The Trusted Circle: Be Careful Who You Hang With

"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

"We must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately" - Benjamin Franklin

Ayn Rand was a prophet and Benjamin Franklin was divinely inspired. Here is a story which speaks to the truth of both of them:

Now, given Mejia had bought the Scorpion as a pistol (having a barrel less than 16 inches and having no stock), in order to put a stock on it to fire from the shoulder, he should have paid another $200 dollars and waited for the King's permission to turn the pistol into a NFA registered short barreled rifle. Or, he could have put a brace on it, without having to fork out another $200. A brace is a device that looks like a stock and is supposed to help a disabled shooter hold a pistol at arm's length but which BATFE had ruled can be shouldered like a stock. Oh, and BATFE have also made their own rule that a pistol cannot have a vertical fore grip without paying another registration fee for permission to turn it into another category called "Any Other Weapon". But an angled fore grip is OK, apparently, and does not need to be registered.

If this sounds confusing, it is. Only those deeply versed in the intricacies of the law and, more importantly, BATFE's rule making and regulations based on their own inconsistent interpretation of the law, stand a chance of getting it right. Even gun shop employees get it wrong with alarming frequency. But that is all part of the plan.

Just take a look at these two pictures:

Illegal, without a $200 taxation stamp

(Stock and vertical foregrip on a pistol, barrel less than 16 inches)

Legal, without a $200 taxation stamp:

(Brace instead of a stock, angled fore grip, barrel less than 16 inches)

Now, on his own property on his own shooting range, one could believe that whichever way Mejia configured his fun range toy was up to him, with no harm being committed to anyone. Unfortunately for him, however, he was totally unaware that his foreign student friend had overstayed on their study visa and had cut a deal with the Immigration Service to stay in the US and work off the penalty by ratting people out to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. In what must have been a very slow six of months for the FBI in Florida, they went to the trouble of getting their new informant fitted out with a covert camera, coached on all the specific leading questions to ask about Mejia's favorite guns to shoot and cultivating a relationship which resulted in multiple meetings. The rat, while saving his/her own skin, was even able to convince Mejia to consider selling him/her the illegally configured weapon or at least explaining how to configure an exact copy himself/herself.

In a clown world where armed robbers and rapists get no-bailed in New York and murderers are given free reign in Chicago, the FBI was able to puff up their caped crusader conviction stats by working with the prosecutor and judge to put Mejia in prison for almost two years. He was sentenced on 05 July 2022. We should all feel so much safer now: a domestic terrorist in the making made an example of; a convicted felon for life who can no longer own guns legally; a foreign rat who can continue his/her studies unmolested; a three letter agency moving on to its next soft entrapment case; all for not paying the King a $200 tax; under rules made up by the BATFE on their own whims; under legislation passed by a Congress that knew they were on thin ice and which does not pass Justice Thomas-like strict Constitutional scrutiny; and the key court challenge to which saw the feds uncontested because the defendant was dead and defending counsel did not attend the hearing (see United States vs. Miller 1939).

Mejia clearly knew what he was doing by putting a stock on a pistol without the correct permission from the Crown. And to that extent, he is guilty and should take his licks for failing to pay $200 in tax. In any sane world by any reasonable standard that should have been a slap on the wrist and, say a $100 penalty on top of coughing up the $200. No felony, no prison time. But the bloated self licking ice cream cone that is the federal government wants more power than that. They are not a bunch of boy scouts and they already have a vast array of laws which can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted. A nation of law breakers ripe for the picking whenever DC's eye of Sauron turns in an individual's direction. Just as soon as we all understand it, it will be much easier for our political masters to rule us as they want.

Mejia can only have had a terrible attorney and we very much hope that he appeals his conviction He was, no doubt, intimidated into pleading guilty with the threat of even worse punishment and prison time. But his timing sucked too: the recent Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen could and should be the foot in the door to push back nearly 100 years of Unconstitutional laws which have taken large chunks out of the Second Amendment's limitation on what the feds can restrict.

One final takeaway is to be very careful who you hang about with. Identify your trusted circle and make it an absolute rule to view the world as those who are in it and those who are not. Be very paranoid about letting in any new comers: make sure you verify before you trust them with your inner secrets. Lazy three letter agencies (and those who have more letters like the BATFE) are all to adept at stitching someone up for some crime then forcing them to work as a confidential informant to stitch anyone else they can find. Use, abuse and leapfrog around a person's network until a bigger fish bites on something they shouldn't. There is always free cheese in a mousetrap. Always be discerning of what you say and show to whom. Do not get lured by a pretty face. Resist the temptation to brag, show off or get caught up in emotional conversations. If you do not absolutely, 1000 percent trust someone say nothing and do nothing which you would not want recorded and handed to the authorities. You never know who is recording. You never know who in your outer circle (and sometimes your inner circle) who just got caught with narcotics, kiddie porn or an ITAR violation. These are the realities of the slide into fascism and the police state which goes with it.

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so"

- Thomas Jefferson