The difference between an M-16 and an AR-15 are the “6 magic parts”. In 1990’s having an AR-15 along with any of those magic parts was enough to get you charged with a felony under the “intent” to make a machine gun.

Those parts are:

1. Bolt Carrier
2. Hammer
3. Trigger
4. Disconnector
5. Selector
6. Auto sear

The seriously magic part is the auto sear. THis part catches a hook on the back of the hammer and holds the hammer back until the bolt has locked up. Only then does the auto sear allow the hammer to drop, firing the weapon.

The auto sear fits above the selector. The difference between an AR-15 and a “machine gun” is the hole in the lower receiver for the auto sear pin. It is no longer the 6 magic pieces.

In addition to the actual auto sear there are drop in auto sears. They are very hard to find today (legally) because they were dirt cheap prior to 1986 and nobody was going to pay the ATF $200 on a $30 part. Today a DIAS goes for north of $30K. M-16A1s are going for around $35k. A modern M-16 that is not transferable can be purchased for $500-$750 on the cheap side. A full auto lower parts kit runs about $80.

Regardless, DIAS are a thing. They are a machined part with specification tolerances similar to that of an AR-15.

But there is another way. A “Lighting Link” is a thin piece of metal or bent up coat hanger that is suppose to perform the same function as the auto sear or DIAS. Reports say it is not as reliable as the actual part but it does work.

A company in Wisconsin or Florida, it is not clear where the company is located, created a laser engraved sheet of thin metal which outlined all the parts required to make a lighting link. The end user would have to cut out the parts and file them to the line, assemble the parts and then maybe it would work.

This was obviously done to get around the NFA by claiming 1st amendment protection of the printed/engraved item.

This was done successfully in the 1980’s in regards to PGP. Pretty Good Privacy used strong encryption. Encryption algorithms were considered “arms” under the ITAR regulations. Thus the government block the publication of PGP because it would be exporting arms. The work around was simple, they printed the code on an OCR font then sent the printed, 1st amendment protected, document to a country in Europe where they turned it back into code. Thus everybody gained access to strong personal encryption.

In the case of Matthew Hoover of Wisconsin and Kristopher Ervin of Florida the ATF raided them and accused them of all sorts of nasty violations of the NFA. Matthew and Kristopher have been slowly losing their cases.

On July 1st, 2022 Mathew Hoover filed to have the case dismissed based on Second Amendment grounds. They are claiming that the NFA is unconstitutional.

The Government may attempt to argue that machineguns are beyond the scope of the Second Amendment by attempting to characterize them as “dangerous and unusual,” as it has in other cases, but this is not the test. The court’s invocation of “dangerous and unusual” weapons in Heller and subsequently Bruen was for the purpose of discussion of what might be a constitutionally acceptable law, rather than the endorsement of any particular extant policy. Bruen, 597 U.S. at *12 (Clarifying that the Court was not undertaking “an exhaustive historical analysis…of the full scope of the Second Amendment”) (quoting Heller, 554 U.S. at 627). Rather, the only way a court may conclude Defendant’s conduct falls outside the scope of the Second Amendment’s unqualified command remains clear: the Government must prove the particular regime in question is consistent with the history and tradition of the United States. Id at *15. Furthermore, the question of whether a weapon is “in common use at the time,” necessarily pins the analysis to the time before the prohibition. To consider otherwise would incentivize the Government to legislate wantonly and aggressively, seizing arms, then later evade constitutional scrutiny by suggesting that the arms cannot be in common use, because the Government prohibited them. Such circular logic would be inconsistent with any fundamental rights jurisprudence. Thus, the Government has the burden to prove that the regime in question is consistent with the history and tradition of firearms regulation in this country around the founding era.
— Machine Gun — USA v Matthew Hoover — Supplement to Motion to Dismiss070122

There will be more lawsuits against the NFA. This case might actually be strong enough given its first and second amendment defenses. It would not surprise me to see the courts dismiss this case on first amendment grounds, or the government, so that the NFA survives.

Edited: Fixed date from January 1st to July 1st

Elon Musk made news a few weeks ago by tweeting out an image of the left moving more and more left.

pic.twitter.com/Q9OjlJhi7f

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022

While this describes the left moving more and more left it covers many different aspects of our lives.

The court – said to be more pro-religion than at any time since the 1950s – wrapped up one of its most consequential and divisive terms this week. Critics lamented a string of decisions that they say undermine legal traditions that prevent government officials from promoting any particular faith.

Moira Donegan is correct, the court is more pro-religion than anytime since the 1950s. Not because they are particularly pro-religion, but because the court was seriously anti-religion for the last 50+ years. The establishment clause was intended to stop the federal government from imposing a state religion on the country. It was not about hiding religion.

There is a little white cross, or was, just inside the tree line off of I95 somewhere in Maryland. It has a name on it. The name of a man that died on I95. He was a Christian. He wasn’t a church going sort of man. He grew up in the church.

There are groups that routinely search out those little white crosses on public property to have them removed. They are insisting on freedom from religion. For this small minority seeing a religious symbol on public land is the same as the government establishing a state church.

This is what got prayer pulled from school. Freedom from religion. Now it could be strongly argued that morning prayer was going to far. There are people that aren’t Christians in the school system and forcing them to say the lords prayer is going to far.

Unfortunately, the pendulum swung away from supporting religion to the point where people in authority are not allowed to show any religious leanings. Pride flag on the wall? Check, approved. Trans people safe poster in the hallways? Check, approved. Cross in the classroom ? Not approved.

Freedom from religion also lead to lawsuits trying to get the 10 Commandments removed from a federal court house. To war memorials being destroyed. In one case a private group came together to purchase the land where the war memorial was but a lawsuit was filed to stop the purchase.

And no matter how hard they try to remove God from the schools, I promise you that prayer is going on all the time, it just wasn’t formalized.

The Moira doesn’t seem to believe in a higher power. When a republican say “The Lord was with me.” or anything religious, she appears to be triggered. Again, her faith in her own beliefs is so weak that she fears that hearing somebody else’s utterances will force religion on her.

Earlier I was trying to read an article in a national news organization and the author referred to the court as “controlled by right-wingnut extremists”. For her and the rest of the left any decisions that doesn’t go their way must be because of political bias on the part of the justices.

Robert P Jones, founder and chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute thinktank in Washington, said: “What we’re seeing is a desperate power grab as the sun is setting on white Christian America. In the courts, instead of moving slowly and systematically, it’s a lurch.”

Jones added: “In the meantime we’re going to be left with essentially an apartheid situation in the US where we’re going to have minority rule by this shrinking group that’s been able to seize the levers of power, even as their cultural democratic representation in the country shrinks.”

How do you reach a person such as this? How do you begin a conversation when she can’t even see us as people? How do we bring our country back together before the blood flows?

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