The Ghosts of Crimes Past and Present

US supreme court blocks ‘ghost gun’ makers again from selling at-home kits | US gun control | The Guardian

The US supreme court on Monday barred two Texas-based manufacturers from selling products that can be quickly converted at home into firearms called “ghost guns”, granting a request by Joe Biden’s administration to once again block a federal judge’s order that had sided with companies.

The justices lifted Fort Worth-based judge Reed O’Connor’s 14 September injunction barring enforcement of a 2022 federal regulation – a rule aimed at reining in the privately made firearms – against the two manufacturers, Blackhawk Manufacturing and Defense Distributed.

The rule was issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to target the rapid proliferation of these homemade weapons. It bans “buy build shoot” kits that individuals can get online or at a store without a background check or the usual serial numbers required by the federal government. The kits can be quickly assembled into a working firearm.

The decision marked the second time that the justices acted against an order by O’Connor in the case. In August, they halted the judge’s previous decision blocking the regulation, reinstating the rule while an appeal proceeds.

The administration had said O’Connor’s decision to grant an injunction favoring ghost gun kit makers despite the prior intervention by the justices “openly flouted” the supreme court’s authority.

The rule expanded the definition of a firearm under a 1968 federal law called Gun Control Act to include parts and kits that may be readily turned into a gun. It required serial numbers and that manufacturers and sellers be licensed. Sellers under the rule also must run background checks on purchasers prior to a sale.

The administration has said that ghost guns are attractive to criminals and others prohibited from lawfully buying firearms, including minors.

There were about 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported in 2021 to the ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations – a tenfold increase from 2016, according to White House statistics.

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36 thoughts on “The Ghosts of Crimes Past and Present”

  1. Stephen caught Covid-19 (again) so he is hosting the show from home, Rep. Jim Jordan is bullying his House colleagues in the pursuit of votes, no one knows why Rep. George Santos was carrying an infant through the halls of Congress, and it’s Taylor Swift’s world, we’re just living in it.

  2. Question of the day is whether 6 “moderate“ Republicans will put country above party today at noon and stand strong in subsequent votes. I’m not laying my money on that square. 

  3. pogo, last night you asked (perhaps rhetorically?):

    Pardon me for asking, why in the fuck are we telling the world that Joe Biden is going to visit Israel on Wednesday? Is there anyone else that sees that is probably an imprudent announcement?”

    from the things-can-always-get-worse file, imagine what Gym being 3rd in line would mean for the safety of both joe & kamala — particularly with the prez in proximity of war terrorists and veep exposed to domestic ones.
    lone wolves everywhere are snarlingly licking their lips.  

  4. They tend to miss “militia” as well, either that or they think that owning camo and tactical pants makes them members.

  5. What did they use to outlaw Tommy guns and sawed-off shotguns? They seem to have done that easily enough.

  6. A relative 3D printed a gun, but he still had to by metal parts for it.  So, why are the individual metal parts not stamped with some sort of an ID number and tracked?    They are only used as gun parts, like the actual firing chamber.  

  7. “What did they use to outlaw Tommy guns and sawed-off shotguns?”

    sturge, good sense and a few brain cells.

  8. As far as Jordan being worse that McCarthy…..once you hit the bottom of the barrel, it’s all slime.   They’re the same weasels in different suits.  

  9. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4258214-christie-super-pac-hits-trump-hezbollah-remarks/

    “The Tell It Like It Is PAC released a new campaign ad titled “Fool” on Monday that highlighted Christie’s criticism of Trump’s remarks on Hezbollah. The video included an interview Christie gave with CNN last week, where he repeatedly called Trump a “fool” for making such comments.”

    “We cannot once again nominate a fool like this and get him anywhere near the presidency of the United States.”

    Gym Jordan is the fool’s fool, and any Republican supporting Gym for SOTH is a fool, as well. Gym will only do Donald’s bidding, and that will sew chaos and weaken the US.

    If any Republicans actually care about this country, they will talk to Dems and cut a deal to make Hakeem SOTH or agree to bring in someone acceptable from the outside, like Liz Cheney. Please, be on the right side of history. This is important.

  10. Ukraine deploys ATACMS to destroy Russian sites in occupied Ukraine. 

    KYIV — Ukraine’s military used a version of U.S.-provided ATACMS long-range missiles early Tuesday to strike Russian military aircraft and ammunition depots in occupied Ukraine, according to a senior Ukrainian military official, marking the first-known use of the munitions.

    Ukraine had pleaded for more than a year for Washington to send ATACMS, which can strike targets 100 miles or more away — farther than other weapons that the United States has sent to Kyiv.
     
    The version used by Ukraine to hit targets in Berdyansk, on the Azov Sea coast, were armed with cluster bomblets, rather than a single warhead,

    Ukraine’s special operations forces confirmed in a Telegram message on Tuesday that they had carried out an overnight operation called “Dragonfly” overnight in Berdyansk and the occupied Luhansk region resulting in “significant losses” on the Russian side.

    Nine helicopters, an antiaircraft missile launcher, an ammunition warehouse and various special equipment being held on airfields was destroyed, the message said. The Ukrainian claim could not be independently verified.
    {Continues)

    I hope they don’t get used to getting stuff from us in the next year if Gym becomes SOTH today.

  11. So Dumbass Jr. is urging people to go buy AR-15 type guns to protect themselves from motorized paragliders coming into their homes.  Apples, trees.

  12. in the Cs and 2 McCarthy votes – half as many as needed to stop Gym in this round.

    Now 4 (in the Ds now)

    Now 5 (in the Fs – Jordan doesn’t survive this vote)

    In the Ms and 13 against Gym.

    First vote tally – Hakeem 212, Gym 200, Others 20. Gym got 1 less vote than Kev did in the first round of voting in January and 1 less “against” votes for others than Kev lost on 1st ballot. It has a decidedly Déjà vu feel.

  13. A new era has started, I am watching C-Span through YouTube.The online world may turn out to be Hulu and YouTube.  No excite, gymboi lost.  Will he lie his way to all the votes needed? I doubt it, there are a few who do not like him and his actions at all.
     
    Now we get to see the short guy in a bow-tie stand on a ladder to recess the House.  It is very obvious he hates the hammer by the way he gets his whole body into swinging it to the sound block, too bad he does not have former Speaker Pelosi’s arm strength.

  14. if Jordan is elected can McCarthy make a motion to vacate the seat?

    McCarthy (stupidly) made a deal with the white trash caucus and gaetz to lower the threshold for a motion to vacate to one vote for his speakership specifically

  15. 12 of the 18 Repugs who won in districts carried by Biden voted for Gym. Of the 6 who didn’t, 3 are in NY districts and one is in VA – if they vote for Gym before this is all over, they can kiss their seats goodbye next November.

  16. Only 20 patriots in the Republican Party to keep our democracy safe from MAGAt Gym and his orange overlord.  Scary stuff. 

  17. I guess some of Gym’s opposition really doesn’t like him.  WaPo

    Rather than risk coming up short a second time in one day, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has said the House will vote again at 11 a.m. Wednesday. That will presumably give Jordan and his allies more time to try to win over enough holdouts to clinch the speakership.

    Good luck wid dat.

  18. if Jordan is elected can McCarthy make a motion to vacate the seat?

    Unless they change the rule Kev struck with Matt, why not?

  19. why not?

    Let’s hope for a vengeance among those 6 McCarthy allies (although complete breakdown of governance is a conservative goal, so win-win for them)

  20. Gym’s 2nd shot at the speakership is tomorrow at 11.  Lotta arm twisting and haggling going on tonight I bet.

  21. I just wish him safe travels.  

    I don’t think his trip will do a thing to keep things from expanding in the region, nor will it help the hostages.

    It’s incredibly dangerous. Just because that a-hole, Bibi, extended the invitation, doesn’t mean he needed to accept. We can still help Israel without sending POTUS into harm’s way.

  22. Pogo – I hope that since it wasn’t expected for him to have 20 holdouts, that the second round will be even worse for him.  
    Now that the chickens have seen others are brave enough not to vote for the tRUMP/Putin candidate, I’m hoping more will find their spines.   

    By the way, I think they all know things would be better if they just voted for Hakeem.  It would definitely send a message to Orange Adolf.  We are done with MAGAt-itis infecting the country.   Election by election, we will take back our democracy by voting out fascists.

  23. “Normally, i’d say “go get ‘em, Joe”, but maybe not while the GOP is trying to put an insurrectionist 3rd in-line”

    bink, my thoughts exactly

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