The many prongs of the greatest gang rape of the ATF hive brain -- ever.

And so, as the sun rises in the west, James P. "Little Jimmy" Vann of the ATF Chief Counsel's Office must be asking himself: What IS reality?"

Well, folks, the Pistol-Grip Firearm Controversy is gaining Internet ground, chiefly because David Hardy picked it up here at www.armsandthelaw.com:

Interesting questions re: pistol grip shotguns

Posted by David Hardy · 16 March 2010 05:39 PM

From CleanupATF.org comes this interesting question. ATF has consistently taken the position that a shotgun that leaves the factory with a pistol grip and no buttstock, and is kept in that condition, is a pistol rather than a shotgun. I suppose this was in accord with their desire to construe statutes in ways that increased regulation: here, an 18-21 year old couldn't buy it if it was a pistol, but would have been able to if they declared it a shotgun.

But a commenter there raises a question ATF will find difficult: if such a shotgun is actually a pistol, can't he saw the barrel below 18" without it becoming an NFA firearm? The NFA dictates a minimum barrel and overall length for a shotgun, but not for a pistol

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Then, General Sebastion Snowflake, chief NRA Internet apologist and bottlewasher, weighs in here.

Rumors from the fifth floor at the "Concrete Asshole of the Universe" indicate anal sphincters slamming shut with loud bangs over several facets of this latest controversy.

First and foremost, Melson et. al. are appalled that "Zorro's" intervention on CUATF has blown back on them so badly. More people are noticing. The unseen hand, they sense, is inching closer to the lightswitch -- an always-to-be-feared-moment when all of El Diablo's cockroaches must run for the baseboards and cracks in the walls. This critical mass of public attention can only end in oversight hearings. Ever know a bureaucrat whose nightmares were not plagued by that "do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give" moment?

Second, the fact that Len Savage and others have made contact, it would seem, with the dissident agents of CUATF, is to the fifth floor a dangerous synergy to be avoided at all costs.

Third, the pistol-grip inconsistency, not particularly threatful by itself, promises more public controversies down the road.

Fourth, and worst, I think, in their eyes, is that when the street agents who visit CUATF finally read stuff directly from guys like Len Savage, they can decide for themselves who has been lying all along. And who has been putting street agents in jeopardy with those lies.

Their search for CPT R.A. Bear, CPT Jonathan Tuttle and the ever elusive "Waldo" will, they know, one day come back to haunt them in the oversight committee room chair.

These are the multiple prongs of the greatest gang rape of the ATF leadership's hive mind ever attempted. To the extent that we Three Percenters can contribute to that by insisting that our Congresscritters follow up on these many malfeasances, we can increase the senior management's discomfiture and, perhaps, lead to their eventual downfall.

Mike
III

PS: A final existential question: Can a collective "Hive brain" even be "gang-raped?" Is that a contradiction in terms or the ONLY way it can be accomplished? I suspect that the question is along the lines of "How many discredited Chief Counsel's Office functionaries can dance on the head of Acting Director Melson's pin?" Further, is the gang rape of a hive brain even a felony?