Election

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will be 76 next week, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor will be 70 and is reported to be in poor health. The next president may have two vacancies to fill.

Litigation

• The Supreme Court has adjusted its schedule, adding an additional opinion day this week as it nears the end of its 2023-2024 term. Justices announced that Friday will be an order day, during which the court “may announce opinions” on cases before them. If necessary, the court could extend the deadline to July to conclude all cases. Opinions are issued at 10 a.m. E.T. on opinion days.
• As promised, last Friday the Supreme Court by a 6-3 decision overturned the bump stock ban in the case Garland v. Cargill. (Also see “Industry News” item below.)
  • I’m glad there was a dissent. Read up.
  • The ruling DOES NOT address the Second Amendment or whether bump stocks could be banned by an act of Congress. Instead, it was wholly limited to whether the Trump Administration ATF exceeded its authority under current law, which it very clearly did (with the acquiescence of the NRA).
  • Predictably, President Joe Biden & Co. are now calling for Congress to change federal law to ban bump stocks. While criticizing the decision, Biden also warned that the next president could appoint two Supreme Court justices, which is why we don’t vote for him no matter who his opponent is. Donald Trump, while running as a felon for re-election as President, has so far not called for Congress to pass his administrative bump stock ban into statutory law.
  • Senate Republicans have already blocked one attempt to outlaw bump stocks since the Supreme Court struck down the ban. Democrats tried to force a voice vote on the bill to ban bump stocks, a tactic often used by both parties when they know that they don’t have the votes to pass legislation but want to bring an issue to the Senate floor. The bill was sponsored by Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, and Susan Collins, R-ME.
  • You can send a message opposing a new bump stock ban to the US Senate here.
  • Also note that Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who joined the majority, but said in a concurring opinion “The horrible shooting spree in Las Vegas in 2017 did not change the statutory text or its meaning. There is a simple remedy for the disparate treatment of bump stocks and machine guns. Congress can amend the law – and perhaps would have done so already if ATF had stuck with its earlier interpretation. Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act.”
  • But if Congress “acts” it will be without authority. Congress also lacks authority to restrict machine guns. Alito should know that, or did he never study the Constitution in law school? We also note that at last report there was no evidence presented by law enforcement that a firearm equipped with a bump stock or a machine gun was actually used in the Las Vegas massacre.
  • ALSO NOTE:
    • Fourteen states and the District of Columbia currently have bump stock bans on the books, and this decision does not affect those bans. The states are Florida, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Washington, Nevada, California and Hawaii.
    • Related (satire)
• US District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas last week issued a ruling in the case Mock v. Garland vacating the ATF’s rule that effectively bans pistol braces and granting the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on the grounds that the Final Rule violated the APA’s procedural requirements because it was arbitrary and capricious and was not a logical outgrowth of the Proposed Rule. This ends enforcement of the ban nationwide. An appeal is expected.
• The Third US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a Philadelphia man, who was sentenced for armed robbery and kidnapping, should receive a “dangerous weapon” sentence enhancement for using a fake gun, because the meaning of “dangerous weapon” as used in the federal sentencing guidelines is ambiguous. The guidelines’ commentary defines “dangerous weapon” to include fake guns. Dissent: “A dangerous weapon must be both dangerous and a weapon. Fake guns are neither.”
• The Seventh Circuit has upheld the law against lying on the gun purchase 4473 form, saying, “Section 922(a)(6) restricts fraudulent statements, not firearm purchases. See 70 F.4th at 1017. Indeed, it is well understood that “false statements may be punished even when the government is not entitled to demand answers.” Id. (collecting cases). We follow Holden‘s direction and conclude that the Second Amendment does not immunize purchasers from knowingly providing misstatements in ATF Form 4473.

Interesting: The Ninth Circuit is so large that it hears cases “en banc” before the chief judge and 10 randomly selected active judges to sit on the “en banc panel” – which means the “en banc” court sometimes doesn’t even include any of the judges who sat on the original panel.

• The Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition have filed a federal lawsuit in Texas challenging the ban on firearms carry in US Post Offices and on postal property as violations of the Second Amendment, and is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Joining as plaintiffs are two private citizens, Gavin Pate and George Mandry, both Texas residents. The sole defendant is Attorney General Merrick Garland, in his official capacity. The complaint was filed in US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division.

• • “Under the Bruen ruling of June 2022, if the government seeks to restrict firearms in a particular location as a ‘sensitive place,’ it must prove that its current restriction is sufficiently analogous to a well-established and representative historical analogue,” noted SAF Founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb.
  • Of course there is no such analogue, even though that standard was created by the Court and is not in the Constitution. This lawsuit is 40 years overdue. One federal district court has already ruled that the ban in unconstitutional. Now on to the ban on guns in all “federal facilities.”
• There have been at least two cases where local judges in Massachusetts have held the state’s license to carry law – passed in defiance of the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision – is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. Perhaps coincidentally, the 911 emergency system was down STATEWIDE in Massachusetts on Tuesday afternoon.
• Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation, in collaboration with the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, have filed a legal challenge against New Jersey’s stringent handgun permitting requirements and the state’s “one gun a month” law. The challenged policies include several steps that New Jersey residents must follow to obtain a handgun permit:
  • Providing character references
  • Undergoing fingerprinting
  • Paying multiple fees
  • Enduring two separate waiting periods totaling up to 37 days
  • Undergoing two separate background checks
  • The NJ Permit to Purchase is valid for just 90 days and for only one handgun.

Regulation

• Joe Biden’s BLM plans to close 98.9% of the half-million acre Sonoran Desert National Monument to recreational target shooting.

Liars, Enemies, Stupid, and Urban Legends

• Joe Biden. Still doubling down.
  • Joe Biden Perpetuates Cannon Canard As Karma Catches Up
  • After Hunter Biden’s Trial, Joe Biden Told These Six Lies
• NY Gov. Kathy Hochul.
• CDC
• CNN
• New York Times
• NBC’s Erin McLaughlin blamed the Supreme Court’s decision on bump stocks for three mass shootings over the weekend, despite the fact none of the weapons used were equipped with them.
• House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is investigating the Biden Administration about its potential collusion with anti-Second Amendment plaintiffs and the City of Chicago in a lawsuit against Glock.
• Why does the National Park Service waive entrance fees on Juneteenth, which it claims is “National Independence Day,” but not for the actual Independence Day on July 4? And why on MLK Day but not Presidents’ Day? (Scroll down to Free Entrance Days)
• The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force Cadets and their instructors have been ordered to stop using the term “marksman” in reference to the organization’s shooting badges. One cadets instructor observed, “What gets me is that they’re putting these new changes on social media, which to me looks like they’re doing it as a PR stunt as they never normally publish badge amendments on socials.”
• Shooting Urban Legends in the Foot

The Only Ones

• A Scottsdale, AZ, police detective died after an accidental rifle discharge near the Scottsdale Airport last week. Police say that after the completion of serving “a search warrant and arrest operation” around 7:30 p.m. last Thursday, detectives from the Special Assignment Unit were unloading equipment from a vehicle. Det. Ryan So was reportedly moving a bag containing a rifle, which fell to the ground and discharged when it hit the pavement. Det. So was struck by the round and fellow detectives immediately rendered aid. He was taken to a hospital, but did not survive.
• Four Florida police officers have been indicted in connection to a fatal shootout almost five years ago at a packed Broward County intersection in a gun fight involving 19 police officers from at least three agencies. A grand jury indicted Miami-Dade County officer Rodolfo Mirabal, 39, with two counts of manslaughter with a firearm for the Dec. 5, 2019, deaths of 27-year-old UPS driver Frank Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, a 70-year-old union negotiator who was driving nearby. Officers Jose Mateo, 32, Richard Santiesteban, 33, and Leslie Lee, 57, were indicted for manslaughter with a firearm in connection with Ordonez’s death. They are not charged with Cutshaw’s death. None of the officers are charged with the deaths of the hijackers, 41-year-old cousins Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill. Mateo and Mirabal are still employed by Miami-Dade police. Lee retired three years ago and Santiesteban was fired.
• We reported in January that Adair, Iowa, Chief of Police Bradley Wendt was indicted on federal false statement charges related to his illegal gun sales. Wendt, 47, has been convicted of conspiring to make false statements to the BATFE, eight counts of making such false statements himself, and illegal possession of a machine gun. Wendt now faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy count, five years in prison for each of the eight false-statement charges, and up to 10 years in prison for illegal possession of a machine gun. Sentencing is scheduled for July 1.
• An unidentified US Secret Service agent was robbed at gunpoint as President Joe Biden was visiting Los Angeles for a fundraising event last weekend. The agent was returning from work Saturday night when he was accosted in a residential community in Tustin, about an hour southeast of Los Angeles. Police said the agent had his bag stolen at gunpoint. The agent, who was not injured, fired his gun during the confrontation, police said. The Secret Service said they did not know if anyone was shot.
• The use of deadly force was legal and justified in the March 19 early morning fatal shooting of airport executive Bryan Malinowski by federal agents in his West Little Rock, Arkansas, home, according to Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones, who said in a June 14 letter that there would be no charges in the case. I suggest that Prosecutor Jones should review the meaning of the words “reasonable” and “necessary” as used in the relevant law. He seems to be saying that breaking into someone’s home and murdering them is reasonable and necessary just because the cops didn’t want to do it the easy way for a low risk search in connection to low level alleged paperwork violations.

DGUs

• Father takes matters into his own hands after catching rideshare driver assaulting his daughter: police
• Man holds 1 at gunpoint after daughter’s friend stabbed multiple times
• Man Detained by Armed Homeowner Had Plans to ‘Kill Entire Family’
• Suspect Shot and Killed During Home Break-In in Commerce City, CO
• Resident Fatally Shoots Intruder with Shotgun After Pursuit into Bedroom at Mobile Home Park
• The Armed Citizen:
  • American Rifleman – June 14, 2024
  • American Rifleman – June 17, 2024

Not a DGU. Gun free zone.

• Georgia Inmate Shoots Kitchen Worker Inside Prison
• Georgia inmate had ‘personal relationship’ with prison employee he killed: police (May require Microsoft Edge browser)

Punkin chunkin

• Not quite what you think. But I need one.

Industry News

• Gun Talk Radio
  • Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk Radio podcasts have moved. I access them here but have found that platform to be a bit cumbersome.
  • Bonus: From Gun Talk I learned of the Winchester “Spruce Guns.”
• Just days after the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on bump stocks, inventor Jeremiah Cottle announced he is selling all the intellectual property rights for the manufacture of bump stocks. Cottle’s bump stock company, SlideFire, closed shortly after the Las Vegas shooting. Along with patents, copyrights, and manufacturing equipment, Cottle is also selling his website and patents for other firearm accessories that did not make it to market.

*************************

Mississippi Dept. of Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks 2024 Youth Art Contest Winners

*************************

Products

• Franklin Armory is now making binary triggers for Glock pistols. The kit includes a new slide, internals, and a selector switch, since Glock didn’t include a manual safety. The protocol of firing one shot and then stopping is accomplished similar to other binary triggers, by holding the trigger back until you rotate the selector switch back to normal. Yeah, nothing could possibly go wrong there. $800, plus your Glock pistol.
• Federal has a new Hydra-Shok Deep load in .32 ACP, with a 68-grain bullet.
• TV Ammo, Inc. (“True Velocity”) and FN America, LLC (“FN America”) have announced a strategic licensing and manufacturing partnership for the production of True Velocity’s .338 Norma Lightweight Medium Machine Gun for US and Allied military units. Numerous companies including SIG Sauer, Ohio Ordnance Works, FK-Brno, and True Velocity/Lone Star Future Weapons have developed lightweight medium machine guns chambered in .338. Yeah, I want those too.