"We need to put the anti-gun liberals on the defensive. Push for legislative action to abolish the need to go through an FFL when you buy guns online. Push for the reopening of the 1986 machinegun registry. Push for no magazine capacity limits. Push for the dismissal of the NFA tax. Defending our ground is not enough. We have to not only defend it, but steamroll the liberals with pro-gun changes in laws and regulations."
First things first; realize that by tackling NFA items, 'liberals' are just as big a roadblock as conservatives. There is so little exposure to the issue, so little of their skin in the game, and so much ignorance & disinformation out there, that fear of the unknown almost single-handedly keeps that law on the books. As with silencers and more recently SBRs, I think education is the primary tactic to use (education of how the lines are arbitrary and stupidly enforced, and how there isn't very much to fear for letting people cross it in the first place)
Now then;
Machine Gun Registry- there's a lawsuit ongoing (I think stalled for now, though it may be a seasonal hiatus; it is being appealed) called Hollis v Holder/Lynch which seeks opinion on how machineguns can be both regulated solely by tax law and the tax itself made unpayable by the '86 FOPA registry closure. I believe the suit is also seeking information on the dubious legality of machineguns added to the registry since the closure date by AG fiat, whether the ATF has authority to 'disapprove' mistakenly approved Form 1's for machineguns (they do exist, as in the case of the plaintiff), and whether trusts are even subject to the registry closure like people are. Lot of folks out there have written off this suit, but the judicial disagreements handed down on it so far aren't the best reasoned opinions I've read, so they could perhaps be overturned later on. I'm thinking that SAF has hooked up with the attorney representing and is possibly supporting him with donated funds.
No magazine capacity limits- aside from the fact that passing a law to prevent another law is pointless (the next law will simply void the first one; much like how a federal bill enacting a national firearms registry would void the existing rule against one in the first sentence), magazine limits are still very much a state-determined area at this time, so a constitutional case would immediately result, with an outcome we cannot necessarily count on. Maybe wait until the high court or judicial system as a whole is more educated and rational when it --heh-heh, couldn't keep from laughing there-- when it comes to guns.
"Push for the dismissal of the NFA tax."
As mentioned, there is the bill for removing silencers from the tax and redundant background check requirements (and cruelly unusual criminal penalties) of the NFA. Be sure to contact your house/senate reps, and see if we can't get a good bill passed in the dead of night for a change. I think this half-measure approach of getting items off the stupid-slow and onerous ATF NFA track and onto the mainstream point-of-sale instant NICS check is a great way to quickly expand the exposure and education of NFA items so the 1934 statute can ultimately be repealed, with less risk for push-back from concerned voters & politicians than a direct path to repeal. I think the HR3799 will be an interesting bellwether for how much appetite there is in congress; with Obama in the white house, there is no expectation it will succeed, so perhaps the support/opposition will accurately identify allies & opponents.
"Defending our ground is not enough"
Indeed. High time we demand some dividends on all the gun-rights support that's been built over the last decade at the federal level. It's astounding that gay rights took root and accomplished its primary goals faster than we have (when you look at the numbers/resources/distribution of support each group has to work with)
TCB
