A look by Guy Sagi. Serial numbers up toward the top now and adding non-binary to the sex selection.

ATF investigating former deputy for trafficking weapons to Mexico

I guess they don’t like the competition?

FedScoop:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is nearing a milestone of closing its last remaining data center and moving all of its data and applications to the cloud.

By the end of the fiscal year, ATF wants to have all of its users transitioned over to a new commercial cloud environment and plans to close down the data center and repurpose it for office space, bureau CTO Mason McDaniel told FedScoop.

What could possibly go wrong?

ABC News:

A subtle design feature of the AR-15 rifle has raised a technical legal question that is derailing cases against people who are charged with illegally buying and selling the gun’s parts or building the weapon.

At issue is whether a key piece of one of America’s most popular firearms meets the definition of a gun that prosecutors have long relied on.

For decades, the federal government has treated a mechanism called the lower receiver as the essential piece of the semiautomatic rifle, which has been used in some of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings. Prosecutors regularly bring charges based on that specific part.

But some defense attorneys have recently argued that the part alone does not meet the definition in the law. Federal law enforcement officials, who have long been concerned about the discrepancy, are increasingly worried that it could hinder some criminal prosecutions and undermine firearms regulations nationwide.

Basically, some part has to be serialized and that part varies by firearm. A whole lot more from J. KB.

ATF gave approval for the gimmicky Franklin Armory Reformation. Now, they say “we take it back” in one of the strangest rulings I’ve read.

What evidence do you have that my client is a racist?

He has a Nazi tattoo.

Dammit, Brad

Seems the shopping site Wish is selling cheap knock off full auto switches for Glocks. The ATF is tracking down some folks who bought them.

I have never used Wish but I see it in on line ads quite often selling what looks to be the internals of a suppressor. You can see them here.

ATF has revised a ruling on AR-15 lower receivers as guns. Now, they are not. Odd since millions and millions around the country have that part serialized.

Looking at the original piece by CNN, it seems that the feds dropped the case because they knew it would undermine gun control efforts. And prove that ATF guidance often doesn’t comply with existing law (ahem, bumpstocks, ahem).

And Trump just said they can’t do that.

Did Trump just make his own bumpstock ban illegal?

Looks like the fairly anti-gun nominee to head the ATF isn’t going to be the guy for the job.

Actual headline:

Northwest-based ATF supervisor with Nazi tattoo discriminated against black agent, lawsuit claims

He says he got it while undercover but still.

John Boch: ATF Admits It Lacked Regulatory Authority to Ban Bump Stocks

Related: ATF only had 582 bump stocks turned in

Adam Kraut:

Late yesterday, I received an email from an individual containing a letter from ATF which was a response to a correspondence requesting the correct method to measure a firearm with a stabilizing brace and folding adaptor. It was explained that the correspondence was sent in the form of an email over a year ago and that the person had received a response via email shortly after it was sent. This letter was unsolicited and came over a year after the original request and response.

Read the whole thing.

So, someone at ATF has been stealing the confiscated guns.

The NSSF is a fan.

Seems someone in China is making Glock conversion .

Do the units for Airsoft guns work on the real deal?

The head of the Fraternal Order of Police will be taking over the agency.

My google-fu is not finding the news source. But a poster at Subguns says:

ATF goes after airgun suppressor mfgs

Recently the airgun world has been pushing the limits of the law to the point of making aluminum body suppressors with monocore baffles and versions of aluminum k baffles.

The old ruling was if the suppressor was permanently attached, if it couldnt be used on a firearm it was OK. Well some idiot in FL started making and marketing ones that easily work on a rimfire (he puts the words airgun only on them) and some idiot in CT got popped for using an airgun suppressor on CZ rifle with an adapter going 1/2 28 to 1/2 UNF (sold by the same company) to allow you to use the suppressor on rimfires where legal.

Another company has started making the same style suppressors and decided to name them after old SWR suppressors. A new Trident suppressor is out and its airgun only but I guess a guy in MI figured out it works on rimfires. WTF people

ATF contractor busted for stealing guns from the agency.

In response to a FOIA request, ATF responds. Since this runs counter to the information about the Vegas shooting, it should make for even more conspiracy theories. Or it’s because ATF wasn’t allowed to inspect those guns.

Taking the ATFs low estimate of 280,000 BSTDs sold, they have achieved a miraculous 0.30% compliance rate.

Turns out, the ATF was only allowed to look at the guns and not disassemble them. And concluded nothing on the exterior indicated the were machine guns.

Looks like the Trump admin wants to take the A and the T out of ATF:

Like last year, the Trump administration proposes shifting part of the work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives away. Under the proposal, alcohol and tobacco enforcement would move to the Treasury Department so that ATF could focus more on guns, explosives and arson.​ The same proposal was made last year and went nowhere in Congress.

Get rid of the F too.

From David Codrea:

During the briefing, the Chief Counsels Office provided a written brief and a PowerPoint presentation, which discussed automatically and single function of a trigger. The brief and PowerPoint presentation, based on the intent of Congress and the statutory text, detailed how even the Akins Accelerator was not a machinegun. However, Acting Director Sullivan decided, against the advice of the Chief Counsels Office, to declare the Akins Accelerator a machinegun.

It was political.

Someone sent a FOIA request to ATF on the database that tracks machineguns and got this:

Pre 86 (transferables): 175,977
Sales Samples (pre May keepers): 17,020
Restricted 922(o) (posties): 297,667

There has already been a lawsuit filed against the ban:

Today, attorneys for an owner of a bump-stock device and three constitutional rights advocacy organizations filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump Administrations new confiscatory ban on firearm parts, additionally challenging Matthew Whitakers legal authority to serve as Acting Attorney General and issue rules without being nominated to the role and confirmed by the Senate or by operation of law. A copy of the court filings can be viewed at www.bumpstockcase.com.

The plaintiffs also filed a motion seeking a temporary injunction to prevent the Trump Administration from implementing and enforcing the new regulation. The lawsuit, captioned as Guedes, et al. v. BATFE, et al., is backed by Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF), and Madison Society Foundation (MSF), also institutional plaintiffs in the case.

Meanwhile, the NRA is disappointed.

And if you need instructions on how to properly destroy your bump stock, that you may have lost in a boating accident, the ATF has instructions.

While we gun nuts no that this a stupid ruling with no basis in the law, I doubt that we will win this issue due to public perception and the general ignorance about firearms most people have.

Prosecutors don’t want jurors to know about Operation Fast and Furious:

Operation Fast and Furious is among the most epic boondoggles in the history of federal law enforcement, which probably explains why federal prosecutors dont want jurors in the trial of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn to hear anything about it.

Fast and Furious was intended as a sting operation by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms to bust gun-runners and straw purchasers along the border. But it ultimately led to American firearms being sent to Mexican cartels and later linked to murders, including the fatal shootings of a Border Patrol agent in 2010 and an ICE agent in 2011.

Altogether, the ATF lost track of about 2,000 weapons, some of which ended up in the hands of El Chapos Sinaloa cartel. Most notably, after El Chapo was captured following a shootout in the city of Los Mochis in 2016, a Barrett .50-caliber rifle linked to Fast and Furious was found inside the drug lords hideout.

ATF will no longer issue accessories classifications. All accessories must be attached to a firearm.

ATF tries to be helpful. Hilarity ensues.

The ATF had a machine gun and a handgun stolen out of one of their vehicles.