David Hardy

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What is the effective date of the repeal of NFA taxes (if not of the NFA itself?

SEC. 70436. REDUCTION OF TRANSFER AND MANUFACTURING TAXES FOR CERTAIN DEVICES.
TRANSFER TAX.–Section 5811(a) is amended to read as follows:
”(a) RATE.–There shall be levied, collected, and paid on firearms transferred a tax at the rate of–
”(1) $200 for each firearm transferred in the case of a machinegun or a destructive device, and
”(2) $0 for any firearm transferred which is not described in paragraph (1).”.
1 455 (b) MAKING TAX.–Section 5821(a) is amended to read as follows:
”(a) RATE.–There shall be
Continue Reading Update on repeal of some NFA taxes

18 USC 925(c) provides that the Attorney General can grant a person relief from disability (the “dis-ability” to legally possess a firearm under the law). This is especially important to those convicted of a federal offense, since there is no federal procedure to restore firearm rights or to restore civil rights (those lost by a conviction are all governed by state, not federal, law).

Historically, that function had been delegated by the AG to ATF, and from 1992 onward there was a rider put on ATF’s budget forbidding it to use appropriated money to grant relief (except to corporations).

But
Continue Reading Relief from disabilities functional again!

The Senate Finance Committee has reported out a reconciliation bill that will de-regulate suppressors. §70436.

The amendment to 26 U.S.C. §5845(a) removes suppressors and short barreled rifles and shotguns from the NFA’s special definition of “firearm,” which defines what items the NFA regulates. “Any other weapon” is likewise eliminated. Now only full-autos and destructive devices are covered.

The amendment to §5845(f) removes all shotguns from the definition of “destructive device.” The DD designation now covers everything everything above .50 caliber except shotguns that the Attorney General finds are “generally recognized as particularly suitable for sporting purposes.” The amendment would
Continue Reading Senate Committee: Deregulate Suppressors and Short Barreled Firearms

As noted, my son died December 3, age 39, leaving me quite shot up. Now handling his probate, and among his assets were a storage area that contained virtually all the contents of his mother’s house in Virginia — she died of cancer in 2003. So I’m cleaning that out, sorting out the keepsakes from things to dispose of (the movers even packed up the cleaning supplies under sinks and a bottle of wine — probably not improved by 20 or so Arizona summers in a sheet metal storage area with no AC). A lot of stuff was handed down
Continue Reading Just about functional, and….

Smith and Wesson vs. Estados Unitos Mexicanos, handed down today. It’s as smashing a loss as a case can take. 9-0. Justice Kagan, of the liberal wing, writes the opinion. Justice Jackson, also of that wing, writes a concurrence that essentially says, Justice Kagan was too nice to you legal morons, get out of here:

“I view Mexico’s allegations as insufficient to satisfy PLCAA’s predicate exception, regardless of whether the business practices described might suffice to establish aiding-and-abetting or other forms of vicarious liability in distinct statutory or common-law contexts…. Devoid of nonconclusory allegations about particular statutory violations, Mexico’s
Continue Reading Supreme Court shoots down Mexico's lawsuit against US gun makers

Especially when I reflect that my son was regional director of Trump Force 47 when he died.

From a fundraising email of Everytown:

“We’re approaching 100 days of this second Trump presidency and the assault on gun safety has been fast and blistering.

Already, Trump’s administration has:

Threatened common-sense measures that keep us safe like Engaged In the Business and Arms Brace

Created a Second Amendment Task Force with the intent to repeal every policy that has kept us safe

Repealed “Zero Tolerance”–a life-saving policy that revoked the licenses of gun dealers who willfully violated federal law, including those who
Continue Reading Makes a person feel good

Story here. I dunno how significant the cert denials actually are, though. One concerns carry by 18 to 20 year olds, the other possession on a college campus. The Court might just have felt that these issues were too narrow to merit review. The last time I checked, the Court was getting around 10,000 petitions per Term, and taking under a hundred of them. These petitions may just not have made it to the top.
Continue Reading SCOTUS ducks gun cases for now

An interesting question. The article suggests that between the party’s internal fragmentation, its members’ perception of a need for a change, Hogg’s hopes to primary a ton of moderates, and someone falling heir to Bernie Sanders’ network of donors and supporters, the party will likely go further “woke” when it should be heading the other way.

(We need a better title for “the other side.” Traditionally, they are called “the left,” but their core beliefs have almost nothing to do with left-vs-right. I mean — what did Karl Marx have to say about which bathroom a tranny male should
Continue Reading Did David Hogg and AOC murder the Demo Party?

GoA v. ATF, DC District Court. GoA filed a FOIA lawsuit, “seeking records about a secret government surveillance program which unlawfully and unconstitutionally monitors and records the firearm purchases of American citizens who are perfectly eligible to purchase and possess firearms.”

ATF disclosed some records, then discovered that it had disclosed some it meant to keep secret, and it got a protective order from the court forbidding GoA to publicize them. GOA, thru Stephen Stamboulieh, now moves to lift the protective order. Here’s another note from the motion:

“As Plaintiffs explained, the NICS Monitoring Program underlying Plaintiffs’ FOIA request
Continue Reading GoA Hits Gold in FOIA Suit

I’ve not posted in a while, just thought to mention the reason. My elder son, Mark William Hardy, was hospitalized on Nov. 3, and died on Dec. 3. I spent that time sitting in one or another ICU and was too distracted to blog. I still am.
Continue Reading My silence

Barnett v. Raoul, S. D. Ill. The beginning is unusual, and the end is wonderful:

“Most importantly, considering all of the evidence presented, the Court holds that the provisions of PICA criminalizing the knowing possession of specific semiautomatic rifles, shotguns, magazines, and attachments are unconstitutional under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution as applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. Therefore, the Plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction is GRANTED. The State of Illinois is hereby ENJOINED
from the enforcement of PICA’s criminal penalties in accordance with 720 ILL. COMP. STAT. §§ 5/24-1(a)(14)-(16) (bump stocks and
Continue Reading A good decision from the Southern District of Illinois