A U.S. regulation restricting ownership of gun accessories known as pistol braces is likely illegal, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, a victory for a gun rights group challenging the rule.
A 2-1 panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives finalized the rule in January without giving the public a meaningful chance to comment on it. That made it invalid under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, the panel found…
On July 20th the government of India banned the export of non-basmati white rice to “ensure adequate domestic availability at reasonable prices”. India is the world’s largest exporter of rice, accounting for around 40% of global rice trade. Approximately half of that trade is non-basmati rice. Rice is a very popular preparedness staple for food storage. It is then perhaps no surprise that the ban had led to rising pricing, stockpiling, and empty store shelves.
India’s decision to ban the export of non-basmati rice has led to consumers panic-buying and stockpiling Indian rice around the world, driving up prices in the process.
In Canada, the U.S. and abroad, reports of panic-buying are flourishing on social media, with stores that cater to South Asian communities implementing caps on the amount that any customer can buy, and adjusting prices.
Sriram Ramamurthy, the manager of Iqbal Halal Foods in Toronto, told CBC News in an interview Monday that he saw an immediate increase in demand for rice once word of the ban spread on Thursday of last week.
“They started coming in here and they wanted to buy more and more,” he said. He soon implemented a limit of one bag per customer, but that quickly proved futile as customers would come back with more family members, “each one trying to pick two or three at a time.”
Some customers would even approach other customers in line who were not buying rice, trying to get them to purchase it on their behalf, he said.
In order to stave off a food shortage at home, India has banned the export of all rice except for the export-focused basmati variety, which has led some to worry about skyrocketing prices and the potential for further bans in the future.
Ramamurthy says he carries more than 40 different brands of rice in his store, mostly from India, but the majority of what he sells is basmati rice, a premium grade of rice that isn’t even included in the export ban.
But that hasn’t stopped customers from trying to buy up every grain they can, of basmati and varieties included in the ban, just in case, he said.
raj Mohammed said he heard about the ban, so decided to come “down to the grocery store expecting that this is not gonna be the case in Canada. But I guess the worst happened,” he said. He prefers one specific type of basmati rice, one that the store doesn’t have any more of right now. “Now I’m not going to be able to get my hands on it, I guess.”
Ramamurthy says he hasn’t raised his prices yet, but he’s expecting his suppliers to soon. Stores that cater to the South Asian market elsewhere in Canada are reporting similar scenes, including Savor Supermarket in Saskatoon, where purchases are being limited.
Stores in the U.S., Australia and elsewhere are also seeing unprecedented demand, Bloomberg and others reported Tuesday, although CBC News has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of videos showing hoarding and panic buying.
Prices up sharply
India has taken the extraordinary step in order to ensure domestic supply, and bring down prices, which have soared due to excess rains and drought in rice-producing regions.
According to government data, the domestic price of non-basmati rice has increased by almost 10 per cent this month. In September of last year, a metric tonne of non-basmati rice in India would cost about $330 US. Today it tops $450, according to pricing in the most-traded Indian rice futures contract.
Sophia Murphy, executive director for the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, says rice is such a staple for India and its 1.2 billion people that the government manages supply closely. Unlike other food commodities, she says the global rice market is very domestically oriented, as less than 10 per cent of all the rice in the world ever crosses a border.
While India is far and away the world’s largest exporter of rice, with more than 40 per cent of international trade in it, their primary concern is maintaining domestic supply, which is why they have had export bans in the past, she says.
“If they ban or someway limit the exports, it should keep more production in the country and it should reduce the inflation pressure that is there on food prices,” she said.
Canada imported about $650 million worth of rice last year, according to government data. Within that, about $140 million came from India — and only a tiny percentage of that is of the small- and medium-grain varieties of non-basmati rice that the ban applies to.
Murphy says while supply of basmati may also be strained, the government did not move to ban exports since it is a more premium product. Local concern is on the other staple varieties, which is why the government used the dramatic step of halting exports.
“Bans are easy to explain to the public,” she said, “we’re not selling food abroad, we’re looking after people at home. It’s often a pretty blunt — not necessarily very effective — instrument but it has domestic political capital associated with it.”
India’s move to ensure domestic supply is the second major announcement from a major exporter this year, as in May Vietnam announced plans to limit its own exports to four million tonnes a year by 2030. That’s down from more than seven million tonnes a year right now, and it’s aimed at “ensuring domestic food security, protecting the environment and adapting to climate change,” the government said in a release.
The Altons at Doom and Bloom Medical have an article up on Which Antibiotics for Your Storage, which also includes a coupon code for 25% off antibiotics which is good until July 31, 2023. Click the link above to see the site on their webpage and get the coupon code from the top of the article.
WHICH ANTIBIOTICS TO HAVE?
(NOTE: The information below is only meant for circumstances where there is no functioning medical system. If modern professional care is available, seek it out.)
If a disaster throws you off the grid, your risk of traumatic injury increases, but so does that of infection. When someone thinks of an infectious disease event, they envision a deadly epidemic. Any catastrophe, however, can increase the number of people with infections. When I say “catastrophe”, I’m not talking losing power from a storm for three days; I’m talking about a true long-term survival scenario.
In these horrific events, dirty wounds, contaminated water, poorly prepared food, and inadequate sanitation will turn previously healthy people into desperately sick ones. With antibiotics in your medical storage, you have a good shot of nipping bacterial infections in the bud. Not having them could lead to tragic consequences.
One of the most frequent questions I receive from readers, listeners, and viewers is which antibiotics to have on hand in survival settings. I have received a flurry of these lately in response to our book “Alton’s Antibiotics and Infectious Disease”: The Layman’s Guide To Available Antibacterials in Austere Settings. In the book, I discuss, well, antibiotics and infectious disease: Those infections which can be expected in those knocked off the gird and the antibiotics obtainable by the average citizen that help prevent otherwise avoidable deaths.
(NOTE: I don’t sell antibiotics myself nor own any part of a company that does, but look above for a special coupon offer from a reputable company that does.)
Certainly, it would be great if you had the financial resources to have all of the medications we talk about in Alton’s Antibiotics and Infectious Disease, but that’s beyond the means of almost everyone. You’ll probably need to pick a limited number to stockpile, but which? Chances are, if you lined up 10 doctors, you’d get 10 different answers.
Your choices would depend on the infections you’re most likely to encounter. Is it wound infections you’re concerned about, or intestinal infections like dysentery or cholera? Does someone in your group have a medical condition that makes them prone to a certain infection? Certainly, one drug doesn’t cure all.
Without knowing your individual situation, I can’t give you specifics. I can, however, still give you my personal recommendation of a few antibiotics available in aquarium and avian form that would be assets in my survival medicine cabinet. This article would be too long to mention every disease these drugs treat or dosing (our book is more than 300 pages long), but I’ll mention a little about each.
For those who aren’t allergic to penicillin, I think either amoxicillin(Amoxil, Aqua-mox) or cephalexin(Keflex Aqua-flex), both members of the beta-lactam family, would be good drugs to have around, especially for soft-tissue and bacterial upper respiratory infections. Dosing is relatively simple and, in most cases, safe for pregnant and pediatric patients.
Secondly, I would have doxycycline (aqua-doxy), which handles a lot of different infections of the respiratory and intestinal tracts and is okay to take if you’re allergic to Penicillin drugs, although it isn’t considered acceptable for use during pregnancy. For those who claim doxycycline becomes toxic when expired, note that the Department of Defense’s Shelf Life Extension Program has, in the past, authorized its use well beyond the expiration dates.
Metronidazole(flagyl, Aqua-zole) is a drug which I consider very useful, especially for intestinal infection from bacteria and certain parasites, like Giardia, seen in intestinal and pelvic infections, among others. It is also used with other antibiotics in those with stubborn infections, for example, appendicitis, along with another antibiotic for situations where surgery isn’t an option. Although Metronidazole is acceptable in those allergic to penicillin, it’s not okay for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers.
Azithromycin(Z-Pak, Aqua-Zithro) is known to be generally safe in pregnancy as well as those with penicillin allergies. It can deal with many cases of respiratory infection, dysentery, tonsillitis, sinusitis, and more. An additional benefit is that many in your group have taken it before in its popular “Z-Pak” form.
The Sulfa drug combination sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (Bactrim DS, Fishbiotic) is an excellent choice for many infections, especially urinary ones. If that is a common problem for family members, you might consider this drug. It has also been used for skin infections, some sinusitis, MRSA, ear infections, and others. Sulfa-Drugs are acceptable in the penicillin-allergic but not in the pregnant woman or breastfeeding mother.
Clindamycin(cleocin, aquatic clindamycin) would be on my list. It has been used to treat everything from acne to anthrax, but is helpful for pneumonias, pelvic infections, uterine infections after childbirth, soft-tissue infections, and is even effective against MRSA. It is, unlike doxycycline and metronidazole, acceptable for use during pregnancy and in people allergic to penicillin (of course, you could be allergic to clindamycin, or any other antibiotic, itself). In rare cases, use of clindamycin could induce an intestinal inflammation (colitis), which could be serious.
You may notice the above list doesn’t include Ciprofloxacin (Cipro, Aqua-Cipro), an antibiotic which is effective against many infections. I felt the side-effects of the drug, including weakness in the muscles and tendons, precluded my adding it. It’s still an option for some.
In our book “Alton’s Antibiotics and Infectious Disease”, we describe the various antibiotic families in detail. The drugs above each belong to a different family. If you could accumulate some of each over time, it would give you the best chance of having a medicine on hand that would have activity against almost any bacterial infection.
It’s important for you to know that every single medication I mentioned has its share of side-effects and reasons why they might be dangerous in some people, like those with kidney or liver disease. You should also learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of various infections. Indeed, antibiotics aren’t useful at all if you’ve misdiagnosed a viral infection as bacterial.
Antibiotics are not candy, and they should be used judiciously and rarely in survival settings. They will be scarce commodities, irreplaceable in a societal collapse, so accumulate a good supply and utilize them wisely. To accomplish that goal requires not just funds, but a fund of knowledge and good judgment. If you’re successful, you might save the life of someone who otherwise might not survive in times of trouble.
Combat Studies Group posted this back around New Years Day, but it bears repeating. Here’s Become More Dangerous.
New Years resolutions….I’ll be honest, I have never been a big proponent of them. I mean we have all seen the people around us make the same resolutions every year…with the same result…being that they fizzle out within a few weeks. But, if we are going to talk resolutions, might I offer this:
In 2023, become dangerous.
What do I mean by that? It should be abundantly clear to anyone paying attention at this point that our way of life in the West and in America in particular, is being deliberately and systematically destroyed. From “in your face” voting fraud to bio-engineered viruses to genocidal gene therapy shots to wide open borders to the fleecing of the public to fund engineered foreign conflicts to the governmental targeting of “traditional Americans” as “domestic terrorists” and I could go on and on. As the saying goes – The threat is real….and we are in danger.
For the sake of yourself, your family and your way of life – become more dangerous!
– Get into fighting shape
– Hike every morning
– Lift weights
– Practice or learn combatives of some kind
– Stop eating processed food
– Take nutritional supplements as needed
– Cut back or stop drinking alcohol
– Practice / Learn tactical skills
– Shoot on a regular basis
– Get certified in TCCC and remote medical skills
– Practice tactical problem solving (dry runs clearing your home and your friend’s homes)
– Attend at least two training courses this year
– Land navigation (without GPS aid)
– Escape and evasion skills
– Counter surveillance skills
– Tactical / High threat driving skills
– Learn how to run a security patrol
– Learn basic INFOSEC skills
– Food independence
– Start growing something, even if it’s just some herbs in the house
– Learn to can and preserve food
– Get a couple chickens or goats
– Have a backup water source and the means to purify it
– Start composting
– Have a minimum of a year’s worth of non-perishable food for your household
– Homestead
– Invest in a solar system or at least a backup system
– Stockpile various tools and supplies for plumbing, electrical, structural repairs
– Fire extinguishers in every room
– Develop and drill a family plan for fire, home invasion, natural disasters
– Have ample supplies of needed medicines
– Have a backup for every item of importance in your garage, work shed and tactical den.
– Learn amateur radio / HAM skills and practice (VHF, UHF, HF/NVIS)
– Establish a “safehouse” with a trusted friend
– Lay in some emergency supply caches (off your property)
This is an extremely simplified break down, but covers what I would consider the bare bones approach most folks should take. I realize some reading this are already able to check most or all of these boxes already, good for you but you’re not off the hook. Continue to expand or add to this list. No matter how prepared you are, how well trained you are, how experienced you are – I challenge you to become MORE dangerous. Dangerous to those that would try to bring harm to you, destroy your liberties and bring ruin to your way of life.
Article by Dr. Jenifer Nadeau, UConn Equine Extension Specialist
Sean Flynn/UConn Photo
When it comes to disasters, a lot of us think about wildfires. However, we also picture catastrophic flooding. Flooding is the most common type of natural disaster. About 40% of all natural disasters worldwide involve flooding. According to National Flood Insurance, in a 30-year mortgage, a home has a 26% chance of being damaged by flood versus a 9% chance of being damaged by fire. Flooding is a year-round threat. River flooding is the most common type of flood in the United States. Flash flooding is the leading cause of weather-related deaths per year, causing approximately 200 human deaths per year and an unknown number of horse-related deaths or injuries. The leading cause of death in large animals during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 included animals killed in collapsed barns, electrocution, kidney failure secondary to dehydration and animals hit and killed on roadways or tangled in barbed wire after escaping from their pasture. Hurricanes, tornadoes, snowmelt, and thunderstorms all contribute to flooding.
Disaster preparedness involves reflecting on hazards that threaten your family’s safety and that of your animals and developing a plan on how to prepare for these hazards. There are four phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Mitigation is preventing future emergencies or minimizing their effects. Preparedness is preparing to handle an emergency. Response is responding safely to an emergency. Recovery is recuperating after an emergency.
The foundation of emergency management is personal responsibilities. That is the familiarity with the potential for disaster in your community and the creation of your own emergency plan to care for your animals. The next step is local government responsibilities that include emergency response planning, response, and assessment to protect your community. You can think here of the text messages that notify you of the hazards present in your community such as a severe thunderstorm or your local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). State government responsibilities include protection from statewide disasters, provision of financial assistance to underfunded communities, and review of local emergency plans. The Statewide Animal Response Teams (SART) are an example of this. Federal government responsibilities are at the top of the pyramid and include protection from and declaration of national disasters, provision of financial assistance if needed and coordination of disasters through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Flooding results when heavy or continuous rainfall exceeds the absorptive capacity of the soil and the flow capacity of rivers, streams, and coastal areas causing the watercourse to overflow its banks onto adjacent lands. There are two types of floods – slow rising floods and fast rising floods. Slow rising floods move down a river or stream and can be predicted to reach a certain height. Fast rising foods are flash floods that usually result due to extreme heavy rain, melting snow, dam failure or levy failure, and occur suddenly.
Things to consider in the short term are:
You may not have much time to react, so you need to have a plan in place.
You should have a disaster kit on hand in case of emergency.
You should know how you will evacuate your horse and have a trailer ready or one you can borrow if needed.
You should have a way to identify your horse in case you get separated.
Here is what you should have in your disaster kit:
Feed – at least a week’s supply in airtight, waterproof container, rotate feed every three months
Extra feeding bucket for each horse
One week of water for each horse, you can use 50-gallonbarrels, store in a cool, dark location
Extra water bucket for each horse
One week’s supply of shavings/straw
Extra pitchfork
Extra wheelbarrow/muck bucket
First aid kit
Grooming supplies including shampoo, sweat scraper, etc.
Antibacterial soap
Antibiotic ointment
Sterile gauze sponges and pads
Two to four disposable diapers or wrapped sanitary napkins
Bandages – Ace, 2 ½” gauze bandage roll, leg bandages
Adhesive tape – 1” and 2” rolls
Two to four quilted or padded wraps
Household scissors and/or knife
Tweezers
Ice bags or chemical ice pack
Rubbing alcohol
Veterinary or human rectal thermometer
Lubricant
Stethoscope
As mentioned, you should also have ways to identify your horse and there are several options. Use a livestock crayon to write your name, phone number and address on the horse. Use clippers to shave your name, address, phone number into the horse’s coat. Braid an identification tag with your name, address, and phone number into your horse’s mane. Have at least 10 recent photos of your horse including some with you in it – keep them in sealable plastic baggies in your disaster kit with other important documents, medications, and insurance papers. Keep a copy of the Bill of Sale for your horse or other documentation that can prove ownership with your disaster supplies. Have your horse microchipped, branded, or tattooed.
There are also some long-term considerations. You need to know what you will do if you cannot return to your home/property and have a place that you can stay for a while until you can return to your home/property. You should have a way of identifying your animals in case you need to set them free (worst case scenario) or reclaim them from a shelter. You should write on a piece of paper the name, address, and phone number of your regular veterinarian, and keep it with your other important documents for your horse since you may not have access to a cell phone or charger. Locate a mobile equine veterinarian you can use in event of a disaster if you don’t already have one in case your horse is too injured to be moved for treatment. Write out a release form authorizing another party to give medical treatment for your injured or sick horse and keep it on file with your regular vet and an alternate vet. Give a copy to your neighbor or whomever will take of your horse if you are away.
By being prepared for a disaster, you will keep your horse and yourself safe and hopefully save money as well on any bills that may arise from serious issues. I hope that you have fun with your horse this summer. Stay safe! Please call (860) 486-4471 or email jenifer.nadeau@uconn.edu if you have any questions. Also, visit my web site s.uconn.edu/equine-extension for more information on upcoming horse specialist events and other information. Thanks, and have fun with your horses!
After seeking to reduce the use of gas stoves, the Biden administration is pushing a proposal to ban the sale of almost all portable gas generators—which some experts have said would be disastrous for the millions of Americans who rely on such generators during power outages.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has proposed a policy (pdf) that would remove nearly all existing portable gas generators from the market. The new rule restricts the amount of carbon monoxide that generators can emit by forcing these generators to switch off when they reach a certain level of emissions.
Smaller gas generators would have to cut carbon monoxide emissions by 50 percent, and larger generators would have to cut emissions by up to 95 percent. Nearly all models currently available are expected to not be in compliance with the new standard.
Once the proposed rules come into effect, manufacturers would have to comply with them in just six months, a process that usually takes several years. The rules would also ban manufacturers from stockpiling noncompliant generators before the new standards are enacted.
Generator Manufacturers Speak Out
In a June 28 press release, Susan Orenga, executive director of the Portable Generator Manufacturers’ Association, pointed out that CPSC’s proposal will “create a shortage of essential portable generators during regional and national emergencies because it will prevent the sale of portable generators that are currently available on the market.”
“Furthermore, the timing of the CPSC’s proposed changes are particularly concerning, given repeated warnings that two-thirds of North America is currently facing an energy shortfall this summer during periods of high demand,” she said.
Workers help residents at Home Depot, where they are buying generator equipment and other supplies on Aug. 29, 2019, as they prepare for Hurricane Dorian. (Michele Eve Sandberg/AFP via Getty Images)
Nearly 5 million households across the United States use gas powered generators during power outages, and they are particularly important during hurricane season, when powerful storms often knock out electric utilities.
In May, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. warned that two-thirds of North America could face blackouts and brownouts between June and September if there are “wide area” heat waves, wildfires, and droughts, and the agency attributed some blame for the problem to the Biden administration’s push for renewable energy.
The CPSC proposal came after the Department of Energy unveiled its Energy Policy and Conservation Program in February, which aims to establish new standards on consumer cooking products, including gas stoves. The rules are expected to ban the sale of at least half of U.S. stove models…(article continues)
A schooling at home symposium will be held in The Barn at 22236 N. Hinzerling Rd, Prosser, WA on Saturday, July 29, 2023 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Click here for tickets/registration.
If you search the Para Set, you’ll find an incredibly neat piece of history from the genesis of the clack and dagger era: WWII and the early part of the Cold War. Spies relied upon one way messages transmitted via Shortwave (HF Radio) and encrypted with One Time Pads that also had the ability to transmit should the need arise. For that reason they required a simple, self contained, low power radio that met the needs. What they got was known as the Para Set.
Having a receive and transmit coverage between 3 and 7.6mHz or so in two selectable bands, we’d come to know this in later years as the Amateur 80m (3.5-4mHz) and 40m (7-7.3mhz) bands for Night and Day use, respectively. And while these weren’t meant for civilian use, some inevitably did find their way into civilian hands in later years with Hams even creating reproduction kits.But the Para Set was really a special tool beyond the novelty of its history. It was a compact, self contained tool. No cables necessary for a separate tuner – an antenna matching unit was built in, as was the power source. This made for a radio that could also easily be hidden and otherwise camoflaged. Rather than the large capacity base stations pumping out thousands of watts safe from the Radio Direction Finding (RDF) hunter killer teams of the Gestapo and Waffen SS, the Para Set maintained a diminutive 5 watts maximum output – enough for a quick burst of CW Morse code.
These days I get a lot of questions from radio operators and guys looking to develop their communications capability past the Sustainment and Tactical or Inter-team roles into the Clandestine end of things, meaning HF. Much of my early work focused on HF as a means to communicate over long distances coordinating different groups, and in particular, utilizing Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) as a technique for reliability and mitigating the RDF threat. Those early articles are all found in the Guerrilla Dispatch Volumes 1 and 2, including some excellent work by my close friend Historian on antenna design and a Master Class on NVIS propagation and RF theory. Don’t worry…I wrote a lengthy layman’s piece on it as well in Volume 1.With that said and going back to the question above, most broach the topic asking what to buy before they ask the how. I totally get it, and I’m doing what I can to supply that option. The Xiegu X6100 is in many ways the modern incarnation of that same Para Set from eras gone by. Small, self contained, with a large display screen and extremely simple user interface. Perhaps the best feature is the large waterfall display which allows the operator to see signals the same way they would on a panadapter of an SDR. I’ve found this reduces the learning curve for newer radio operators. The radio features 5 watts maximum output and can work in all modes – including SSB voice (often referred to as ‘phone’ by Hams) and CW. In particular its become a very popular option for the Summits on the Air (SOTA) crowd and the FT8 family of digital modes. For that reason it was a natural addition to the Brushbeater Store.
Washington State has its own law banning 80% receivers, but in this article The Firearms Blog talks about the recent ruling (June 30, 2023) where a court in the Northern District of Texas determined that the ATF, in its 80% receiver rule, had exceeded its statutory authority and vacated the Final Rule. Because the court relied on statutory authority, the court did not make any Constitutional determination on the law as related to the Second Amendment.
The hits just keep on coming in the lawsuits against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. ATF took their most recent L on June 30th in the case VanDerStok v. Garland in the Northern District of Texas (case number 4:22-cv-00691-O). Let’s go through this decision, what it means, and what it may signal for other issues.
Background
If you are reading articles like this, you probably know the backstory, but here is a short refresher. Homemade guns have always been legal in the United States. The frame or received of a firearm is, according to US law, the regulated part. That is why it bears the serial number.
Over the last dozen years or so there has been an expanding world of people who want to make their own guns. Rather than buying a complete, serialized receiver from an FFL, enthusiasts started converting so-called 80% receivers into complete receivers. Enterprising companies began selling 80% receivers with parts and jigs which made it easy to create a 100% receiver. Now, the ATF hates it when anything is easy, so it was only a matter of time until additional regulations arrived.
ATF Rule 2021R-05F purported to redefine “frame or receiver” by expanding that definition. Most importantly, it changed the definition to “make[] clear that the “frame” or “receiver” includes a partially complete frame or receiver, including a parts kit, that is designed to or may readily be completed, assembled, restored, or otherwise converted to function as a frame or receiver[.]” This Rule was challenged in the courts, and (spoiler alert) it did not go well for ATF.
The Decision
Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas heard the case and issued this decision. One of the first battles was over a preliminary injunction, which would prevent ATF from enforcing this rule during the lawsuit. The ATF lost that round. More plaintiffs joined in the fight and the scope of the preliminary injunction kept growing.
Eventually, both sides filed motions for summary judgment. This motion says to the court “Even if you take all of the facts that the other side says are true, we would win, so you might as well just call it now and not have a trial.” Unsurprisingly, this went very badly indeed for the ATF.
The Court’s logic was pretty simple; a part cannot be both a receiver, and not yet a receiver at the same time. ATF’s entire premise of regulating an 80% lower when it is sold with jigs or tools as a completed receiver makes no sense because it is (by ATF’s own admission) still not actually a receiver.
“As the Court previously explained, the issue in this case is whether ATF may properly regulate a component as a “frame or receiver” even after ATF determines that the component in question is not a frame or receiver. It may not. Logic dictates that a part cannot be both not yet a receiver and receiver at the same time. Defendants’ reliance on that logical contradiction is fatal to their argument.”
This decision did not need to reach other Constitutional issues presented. Courts must dispose of cases on grounds other than Constitutional ones when they can do so. In this particular case, the Court found ATF’s position so clearly wrong that no other Constitutional grounds needed to be addressed.
“Because the Court concludes that the ATF has clearly and without question acted in excess of its statutory authority and that this claim is dispositive, the Court declines to address the constitutional questions presented.”
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Mike Shelby, intelligence analyst and author, has recently published a second book The Area Intelligence Handbook. If you’ve heard Mike talk before or attended one of his training classes, then you are probably familiar with his push for people to do their own area study in order to direct their preparedness in a useful direction. Here is a short except from the forward to his new book.
…a [particular large scale disaster] won’t kill you, but the follow effects could. These follow-on effects that occur at your doorstep, on your street, and in your neighborhood deserve your due diligence.
What I find is that those in the preparedness community are too focused on the strategic picture and not focused enough on the tactical picture. Too many get target-fixated on what’s happening in China, or in space, or in Washington, D.C., while ignoring their local situation. These people know the names of a hundred Congressmen but not one person on their city council. They know more about Nancy Pelosi’s husband’s boyfriend than they do about their local fire department. They can tell you about the latest YouTube prediction of mass starvation, but can’t tell you which gangs are active in their county. I think this is a problem.
Enter the solution. An Area Study helps us develop the tactical picture. What are the second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-order effects, and so on, from an EMP attack? How is the cyber attack on the gas pipeline going to affect your community? How will hyperinflation push threats to your doorstep? What’s your neighborhood’s population density? How many fighting age males live in the area? Which of these could become an ally or pose a threat to you?…Unfortunately, instead of developing local intelligence, we’ve been encouraged to buy buy buy stuff. Just fill that bottomless pit of worry with gear. It might fill up eventually.
This misunderstanding is why Joe’s bug out bag weighs 70 pounds, but he hasn’t compiled an Area Study. Joe’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t have a plan. He does, it’s just not a very good one. Joe hasn’t conducted a route study of where he’s going during an emergency. He’s blind to the threats and hazards between Points A and B, he doesn’t know police are going to be blocking the road to his destination, and he hasn’t considered any contingencies — what to do when things go unexpectedly wrong, and they will. And if Joe knew there were a dozen like-minded people in his community, including one with a small farm just outside of town, then Joe might completely change his bad plan to bug out into the unknown to a less bad plan…I wrote this book for Joe.
Mike has written extensively online about area studies as well as making available many videos about the process. This book gathers it all into one handy book. As many others have written, countries tend to decline slowly with occasional more rapid slips. As the USA slips from its lofty heights due to the greed and corruption of its elites, there are many ways the decline may manifest with various effects on your life and lifestyle. Use this book to think about your future and help you plan to make it through.
Lower Valley Assembly 
