Donald Trump is a little busy right now. Re-vamping Obamacare, revising his travel restrictions, sparring with mainstream media and fighting a “deep state” coup attempt has nearly thrown off his weekly golf schedule. Nevertheless, gun owners might be feeling a little left out; “all” Trump has done to restore gun rights so far: sign a resolution reversing the Social Security gun ban.
What could he do to improve the lives of gun owners in the United States? Things that could be done with the stroke of a pen and not take a whole lot of effort? I’ve got three suggestions.
1. Kill the “Multiple Sale” Border Registry
When the Obama Administration started Operation Fast and Furious (the program that would allow firearms to enter Mexico ostensibly in order to stop firearms from entering Mexico) there was increased attention on the “pipeline” of firearms from the U.S. flowing into Mexico.
While most of the perpetrators of this activity could probably be found on ATF informant lists, the government used the “iron river” of guns flowing to Mexico as an excuse to institute a new rule: anyone buying multiple firearms in border states would need to be documented and an alert sent to the ATF to try to stop these “straw purchasers.” The practice continues to this day.
There is no Federal law requiring this extra reporting, much like there is no Federal law specifically outlining most of what the ATF does.
Just as Trump was able to quickly reverse the Social Security gun ban, this border registry could be a thing of the past. All Trump has to do to issue a memo demanding it be dismantled. Low effort on his part for a high impact to Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights in border states.
2. Redefine “Sporting Purposes”
There’s a limit to the kinds of firearms that can be imported into the United States: Only those firearms which have a “sporting purpose” are permitted to be imported.
The logic comes from the way the law was passed — Democrats wanted to choke off the supply of cheap foreign firearms flowing into the United States (before stomping out local firearm manufacturing as well).
The only way they figured they could get away with it: if hunters and Fudds were on board. They allowed “traditional” sporting firearms to continue to be imported, Fudds didn’t make a scene, and Democrats gained an effective way of stopping any firearm they want from being imported.
The law leaves that definition of “sporting purpose” vague; the government makes the final definition.
During the last Democrat run administrations the definition of “sporting purpose” has included bolt action rifles, break action shotguns and semi-autos with less than a five round capacity.
The “sporting purposes” requirement has excluded all sorts of firearms from being imported, from the Norinco M14 clones to the M1 Garand rifles the U.S. paid for and shipped to Korea for the Korean War.
If the Trump administration re-defined “sporting purposes” to include things like 3-gun and CMP shooting, the flood gates would open. Cheap M1 Garand rifles would be here again.
3. Reverse the ATF Open Letter on Shouldering an Arm Brace
This is one of the things that irks me beyond all others. I can see the twisted logic behind the “sporting purposes” situation, but the ATF’s flip-flopping and ultimate logic-free decision on the status of the pistol arm brace is one of the more egregious examples of the ATF making up laws when they see things they don’t like.
According to Federal law, firearms classification is based on design — not use. The difference between a “short-barreled rifle” and a “pistol” is based on the physical characteristics and the intent of the manufacturer. How that firearm is later used isn’t a statutory requirement for determining the legality of a firearm.
That didn’t stop the ATF from decreeing that the act of shouldering a pistol arm brace “remanufactured” the firearm into a short-barreled rifle.
A letter from the ATF clarifying their position, reversing the “open letter” they sent a couple of years back, would restore sanity to the classification process.
I’ve heard rumors that such a letter already exists. The ATF just waiting for the right time. Whether that’s true remains to be seen, but there’s nothing stopping them from dropping it in the mail this afternoon.
4. Read The Truth About Guns every day and pay close attention to the posted comments.
I’m still waiting on proof that he didn’t bamboozle people to think he’s a supporter of firearms rights because his history trends in the opposite direction.
He likely doesn’t know about any of the things we need. Though he does carry, and his son is very pro gun, he’s not “gun guy” and likley needs some influence from the NRA, freedom caucus, or an online petition.
4: Declare an indefinite NFA amnesty as the GCA allows him to
5: Order Sessions to declare all firearms by individuals “experimental” for the purpose of 922(r) (“does this part work?” “Let’s find out!”), as 922(r) allows the Attorney General to do.
6: Tweet that US v. Miller was directly influenced by repeated criminal action in the courts and that the Supreme Court must rehear the NFA as Miller is not a valid court case. Make liberal heads explode trying to prove him wrong and giving us a uuge step to getting rid of the NFA.
Number five is already covered by ‘sporting purposes’ broadening.
Number six is an interesting concept, as the original case was indisputably a miscarriage of justice;
-The feds refused to settle with Miller since they wanted a SCOTUS case to legitimize the illegal NFA, ASAP
-Miller was dead and was unrepresented at SCOTUS; while not necessary for a court to convene & reach judgement, considering the case had an unprecedented broad impact, the lack of defense is, indefensible
-The court case was right on the heals of the great court packing scandal, and SCOTUS was on notice that if they did not follow FDR’s dictates he was prepared to act dictatorially to see his policies upheld by any means necessary (hint-hint, bang-bang)
-The feds’ arguments about military utility were bold-faced lies preying upon the ignorance of the court, even considering the state of the art of warfare at the time. Short shotguns, machineguns, and stocked machinepistols were quite common even by WWI, and were even being adopted widely by police (hell, the St. Valentines Day Massacre the 34 NFA used as the bloody shirt was in all likelihood committed with mil/leo Thompsons, if not by corrupt Chicago police themselves)
Don’t forget
-Miller was denied the ability to choose his attorney, now universally recognized by US courts as the right of any defendant, instead he was forced to have the attorney handpicked by…
-Heartsill Ragon worked on the NFA yet never recused himself
-Leaving a client like Miller’s lawyer did was is now (if not then) legally sketchy even if it’s for something justifiable like the client not paying, let alone what Miller’s did.
US v. Miller was a mess, “hard cases make bad law” they say but FDR’s packed Court was pretty clear. Firearms suitable for militia or military use are protected by the 2A. That makes it pretty clear M16 A1 should be available for civilian purchase.
Correction: Trump also appointed Ryan Zinke to Secretary of the Interior who immediately rescinded the ban on lead ammunition on federal lands.
This, plus rescinding Obama’s order that denied the right of Social Security recipients to purchase firearms, are a darn good start given that Trump has only been in office for 6 weeks and getting unprecedented attacks from Democrats and the Press.
I suspect Trump will change the regulatory landscape to allow AK platform rifle imports by year end. Give him a chance.
Uh, number three is weak sauce (and I kind of doubt the prez can politically contradict the sworn legal assertions of his regulators quite that blatantly and not catch a bunch of flak for legitimately micromanaging)
Number three should be a machinegun registry, under the pretense of correcting & updating the badly inaccurate & incomplete NFRTR list, in conjunction with an independent audit of the same list.
Would a reversal of the arm brace rule also apply to shouldering other similar pistol stabilizing devices like the KAK Shockwave?
Seeing as –in the ATF’s defense– the SIG Brace *is* functionally and aesthetically identical to a crappy stock when shouldered, I think the only way to reverse the rule would be to moot the short barrel provisions of the NFA altogether (and AOWs to boot). Something that divergent from historical policy really does need to go through congress first, unless we’re all resigned to executive overreach from here on out (why not? Hell, we’re already here…)
That would make much more sense anyway but I also can’t see it happening without the senate. When Obama tried to put a policy of not enforcing the law re: illegal immigration into effect a court stopped that, so I’m sure they’d stop Trump doing the same with guns.
Cheap M1 Garand rifles would be here again. Yeah ok… Do they come with unicorn saddle holsters?
They come with a gold plated Rolls Royce… so long as you pay for it.
People shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for the NFA to be repealed. It ain’t gonna happen. I doubt that many Americans want to make machine guns street legal and easily obtainable again.
Be happy that Hillary isn’t rounding up all the semi-autos, pump guns and all military-looking “Objects” right now, as would be the case had she been elected.
Indeed. If alternate realities are real, we should all be greatful we’re not in the one right next door, where everyone reading this blog is literally burying caches of guns and ammo, and making preparations for a very violent and bloody struggle.
Okay, but we don’t need a bill that just says “the NFA is hearby repealed”. It could attack the low-hanging fruit, like SBRs (which makes no sense). As to autos, it could simply re-open the registry, which was created originally with that Act. It’s not like that would allow anyone to go down to the local hardware store and pick up a tommy gun.
It’d make it a lot harder going forward to keep them classified as forbidden fruit, however. Much as we saw with carry permitting liberalization, after God knows how many iterations of unfulfilled “blood in the streets” cries we probably won’t be listening to the anti-gunners much at all by the time we get to machine guns and destructive devices being the only remaining NFA items. It really is a binary issue when you take the long view; it’s like a county choosing to be dry or sell beer –inevitably they allow hard liquor or stay prohibitionist (but usually the former)
I would really love to see him do something to get a lot of guns available for import. I want our m1 garands back from Korea and I think China has a bunch of AK variants that would be well received by our market.
I see him cutting off Chinese imports simply because they are Chinese and Trump is a protectionist and isn’t too fond on China.
Stuff made in the US in the first place, like the M1s, is much more likely. Stuff from our allies (Like the former soviets that have plenty of experience with making AKs. or even Japan, who exported AR18s back in the day and could easily sell Type 89s if Trump and Abe really wanted to) are possible.
Hmm…It seems like help pushing the National Reciprocity Act through should be highest priority on the list.
You guys must be serious masochists to keep holding your breath waiting for Trump to save us from the evil gubmint. He rode up to the white house on our backs and left us chained up to the bike rack outside, and we’re content to gnaw on the dry bones he throws out the window in between tweets.
Trump may never be the gun hero we are hoping him to be. There may never be a Republican anywhere who will meet that.
Yet Gorsuch as a Supreme Court nominee all by itself is infinitely better than the alternative. On top of which, he’s signed a reversal of the Social Security garbage Obama left and appointed other pro gun people who are already restoring rights. Plus, Trump is making good on his campaign promises far more in his first 6 weeks than any president ever. I suspect he’ll sign every pro gun legislation that Congress sends him
Things could be a whole lot worse for the gun community
Sad, isn’t it? It’s like Oliver Twist up in here.
OK, I’ll be “that guy “.
Get your finger off that trigger (unless, of course, you have identified your target and what is behind it and it is on the ceiling).
I’m guessing this is a Photoshopped image……
@ A Brit
It appears that indeed I did “jump the gun” (does that have to be in quotes?). Are starter pistols still used to initiate foot races any longer? I participated in a golf tournament last summer that was delayed for a few minutes because it was supposed to be a “shotgun start” but they couldn’t find the box with the shells. I am currently 100 yards from a beach with plenty of shells and within 30 miles of 100 golf courses. While in a restaurant today I picked up some tees. The restaurant owner is in Nepal but not climbing to the top of Everest, just to base camp. While in the restaurant, the waitress informed us that one of the dishwashers stopped in to quit. She said he is Guatemalian. My sister sometimes goes to Guatemala when her visa to Mexico expires and she has to leave the country for three days. She says $30 to the right guy will get her back in one day. One more reason I should be kept away from a keyboard.
All those are small potatoes.
1. Order ATF to define a silencer as a device reducing the sound of operating a fire arm below 1 Db
2. Order ATF to change the rules regarding construction of an SBR, if it says handgun on the form from the FFL adding a stock or forward grip changes NOTHING.
3. Order atf to define machine gun to be a belt fed full auto weapon too large to be carried by a single person
4. Appoint Wayne Lapier head of ATF.
6. Transfer all enforcement personnel ( LEO) from BATFE to us marshal or FBI or customs etc. then make ATF a purley regulatory agency.
Ugh, the derp hurts. Trump can’t do *any* of that mess on his own. Christ, who did people think they were voting for, Santy Claus?
I think they thought they were voting for santa, the great kahuana, and lord Krishna all rolled into one. Grasping at any old straw to find themselves a “savior”, to do THEIR job FOR them. The same as we’ve been doing since we made planetfall here, however many eons ago that was.
Transfer ALL federal LEOs to the Justice department. There is no reason for individual agencies to have their own law enforcement personel. Obama and Bush wanted a federal police force so they could enforce agenda that might not be in the best wishes of local law enforcement. We do not need National Police, Federales, Gestapo, Secret Police, or any other type of law enforcement above our State’s police.
If it is Military Police or Federal held areas or building, that should be the extent of thier power.
Why are we hoping our ‘Maximum Leader’ will take solitary action to change policy, when there’s a whole GOP-majority congress that can get it done the way the Framers intended, by passing legislation through both houses and presenting it to the President for signing?
“… there’s a whole GOP-majority Congress
that can get it done…”There, fixed that for you.
It would serve all of us well to recognize that many/most Republicans are actually “Democrat Light”. Saying it another way, today’s Republicans are 1960 Democrats. That is precisely why the Tea Party movement started … because many Republicans are NOT conservative, small-government advocates.
Gotta love it when TTAG leads in with a ‘shopped photo of Trump with em-biggened hands. Yeah, the joke’s on us and we (apparently) can’t even see it.
Fun fact: Donald Trump is actually in the 15th percentile for hand size. This was discovered based on the bronze casting of his hands from Madame Tussaud’s New York. Those photoshopped hands are practically twice the size of the doll hands Trump is packing.
Why are we worried about hand size???
Have we POG become as loony tune as the demonrats?
As long as he can hold a pen and dial a phone I don’t care if he has fur on his hands. Compared to where/what we could have had in his place we should be happy.
All the so called conservative idiots who are doing the job of the demonrats need to STFU and sit down while the adults are talking.
I thought you were going to say a firearm shopped into his hands, because there’s like one real photo out there of him holding a gun, and it’s just a fancy flintlock given to him by the NRA as a spectacle that probably doesn’t even have a functioning lock. I’ve heard ‘accounts’ of Trump visiting shooting ranges & firing ARs and etc, but only when the media was forbidden and no real proof or documentation of anything (like targets, for example) was provided. For all the shit gun owners gave Obama leading up to and after his infamous shotgun pose, Trump seems to be even less inclined to be seen involved with firearms.
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Tell you what you’ll get, none of what you want and maybe even some of the opposite from this snake oil salesman. The so called conservatives will be arguing about how much power to give up in their Obamacare revision, remembering that the rule with government of any party is that power gained is never relinquished, maybe renamed to placate the hoi polloi. Trump will be going off half cocked about wire taps and the mess he inherited. By the end of this 4 years, you’ll be so apathetic that Chelsea Clinton will walk into the presidency with Amy Schumer her VP. Oh, but the market is up anyway, like that’s real money. Trump will have a check mark for his bucket list and all of those who voted for him will deny it or claim his failure was a conspiracy. This is why the liberals get so much more done, because they’re not at odds with one another. They’re more consistent. You just voted President Camacho into existence. Welcome to your Idiocracy.
Get a grip, man. Trump nominated Gorsuch. That’s all he needed to do to save Heller. A Democrat nominee would almost certainly have joined a 5-4 decision to overturn it.
Give him a break, Bollocks Troy is an awesome web handle, lol
Move your sorry self to Mexico you despicable pile of frozen pig poop.
Return to OZ you worthless idiot
“you despicable pile of frozen pig poop.”
You must be awfully close to the truth to generate this much malice. You must be picking around a real sore wound there…..
Better yet, have the NFA and other federal gun control enforced to the minimal extent of the law. What is required under the statutes is way less than what the regulations require. For example, the regulations require a months long wait for an NFA item while the statute might require a background check.
How about getting rid of gun free zones on military bases.
Yeah I know, there was a weak sauce idea that got floated before the inaguration, which amounted to “may issue” by a commander for 90 days, if your base is located in a free state. Not what we are looking for. I want to carry on base without registering my firearm and without being subject to the approval of my commander.
Sorry guy, when you signed and became GI you gave away those “rights”.
Hmm I don’t see that language anywhere in my enlistment contract. I did take an oath to obey the orders of the POTUS and officers appointed over me. Since they are the ones who control DoD policy, they can change it and Trump made a campaign promise to do so. I hope he keeps that promise.
You have been on your new job for six weeks and everyone is giving you shit for not changing everything that has been bugging them for the last decade? Yeah that’s realistic.
There’s a reason Trump used “You can’t always get what you want” at his rallys.
Trump having the “sporting purposes” language re-defined would be a step in the right direction. However, it will NOT “open the floodgates” allowing Norinco M-14s and other military styled semi-auto rifles flowing in. There seems to be a confusion on many gun websites as to what stopped these guns from coming in and many writers who were not born or too young in the year of 1989 seem to get this wrong every time.
After the Patrick Purdy mass shooting in 1989, President George “No new gun laws” Bush directed the ATF to stop all importation of “assault weapons” as the president does have authority to control what comes in the country to a large extent. BUT IT DID NOT END THERE. Bush held the “freeze” until Congress could catch up with a law which they did – the IMPORT “assault weapons” ban of 1989 must be repealed for any real change to happen regarding imports. Also many writers get this law mixed up with the 1994 domestic “assault weapons” ban/Brady Bill along with the 1968 GCA. Also, China is affected in a different way regarding gun and ammo imports due to other seperte actions during the Clinton administration.
The above list Leghorn made is a good start along with the following which can be done without Congressional action; 1) directing ATF to no longer to have a “team” in technology branch to interpret the laws as they see them, 2) taking the Obama interpreted definition as to what brokering is, 3) eliminating the $2000+/year “mandate” fee that firearms manufacturers and gunsmiths to register as exporters, 4) tell ATF that re-bluing or re-parking a gun is NOT manufacturing or repairing for that matter, 5) allowing machine-gun barrels to be imported in parts kits, 6) allowing gun manufacturers and importers to have sales agents again with the ability to possess samples for business purposes as it used to be (now unless you are a full-time employee, you can’t possess any NFA inventory or even Title 1 inventory unless its transferred to you), etc.
Trumps Militia Executive Oder may have some teeth as it in regarding to military and I look forward to when he signs it – I wish more guns were including but it’s a great start.
So the picture at the start of this post is photoshopped? Give it a break. While I tend to agree with you that Trump may not be an active shooter, that doesn’t mean that he won’t be good for the 2nd.
Maybe D.T. Jr will have something to say to dad about it.
He seems to be the voice we need…here’s hoping as he looks to be more gun savvy.
Really good points but sadly Trump would have to know what to do AND it would have to make him famous to even think about it. I just wish someone would take all of California’s dumb laws and start over. Trump WON’T do anything that doesn’t gain him accolades and I just don’t think we make a difference as gun owners to him.
That’s not all.
He can issue executive orders (and ask Congress for a permanent solution) to end “Gun-Free Zones” at Post Offices, federal buildings in parks, federal libraries, federal museums, etc.
There’s a LOT of federal off-limits places not being discussed.
http://PursuitOfPatriotism.Blogspot.com
I think Trump will sign about any bill the republican congress will send to him regarding gun rights. He already signed the one that repealed taking gun rights from some SS recipients. The democrats cried he was allowing mentally ill people have access to guns! He obviously does not care what the left thinks.
I noticed that Trump has publicly championed all the people in the country that have control of the weapons. Military, Police and gun owners. He is not stupid as the groups that control the arms are the people he wants to keep supporting him.
Anybody know what I can do to get a full-size copy of that picture? You know,something in a 12×18 poster size. Would look great on my garage wall.
While the president can do a lot of good, ultimately it is the responsibility of Congress to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and repeal all federal gun laws which infringe on our God-given right to keep and bear arms, including taxes on weapons and ammunition.
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