Rawles: Burn the 4473's

[AZRedhawk44]

http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/01/nunc-pro-tunc-the-coming-day-of-burn-barrels-and-blessings.html

Nunc Pro Tunc: The Coming Day of Burn Barrels and Blessings

This is a standing invitation to my fellow Americans: If congress ever enacts a law mandating the registration and/or a production ban of detachable magazine semiautomatic rifles then you are hereby invited to the town square of your local community. There, burn barrels will be set up and we will publicly burn Form 4473s, FFL Bound Books, state and local registration records, and the sales receipts for every firearm in the United States. On that same day, FFL holders and public officials holding electronic firearms records will simultaneously erase those records, permanently and irretrievably. (Using special file erasure software such as Blancco, X-Ways, and Stellar Wipe, or though the physical destruction of disk drives.)

Spontaneous Gatherings, Spontaneous Combustion

This burn barrel day--likely to be held the day after the President signs any new draconian legislation--will include speeches, public prayers, and the blessing of those who have gathered by ministers, rabbis, and priests.

The core of the activities on that day will be stalwart public defiance of any new unconstitutional law(s), the open and notorious destruction of records that might be used to enslave us, and vocal public affirmations of solidarity of free men and women, in the face of tyranny. This will be a defining moment for America--a line drawn in the sand. We will forthrightly declare that we will not obey any unconstitutional law and that we will treat it dismissively, as if it had never been enacted -- nunc pro tunc. We will pledge ourselves to the defense of liberty, both individually and collectively. We will vow that if ever called to jury duty, we will nullify any unconstitutional laws, vacating the charges against the accused, in accordance with our long-standing right as jurors. (See: www.FIJA.org.)

The Law is On Our Side

We will publicly re-affirm some long standing precepts of American jurisprudence, to wit:

    "The General rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of it's enactment and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it. An unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted.

    Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principles follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection, and justifies no acts performed under it...

    A void act cannot be legally consistent with a valid one. An unconstitutional law cannot operate to supersede any existing valid law. Indeed, insofar as a statute runs counter to the fundamental law of the lend, it is superseded thereby.

    No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it." - 16 Am Jur 2d, Sec 177 late 2d, Sec 256

Never Again!

Recognizing the many sad lessons of civilian disarmament and subsequent genocides in the 20th Century, we will make bold and forthright statement: Never Again! We will not submit to the unlawful decrees of tyrants. We will not meekly go their jails and internment camps. We will fight for our liberty, to our dying breath.

Come Armed, Come Masked

I recommend that all adults who publicly assemble at these burn barrel events do so armed, as is our right. And those who come armed should also wear masks, to protect themselves from malicious prosecution. I plan to wear a Guy Fawkes mask, but you can wear a bandana, face muffler, or the face mask of your choice. Joining you, also wearing masks, will be many mayors, sheriffs and their deputies, chiefs of police and their officers, town council members, clergy, and people of all walks of life. We vastly outnumber the tyrants. The tyrants deserve nothing but our scorn and derision. Their fate is already sealed.

Plausible Denial

After this fateful day has come and gone, FFL holders and public officials will be able to recount: "I had no choice. My records were taken by men with guns who were wearing masks!" (So they'll have no excuse if they don't cooperate with this nationwide display of civil disobedience.)

God Bless The Republic. Down with Tyrants. We Will Prevail!

- James Wesley, Rawles - January 28, 2013

Note: Permission to reprint or re-post this piece in full by any method (printed or electronically) is granted by the author (James Wesley, Rawles), as a long as it is not altered in any way and it is reproduced in full.

Starts off kinda weak (inviting other people to lawlessness), but the author demonstrates his own intent to be a participant as well.  Is Rawles an FFL?


Only applicable to FFL's, it appears.  I don't keep my sales receipts for firearms anyways so I would have nothing to burn.  I would expect that this would never happen, simply because there aren't enough FFL's to cause such a public event to happen, and the resulting bureaucratic backlash would have ATF agents in every firearms distributor warehouse prohibiting outbound shipments to anywhere that had its 4473's burned... even if it was "masked men" that did it.  I doubt many FFL holders would risk their license, unless a THRIVING localized firearms black market cottage industry popped up.

[zahc]

I agree except for the masks thing.

Although the original tea partiers did wear costumes, so I guess it's not unheard of.

[Blakenzy]

Haven't people become too tame to pull off something like this?

[red headed stranger]

I doubt many FFL's put out of business by any additional regulation are going to be too careful about tracking down all the old records that were destroyed in that flood in their basement a few months back.

[Balog]

Isn't the letter of the law that 4473's are allowed to be destroyed after X period of time anyway?

[Monkeyleg]

4473's have to be kept for at least 20 years. If a dealer goes out of business, the 4473's and other records must be sent to the ATF within 30 days.

[Tallpine]

4473's have to be kept for at least 20 years. If a dealer goes out of business, the 4473's and other records must be sent to the ATF within 30 days.

Does the law state in what condition? 

[zxcvbob]

4473's have to be kept for at least 20 years. If a dealer goes out of business, the 4473's and other records must be sent to the ATF within 30 days.

I have a friend that used to do some gunsmithing years ago.  When he retired, the shop where his bound book was kept burned down in a tragic fire before he could send it in.  Luckily nothing of any value was lost.  

I don't know if the story is really true or not, but it ought to be.  

[Viking]

Funnily enough, during the cold war it was a standing order over here at every police station in the country, that in case of un-peace of a Soviet nature, the local firearms registry was to be burned.

[ArfinGreebly]

I've always had a wry chuckle for this idea that "we don't have a national gun registry."

Sure we don't.

The retailers maintain a distributed registry for the government.  Technically the government doesn't maintain this registry.

Oddly, however, through a sort of business attrition, the government winds up holding this "distributed registry" until, gradually, save only for the data entry marathon, they have a record of every retail (and many private) gun purchases for the last twenty or more years.

And then the entertainment industry, through shows like CSI and NCIS, keep hammering the meme that "such-and-such a gun was registered to so-and-so," or perhaps, "yeah, but his gun was unregistered," implying that "guns are registered," and one day the population wakes up to de facto registration, but no one is surprised since -- culturally -- aren't all guns supposed to be registered?

Nope.  No registration here.  Move along now.

[freakazoid]

I think it would be better if done at the state capital. A lot more people would show up as opposed to the small turn out in small towns, doubt it would go very well when it's just one guy burning things at the town square.

[Cliffh]

I've always had a wry chuckle for this idea that "we don't have a national gun registry."

I've been trying to get that across to folks for years.  None of them want to believe it.

[French G.]

My LGS where I bought many things went under due to quibbling with the ATF and not getting their license renewed as part of a very long getting even on behalf of the ATF. And given that the employee who went to jail for selling stolen, unregistered happy switch stuff walked after a year in prison I'm guessing he turned rat. So, I'm guessing the ATF has my info.

[JN01]

4473's have to be kept for at least 20 years. If a dealer goes out of business, the 4473's and other records must be sent to the ATF within 30 days.

Does that mean that a dealer could destroy all records older than 20 years and only have to send the newer records to ATF when he goes out of business?

[zxcvbob]

Yes.  IMHO, he should be routinely shredding or burning them once the retention period has lapsed.

[kgbsquirrel]

Funnily enough, during the cold war it was a standing order over here at every police station in the country, that in case of un-peace of a Soviet nature, the local firearms registry was to be burned.

Well, that's because common sense still ruled the day. In event of possible capture destroy everything of value or use, right down to the damned flag pole so your enemy doesn't have a place to hoist their colors.


I never thought I'd see the day where I'd view a public book burning the town square as a good thing. I guess there's a first time for everything.

[wmenorr67]

Question for any of us that has a FFL and where everything is done via computer now.  Is the 4473 uploaded and sent to the FBI to do the NICS or is it stored on a hard drive at the store.  If stored on a hard drive those things are always crashing, if uploaded then the FBI has the info already.

[zxcvbob]

I'm pretty sure it's just paper forms.  The FFL calls in the buyers identity, and whether it's a long gun or a handgun, and that's about it.  If there's an electronic version, I've never seen it.

[zahc]

My ex-local gun store got in trouble with the ATF for scanning 4473s and indexing them for their own records. They were in complete compliance with the paper 4473s...they did not think that routinely digitizing them for their own use would be in violation of any rules, so long as their paper copies were in order. However, they only started scanning the 4473s a few years ago. Since their electronic records did not match the paper (even though it was a strict subset of the paper), ATF yanked their FFL. Now they are just a pawn shop/archery shop.

Moral: Do the bare minimum; assume nothing.

[41magsnub]

To ask a stupid question, what use are old 4473's to an FFL other than for the ATF required record retention?

[lupinus]

An excuse to buy shiny new filing cabinets as the old ones fill up.

[Blakenzy]

My ex-local gun store got in trouble with the ATF for scanning 4473s and indexing them for their own records. They were in complete compliance with the paper 4473s...they did not think that routinely digitizing them for their own use would be in violation of any rules, so long as their paper copies were in order. However, they only started scanning the 4473s a few years ago. Since their electronic records did not match the paper (even though it was a strict subset of the paper), ATF yanked their FFL. Now they are just a pawn shop/archery shop.

Moral: Do the bare minimum; assume nothing.

BATFE exemplifies everything that's wrong with bureaucracies.... and they shoot people too!

[ArfinGreebly]

To ask a stupid question, what use are old 4473's to an FFL other than for the ATF required record retention?

I'm sorry, you're not permitted to ask that question.

[wmenorr67]

I had a reason for my question because the last time I filled out a 4473, at Tinker AFB of all places, it was done on a computer.  But I just now remember that they printed a hard copy.