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

Right here. The case is Wolford v. Lopez, and the issue is Hawaii’s making it illegal to carry a firearm onto anyone’s private property without the owner’s prior and express permission.

It’s interesting that the brief is cosigned by Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
Continue Reading Solicitor General Files Pro-2A Supreme Court amicus

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?

Booker himself escorted the staffer around the metal detectors at the entrance. He was arrested after he decided to go into the gallery, to actually watch Congress in session, and had to pass another metal detector.
Continue Reading Cory Booker staffer arrested for carrying gun in Capitol

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

New ATF Chief Counsel is a pro-2A law professor! The new Chief Counsel, Rob Leider, clerked for Justice Thomas, teaches Second Amendment law at George Mason, and has written that “AW bans” are unconstitutional.

I haven’t recovered from my loss — you never do that — but I’m at least becoming functional again, after 3 1/2 months.
Continue Reading Good News at ATF

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

“Tackling the Bruen bear,” an online (and in-person) seminar featuring Steve Halbrook, Adam Winkler of UCLA, and William Taylor of Everytown, will be held on November 20, at 5:30-8 PM PST. You can register here.
Continue Reading Online seminar at the 9th Circuit