Category: NRA Convention

Louisville has the distinction of being a city whose convention center is pretty far from downtown, which is where all the hotels are. The law seminar is a good 20 minutes from where the big stuff is happening. Traffic coming into the city and into the convention center has been gridlocked all day, and I’m not dedicated enough wait in traffic just to report on Trump.

I’m told NRA has issued its endorsement for Trump, with Trump responding that he would not let us down. I believe he’s speaking right now. I know a lot of people are going to argue Trump should not have been endorsed, but I think it’s sticking to the single issue. I have a lot of trust issues with Trump, but the big issue on everyone’s mind is the Supreme Court, and if Trump can be trusted (and I think that’s a big IF) his court picks are generally pretty good from a Second Amendment point of view.

Lots of red meat in the second panel. First up is Chris Zealand who is a Senior Research Attorney with NRA-ILA, talking about executive action on gun control, which is unfortunately a timely topic. His main topic is the cooption of entitlement programs to enact gun control, namely the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration implementing, as he calls it, “Cash your own check, or lose your gun rights.” The background on the Gun Control Act’s mental health prohibitions are actually pretty fascinating. The term “mental defective” actually had a specific meaning that only encompassed people who never had full mental faculties, rather than someone who is experiencing transient or temporary mental health issues. There was even a Supreme Court decision (U.S. v Hansel) in this regard, which largely went ignored by ATF when they drafted the regulation. The Obama Administration bureaucratic process for reporting veterans and social security recipient would seem to violate this ruling, and even current ATF regulation. There is no adjudication, and no finding of dangerousness. According to Chris, the Administration even wanted to send agents door-to-door to confiscate and possibly prosecute veterans who owned guns. The NRA convinced them to call that off.

177,000 veterans have been reported to NICS so far. Only 298 cases have been appealed, and of those only 9 granted. This, my dear readers, is a disgrace. If Social Security Administration does take up this program, it will be up to 1.4 million people subject to this travesty. The SSA is considering a five part test. It requires that the beneficiary:

1. Filed a disability claim.
2. Determined by SSA to be disabled.
3. Determined by SSA to be disabled under a mental disability code.
4. Have attained the age of 18 but not yet full retirement age.
5. The person has a representative payee, and the reason for having the representative payee has to do with a mental disorder.

As Chris points out, however, is that mental disability codes issued by the SSA can include things like sleep disorders, memory loss, or (the category that’s going to totally screw Millennials) “inflated self-esteem.” The problems with both the VA and SSA schemes:

• Strains concept of “adjudication” by including purely bureaucratic procedures. No hearing is available.
• Underlying adjudication are asking the wrong questions relative to safe and responsible firearms possession.
• No pre-deprivation due process on loss of firearm rights; one can only raise suitability issues after the loss has occurred.

The legislative remedy ILA is pushing is the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act of 2015 (S.2002) which would completely reform mental health adjudications. There’s also a House Bill, H.R. 3516 which would deal with the SSA program. There was recently an attempt to attach an appropriations rider to defund these programs, but it was blocked by Dick Durbin. One of Chris’s important takeaways: “Language matters. If a legislative enactment can be given a broad, anti-gun meaning, it will be given a broad, anti-gun meaning.”

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Next up is Teresa Ficaretta talking about how to prepare for GCA compliance inspections. ATF has warrantless inspection authority for:

• Annual compliance inspections of FFLs.
• Firearms Tracing.
• Bona fide criminal investigations of persons other than the licensee.

ATF only has authority to conduct warrantless inspection on business hours listed on Form 7. She notes, and I think this is important, that ATF only has a right to examine GCA records and not business records. FFLs should not store business records with GCA records, as many often do. Red flags to look for:

• Special agents conducting compliance inspections. Generally compliance inspections are done by bureaucrats. Agents are federal law enforcement. Call your attorney and be sure to get names and badge numbers.
• Asking to inspect commercial records, customer lists, lists of suppliers, etc. Don’t let them, and call your attorney.

ATF will usually let FFLs know before an inspection will be done, but this is not legally required. The following things are recommended in preparation:

• Conduct and inventory book to firearm and firearm to book. Report missing firearms on 3310.11
• If NFA firearms, request NFRTR printout. This must be done by mail because they are protected tax records, and it takes about 30 days.
• Review Forms 4473 and Multiple Sale Reports.
• Review Forms 6 and 6A if you’re an importer.
• Find copies of variances. One of the most common violations is an FFL claiming they have a record keeping variance, but are unable to find it.
• Be able to print out or download computerized records.

During the inspection, she argues that attitude counts. You’ll get better treatment in an inspection if you’re kind to the inspectors. If inspectors remove records, be sure to get a copy and a receipt. Inspectors do not have the authority to seize firearms, only Special Agents have authority to do that. Bring in counsel if there are serious violations. ATF has a sliding scale of violations:

1. Warning letter
2. Warning conference (counsel should be present)
3. Notice of proposed revocation
4. Seizure/forfeiture
5. Criminal referral

ATF does not require FFLs to have compliance plans, but she recommends that every FFL have one. Generally only large importers or exporters have written plans, because the Department of State requires them.

ATF does not have statutory authority to suspend licenses, but in practice they will sometimes pressure an FFL to agree to give up their license, then after a period of time will entertain a new application.

Finally she outlines changes in regulations involving manufacturers of machineguns and personally made firearms. Manufactures hardly ever make everything in house, and ATF used to issue variances that allowed transfer of NFA items between different manufactures. ATF cracked down on this in 2012 and argued those transfers were illegal, and that the FFL had to “babysit” machineguns if they were going to another manufacturer.

ATF 2015-1 addressed the issue of “build parties” where they essentially ruled that this activity was “manufacturing” under the GCA and therefore required to obtain an FFL. Basically, if you make a firearm, you have to do it all yourself with your own equipment. You can’t get help from a machine shop or FFL.

We’re heading to Louisville, KY on Thursday for the NRA Annual Meeting. This year is a bit of a dilemma, as we attend the National Firearm Law Seminar on Friday, but that tends to overlap with the Leadership Forum. In past several years I’ve been fine with skipping that, since I’ve grown tired of listening to boring politicians and other such talking heads droning on beyond their welcome. But this year’s three ring circus is bound be entertaining, and I’m interested to hear and report on whatever crazy, off-the-cuff shit Trump has to say. You can say what you want about Trump, boring the man is not. One of us may skip out early to cover the Leadership Forum.

More seriously, in terms of forums that get genuinely covered, NRA’s Leadership Forum is a key Trump opportunity to start uniting the GOP base behind him and start getting buy-in from the people who worry they are being sold a bill of goods. Will Trump take the opportunity?

In the mean time, I’m trying to get ahead of my work so I’m not completely behind when I return next Tuesday. That’s the bigger reason posting is light. I’ve been behind to begin with, in case you haven’t noticed.

If you are a lawyer headed to NRA Annual Meeting and are looking for CLE credits, or really anyone interested in Second Amendment Law, I highly recommend taking a look at the Annual Firearms Law Seminar. Last year’s panel speakers were quite good. This year’s speakers include “Stephen Halbrook, Ernest Myers, David Kopel, Joseph Greenlee, Teresa Ficaretta, Jonathan Goldstein, Derek DeBrosse, Brent Weil, NRA-ILA attorney Chris Zealand, and NRA Office of the General Counsel attorney Sarah Gervase.”

Jonathan Goldstein is a local gun-rights attorney that NRA has used on some of their more high-profile suits in Pennsylvania. HE’s speaking about “Preemption: The Next Frontier in Firearms Regulation & Litigation” Jonathan is a good speaker, and pretty entertaining. Dave Kopel and Joseph Greenly are speaking about a “A Second Amendment Roadmap through the Federal Circuits.” For a preview, see Dave’s article in the WaPo on the subject. Lots of other good stuff.

I should note the Early Bird signup ends this Friday, so if you were thinking about going, you might want to sign up before then to get the discount.

Because my entire family in the area came out on Sunday of the NRA annual meeting, I managed to check out a few things I normally wouldn’t check out and see things through a fresh perspective. Like any event of this size, there was good and bad with it. Even with the bad, I think there’s great potential, but it’s just a matter of finding the right people who can pull it off.

NRA specifically hosts an NRA Youth Day on the last day of the convention. I’ll be honest, with as many kids as I saw on Saturday, I think they should consider doing at least something kid-focused on both weekend days in the future. The number of families keep growing at every convention, and they have such a great opportunity to offer something special that stands out for the kids.

Even if they never grow up to be gun owners, my niece and nephew will grow up remembering that they attended an NRA meeting and that everything seemed nice, normal, and fun. Even if they don’t grow up to be activists, there’s a good chance they won’t ever be voters for the other side of the issue since they realize that good, normal folks own firearms without incident because of their trip to the annual meeting.

When we arrived about half an hour after the Youth Day area opened, the room was still a little sparse. A few activities weren’t really going, the prize table was just a big empty spot, and there weren’t a ton of kids. However, this did make it easier to talk to some of adults doing demo stuff. For example, I talked to Bob who was dressed up as a frontiersman and manning a display of various antique arms. While my 6-year-old niece may not have been thrilled, I was certainly enthralled when he mentioned a colonial-era gunsmith family I’d never heard of before – a name that just happened to be a line in Sebastian’s family tree and, according to this guy, from a few counties over… More research is now needed. (Related bleg: Who knows about the Honaker family of gunsmiths, reportedly connected to Pennsylvania at some point?)

One of the best features, in my opinion, was the exhibit floor scavenger hunt. They printed a sheet of sponsors and told the kids to go get signatures from each of the sponsors with booths. When all were marked, the sheets would be returned to the Youth Day area and exchanged for raffle tickets. I loved the idea since it gives parents an excuse to see the floor while their kids get something fun in return.

Some of the people signing the programs were really sweet to my niece, and she got a kick out of the trucker hat Winchester gave out to the kids. I would actually love to see this expanded a bit. Inviting groups with consistently interesting booths to participate might be a fun idea. For example, even though they aren’t sponsors, why not reach out to a collector group with a cool display to see if they would be willing to offer some kind of little hand out to kids? It gets families across more of the exhibit hall and checking out more sections to cover every interest. As it was, the area covered by the sponsors on the list spread across less than half of the hall.

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