Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership: BATFE Out of the Frying Pan… but Where To Next?
Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership:
Rumors are surfacing regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s plans to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE).
The blood soaked debacle of BATFE’s “Operation Fast and Furious”, the blatantly felonious scheme of running guns to murderous Mexican drug cartels, may have put the nail in the coffin for what is almost certainly America’s most sordid federal agency. Read more
Gun Collecting: Gun Trusts
To many gun owners it may be as much “in guns we trust” as it is “in god we trust.” But this week Forbes.com offered another thought. Instead of putting your trust in guns, how about putting your guns in a trust. Contributor Peter J. Reilly offered this thought:
“Gun Trusts are used for two main reasons. The first is to expedite a transfer of a National Firearms Act firearm. Using a trust means you do not have to obtain the approval of your local Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) and the application can be sent directly to BATF. This saves a lot of time. Registration of a NFA firearm to an individual or corporation takes approximately one to three months to complete. The firearm cannot be handled or transported by any other private individual unless the firearm’s registered owner is present. However, NFA items owned by properly drafted trusts may be legally possessed by any Trustee and a beneficiary may use the item in the presence or under the authority of the Trustee. The second reason is to provide detailed instructions over disposition of one’s gun collection.”
Forbes.com: Gun Collections Pose Special Estate Problems
Veterans’ Heritage Firearms Act
Last week our friend John Adams-Graf of Military Trader Magazine noted that machine guns are in fact legal. This often comes as a surprise to many people he notes, but this is something we’ve also noted. The truth is that owning a machine gun is legal in many states – but requires extensive background check. John writes:
“Most folks believe it is illegal to own a machine gun. The truth is, it is completely legal to own a machine gun—if it is registered with the federal government. Owning and shooting fully automatic machine guns is a vibrant and active hobby in the United States enjoyed by thousands of lawful shooters and collectors.
“Prior to 1934, Americans owned and possessed any firearms (including machine guns) without restriction. In 1934, the Federal Law known as the “National Firearms Act (NFA)” required individuals who wanted to own pistols with shoulder stocks, machine guns and other newly restricted firearms to register the weapons with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF). The document that is issued for qualifying weapons is referred to as the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR). Today, there are more than 1,200,000 registrations on file.” Read more
Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership: BATFE & Department Of Justice Cover Up Is Now Officially Disgusting
Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership:
What will it take to get Congress to appoint an Independent Prosecutor to formally get to the bottom of the horrific BATFE debacle called “Project Gun Runner”?
How high did the criminally illegal authorization go?
Americans now sit saddled with an anti-gun administration and its lap dog Congressional shills when this freedom killing administration might be evaporated with a single legal finding from Congress.
Why the delay?!
An Independent Prosecutor’s finding could well blow Attorney General Eric Holder out of the water, get him fired, and perhaps jailed. In exchange for leniency, Holder would very likely point directly to his boss in the White House as Holder was being taken down.
Bingo! Obama and his anti-gun treachery gone … out of our lives.
KEY QUESTION: Why hasn’t every pro-gun rights member of Congress signed on to a call for an Independent Prosecutor?
JPFO suggests you widely disseminate our latest flier. Send a copy to your local news media and your representatives.
This present situation is intolerable. It drags on and on, when an Independent Prosecutor could wrap this all up in a couple of months.
Our nation’s Attorney General is potentially an abetting felon with American blood on his hands (dead border agent Brian Terry).
Additionally, why hasn’t the powerful NRA called in favors with every single “pro-gun” member of Congress? An entire American political party should now be united behind the call for an Independent Prosecutor.
What is going on? And why?
It’s time for Wayne LaPierre to really crack the whip across the backs of the foot draggers in Congress.
About:
Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership Mission is to destroy “gun control” and to encourage Americans to understand and defend all of the Bill of Rights for everyone. Those are the twin goals of Wisconsin-based Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO). Founded by Jews and initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed, JPFO has always welcomed persons of all religious beliefs who share a common goal of opposing and reversing victim disarmament policies while advancing liberty for all.
JPFO is a non-profit tax-exempt educational civil rights organization, not a lobby. JPFO’s products and programs reach out to as many segments of the American people as possible, using bold tactics without compromise on fundamental principles. Visit www.JPFO.org – Copyright JPFO 2011
Gunlaws.com: FBI Implicated in Gun-Smuggling Operation
From Gunlaws.com:
An insider source investigating BATFE’s gun smuggling to vicious Mexican drug cartels, reveals that several of the so-called “straw purchasers” were prohibited possessors, or had suspended drivers’ licenses and other problems that should have prevented them from passing the NICS background check.
Three of the straw purchasers, now indicted, had criminal histories, including a pending class 3 felony charge for burglary, an order of protection, a domestic-violence conviction, and a felony for resisting arrest, later reduced (and criminal damage charge dropped). Any of these should have prevented, or at least delayed purchases when they hit the FBI NICS computer. One defendant even had a CCW permit, under circumstances that seem suspicious but remain unclear.
Whistleblower BATFE agent John Dodson apparently indicated that the NICS system had these buyers flagged for special treatment, and that when a sale request came through, it was routed to a special FBI office that approved the purchases, according to William La Jeunesse at FOX News. Dodson’s prior statements are absolutely incriminating, and riveting: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/03/eveningnews/main20039031.shtml
This implies that the FBI may have been complicit in the scheme, allowing BATFE’s mules to get possession of guns when they should have been blocked. How people with disqualifying criminal records or a suspended driver’s license could have repeatedly gotten through the tightly run NICS system is difficult to otherwise explain.
Some of the buyers were young adults living at home with parents, and with no visible means of support. How they got the tens of thousands of dollars in cash they repeatedly spent has not yet been investigated, but is sure to come out. The tax and IRS angles are also missing from all reports, so far. IRS is often vigorous on tracking down unreported income and huge cash transactions, but is not involved as far as published reports go. BATFE installed video cameras at some of the gun shops and have the straw-purchase smugglers’ transactions recorded.
No information is available on how the data BATFE hopes to collect will be used to prevent gun smuggling. Since the information will be gathered by the very bureau responsible for smuggling guns into Mexico, confidence in the scheme is very low. BATFE claims the scheme will generate 18,000 records per year, but how they could possibly know that is unclear, since this is illegal and has never been done before.
Congressional hearings on the BATFE gun-smuggling program continue, Tuesday, July 26, 2011, 10 a.m. East coast time, 7 a.m. here in Arizona. The effect on the gun reporting and registration scheme, if any, is impossible to determine ahead of time.
About GunLaws.com:
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Bloomfield Press, founded in 1988, is the largest publisher and distributor of gun-law books in the country. Our website, gunlaws.com, features a free national directory to gun laws and relevant contacts in all states and federally, along with our unique line of related books and DVDs. “After Your Shoot” for media review is available on request, call 800-707-4020. Our authors are available for interview, call to schedule. Call for cogent positions on gun issues, informed analysis on proposed laws, talk radio that lights up the switchboard, fact sheets and position papers. As we always say, “It doesn’t make sense to own a gun and not know the rules.” Visit: www.gunlaws.com
NRA News: BATFE Will Take Step Towards National Gun Sales Registration – NRA Will Take BATFE To Court
From the NRA:
On Monday, July 11, the Obama administration announced that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will soon begin requiring firearm dealers in the southwestern border states to file “multiple sale” reports on detachable-magazine rifles larger than .22 caliber.
Under the plan, each dealer will be required to report, to the BATFE, any sale of two or more such rifles to a single individual with a period of five business days.
The administration’s decision, supposedly aimed at the trafficking of U.S. firearms to Mexican drug cartels, follows findings by Congress that the BATFE, in “Operation Fast and Furious,” knowingly allowed straw purchasers to buy five, 10 or 20 firearms in single transactions and transfer them to higher-level gun traffickers working for the cartels. Disapproving of the new sales reporting scheme, House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said “It is the height of hypocrisy for the Obama administration to restrict the gun rights of border state citizens, when the administration itself knowingly and intentionally allowed guns to be trafficked into Mexico.”
NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox promised legal action to stop the BATFE from implementing the rifle sales reports requirement. “The Administration lacks the statutory authority to do this and the NRA will file suit as soon as ATF sends the first demand letters” to dealers, Cox said. The BATFE lacks the authority because Congress has specifically required similar reports only for handgun sales, and therefore implicitly rejected such a requirement for other guns.
The move has already sparked action by pro-gun federal lawmakers. The House Appropriations Committee voted on Wednesday to ban any use of appropriated funds for the scheme (please see related story above), and even before the administration announcement, Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced S. 570 to prohibit the use of federal funds for long gun sales reporting. Read more
NRA: House Committee Passes Amendment to Defund Obama’s Illegal Firearm Sales Reporting Requirement
From the NRA:
Today, during consideration of the FY 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, pro-gun U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) offered an amendment to prohibit the use of funds for a new and unauthorized multiple sales reporting plan proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Amendment was passed by a vote of 25-16.
The Rehberg Amendment, which was strongly supported by NRA, will defund the Justice Department’s controversial and illegal move requiring federally licensed firearms retailers in states bordering Mexico to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles.
As we reported yesterday, this procedure was proposed last fall as an “emergency” measure by BATFE. Specifically, it calls for all of the firearm retailers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to report multiple sales, or other dispositions, of two or more .22 caliber or larger semi-automatic rifles capable of accepting a detachable magazine purchased by a single individual in a five consecutive business day period.
It is important to note that under existing law, BATFE already has full access to every dealer’s firearm transaction records, either during a bona fide criminal investigation or simply to enforce compliance with record keeping requirements. This new reporting procedure would create a registry of owners of many of today’s most popular rifles–firearms owned by millions of Americans for self-defense, hunting and other lawful purposes. Most importantly, however, the BATFE has no legal authority to demand these reports.
In addition, the agency has recently come under intense scrutiny due to its ill-conceived “Fast and Furious” operation. “Fast and Furious” encouraged Arizona gun stores to sell thousands of guns to suspicious buyers, despite objections from dealers and even BATFE’s own field agents.
Earlier this year, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on and passed, by a vote of 277 to 149, an amendment to H.R. 1 (also offered by Rep. Rehberg, along with Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.)) that also would have prohibited the use of federal funds for this reporting requirement. Unfortunately, the amendment was not included in the final version of the bill as a result of Senate inaction.
In March, U.S. Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced S. 570–“to prohibit the Department of Justice from tracking and cataloguing the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns.” The bill would ensure that federal funds cannot be used for the multiple sales reporting procedure.
NRA will continue to work to make sure the Rehberg Amendment makes it through the appropriations process. The amendment is scheduled to be heard on the House floor in August.
While the Rehberg Amendment is a critically important first step, it is imperative that you contact your U.S. Senators and ask them to cosponsor and support S. 570. You can find contact information for your elected officials by using the “Write Your Representatives” tool at www.NRAILA.org, or you can call your U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121. S. 570 currently has 29 cosponsors. To see if your senators are cosponsors, please click here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:SN00570:@@@P
About:
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military. Visit: www.nra.org
National Association for Gun Rights
National Association for Gun Rights:
Operation Fast & Furious – or as we have been calling it, “Project Gunwalker” – is becoming a large scandal very fast and most furiously.
One media outlet referred to it yesterday as “worse than Iran-Contra.”
As you know, the anti-gun brass at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) conspired to force gun dealers to sell firearms to criminals who in turn walked those firearms across the border into Mexico and into the hands of dangerous drug gangs. Read more
Grass Roots North Carolina for Firearms Education: BATFE After Your Gun Rights – Multiple Long Gun Sales the Target Again
From the Grass Roots North Carolina for Firearms Education:
The ATF has reopened comments on their plan to register multiple sales of some (that’s how it always starts) rifles.
This serious threat from the ATF needs to be stopped. Back in January your comments were invaluable at preventing the “emergency designation” but the Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) reflector provided over 9,000 comments later in the comment period.
This time, you the gun owner must do better.
Please log comments and spread the word to all your colleagues to do the same. There is no doubt that BATFE is a determined crew. We must be more determined.
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED Read more
NRA: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform Act Introduced
From our friends at the NRA:
Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) have introduced H.R. 1093, the “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform Act.”
The bill would roll back unnecessary restrictions, correct errors, and codify longstanding congressional policies in the firearms arena. This bipartisan bill is a vital step to modernize and improve BATFE operations.
Of highest importance, H.R. 1093 totally rewrites the system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers and importers of firearms. Today, for most violations, BATFE can only give a federal firearms license (FFL) holder a warning, or totally revoke his license.
H.R. 1093 would allow fines or license suspensions for less serious violations, while still allowing license revocation for the kind of serious violations that would block an investigation or put guns in the hands of criminals. This prevents the all-too-common situations where BATFE has revoked licenses for insignificant technical violations — such as improper use of abbreviations, or filing records in the wrong order. Read more
