An Interesting Trend

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action”

― Ian Fleming

On March 26, 2019, bump-fire stocks magically became machineguns, without any enabling legislation. And so sorry; due to the Firearm Owners “Protection” act of 1986, you can’t register a machinegun manufactured after May of ’86.

On December 16, 2019, Pennsylvania Asshole General Josh Shapiro issued a legal opinion redefining 80% frame/receiver kits (and anything else that you can turn into a firearm with $65,000 and 13 hours of work… that is, everything) to be firearms, without bothering with legislation. PA State Police (PSP) Commissioner Colonel Robert Evanchick immediately declared background checks would have to be conducted on 80% frame/receiver sales (naturally) but they don’t have a process for that yet. So no one can sell them in PA, until they get around to dreaming up a process.

On December 19, 2019, the ATF invented a new class of firearms without any basis in statutory law: the non-NFA GCA Short-Barreled Shotgun. Now no one can sell the Franklin Amory Reformation… until the ATF eventually gets around to creating the necessary forms.

For those who might have — somehow — retained some doubts about the matter, enemy action is confirmed. Expect to see a lot more of these bureaucratic shadow-bans.

Thanks, Vichy NRA.

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I should vote for them WHY?

Slobbering Vichy National Republican Association fluffer Hutchison is at it again.

Keeping the Magic Numbers in Mind (For Passing Legislation)
[…]
This will likely involve flipping the House back to Republican control. Which will have a lot of benefits for Second Amendment supporters. But control of the House is not enough when there is an anti-Second Amendment president. Then it takes 290 votes to override a veto. That would require picking up 100 seats – that is a Herculean effort.
[…]
(Search it if you need it. I won’t link to Ammoland until they start marking Hutchison’s columns as enemy action.)

His premise is that to save the Second Amendment, we need to give the House back to Republicans.

The clueless tool pretends to have not noticed that the Republicans suck at the 2A very nearly as much as the Batshit Crazy Party.

Dear Ms. Hammer,

I see you have launched yet another attack on critics of the Vichy National Rifle Association.

I am one of those people. I have been for decades; long before it became trendy to notice the financial mismanagement (to be kind). So you are attacking me.

If I had done “1 percent of what Wayne has helped the NRA accomplish,” I would expect The Zelman Partisans to ban me from the site, cancel all my login credentials, and apologize to its members for allowing me to work there.

Marion Hammer dodged a bullet

Remember when it came out that the Vichy NRA was paying her hundreds of thousands of dollars for Florida lobbying, and that she wasn’t reporting it as required by law?

$929,000 over 5 years. For working “an average of five hours per week.”

$714.61 per hour. Unreported.

What; LaPierre needed more room for busty interns?

Even as news breaks of a class action lawsuit filed against the VICHY NRA for fraud and misspending, we learn that…

NRA mulled mansion for chief executive: report
The National Rifle Association (NRA) reportedly considered buying a $6 million mansion for use by CEO Wayne LaPierre.

The Washington Post reports that documents show that the gun-rights group discussed buying the Dallas-area house for its CEO but talks fell through. The dealings are now under scrutiny by New York investigators as part of an ongoing investigation into the NRA’s tax-exempt status.

Ackerman McQueen says the idea came from LaPierre, and they were “alarmed.”

Who knew the Vichy NRA was a cat?

The VNRA defending our Second Amendment rights.

About those VNRA membership numbers

[Vichy] NRA Memberships Bounce Back In 2018
The report, which was handed out during the group’s latest annual meeting, shows dues went from $128,209,303 in 2017 to $170,391,374 in 2018—an increase of $42,182,071, or 33 percent. It also shows contributions rose from $132,879,299 in 2017 to $165,075,288 in 2018—an increase of $32,195,989 or 24 percent. The rise in dues came ahead of the NRA announcing it had reached 5.5 million members, a record number.

Just as a thought exercise, let’s pretend that all those memberships were $45 annuals.

170,391,374 / 45 = 3,786,474.97

Maybe someone familiar with financial reporting can help me out here. Do multi-year (and life) membership dues paid up front get reported in full for the year in which the money was received, or is it “amortized” over the membership period for reporting purposes?

I’m trying to reconcile that dues number with the claim of 5.5 million members. There could be another 1.8 million members who made their payments in a previous year.

I do find it interesting that my 3.7 million figure matches the 3.7 million magazine subscribers found by Mother Jones.

‘Twould be nice if the VNRA simply issued a report of member totals broken down by type, and how many opted not to take a magazine subscription.

VNRA’s “Intern”

LaPierre seemingly had Ack-Mac paying $4,500 a month in rent for his “intern’s” apartment.

Forty-five hundred bucks. Per month.

First, offhand I can’t recall seeing an internship that provided a free apartment. And did Allen declare that $13,804.84 payment in-kind in her tax filings?

Second, that rent seemed high to me but I don’t know what Fairfax rents are like. So I looked up The Ridgewood II by Windsor. Nice place. The listed rents run from $1,710 (1BR, 1BA) to $3,460 (3BR, 2BA) per month.

For the mathematically challenged, the rent billed to Ack-Mac, and passed on to the NRA to be covered by gullible members, was $1,040 more than the highest rent listed for the place. (There are larger apartments for which you have to “call for rent.)

Not a bad deal for a summer “intern.”

Nice intern if you can afford her. Oh, wait. VNRA MEMBERS paid for her.

Rehabilitating the NRA?

Since I have previously made my opinion on the Vichy NRA pretty clear, I was reluctant to weigh in on the latest controversy. Two columns finally prompted me to speak up.

The starting point for all this — just in case you haven’t kept up — was Mike Spies’ report on the NRA’s financial woes. It appears to confirm many things people have warned of for decades.

Jeff Knox spoke up on the matter.

NRA’s Dirty Laundry Exposed as Pro-Gun Group Cleans House
While the NRA is a powerful communication tool between rights supporters and their elected servants and losing that central conduit would be a significant blow, it would only be a temporary setback.

Mr. Knox focuses on the apparent corruption. He’s overlooking a major point which Mark Walters touches on.

To NRA or Not to NRA
I have disagreed with the NRA many, many times over the years over many issues and no doubt I will in the future. In fact, I nearly tossed my membership a few years back when the NRA here in the state of GA refused to support the GeorgiaCarry.org effort to remove the 140-year-old ban on carrying firearms at a “public gathering.”
[…]
I’ve seen far too many posts on social media, which to me is a joke anyway, from chatroom warriors that are calling for the destruction of the NRA.

Both columns are worth reading in full, but the snippets I quoted are my point of contention.

If the VNRA BOD finally gets off its collective ass and cleans up the financial corruption, it is entirely possible to save the organization. They should not save it.

Yes, I am one of those calling for the end of the VNRA, because financial fraud is the least of the problems. That can be fixed by firing the appropriate people, suing to recover funds, and — I strongly suspect — criminally charging a few.

The real problem is how that “powerful communication tool” and money have been used.

Mr. Walters finally noticed the problem when the NRA wouldn’t help with Georgia SB308. For him, that wasn’t quite enough to make him quit, possibly because it was largely passive inaction by the organization. OK, sometimes one must pick and choose where to dedicate one’s resources. Judgement call; I’d be with Walters on this one. But what Walters didn’t notice until nine years ago is something I’ve been about for decades.

The real issue with the VNRA isn’t corruption or not doing enough to push rights. The problem is what the group actively does to violate rights. NFA ’34, GCA ’68, FOPA ’86. Everyone knows those. It shows how long the rot has existed.

They tried to keep HELLER from going to SCOTUS. They actively killed constitutional carry legislation in New Hampshire. They wrote an “assault weapon” ban in Ohio. They sabotaged an RKBA/free speech case in NH.

I could go on, but let’s skip ahead to 2017, when the VNRA called for the ATF to regulate bump-fire stocks as NFA items because they make semi-autos work like machineguns. (And despite their weasel-worded defense, I haven’t seen a single court challenge from them.)

Then there’s the VNRA’s support for no-due process ex parte protective orders.

Yes, the VNRA is politically powerful. But they aren’t using that power to advance rights. They push gun control. And then they fundraise for cash to “fight” what they imposed on us.

Arguably, the last thing the VNRA did for gun owners was sunsetting the national waiting period… by saddling us with an ineffective NICS which violates the rights of millions of innocent people while still passing thousands of prohibited persons. And making us pay for the “privilege.”

The Vichy National Rifle Association is inherently anti-gun. It sacrificed rights for political power and money a long time ago. That’s what it does. Forcing it to transparently and honestly spend gun owners’ money to violate their rights isn’t “fixing” anything.

For decades, I called on the group to change its ways, and really work for our rights. I made very specific suggestions (and never, ever once received any reply from anyone at any level). Quite a few election cycles later, it hasn’t improved. It got worse.

If reformers haven’t managed to “repair” the VNRA by now, after decades of trying, they aren’t going to succeed now. Many gun owners have an emotional attachment to the idea of the NRA, but it’s time to admit that ideal is gone.

It’s time to pull the plug.

ATF: Volitional vs. Nonvolitional Movement

As we have seen, the ATF, in ruling bump-fire stocks to be machineguns, explained that fingers are triggers, and it’s a machinegun if the finger isn’t moved volitionally. Some folks are confused, because they assumed that the volitional — and coordinated — movement of the off arm to cause the trigger firearm thingamajiggy to engage the finger trigger should count.

No prob. The PhDs in Anatomy and Physiology at the ATF have that covered: It’s only volitional when we say it is.

Thus, as explained in federal court to a science-challenged impaired… oh, hell… fucking idiot judge who bought it:

Volitional Movement

 

Not Volitional Movement

When you get down to it, it ain’t much more of a stretch than the shoestring machinegun.

Thanks, VNRA.