The Case of the Incurious Mr. Grimaldi

Thanks to Dave Hardy of the blog Of Arms and the Law for pointing to the site at the Washington Post White House delays gun reporting along Mexican border. The report is a follow-up to the furor several weeks ago about the ATF seizing power and forcing FFLs to report sales of multiple long guns within a stated period. You can read about the background to the story at Armed and Safe. The thing that all gun writers have noted, time and again, is that what the ATF was doing was blatantly illegal, on both procedural grounds and in attempting to claim authority specifically not granted by the legislation.

The report, by James V. Grimaldi, has all the usual buzz words, and not one mention of the power grab attempted by the ATF, or the dimensions of its unconstitutionality. For example:

The decision delays for at least two months a proposed requirement that gun dealers along the Mexican border report anyone who buys two or more assault weapons in five days. White House officials said the delay will give the public more time - until Feb. 14 - to comment on the proposal.

Did you catch that? He says the ATF power grab was to catch people who buy two or more assault weapons in five days. Actually, nobody in the United States can purchase an "assault weapon" at a gun dealer. Assault weapons are fully automatic sub machine guns. New ones, built since 1986, can only be purchased by governments. Old ones can still be transferred, at huge costs, between fully vetted citizens. But nobody is going to go into a store and buy two or more "assault weapons," at $10,000 and up, only to smuggle them across the Mexican border and use against police.  Be practical.  Most FFLs do not even deal in such things.  What the ATF actually asked to be reported was the purchase of any two or more long guns by the same individual within a 5 day period that were greater than .22 caliber and accepted a detachable magazine.  That covers a pretty wide swath of the gun market.  It covers semiautomatic guns such as AR-15 and variants, but also rather normal .22 cal rifles such as the Ruger 10/22 rifle.   Do you think the ATF might have had something else in mind?  And if the ATF had succeeded, do you think they might have expanded the new regime to the entire United States?

In fact, with all the controversy currently surrounding the ATF and what has become known as Project Gunwalker, isn't it surprising that Grimaldi should take Administration statements at face value? In a previous generation, two Washington Post reporters virtually ended the Presidency Richard Nixon. But that was then, this is now.  So let me suggest some ideas to the incurious Mr. Grimaldi.  The Administration, and the ATF, hoped to use the ongoing turmoil over the Southwest border, which the President as studiously neglected, to expand the law by regulatory and unconstitutional means.  The Administration is probing, using the ATF, the EPA, the FCC, and who knows what other agencies, to see how far it can go in advancing its agenda.  In this case, the Administration has folded for now on this front, but I also suspect that something along these lines will pop up again when we aren't looking.

Stay vigilant, be prepared

Update:  Mike Vanderboegh of the Sipsey Street Irregulars has this post up about the same article.  As usual, Mr. Vanderboegh cuts with a sharper knife.