We’re sure our FFL friends will be comforted in the knowledge that the dedicated public servants at BATFE are working with the best IT minds our tax dollars can buy in their attempts to fix their balky eFile system. In the mean time, they’ll be changing the hamsters rebooting the system four times a day, an hour-long process that will take the system down. Fortunately, only three of those will happen during business hours. Don’t worry though, gun dealers. If you like your eForms system, you can keep your eForms system. Really.
From: <[email protected]>
Date: February 20, 2014 at 2:58:39 PM CST
Subject: ATF eForms – Inscrease in Scheduled Restarts – Pay.gov Service Outage
Good afternoon:
As you are aware, eForms has had performance issues for the past three weeks. We are diligently working with experts in the field to resolve the issues. Until we can get the issues resolved we will be implementing automated restarts of the server at 4:00 am, 9:00 am, NOON, and 3:00 pm eastern time. We have determined that the restart of the servers clears “stuck threads” on the servers and improves the overall performance of eForms. We realize that the unscheduled restarts were disrupting your workday and this will allow you to plan around the scheduled restarts.
Restarts will take approximately one hour to complete during which time eForms will not be available. Again, this is only a temporary measure until a more permanent solution is implemented.
Again, daily restarts of the eForms servers will be conducted daily at the following times until further notice:
4:00 am – 5:00 am
9:00 am – 10:00 am
NOON – 1:00 pm
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Finally, Pay.gov has notified us that they will be upgrading their system on Saturday, February 22, 2014, from 6:00 PM to Midnight Eastern Time. Pay.gov has advised us that systems using pay.gov will experience a service outage during this period. This means that you will not be able to pay the tax for the eForms 1 and 4 during this time period. Forms can be created and saved to your draft folder until the upgrade is completed and the taxes can be paid.
Thank you for your patience as we try to improve eForms.
Sincerely,
Lenora (Lee) Alston-Williams
Industry Liasion Analyst – IT
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives
Office of Enforcement Programs and Services
Firearms and Explosives Services Division
99 New York Avenue, N.E. (6.E-333)
Washington, DC 20226
E-mail: [email protected]
Office: (202) 648-7166
Fax: (202) 648-7166
[h/t Kyle M.]
Would be nice to see this in an urban version.
Bottom right, front
When the .40 came out, it was absolutely better than the 9mm rounds available at the time, and almost as good as the .45s. I admit that when I started shooting I bit hard into the 40 bandwagon. It isn’t that the round is bad or has gotten worse, it is that all other defensive rounds have gotten exponentially better in the last 20 years, to the point that they are now more or less equal to the 40. The 40 actually caused ammo makers to up their game in order to keep their other calibers relevant. The 40 more or less has stayed the same performance wise while the other calibers made huge advancements. Since were comparing it to cars, the 40 is the Subaru WRX STi of the American market. When it came out, no car in its price range could touch it, and many cars significantly more expensive than it had a hard time competing. This touched off the new horsepower wars which are still going on to some degree today, but while everyone else has been upping their numbers, the STi is still putting out more or less the same power that it did 10 years ago.
“Fortunately, only three of (the four) those will happen during business hours.”
Yeah that makes sense.
I teach kids – on a regular basis. Trap, skeet, sporting clays, rifle, and pistol. I’ve got those cool papers that say I’m certified in a lot of different things.
BUT – I teach kids as young as 6 and 7 the three rules that I was taught.
1. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
3. Always keep the gun unloaded and the action open until ready to shoot.
As long as those rules are followed, an accident CAN NOT happen.
They are taught what the muzzle is, but using the words “…gun pointed…” works just as well. Keeping your finger off the trigger is demonstrated and they are further taught to keep their finger out of the trigger guard. If a kid breaks a rule, he gets one warning – just one – then his/her parents need to come pick up the kid after I explain the problem to them.
If after leaving my class, the kids forget 2 of the 3, I’m ok with that (and I would guess most won’t forget).
Obviously rule 3 does not always apply in a self-defense firearm.
If you want to go all-out with the ten commandments (which is too hard to learn), you will see that pretty much all 10 are covered with the three above. I do teach the 10, but I make them memorize the above 3. We also make them memorize that the safety is a mechanical device and can fail, we explain that “unauthorized” persons are not allowed access to guns and what “unauthorized” means, and proper storage. Again, if they forget all of this other stuff, see rules 1-3 above.
I also challenge them to bring me one picture of careless gun handling. It’s certainly not hard to find in magazines/newspapers/internet. That gets them involved in noticing what others do, and makes them more self-aware. My kids (students) “police” themselves, and are first to point out an unsafe situation. These kids are no different than any other kids – some have never touched a firearm prior to my class and some parents don’t believe in even having a firearm in the house. Those parents are smart enough to realize that even if they don’t have firearms, a kid could come into contact with someone that does.
The funny thing is, my kids point out safety violations to me at the range all the time. At that age, they understand, and they understand the importance of following the rules. It’s sad that adults can’t seem to figure this out – it’s not the kids on the many ranges I visit not following the rules, it’s the adults…
Funny thing is I am a coder. Even I wouldn’t do the job. The whole idea is unconstitutional.
So, another person who hasn’t read history enough to understand why the second amendment says what it does. If he were to read a little bit he would know it was made to be an individual right. Otherwise tyrants could easily just disband the militia taking all guns away on a whim. His mind probably isn’t as sharp as it once was.
I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.
George Mason
I’m a member of the militia, as are all who are here, Mr. Stevens. I will no longer be serving in it when I am no longer breathing.
How pathetic; In the universe of the statist; the only one justified in using lethal force in self-defense or the defense of others is the designated agent of the state.
The rest of us peons; just need to bend down and accept that we must be assaulted, raped, beaten and murdered because we are not capable of making such life or death decisions if we haven’t been first anointed and blessed by the powers that be.
I think people should change the meaning of “unarmed” be literally having no arms. Because most people are “armed”.
Too bad there isn’t any evidence that gun control laws reduce the “slaughter.”
Wow. Who are you and what did you do with the governor of California?
Too bad those weapons are flawed – pack them all up and send them to me, I will keep anyone else form the trouble of having to use them.
The AR may be a POS (see all rants on the web and above Times story) but damn the sales of the civilian models are through the roof (See YHM, Daniel, S&W, Olympic, Bushmaster, Barrett, DPMS, Windham, etc…………..).
““I understand that, and I hear you on that, but if the Army decides to come in with an M1 tank, good luck.””
Well that’s amusing, seeing how almost every war the US military has been in (for what…50 years? 60 years?), they’ve been soundly trounced by people with less training and inferior weapons.
Those gun grabbers, they so funny, they so transparent. The astounding thing is, they really, truly, deeply believe the BS. That any 21st century American can be so ignorant, so ahistorical, so naive and so deluded simply boggles my mind. But they do have a raison d’être, they are useful idiots in the best and greatest Leninist/Trotskyist sense. I have little doubt that they wear that mantle proudly.