…….

B.L.U.F.
As we’ve talked about, cases change numbers and names as they travel through the system.

This is a history of the VanDerStok v. Garland cases as they have moved through the courts. If you make it too the end, it discusses where we are and what the tea leaves have been.
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History

Aug 11, 2022

Complaint filed by Jennifer VanDerStok et al. challenging the ATF’s frame and receiver rule

Aug 17, 2022

Motion for injunction filed by Plaintiffs (Good Guys)

Aug 18, 2022

ATF moves to have the case transferred to a different court.

Aug 29, 2022

The court asks the parties to argue for or against shortening the case by combining the preliminary injunction phase with the merits phase.

Sep 2, 2022

The court grants a preliminary injunction in part. (good news)

Sep 10, 2022

The court declines to transfer the case

Sep 16, 2022

The court orders everybody to hurry up. They want expedited briefings

Oct 1, 2022

The court expands the scope of who is covered by the injunction. (good news)

Oct 25, 2022

The ATF filed the administrative record the day before, the Court now tells everybody that this is going to move fast and be prepared to argue the merits (no preliminary injunction hearings) 14 days after the Court says go.

Nov 1, 2022

The ATF lets the court know they are asking the Fifth Circuit to stop the preliminary injunction

Nov 3, 2022

The Court adds BlackHawk Manufacturing Group to the list of protected parties under the Preliminary Injunction

Dec 23, 2022

The plaintiffs (good guys) file a motion for Summary Judgement

Feb 13, 2023

The ATF files a cross motion for Summary Judgement

Mar 6, 2023

The Court grants Defense Distributed and Second Amendment Foundation coverage under the original preliminary injunction.

Jun 27, 2023

Fifth Circuit court has all briefings in hand and scheduled oral arguments for Sep, 2023

Jul 5, 2023

The court issues its final judgement. In that judgement, they find that the final rule violates ATF’s statutory jurisdiction and vacates the final rule.

Jul 14, 2023

The ATF asks for an Emergency Stay pending appeal

The Fifth Circuit Court dockets a new case.

July 18, 2023

The Court grants a 7-day administrative stay

Jul 25, 2023

The Fifth Circuit calendars the case for Sep 7, 2023.

The District court issues a stay pending appeal

Jul 24, 2023

The Fifth Circuit court stays the vacatur pending appeal

Jul 27, 2023

The ATF requests a stay from the Supreme court regarding the Preliminary Injunction and Final Judgement

Aug 8, 2023

The Supreme Court stays the vacatur of the Northern District Court of Texas. (bad news)

Sep 6, 2023

The Fifth Circuit Court dismisses the appeal because the ATF asked them in one case.

Sep 7, 2023

Oral argument heard before Judges Willett, Engelhardt, Oldham

Sep 14, 2023

The district court enjoins the ATF from enforcing their final rule

Sep 25, 2023

Oral arguments are scheduled for Sep 28, 2023

Sep 28, 2023

Oral arguments are heard

Oct 2, 2023

The Fifth Circuit Court vacates the injunction as to non-parties. (so-so news)

Oct 5, 2023

ATF applies to the Supreme Court to vacate the injunction pending appeal on the Emergency Docket

Oct 6, 2023

Justice Alito stays the injunction administratively for 10 days.

Justice Alito orders all responses to be in place by Oct 11, 2023

Oct 16, 2023

The application is referred to the court

The September 14, 2023, order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, case No 4:22-cv-691, is vacated

Injunctions, Vacaturs, Stays and Judgements, Oh My!

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I think we all have one of these friends:

Here’s a higher resolution video by Curb.

J.Kb. took the plunge yesterday and printed mailing labels from WooCommerce. I expect people to start seeing their goods shortly.

Because we are new to this, the hook and loop stuff didn’t get processed correctly. I’m still going to send them, I’ll figure out how to make it work.

Thank you for your patience.

You have got to read the fine print…

This is the firearm charge brought by the DoJ against Hunter Biden.

The grand jury brought these three counts. Note that the grand jury charges, U.S.C. 18 §922(g)(3). This is the same charge as the United States DoJ brought originally.

Because it is a duplicate and not from a ground jury, the DoJ dropped that “firearm charge”.

This changes nothing. All it does is remove any Fifth Amendment claims from Hunter’s team.

If you hear from other sources that the Feds dropped a firearm charge against Hunter, know that this is the rest of the story.

B.L.U.F.
An explanation of emergency dockets of the circuit courts and the Supreme Court with simple tie in to Duncan v. Bonta, the magazine ban out of California.
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There is a process… There is always a process. How do cases get from here to there?

Once a case has been filed, the case moves forward. At different stages of the case, parties can appeal to the next higher court to seek relief.

There are two paths to the Supreme Court, from the state court system or through the federal court system.

Each state can have its own internal courts, but in general, there is a low-level court, an optional state appeals court, and then a state supreme court. For small states, they might not have a state level court of appeals.

From the state supreme court, the parties can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On the federal side, a case is filed in a district court. At different stages, the parties can appeal to the circuit court of appeals to seek relief. If they do not receive relief at the circuit level, they can appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Circuit Court of Appeals has two different docketing systems. There is the merits based docket and then there is the emergency docket.

While the parties might think that their particular case is time-critical, the courts do not see it that way. A party can place something on the emergency docket if the matter meets at least some of the Winter factors. These would be irreparable injury, balance of equity, and public interest.
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It looks like a great weekend starting this evening. I hope it is a wonderful evening for you as well.

Add your comments down below.

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Recently, I wrote about a weapon light I purchased, an Olight Odin mini. I purchased it because I wanted the tail switch, but it comes with a pressure tape switch and mount.

It has now been moved to my weapon and will live there. It was lacking in a couple of features I wanted.

My Olight Baton 1SR is small. It does not have a tail switch. It does the job I needed it to do, but was not as useful as I needed it to be for defensive firearm use.

I decided to pick up a different Olight. A Warrior 3s. This light works for me on almost all fronts.

You can purchase a weapon mount to put it on your rifle and a pressure switch to go with it. Nice. The pressure switch it uses has a high and a turbo mode. The beam is focused rather tightly.

So why is this a go-to light for me now? Because it works for more of my needs.

According to my research, there are three common offhand light methods used with a pistol. All of them are designed around a grip with your thumb on the tail switch and the head of the light at your pinky.

The Harries Technique

The first hold is to put your offhand under your strong hand wrist to support while pointing the light downrange. This works very well. You can turn the light on or off with your thumb. You have some support for your strong side. This works for me. I’ve used it with my Winchester ’94 as well. The rifle does “jump” but it does work and I can cycle the rifle.

The downside is that your light is directly in front of you. Bad guys shooting at the light are likely to hit you.

The Neck Index Technique

The second method I found was the “neck rest”. You hold your light in your offhand and place it at your neck. This illuminates both your target and your firearm sights.

The downside is that you’ve now told the bad guys where to shoot while adding now support for your shooting hand.

The FBI Technique

With this method, you hold the light up and to your offside. The downsides of this method significant. You have to support your offhand in an unnatural position. It is tiring. You add no support to your shooting hand. You now have to be more aware of your surroundings above and to the side, so you don’t clunk your hand/arm into something.

The huge advantage is that you are no longer telling the bad guy where to shoot to hit you.

They all have their advantages.

Why the Warrior?

It has enough modes. It has the moon mode, which is 1 (or 2?) lumens. This is the run for weeks mode and is the most common mode I use. With the focus, I can actually move through the woods with the light in this mode after a short adjustment time. In a no moon, no streetlight situation.

The next two modes work for most other uses. The low mode is a good setting for working on things, looking in dark, small, holes, and other such needs. The medium is more than bright enough to light up most of the front yard.

The next mode is the high mode. This is perfectly acceptable for illuminating targets at pistol ranges or short rifle ranges (trash panda ranges). In terms of distance, I can use this to illuminate a trash panda at 50 yards clearly enough to put my iron sights on it.

The moon, low, and medium modes are accessed by my pinky pressing the side switch. The high mode can also be accessed via the side switch. Hold and it will cycle through low, medium, and high.

You can also access the high mode with a partial depression of the tail switch. A short press will turn the light on in this mode. Press and hold, and the light will turn on and stay on until you release the tail switch.

Turbo mode is accessed in one of two ways. Double-clicking the side button or full press of the tail switch.

This means I can switch from low light to blinding light quickly, as needed. I think of it almost like using a search radar to locate my target and then switching to a targeting radar for putting my sights on the target.

Conclusion

Get trained on your weapon system. The entire system. This includes your firearm(s), your sights, your backup sights, any weapon mounted lights, your hand held lights, your holster(s) and sling(s), your magazine pouches. All of it.

Then train with your weapon system. Now go get some more training.

What works for me might not work for you. What works for you might not work for me.

Now that you’ve done all of that. You’ve made sure you are capable of using your entire weapon system, go train on getting your weapon system ready to use.

Go lie down in your bed, under the covers, dressed for sleeping. Now have the timer go off. You have to access your weapon system and move as your plan requires and be able to use the weapon system.

Do you sleep in the nude? Are the dangly bits between your legs going to put you off if you have to start moving through your AO? If so, do you have something you can step into quickly? If you have the boobs, are you going to be able to move through your AO without having them contained?

How fast can you get your feet into something to protect them while not sounding like a herd of elephants?

That weapon system you have been training with, is that what you have at hand?

For me, there is a load bearing gear right there which is a fast on. My EDC light is right there. My rifle is right there. That is one of my weapon systems. I do train with that weapon system. I do train on going from in bed under the covers to ready to engage.

Lastly, that is not my preferred weapon system. It is the weapon system I have in the bedroom because it is the weapon system my wife can use. She isn’t going to go for the load bearing gear, but that rifle is her go-to weapon system.

Images are from How to use a tactical light with a firearm