Category: Justice Department

Task Force’s Exclusion of Gun Owner Advocates Means Continuing DOJ Disappointments

Gun rights leaders and legal scholars could be identified and nominated to analyze and prioritize bills, lawsuits, regulations, opportunities, and threats, to advise on judicial and other federal nominees, and to help educate the public. [More]

Leaving the people most affected out of the discussion means they’ll end up being told instead of asked. Or as one comment poster notes, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Shall Not Be Infringed UNLESS…

The Morgan case is a case where a federal judge in Kansas found that machine gun possession charges are unconstitutional in violation of the Second Amendment as it applied to this individual Mr Morgan. This Kansas Morgan decision is now being contested by the Trump administration in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. In fact, the Trump DOJ just argued to the 10th Circuit that the decision down below should be reversed. They argue that machine guns are not in common use for lawful purposes in today’s society and that they are dangerous and unusual items and as dangerous and unusual items they can be restricted by the federal government essentially however they want. [Watch]

I hate to say I told you so.

The “trap” is “common use.

And “pro-gun” lawyers — the ones coming up with all kinds of apologetic rationales for administration betrayals, helped set it.

The Wrong Side

DOJ just asked the Supreme Court for a THIRD extension in its Biden-era lawsuit attacking Missouri’s Second Amendment Protection Act, which prevents local law enforcement from working with ATF. @AGPamBondi needs to reverse course & support the Second Amendment. [More]

Bipolar, I tell ya…

[Via Jess]

Half a Loaf Better than None?

[More]

Forgetting anyone…?

Gun rights leaders and legal scholars could be identified and nominated to analyze and prioritize bills, lawsuits, regulations, opportunities, and threats, to advise on judicial and other federal nominees, and to help educate the public. The Office would provide a way for the public to express their concerns and to offer ideas and suggestions, meaning gun owners would have a conduit.

[Via Antigone]

A Zero Sum Game

DOJ and ATF Repeal Zero Tolerance Policy, Major Second Amendment Win for the Trump Administration [More]

I want to see what still triggers revocations — and consistency of decisons– before I get too excited, which I won’t do anyway because there will still be an ATF with the power to destroy Americans’ lives over exercising their right in a way the government, with no legitimate delegated authority, doesn’t want to allow.

DOJ Investigation into California Gun Law Patterns and Practices Should be Expanded

A new request for DOJ investigation has been filed detailing Second Amendment and civil rights violations inherent in Illinois’ Firearms Owner Identification card (FOID) requirement. [More]

They showed deliberate indifference to the first civil rights complaint. Perhaps an adjusted attitude will allow them to consider this one.

Holding Pattern

U.S. Department of Justice Announces Second Amendment Pattern-or-Practice Investigation into California’s Los Angeles County [More]

Good, but why California and not Illinois?

I’ll be using this as a springboard to help introduce yet another effort to get their attention on denial of rights in an article I’ll be finishing up this weekend.

Current Wild Swings of the Gun Control Pendulum

Replacing Joe Biden’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention with an Office of Second Amendment Protection, with liaison members like new ATF Chief Counsel Leider, would mean no more surprises, no more cognitively dissonant legal positions, and no more disheartening gun owner who are feeling used, abandoned and betrayed. [More]

All this back-and-forth has got to stop.

Didn’t Get the Memo

AG Bondi: The ball is in your court.

[Via Jess]

Related UPDATE

We’ll see if THIS comes into play:

Protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens is a high priority for @AGPamBondi. To that end, the Department will be re-evaluating some of its recent litigation positions on Second Amendment issues, including silencers.

Workaround Answer Hiding in Plain Sight

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued an Interim Final Rule removing the Attorney General’s delegation of authority to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to process applications for relief from federal firearms disabilities under 18 U.S.C. 925(c). [More]

Yep:

Although federal law provides a means for the relief of firearms disabilities, ATF’s annual appropriation since October 1992 has prohibited the expending of any funds to investigate or act upon applications for relief from federal firearms disabilities submitted by individuals. As long as this provision is included in current ATF appropriations, ATF cannot act upon applications for relief from federal firearms disabilities submitted by individuals.

[18 U.S.C. 925(c); 27 CFR 478.144]

Rendering Chuck Schumer’s appropriations rider against ATF restoring rights impotent by removing ATF from the equation is really smart, and I feel like this is a “Doh!” moment for those of us who never thought of it.. How come no one proposed this before, or did someone, and word of it never escaped the echo chamber?

A Woman’s Prerogative

Looks like all the noise about Pam Bondi is starting to get things moving…

[Via Jess]

A Step in the Right Direction

So, this puts a plus mark in the Bondi record. We’ll see what it really means as things develop. Case in point, how does it override the Schumer funding prohibiton on restoring rights?