It appears that the “like” button has stopped working as well as the ability to post comments. We are looking into the issue.

UPDATE:

The issue was related to a plugin we use for comment control. We’ve disabled the plugin for the time being so people can comment again.

UPDATE 2:

We have identified the root cause. We will have the site back to normal later today.

UPDATE 3:

We think we have everything back to normal. We should see pretty commenting forms again.

Massachusetts is not a gun friendly state. It has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

A few years ago a man was sent to prison because he picked up a musket ball from a civil war battle field. Somebody saw it on his desk and asked what it was. When told it was a musket ball, a bullet the Karen reported it to campus police/security. He was arrested and charged. The judge ruled it was an “Ammunition Component” and sent him to jail.

The AG of Mass. took it on herself to change the definition of “assault weapon” and banned a number of guns. The state has an approved gun list. The list is by model.

It is the case that a SIG P938 is both legal and illegal in Mass. If it has gray grips it is legal. If it has red white and blue, from the factory, in a flag motif, it is illegal.

When Bruen dropped the AG said that only the “may issue” part was dropping but the good character clause would remain. That the reason given for wanting a permit could be used to judge good character. In other words, mostly business as usual.

Well the Gun Owners’ Action Legal (GOAL) of Massachusetts has issued a demand letter to the state. The letter demands

…to void all restrictions currently placed on any lawfully licensed gun owner, clarify where firearms may be carried, to explain the attorney general’s guidance that license applicants may still be asked why they need a license, and to void any extra application hurdles instituted by the various police chiefs.
— Boston Herald: Massachusetts gun rights group demands Maura Healey retract firearms guidance

The state has a limited amount of time to respond.

The chips are still falling everywhere. Some of the process is making demands of the state government in light of the Bruen decision and others.

In this case, the Gun Owners of America has sued the ATF over its proposed ruling regarding home manufactured firearms. It is an extensive suit and covers multiple different aspects.

Most people know that if you deposit more than $10,000 cash into the bank (or remove it) the bank is required to report it to the government. The reason is that you could be laundering money. What many people don’t know is that if you make many deposits that are less than $10,000 the IRS considers that “structuring” in order to get around the $10k reporting limits.

People have had their banking accounts seized for just making regular deposits of less than $10k.

The new ATF ruling works the same way. If you buy an 80% lower or frame from one company and then buy a parts kit from another the ATF can consider that a structured purchase to “get around the law(regulation)”.

Other regulations include requirements of FFLs to serialize frames and receivers they posses if they are not marked. This means that companies or individuals that do gunsmithing or Cerakoting might be required to serialize items they receive. It looks nasty.

The opinion of SCOTUS in Bruen and in West Virginia v. The EPA mean that this suit has a better chance than it did a month ago. It looks like there were a number of actions sitting in the queue waiting for Thomas to drop the gavel.
AmmoLand GOA Sues ATF Over Final Rule on Privately Manufactured Firearms

Both Maryland and Massachusetts have issued statements saying that the “proper cause” parts of their registration requirements are to be ignored or just used for good moral character reasons. So don’t joke about it. Put the right words there. One of the common phrases I’ve heard is “For all lawful purposes”. YMMV

Massachusetts: Office of Attorney General Maura Healey AGO & EOPSS LTC Guidance
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan: Governor Hogan Directs Maryland State Police to Suspend ‘Good and Substantial Reason’ Standard For Wear and Carry Permits

When you go to the store and pick up a box of ammo you are purchasing the ammo, some sort of holder for the rounds and a box. I’ve been throwing out the little red holders from Federal for years and years.

When you open a box of military surplus ammo, there is no holder. At most you might find a couple of thin pieces of paper. The packing is much denser.

When you pack your ammo for storage, you would like it to be as dense as possible. For me this means it needs to fit in an ammo can.

All of this lead me to all the expensive plastic boxes, landing on MTM as my prefered type. But even at the low cost of MTM, it didn’t actually get me anywhere near the density I wanted. Then I stumbled on RepackBox.

These guys are into making boxes but then designed a very good box for ammo. I use it for a number of calibers that I reload in bulk and for which I don’t need fast access. I don’t use them for 5.56×45 because those are kept on stripper clips which these boxes don’t fit.

How about 1600 rounds of 9mm in a single 50 cal can in neat little boxes of 50. That’s 32 boxes. The boxes are around $25/30 boxes or $35/100 boxes.

They also sell the same sort of box for rifle cartridges. Rifle cartridges are either 20 or 30 rounds depending on cartridge size. They include instructions for how to pack 50 Cal cans. I pack 30 cal cans as well with these boxes.

They are kind and send a label sheet with instructions on one side and labels ready to print on the other side. The labels are designed to fit in the little bubble under the caliber. I use it to identify the load in that particular round.

If you want to speed packing up they sell little 3D printed trays that hold all of the rounds that will go into a box. You fill the tray, put the box over the tray, flip the two over and all your rounds are in the box. Fold over the laps, label and pack. You’re done.

These are available [at multiple online sources] or [directly] from REPACKBOX Roger Small (I hope I spelled his name correctly) is the owner, I had a nice conversation with him. About a year ago I spoke to him and asked for packing diagrams for 30 cal cans and they are now on his site, so if you don’t want to lug 1600 9mm rounds in a 50cal can, you can carry 850 rounds in a 30cal can.

Be careful with rimmed cartridges, they are a little harder to pack because of all the wiggle room in the box to account for the rims. According to Rodger, I’ve been doing it wrong and I just need to tilt the box at a diagonal and load from one corner up.

Updated for spelling error
Update2: Removed reference to specific online retailer by request of Roger.

Miguel is now officially in semi-retirement. This means we’ll be getting posts from him less often but they will still be spicy and or interesting.

We are in the process of moving the blog. We will be moving it from a private server to a Troglodite Cluster. This will be happening shortly.

Part of that process is copying everything from the current server to the new cluster. This takes a while. During this time the old blog will be live so you can continue reading but all new content will be on the new server. You will be able to tell you are on the new site when the banner changes to include “REGISTER” in the main menu bar:

Once registration is open we look forward to having people sign up. About 2 or 3 weeks after registration is open we will be closing comments to registered users only.

J.Kb, Miguel and I will be working on how we want to do limited distribution content but that will start showing up in the same time period.

I sit in the passenger seat of a VW Micro bus as my mother drives us home. Father has the duty and won’t be home till Monday. It is wonderful that dad is back. He was over there in Vietnam. But he was safe. He was on a big navy ship.

I’m a big boy now, 3rd grade. I think back to a day not so long ago when we were still in Virginia, not California.

John and I lay on the hill side. He and I were talking about The War.

“What are you going to do when you are drafted?” The kindergardener me asked.

“I don’t know”, John answers, “I might go to Canada.”

“I’m going to enlist in the Navy before I’m drafted.”, I say.

As kindergardeners we know that war is forever. That we will be going to war. And that we will likely die.

A year later my father is on his way to Vietnam. He’ll be safe. They aren’t shooting at ships. (They were)

But today, I am listening to a song on the radio as we drive towards home. Dad is home safe but he’s not here again. He is an Officer in the US Navy and I’m proud of him.

We pull into the drive way and I ask my mom to leave the radio on so I can hear the end of the song. It finishes and I ask her what the name of the song is. She doesn’t know and she tells me to call the radio station to find out. I go inside and find the radio station in the phone book and call.

The D.J. answers and tells me the name of the song. A 3rd grader knows a song that has touched him to his soul. Years later I call and ask the D.J. to play this song. The D.J. scoofs and tells me it is a horrible song and refuses to play it.

I hope you understand as you listen:

We knew that the gun rights infringers would lose their every loving minds if Bruen was decided in favor of gun rights. The decision is great not because it struck down New York State and City “may issue but not likely” permitting scheme but because it reaffirmed that the people have a right to self defense outside of their homes.

It reaffirmed that ordinary people have the right to carry a weapon for self defense.

Most importantly it stated clearly that the second amendment will be treated as a real guarantee of our rights. No more two tier means-end balancing.

Unfortunately the opinion left a few gotchas in place. The first was “sensitive places” and the other was “reasonable permitting regulations.”

While some states have issued guidance that makes the state “shall issue” others are fighting back. Massachusetts issued guidance that the good cause is no longer needed but everything else about getting a permit is still in place. In my opinion this means that the question of why I want a permit is answered with “All lawful purposes”. California did similar and I believe New Jersey did as well.

Unfortunately places like New York have hit on an attack vector that we expected. New Jersey is looking to go down the same path.

In short, they are going to define as many places as possible as “sensitive” and make them gun free zones. In addition, they are making violations of gun free zones felonies. This means that a CCW that is carrying can lose their rights because they happen to enter one of the many many forbidden zones.

The other way they are making it impossible to carry is by creating a default gun free zone for all private property. The wording is a little unclear but it seems to say that it requires both the owner of the property and the lessee to agree to allowing CCW on or in the property. By the wording it implies to me that in the case of the lessee posting a sign allowing and the owner not posting a sign the CCW could still be in violation.

Note the “on or in” clause.

Imagine if you would that you are a CCW carrier and you decide to go for a drive. You glance at your gas gauge and determine you need gas. You pull into your local gas station to pump some gas. As you do you are now on the property. If there is no sign saying your firearm is permitted, you just committed a felony.

On a practical note, they law calls for “clear and conspicuous signage indicating that the carrying of firearms … is permitted…”. It will not surprise me when we find out that the regulations on signage will require the businesses to buy expensive signs. Consider a simple MUTCD compliant STOP sign is $75 dollars, what do you think a NYS or NJ approved sign will cost?

I believe in both our right to self defense and our property rights. I personally have a rule that on our property if we are having a gathering of people that are not all gun people that concealed carry is allowed but open is not. We have some friends that are to scared of firearms to even look at them in person. That’s fine.

If a business wants to limit firearm possession in their place of business to criminals only, that is their choice. I’ll respect it and take my business else where.

There are many challenges dropping right now against all of the laws being put in place to get around the second amendment now that Bruen has been decided. I’m hoping that they move quickly.

New York State’s Gun Control Bill of 2022
Star-Ledger Begging For NJ to do the same

In general media representation of the guns right battle is highly slanted. An “expert” or two will be quoted with their affiliation, but unless you are in the know, it isn’t obvious that these experts are paid shills for gun control groups.

A line I used when talking to my Senator about the ATF nominee was “If you wouldn’t put a lobbyist from the NRA in this position, then you shouldn’t be putting Chapman as the head of the ATF”.

I’ve been diving into the nastier parts of the body politic in order to find good balanced articles for the blog. This one was surprising.

For some, the words “shall not be infringed” mean no laws can be passed that limit a person’s ability to own firearms or ammunition. Others see “a well regulated Militia” as permitting gun control and stating that the right to own a firearm is connected to a military purpose.

Give them the click AMERICA’S GUN CULTURE: Second Amendment interpretation central to national debate over firearms, public safety

20-1507 ASSN. OF NJ RIFLE, ET AL. V. BRUCK, ATT’Y GEN. OF NJ, ET AL.
The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of appeals for the Third Circuit for further consideration in light of New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U. S. ___ (2022).

This is a standard capacity magazine ban (more than 10)

20-1639 YOUNG, GEORGE K. V. HAWAII, ET AL.
21-1194 DUNCAN, VIRGINIA, ET AL. V. BONTA, ATT’Y GEN. OF CA
The petitions for writs of certiorari are granted. The judgments are vacated, and the cases are remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for further consideration in light of New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U. S. ___ (2022).

Young V. Hawaii is pretty much Bruen all over again except it covers both open and concealed carry
Duncan v. Bonta is a standard capacity magazine ban,

21-902 BIANCHI, DOMINIC, ET AL. V. FROSH, ATT’Y GEN. OF MD, ET AL.
The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for further consideration in light of New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U. S. ___ (2022).

Bianchi v. Maryland is an assault weapons ban.

These 4 cases have now been granted certiorari (to be judge by SCOTUS). The court has then vacated the original decision of the appellate court. The case has been remanded (sent back) to the court from which it came for them to come to a decision based on Bruen.

The appellate court can then decided to kick it back to a lower court (district?) for them to come to a decision based on Bruen.

This means that these cases should be decided in favor of the second amendment.

It is likely that the 9th circuit court will quickly remand both of their cases. They have already started remanding cases in light of Bruen.

Unfortunately, this will continue to be an issue until these politicians get slapped down. I wish there was a way to send some of them to prison for the way they try and avoid the courts opinions.