First, Obama has issued the executive orders. Your snippet below is
a couple of weeks old. I have not see the actual language. Here is a
Slate article with a summary.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/01/16/read_president_obama_s_new_proposed_executive_orders_and_legislation_on.html
On the issue of the shotgun, the specific shotgun in question was the
"Street Sweeper"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_sweeper_(shotgun)) a 12 ga
semiautomatic shotgun with a rotary magazine. I'd guess the ruling
had some language about there not being a "sporting purpose" for such
a gun, etc. (Seems it might be handy for self defense, but I digress).
Yep, sure enough, here is the last line from that Wiki article:
The Striker is difficult to procure in the United States of America
as it has been labeled as a
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Destructive_device>destructive
device under the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/National_Firearms_Act>National
Firearms Act with no sporting purpose by the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/U.S._Justice_Department>U.S.
Justice Department's
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,_Tobacco,_Firearms_and_Explosives>Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).[1]
What you state here is of course the "slippery slope" that gun
advocates worry about. What is to keep the government from just
proclaiming such things without due legislative process. I would
submit that if that did happen, we'd be witnessing an aspect of tyranny.
Given Obama's history with how ObamaCare was passed against the will
of the people, I was actually a bit surprised his executive orders
were as "tame" as they were.
Others on the list can give a more detailed legal explanation of why
this won't or maybe could happen.
Jason Goertz
Certified NRA Instructor
Former Board Member, Washington Arms Collectors
Treasurer, Council for Legislative Action, Washington
At 07:54 AM 1/23/2013, Jon Roland wrote:
Can the President get around the lack of gun control legislation by
issuing executive orders?
We have this from the NY Times, via Newsmax:
Rep. Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, said Biden had informed
lawmakers Monday that there are "19 independent steps that the
president can take by executive order." Speier said the executive
action is part of the "most comprehensive gun safety effort in a generation."
The report did not specify what the proposed steps might be, but
Biden has been saying similar things for weeks, and we don't have to
wait to begin to anticipate what they might try. We have a precedent
for one such step that was not an executive order of the President,
but a 1994 "finding" by the outgoing Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd
Bentsen that several models of semi-automatic 12-gauge shotguns were
"<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destructive_device>destructive devices".
After Bentsen's finding if one tried to register the shotgun, as
required by the NFA of 1934, one was told "We aren't accepting
registrations at this time. We will let you know when we are ready
to do so." A few years later they quietly let it be known they were
ready, but didn't provide a form suited for the purpose, offering
only a form that had the registrant declare under penalty of perjury
that he was the manufacturer of the weapon, with no allowance for
purchasers or for corporation owners. The BATFE says it will not
accept any other form, and one agent said "We don't have a budget
for processing registrations, so we won't accept them," and "It is
too late to register one without penalty." But they have a budget
for criminally prosecuting non-registrants for possessing one.
If you read the statute it seems to exclude 12-gauge shotguns, which
have a bore of .5 inch (.50 caliber), but Bentsen hung his finding
some such shotguns were "destructive devices" on the words "or (F)
similar device." By that reasoning he could have found almost
anything to be a "destructive device", including every make and
model of firearm, firearm part, or ammunition. Courts have tended to
defer to such administrative findings, although this one has not
been legally challenged.
If that precedent is followed, Obama might have Treasury Secretary
Geithner, before he leaves office, issue a finding that all kinds of
firearm, magazines, or ammunition are "destructive devices", leaving
it to defendants to pay the costs to try to overturn their
prosecutions, and if any of those prosecutions are sustained on
appeal, the Administration will have the legal tool they need to
eliminate all those things (or create a lot of violators waiting to
be discovered and prosecuted, afraid to use their weapons anywhere).
-- Jon
----------------------------------------------------------
Jon Roland
Campaign <http://jonroland.net>http://jonroland.net
2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322 twitter.com/lex_rex
Austin, TX
78757 512/299-5001 <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
----------------------------------------------------------
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Constitution
Society <http://constitution.org>http://constitution.org
2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322 twitter.com/lex_rex
Austin, TX 78757
512/299-5001 <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
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