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At a recent work event, a colleague mentioned that they thought that we should enact some “common sense” gun laws. The usual suspects tumbled forth. Background checks on all purchases. Waiting periods. Registration. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 20 years, you know the list. I happened to be in front of my computer at the time attempting to check on the status of my Form 1 application. I say attempted because the image above is the error that I found upon trying to log in to my account…

As someone currently quagmired in the federal process necessary to legally own a rifle with a barrel less than sixteen inches, and with two silencers sitting at my FFL, I’m in an early access program for the world that awaits if people like Hillary Clinton had their way with federal firearms laws. And because Hillary seems to be the one leading the charge on gun related things, I pointed my browser over to her page to pull up three of her bullet (ha!) points on how she’d rid the world of crimes committed with firearms.

  • Comprehensive federal background check legislation. Background checks reduce gun trafficking, reduce the lethality of domestic violence, and reduce unlawful gun transfers to dangerous individuals. It is reprehensible that bipartisan legislation supporting background checks failed in Congress after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. But Hillary is not giving up—she will continue to fight for legislation to build on the Brady Bill’s success.
  • Closing the “Charleston Loophole.” Hillary will push Congress to close the loophole that allows a gun sale to proceed without a completed background check if that check has not been completed within three days. This loophole allowed the alleged Charleston shooter to purchase a gun even though he had a criminal record.
  • Tightening the gun show and Internet sales loophole if Congress won’t. If Congress refuses to act, Hillary will take administrative action to require that any person attempting to sell a significant number of guns abide by the same common sense rules that apply to gun stores—including requiring background checks on gun sales.

There’s more there if you’re interested, but I won’t be linking to her page. Feel free to find it on your own. While all three points are worthy of a Leghorn or Krafft takedown, I’m really only concerned with the first two, though the third is ripe for abuse. As I’m currently in the process of gaining approval for some super special stuff, namely the ability to slap a nine inch barreled upper on an already made lower without fear of the black helicopters descending on my backyard, I thought I’d talk through what it’s like living in Hillary’s dystopian wasteland.

Because a registered short barreled rifle is illegal to manufacture without the express written consent from the ATF, I had to apply for the privilege of manufacturing one. This process is what people are referencing when they talk about filing a Form 1. This required a thorough application that can be found here if you’re so inclined. Six pages of filling out paperwork later, and after adding my additional documents, I was ready to move forward.

But no so fast slick. That’ll be $200 for the privilege. So I forked over my money and my paperwork and hit submit. I was able to do all of this from the comfort of my kitchen table because the ATF has moved into the digital era with eForms. That name might sound familiar and it’s because it has been plagued with problems from the word go.

In an effort to appear as if they’re doing “something” eForms goes offline every Wednesday for maintenance. Each week, the site is still poorly designed, slow, and painful to operate. And it has been this way since April of 2014. The lead image with an error message has been my welcome screen since Thursday [edit: eForms must have known I was saying mean things as it is back up again]. Perhaps someone should kick the hamsters on the wheels under the desk to see if it can get back online any time soon.

Which dovetails nicely into my next point. Timing. Or lack thereof. The Charleston Loophole as Hillary (For Prison 2016) so eloquently titles it isn’t so much a loophole as it is a check to limit the federal governments “spirit of the law” powers. You know, the kind where the letter of the law says “we’re good” but the spirit of the law is busy laughing and closing doors in your face. It is the reason we have the terms “may issue” and “shall issue.” The current normal firearm background check system is a shall issue system. And if it fails to yield a result within three days, the rights of the buyer are not delayed. Sorry bout ya .gov. Build a better system if you don’t like it.

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Image Courtesy of nfatracker.com

As it stands now, the ATF has zero, zilch, nada in the way of incentive to process my application faster. Why would they? I’ve already paid them my money, and they’ve set the tone that I should be happy that I’ve only been waiting 123 days. Early in 2014, those times had spiked above 150 days. All this to run through my application and perform a background check no more in depth than the one required when I pick up a “normal” gun at my FFL.

My response to my coworker was to open up the eForms error page, spin my laptop around, and show them what their list of demands looks like in real world application. It means waiting times that stretch well beyond what anyone might call common sense and a federal bureaucracy that grows each day with no system in place to check its powers.

Keep in mind that I’m just trying to put together a more effective home defense rifle based on the evolving work Nick has done on the topic. If you do enough mental gymnastics, you can convince yourself that what I’m buying is a luxury item and that I should shut my mouth and deal with it. Perhaps. But perhaps I’m just a canary in a coal mine reminding the average uninformed voter that the process I’m currently a part of is the ideal system for statists like Clinton and her ilk.

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Your “rights” are delayed citizen. And for mentioning it we are shoving the 2nd Administrative admendment so far up your pooper, you can read it from the backside of your peepers.

    • Pass “universal background checks” and #2 on Hill’s list there and the Gov can then effectively prohibit all legal firearm purchases at any time. “Technical errors” with NICS could indefinitely delay the background check necessary to complete a purchase. It’s absurd to make that a legal requirement to exercising an enumerated Constitutional right while giving the government full responsibility for processing the paperwork without any guarantee of timely processing whatsoever. Really, requiring government permission to exercise a right means it’s no longer a right in the first place.

      • If they got private sales banned and removed the 3-day automatic pass, they’d cut the NICS staff to one person (so that they couldn’t be sued for simply shutting down the office) and that person would be on permanent break.

  2. the unfortunate truth of dealing with the “we have to DO something” crowd is that most of them have drank so much of the propaganda Kool-Aid at this point that logic based arguments just don’t seem to get you vey far. I tried over the course of several days to explain to someone why “banning” firearms could be expected to have a similar result to “banning” alcohol or “banning” drugs, neither of which worked. Her response was “this isn’t about alcohol or drugs, stop trying to change the topic”

      • I tried it and sold it. Plastic trigger linkage, picky about mags, limited accessories, lack of ambi ejection for offhand, and gas burns from the foregrip made my decision for me.

    • Hey, it’s Tim from the Military Arms Channel! I noticed because after every three words he said “buy a Tavor”, though he usually adds “…from Copper Customs!” after that.

      • If I was MAC I’d be out shooting and rolling naked in piles of free ammo and youtube money instead of posting on here.

        • As someone who has a YouTube channel, they don’t pay very much, which is part of the reason Full30 was started. For every thousand views, figure $2 comes your way, so to do the math for you, 1 million views equals $2,000, that’s not what I would call rolling in piles of cash, especially after paying for a camera guy and video editing off of that.

    • My downstairs HD rifle is a Tavor. I’ve had no issues with it with multiple types of mags. I only have minor issues shooting it left handed. I can handle kissing some brass in an HD event. My upstairs HD rifle is an AK 74 that I went full Zhukov on. I had thought about making my FN FS2000 my upstairs HD rifle as it is short and light. I just need a weapon light on it and it’s set.

  3. It’s a point that I use from time to time. It slips past the die hard libtards but the fence sitters are somewhat more receptive. The fact is that the atf and their handling of the nfa system is a perfect example to show the lack of checks and balances and the problems associated with too much government. The real problem is that when people vote and cheer with emotion and not logic we all fail. Even someone who is pro gun but not with any logic to back that up makes a horrible argument we all fail. The best answer is that a right given to citizens is not a right they need to explain. I’m not a subject and therefore my rights really aren’t negotiable with the government that is supposed to be by the people for the taxes. I mean power or maybe it was people?

  4. The system was put in place as a tax. Back in the 30’s the federal government figured saying an entire class of weapons was illegal would violate the constitution. The work around at the time was that Congress had the power to tax. Tax it at a high rate and most people couldn’t afford it. $200 was a huge tax back then. Well beyond the means of the average subject. Problem solved. Now days $200 isn’t the blockade it was then. However while I believe the authority to tax is constitutional, the authority to require permission is not. I think that once you pay the tax and have a receipt then you have complied with the law. You should have the ability to proceed with your build immediately.

    • JD,

      You wrote, “However while I believe the authority to tax is constitutional …”

      Be very careful with that sentiment. Our Constitution severely limits the federal government’s power to tax.

      More importantly, it almost goes without saying that our federal government cannot tax a fundamental right. The best way to establish this is to provide examples. Can government tax your speech? Say, charge you 10 cents for every word you type on a website? Can government tax your sexual relations with your spouse? Say, charge you $5 each time you have sex? Can government tax your participation in church? Say, charge you $10 every time you attend church on Sunday?

      Along the same lines, it almost goes without saying that our federal government cannot tax in a way that is designed to eliminate a right or discriminate. Remember my question about taxing your attendance at church? Can government tax you $50 every time you attend a Catholic church and only tax you $10 to attend a Lutheran church? Can government tax you $1,000 every month that you attend a Christian church — which effectively puts church out of reach for all but the most wealthy segment of our population?

      • What about poll taxes? Don’t the libtards scream this unconstitutional act every time some state enacts a voter ID law (which is not a tax since getting a photo ID is free as long as it is not a drivers license in those states.)? How come it is constitutional to tax the second amendment but unconstitutional to tax at the polls? Stupid Hippocrates.

  5. Guys, are you all serious? You think showing progressives how inefficient the ATF is will show them the error of their ways? They laugh. That’s what they want! Government control and government throttling. On guns, at least. You know, as long as we elect the right people. Who will never use unConstitutional agencies to restrict the rights (or “rights”) we hold dear.

    • Yeah, if I showed something like that to one of my anti friends, their response would probably be “oooooh even better!!”

  6. 115 days of law-abiding patience and counting from this form 1 applicant. Feel like I’m ahead of my time. Welcome to the future. It’s not looking so bright.

  7. The problem is not ATF, it is the whole federal government. They do not pay enough to attract the quality IT people that they need to run their systems. Look at the VA, they are spending millions on a new system that won’t link to any other computer system in use by the federal government, yet were allowed to do it. Taking a production web site down for maintenance during the business day is tragic incompetence. In the corporate world those people would be fired…which is probably why they are working where they are.

  8. I used to do background checks when I was on light duty. It takes all of 5-10 minutes for a normal person.
    If there are hitches, like someone in another state with the same name/DOB, it might take a day or two to get photographs. Maybe a week in really rare circumstances.
    But months? Sheesh.

  9. The system you describe is the next evolution of what the grabbers are going towards not their ideal system. Their ideal system is one where no system exists because no guns are (legally) sold.

  10. “black helicopters descending on my backyard”
    Just FYI, they recently painted the black chopper fleet white. Trying to shake the stigma. Plus too many people saw them coming.

    • In most (if not all) conditions, a white aircraft would be harder to see coming than a black aircraft. Black sticks out against all sky conditions: blue, bright cloudy, dark cloudy, and the pretty warm colors of sunrise and sunset. White on the other hand is much harder to pick out against blue sky (especially if it is a hazy blue sky) and near impossible to pick out against bright cloudy conditions.

      I suspect the owners of those helicopters painted them white to make them more stealthy without seeming stealthy.

  11. We understand if the ATF can’t get the job done in a timely manner, but then they need to pack their sh_t and go home.

    IT IS INSANITY FOR THE FEDERAL (or any) GOVERNMENT (again, we’re really only talking about your fing neighbors needing jobs) TO CLAIM THAT THEY ARE PROTECTING YOU IN ANY FORM OR FASHION BY LIMITING THE LAWFUL POSSESSION OF AN SBR/SUPPRESSOR/AOW.

    WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO IT, AND ISIS IS RUNNING A KITCHEN-BREW EXPLOSIVES COURSE ON HOME-SOIL HERE, THE ATF WON’T BE ABLE TO GET OUT OF IS OWN WAY FAST ENOUGH TO ENABLE YOU TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM EXPLOSIVES.

    • Easy on the caps. You are indeed correct. Give it time. Conservatives are moving to libertarian, and then to Anarchists. It will be a couple of generations and the government will implode and be obsolete.

  12. “Closing the ‘Charleston Loophole.’ Hillary will push Congress to close the loophole that allows a gun sale to proceed without a completed background check if that check has not been completed within three days. This loophole allowed the alleged Charleston shooter to purchase a gun even though he had a criminal record.”

    Despite the FBI director’s ill-announced pronouncement that “Charleston” shooter Dylann Storm Roof shouldn’t have passed the NICS check he submitted; that the only reason was that his “felony drug arrest” wasn’t properly submitted to “the system”; he and all the gun control proponents (including the ‘MSM’) were wrong:

    Existing laws wouldn’t have stopped Dylann Roof’s gun purchase
    Nathaniel Cary, [email protected]
    1:04 p.m. EDT June 21, 2015
    […]
    Nothing would have prevented Roof from buying or owning it, despite a pending drug charge, according to federal gun laws.

    Contrary to some media reports, Roof’s pending drug charge was not a felony. The charge is a misdemeanor, according to a review of court records, including a copy of the warrant obtained by The Greenville News.

    A spokeswoman with the State Law Enforcement Division said Roof’s criminal record incorrectly listed the pending charge as a felony due to a data entry error. The record has since been corrected to reflect it is a misdemeanor, she said.

    That charge, filed March 2, was for possession of prescription drug Suboxone, which a police officer found when he questioned Roof for strange behavior at stores in the Columbiana Centre shopping mall near Columbia on Feb. 28, according to an incident report and arrest warrant.

    The case is pending in a Lexington circuit court, records show.

    If Roof had walked into a gun shop, a pending felony drug charge would have shown up on a mandatory federal background check and would have blocked the sale. A pending misdemeanor charge would not.
    […]
    http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2015/06/19/gun-laws-dylann-roof/29016743/

    OOPS! The gun controllers are so used to spouting lies, they go out of their way to ignore the truth when it doesn’t fit “The Agenda.”

  13. Why do people who call themselves American’s want to restructure the USA into something other than what it is? They appear to support a Nazi-like mindset.

    • It is because the government (all governments) are based on the belief that it is immoral for an individual to initiate force against another non violent individual, unless they work for the government. The whole system is based on a lie, and will continue to metastasize until it consumes all of us, or is killed off.

    • Because calling yourself American and being one are two very different things. I have yet to meet a self styled prog who I’d actually call an American.

  14. Those long delays are not a bug but a feature. Telling people who believe that you have no right to own any firearms at all in the first place that their plans might result in ‘unreasonable’ delays will hardly dissuade them.

  15. Didja ever wonder what the difference is between administrative action and bullying, might makes right or governing outside the process of the Constitution?

    Didja ever wonder when somebody running for potus will promise to kill the law that permits administrative action?

  16. “I thought I’d talk through what it’s like living in Hillary’s dystopian wasteland.”

    We should all pray for a dystopian wasteland. It’s the closest to freedom anyone will ever see again.

    I like using situations like these to unmask leftists as the fascist monsters they are. They can’t help but quiver with glee and blurt out how much they’d love the NICS going down and people’s rights being forever delayed.

  17. In Her Magesty’s colony of New South Wales (in eastern Australia), we have a 28 day cooling off/waiting period for a Permit To Acquire.

    Understandable for a new licensee or for the first firearm of a new class, but really pointless for a current license holder who already has firearms in that category.

    But the 28 days isn’t the commonly believed 4 weeks, but is actually 28 WORKING DAYS from receipt of the application. In reality the actual processing time is typically 6-8 weeks.

  18. Eye roll at people complying with NFA, funding the system they bemoan…and then bemoaning it. If you want a suppressor just get a pop bottle and some duct tape, I saw Marky Mark do it in a moofie. Shorty riffle or blunderbuss, take a hack saw to it. Also saw in a moofie, so it legit.

  19. CA has had universal registration and background checks both for many years, and they still cant get their act together, updating the prohibited persons database, that has a 60% error rate.

    Unfortunately, only six of the original extra 24 hires for CA DOJ are still working, the majority off to better higher paid jobs, I suppose, having once gotten into the door under CA AG Kamala Harris patronage…

    meantime, she has swept it under the rug that one of her key aides went mental and tried to set up a unique Masons Temple Police Force, with privileges among all others…

    So, yeah- when the gun grabbers want to study how things work (helloooooo, Dr Wintermute, UCDavis- look in your own backyard, with some of that Joyce Foundation ProgLeft moola…)

    They can do no better than the home of the most gun control for the longest and see how thats working out for the State. Naturally, not a word of this will you find in the LASlimes, or other progtard media…Trace? NYT? WAPO? investigative journalism, anyone…?

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