The news that the executive orders were ready and published moved fast across the internet last night. We opened the page, started readings and….laughed. If there is an indication that Obama is officially in his lame duck period, these are it.
I am gonna touch on some of the points they make just for fun and information.
- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is making clear that it doesn’t matter where you conduct your business—from a store, at gun shows, or over the Internet: If you’re in the business of selling firearms, you must get a license and conduct background checks.
I already covered this in a previous post: “Federal Firearms Licensees do perform BG Checks at gun shows, it is already the law. As for internet sales, they send guns only to other FFLs so they can perform the BG checks on that end.”
- ATF is finalizing a rule to require background checks for people trying to buy some of the most dangerous weapons and other items through a trust, corporation, or other legal entity.
This is just related to NFA weapons (machine guns) which is a very small and already tightly regulated section of the gun universe. For many years now, if you didn’t feel like having to go through the long stupid steps every time when buying a machine gun, you opened a trust to simplify the process. Now, doing it via trust bypassed the BG checks so they are fixing to provide a solution where a problem does not exist since they cannot quote one single instance where an NFA trust gun has been used in the commission of a crime.
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is overhauling the background check system to make it more effective and efficient. The envisioned improvements include processing background checks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and improving notification of local authorities when certain prohibited persons unlawfully attempt to buy a gun. The FBI will hire more than 230 additional examiners and other staff to help process these background checks.
Good for them to go 24-7 and hire more personnel. I bet they are getting threats of quitting from their employees who were slammed last December averaging 40 call a minute. As for the rest? If the way they have been prosecuting violators till now is an indicator, it is gonna take more than a simple chat with the local sheriff to improve things. If you the Fed don’t care, why would a local LEO care?
- The Attorney General convened a call with U.S. Attorneys around the country to direct federal prosecutors to continue to focus on smart and effective enforcement of our gun laws. The President’s FY2017 budget will include funding for 200 new ATF agents and investigators to help enforce our gun laws.
Will they investigate Fast and Furious and other gun walking operations by the Department of Justice? No? Figures.
- ATF is finalizing a rule to ensure that dealers who ship firearms notify law enforcement if their guns are lost or stolen in transit.
Already covered. It is the frigging law already!
- The President has directed the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology. The President has also directed the departments to review the availability of smart gun technology on a regular basis, and to explore potential ways to further its use and development to more broadly improve gun safety.
Quoting Michael Z. Williamson: “All three have already said, “Fuck, no,” And not for nothing, we are talking about the three entities which will demand and get excused from having to carry those type of firearms because they are unreliable. So, Fuck No.
- Quantity and frequency of sales are relevant indicators. There is no specific threshold number of firearms purchased or sold that triggers the licensure requirement. But it is important to note that even a few transactions, when combined with other evidence, can be sufficient to establish that a person is “engaged in the business.” For example, courts have upheld convictions for dealing without a license when as few as two firearms were sold or when only one or two transactions took place, when other factors also were present.
This is a smoke bomb possibly trying to scare people into not buying or selling their guns on their own. A quote from Attorney general Lynch is quite illustrative:
For instance, Lynch explained, if an individual sells a gun clearly for profit, or if they buy and sell a gun kept in its original packaging, they may be considered a dealer.
First things first: This is unenforceable. Short of keeping track of your guns when you buy them and knowing exactly how much you paid for, there is nothing they can actually accomplish. So unless they are actually keeping an eye on a violator who is selling a boatload of guns at every gun show without a license (which is already verbotten) you selling that AK that cost $300 six years ago and now will be snatched out of your hands for $500 might be making a profit, but good luck for them to prove it if you keep your mouth shut.
As for the boxes bit? Again showing their ignorance on guns and the gun culture. We keep our boxes! First they increase the collecting value of the gun and second, many manufacturers now sell the gun in hard cases that are perfect for transporting the gun and its accessories.
So if I sell you my used gun (or even unused gun) in its original packing, I am in business and need a license? Am I to discard a case like in the picture above before selling the gun? That is downright stupid.
Back again with “There is no specific threshold number of firearms purchased or sold that triggers the licensure requirement.” and “an individual sells a gun clearly for profit.” This is not even new but a rehash of what the ATF was doing back in the 90s: They would troll gun shows for individual trying to sell their guns and offer them some stupidly high price. If they bit, they would be charged with dealing without license. Lots of cases got thrown out of court, but the real damage was to scare people about selling their personal property and end up spending thousands of dollars in lawyers to fight the ridiculous charge. Remember, the government can spend as much as they can since it is not coming out of the agent’s or prosecutor’s pocket. Regular people without savings would end up pleading guilty and get probation (and get a felony conviction who made them ineligible to own guns ever again) rather than go bankrupt and send the family to the poor house. This is one of the reasons why old farts are very reluctant to do business with somebody they do not know when it comes to privately sell a firearm: The horror stories of the ATF are still fresh in our database.
There is more stuff, but mostly feel-good-PR BS. These executive orders are just a cute poster to show off in front of the Gun Control groups and polish the President’s image. Maybe a bit of a smoke screen for the labor to be done by Bloomberg and Minions at state and local levels, but in reality we won’t be giving this crap a thought come Saturday other than making jokes at the range.
I suppose it could be worse.
Over all impotent.
I would add the big benefit of a trust for me and many others is not that is skips the background check but that is skips CLEO signature. My CLEO won’t sign or will at least make me wait until I’m very old and dusty, without a trust I’m looking at an effective ban for NFA. Move one city over though and applications are returned signed same week…
Oddly enough it appears that the CLEO sign-off feature has been removed from the process entirely due to 41P. Now it appears all responsible persons on a trust need to be fingerprinted and photographed when an item is purchased by the trust, i.e. if you, your wife, and a child are on the trust, each time you buy an NFA item, you all have to go through the process.
Conversely, it just became really easy to go the individual route where you just get photographed and fingerprinted, send in the check & paperwork, and you get a NICS check done when the forms come back.
No more CLEO sign-off, which can be seen as a good thing.
Very interesting, this is the first I’ve heard that, and I admit I haven’t read the text of 41p.
I guess I’d chock it up to an overall lateral move or a small step back. Those changes help some people but frustrate the process for everyone.
In some cases it can be seen as a move forward. You will no longer need a trust to get an NFA item, even in NFA-hostile jurisdictions where the CLEO wouldn’t sign off on the paperwork. Now you can fill out the Form 4, submit prints & a photo, get the can, submit a copy of your NFA questionnaire to the CLEO for notification purposes, and you are good to go.
If you have a trust, it’s a move back, depending on your trust. If you have more than 1 responsible person on the trust, each one of those parties needs to get photographed and fingerprinted when an item is purchased.
Either way it is way better than the original proposed rule, which would have required CLEO sign-off for everyone, regardless of trust status, and effectively shut down the NFA market for most of the US.
Actually, your prints and pic are good for two years. Though it’s still a waste of time all around.
I covered “Engaged in business” here: http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=388
I am woefully ignorant of the NFA mysteries. Anybody with experience, please feel free to explain/correct/etc.
This is inexact but simplified:
Short barreled rifles and shotguns, silencers, destructive devices (Cannon and such) and machine guns require a $200 tax stamp, approval from ATF (assuming your state allows them), and listing on the NFA registry.
The manufacture of new machine guns for civilians was banned in 1986, so all extant machine guns for civilian sale were made before then, and are going up in value. Everything else is coming down.
The owner of the weapon MUST BE WITHIN SIGHT when it is out of storage.
An exemption was made, in 1934, for corporations (armored cars, railroad security, etc). In accordance with this exemption, private citizens may create a trust that owns the weapons. Officers of the trust may ALL possess the weapon.
A trust also offers protection for inheritance–it becomes irrevocable on the death of the officers, and has instructions on disposal–inheritance, new trust owners, etc.
You can add and subtract people from the trust, so you don’t need to have transfer fees since the same entity owns the weapons.
Trusts were exempt from fingerprints and photos because they are not people. Nor did they need LEO approval.
Now, no one needs LEO approval, but all officers of the trust must provide pictures and prints. Said items are good for two years for additional acquisitions.
What I’m wondering about is that will the ATF not be doing background checks on trustees anymore? Since it appears that a NICS check is done upon receipt of the item under the new rules…
It’s all for show, pandering to the low-info voter.
Here’s the myth and truth about executive orders.
http://robertsgunshop.blogspot.com/2016/01/do-executive-orders-violate-constitution.html
“Will they investigate Fast and Furious and other gun walking operations by the Department of Justice? No? Figures.”
Why would they investigate themselves? They’d just absolve themselves of all wrongdoing if they did.
I’ll sell my gun to my buddy and then sometime later sell the collectible box to his wife.
“For instance, Lynch explained, if an individual sells a gun clearly for profit, or if they buy and sell a gun kept in its original packaging, they may be considered a dealer.”
Is she referring to the lockable hard cases that guns come with today? The ones the government mandates for airline travel? LOL!
I don’t think she has seen one ever.
There are about 70,000 denials for gun purchases a year. Under Bush, 15/100th of 1 percent of the cases were prosecuted. Under Obama, 8/100th of 1 percent of the cases were prosecuted.
It was never about stopping criminals from buying gun but about building a national gun registry of honest people who can and do use the legal background check system,
[…] Gunfree Zone. […]
So basically you’re dismissing this entire bill based off of reading a “fact sheet” as opposed to the actual bill. This is the equivalent of critiquing a piece of literature based only on the spark notes you read.
But I heard that if you are a non muslim you were supposed to put all your guns out on the curb to be picked up by Pakistani U.N. troops???
and then when they have a whole truckload of guns you repossess the lot with your buddies down the street!