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Gun Laws and the ATF blog
Why gun makers are not sued for crimes, the 2005 law and the Mexico case The 2005 PLCAA bars suits blaming makers for crimes committed with lawfully sold guns. Its exceptions, the municipal suits behind it, and the 9-0 Mexico ruling. How to testify at your statehouse when a gun bill comes up for a hearing A step-by-step guide to testifying on a gun bill: read the text and fiscal note, register, write a three-minute statement, cite Bruen correctly, follow up. Nine myths about gun shows, private sales and the loophole that is not one The gun-show loophole is a rule about who counts as a dealer, not a gap that exists only at gun shows. Nine common claims, tested against the statutes. Lying on Form 4473 is a felony, so why is it so rarely charged Prohibited buyers denied by the federal background check commit a crime yet are rarely prosecuted, which argues for enforcing old laws before writing new ones. Conservatives disagree about red-flag laws, and both sides deserve a hearing Red-flag laws split conservatives: a targeted alternative to gun bans or a due-process hazard. Both cases stated fairly, then the safeguards that decide it. What the Justice Department's own studies found about the 1994 ban Justice Department research found the 1994 assault-weapons ban left effects on gun violence too small to measure reliably, which should shape any revival. After Chevron fell, ATF rules lost the deference they quietly relied on Loper Bright ended judicial deference to agency readings of statutes, and that matters most where an ATF rule can put a citizen in prison. Ninety years of federal gun law in the dates that changed the rules A dated tour of federal gun law from 1934 to 2022, with a line on why each statute mattered and what the pattern says about how Congress legislates. Printz v. United States and the sheriffs who refused to be drafted by Washington Two sheriffs won a 1997 ruling that Congress cannot order local officers to run federal background checks. Printz is a landmark for federalism more than guns. How a Texas student's gun at school produced the Court's Commerce Clause limit United States v. Lopez (1995) held that carrying a gun near a school is not commerce. It was the first real brake on Congress's commerce power in decades. The Sullivan Act of 1911 and the century New York spent rationing carry permits New York's Sullivan Act gave officials discretion over who could carry a handgun. A century later Bruen ended it, and Albany answered with a new set of hurdles.