2A Newsletter: Week of July 29th

ATF AUDITOR ILLEGALLY TAKES IMAGES OF FFL’S A&D BOOK

Photo Source: Black Metal Firearms via Instagram (You can also click on image above to see the video)

If you frequent all the biggest gun influencers and pages on Instagram you may have seen a video of an ATF inspector taking pictures of an FFL’s Acquisition and Disposition book (A&D). The FFL’s name is Black Metal Firearms based in Mesa, Arizona. This is wildly illegal for multiple reasons:

• The inspector was using her personal cell phone; not even the government issued one.
• The inspector’s phone appeared to be an iPhone 8 Plus.
• Starting from iOS 15, all Apple iPhones and iPads’ cameras are able to read text via the Live Text OCR function (OCR stands for optical character recognition).
• This means that the inspector could have easily created a digital database of Black Metal Firearms’ entire customer list and their transaction for as far back as the book goes - when the FFL specifically did not want to computerize that information for lack of trust in the ATF and this inspector.
• Based on the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 the establishment of a national gun registry by federal law enforcement is mostly prohibited - although some states have taken it upon themselves to enact their own version or form of additional registration (i.e. CA).

According to an interview with one of the three co-owners of Black Metal Firearms, Dave Nagel, this inspector had seemed odd since they first met her in the beginning of their audit late last year in December of 2021. The inspector’s name is Pamela Scott, an Industry Operations Investigator (IOI) from the ATF’s Field Division in Phoenix, Arizona.

“She said she was going to put us in for revocation and that it may change as it goes up the chain but that was her recommendation,” Nagel said. “We didn’t sell guns to the drug cartels, like the ATF did. Everything we deal in is something that can be readily sold to a customer. Nothing here is outlandish. We sell normal stuff to the common man and she treated us like drug dealers.”

It’s even more ridiculous when nothing egregious was found from the FFL’s A&D book other than minor clerical errors. No firearm transactions were found to be missing or any other major problems. Scott also reportedly called the store’s customers a bunch of “gun nuts.”

This story first broke from the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. However, it’s not the first time that the ATF has come under scrutiny as there have been several cases in question such as:

• “Warrantless investigations,” AKA “knock and talk.” 
• Using great effort to arrest and convict a 911 dispatch operator over broken NFA rules.
• Not complying to federal laws i.e. FOIA. 
• Inflating “ghost gun” numbers to get their increased budget approved.
• Biden’s plan to eliminate gun ownership by first eliminating gun dealers and manufacturers. 
• In fact, ATF FFL revocations have increased by a shocking 500% in the past year.

Tell your anti-2A friends to chew on that.

HR1808: New Federal “Assault Weapons” Ban Passes the House

Major drama has surrounded the bill HR1808 this past week, and for good reason. Its official name is the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2022,” but make no mistake - this bill aims to include a wide variety of firearms, much more than the title of this legislation lets on. With 212 cosponsors and over 120 pages in length (we plan on doing a breakdown of this bill soon in a separate blog), American gun owners may soon live in a world where AR-15’s, AK’s, several handguns, standard capacity magazines and certain firearm parts would be banned.

Initially, all news sources were reporting that Nancy Pelosi had delayed the vote until next week. But on Thursday night, we were notified that the vote in the House of Representatives would in fact be held the following day (on Friday). We’re not entirely sure whether the subterfuge aided in getting the bill to pass with certain Republicans to flip, voting against party lines… But since the Democrats hold the majority in the House, it’s no surprise that this bill passed (217 - 213). Although it’s worth noting that the difference was only by four votes.

HR1808 now moves on to the Senate where an almost carbon copy of a bill (companion/backup bill)  S.736 also awaits to be voted on. 

Let’s talk about “Common Use”

Jerry Nadler says the quiet part out loud: the purpose of this bill is to BAN weapons that are in common use.

This flies in the face of the Constitution, and Dems aren't honest enough to admit that they won't stop here. pic.twitter.com/fmuK6NenXZ

— Rep. Dan Bishop (@RepDanBishop) July 20, 2022

Here’s the thing, there are over 24 million AR15’s and AK’s currently in circulation. Compared to how many Ford F-series trucks were sold last year (less than one million) even the number of total Ford F-series trucks on the road (16.1 million) in America pales in comparison to AR’s and AK’s. Imagine if the government said that F-150s and F-250s were going to be banned because they were too capable at hauling heavy loads, too comfortable to use, too easy for consumers to buy… I imagine car enthusiasts, farmers and the millions of Ford truck owners alike would be livid.

That’s what the opposition is essentially doing except the product in our example pertains to firearms and not automobiles.

The phrase ‘common use’ refers to products that are used by the general public and are sold widely in many markets. If you pay attention to the news you might have been hearing this phrase more often recently. There aren’t necessarily any consumer or manufacturer protection laws but the legal definition of ‘common use’ is used to deliver a compelling argument that firearms cannot be as taboo as the anti-gunners make them out to be if millions of Americans own, use and buy them regularly.

Translation: it should be unconstitutional to unreasonably ban a product that is commonly owned by the average American and turn them into a criminal simply for owning or possessing said banned item(s). Don’t take it from us though. For once, the best proof of the Democrats’ true ulterior motive can now be found in  C-Span footage.

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