend was shot and killed.

McClinton was arrested and charged with robbery and murder.

The base level for First Degree Murder is 43 points, which is for premeditated. It looks like the shooting was Second Degree Murder at 38 points.

McClinton was found not guilty of murder in a jury trial. The prosecution was not happy with this.

McClinton was found guilty of robbery. I am going to assume armed robbery. The base level for robbery is 20 with a modifier of 6 for a total of 26 points.

At 26 points, he is up for 63 through 150 months, depending on Criminal History Category. The category is based on how often he has been incarcerated and for how long. There are also modifiers for doing crime while being on probation.

My Google foo is not up to finding criminal histories. My guess is that he is a Category III with 3 to 6 points.

In our table, that gives a sentencing of 78–97 months, or 6.5 to 8 years.

That seems like a reasonable punishment for armed robbery, if the criminal did not achieve room temperature during the act.

Unfortunately for McClinton, that isn’t what happened.

Even though McClinton had been acquitted of murder, the prosecutor used the accusation/charge of murder to modify the location on the sentencing table. This could have been adjustments for the Armed Robbery, or it could be adjustments in the Criminal Category.

If McClinton is bumped up just one category, his sentencing range goes from 78–97 to 92–115. That is a maximum duration of 9 2/3 years, up from 8 years.

But let’s say that the prosecutor added 3 points to the level and bumped him that one category. That takes us to 121–151 months, 10 to 12 1/2 years.

All because he is being sentenced based on a crime he was found not guilty of committing.

The supreme court denied certiorari on the case. Some justices feel that the use of an acquitted charge is wrong. Others feel that the issue isn’t ripe because the sentencing guidelines are being reworked. And Alito took issue with what he felt was Sotomayer advocating for the sentencing committee to make the changes she wants.

We watched The Blues Brothers for family movie night.

My son was confused about Illinois Nazis and the line “those bums won their court case.”

My wife explained to him about the Nazis wanting to march in Skokie and this was a reference to that.

He was taken aback by the idea of Nazis marching in America.

I snidely remarked: “That’s why I own a shitload of guns and twice as much ammo.”

He looked right at me and said:

“That’s pretty smart, dad.”

That’s my boy!

You know that I hate gun influencers.

Brandon Herrera is running for Congress.

We’re now entering a quantum singularly where Congressmen and Women are becoming internet influencers and internet influencers are becoming Congressmen.

So I posed this question to him.

Serious question:

Would you support a repeal of the NFA and/or Hughes Amendment?

— GunFreeZone Blog (@GunFreeZone) August 12, 2023

Personally, don’t have high hopes.

In my experience, the guys who invest lots of money into NFA items talk a big game until they realize they might lose value on their investments.

Maybe he’ll answer me, maybe he won’t.

But if he’s really a politician, you know he’ll fuck over the gun community before doing anything that depreciates the value of his NFA collection.