PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Corroborating details emerging on backroom gun deal with ATF - Vanderboegh :: 04/13/2015
“Sipsey Street Irregulars can now confirm the broad outlines of a story first disclosed two days ago,” colleague Mike Vanderboegh reported Sunday from the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville. “Last week, a secret deal involving the National Rifle Association lobbying arm and brokered by politicians of both national political parties was struck in Washington DC that would save the ATF from the political and legal consequences of its own regulatory errors.
“In the process, this deal would broaden the language of the 1968 Gun Control Act regarding ‘sporting purposes’ and allow ATF to extract itself from the potentially catastrophic political damage of enforcing its arbitrary ruling that makes every owner of a pistol grip 12 Gauge shotgun like the Mossberg Cruiser a felon in possession of a ‘destructive device’ subject to the penalties of the National Firearms Act of 1934 -- currently up to 10 years in federal prison and a quarter million dollar fine,” Vanderboegh elaborated.
The “crisis” for ATF has been precipitated by its own actions, which are at risk of receiving unwelcome judicial scrutiny, sources told Vanderboegh. “At some point, unless the Congress gives them the cover by changing the law, they are going to have to explain that in open court,” he was told.
The “deal” to provide that cover has three components. The first, broadening “sporting purposes” language, will ensure owners of “pistol grip shotgun-like firearms” don’t get caught up in a net of ATF’s making, Vanderboegh reports. The second part will credit NRA for arranging that, and the third will involve a concession -- an ammunition import ban on "specialty ammunition," to include tracers, Vanderboegh continues, albeit noting the main objective is “knocking a bigger hole in the Constitution by (widening the 'sporting purposes' language)..."
Not unexpectedly, Vanderboegh has been unable to obtain comment from NRA leadership at this writing, and the “mainstream press” attending the convention has been, in his words, “studiously, deliberately incurious about the implications of these revelations.”
The Gun Rights Examiner column reporting on this story provided a broad outline based on information from informed sources that have proven track records for providing reliable, information. Vanderboegh’s latest report continues with that approach, one that has produced exclusive breaking stories in the past, such as ATF’s involvement in Fast and Furious “gunwalking.” This column and Sipsey Street Irregulars will continue to monitor and report on further developments as they become known.
APRIL 13 UPDATE: Mike reports on NRA's Chris Cox "categorical denial," caught on video.
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