American Military News by Matthew Medsger - Boston Herald  April 18, 2024

It’s been a quarter of a century since the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado brought the “gun show loophole” into popular discourse, and the Biden administration has just announced it would move unilaterally to end the practice following decades of inaction by Congress.

A new federal regulation published by the Department of Justice on Thursday, titled “Final Rule: Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer,” aims to greatly reduce the number of firearms sold without a background check and comes following the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, according to the Biden White house.

“I’ve spent hours with families who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence. They all have the same message: ‘Do something.’ Today, my Administration is taking action to make sure fewer guns are sold without background checks. This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons. And my Administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

Loopholes in the nation’s gun laws allow “domestic abusers, school shooters, violent criminals, and gun traffickers” to obtain firearms at local gun shows without criminal background checks, the White House said, and those same loopholes allow some gun sellers who should be required to run background checks to skirt the law and operate without a license to deal in firearms.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 includes a provision allowing for a broader definition of what makes a gun dealer and outlining who is required to hold a dealer’s license. In 2023, Biden signed an executive order fast-tracking implementation of the law. The announcement of the Final Rule this week “clarifies the type of conduct that requires a person to get a license to sell guns and to conduct background checks.”

More: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/04/gun-show-loophole-rule-that-will-outlaw-virtually-all-private-gun-sales-announced-by-biden-administration/

The greatest catch of all time, and there have been many, was by the say hey kid (Willie Mays) in center field at Yankee Stadium.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bLt2xKaNH0

Polo Grounds!  Say Hey!

Now we wait to see what the near-term reaction will be. That will indicate where this thing is going.

FBI boards ship amid investigation into what caused Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse

American Military News by  Cheryl Hinneburg, Alex Mann - The Baltimore Sun, Dan Belson - The Capital and Darcy Costello - Baltimore Sun 4/18/2024

The FBI on Monday raided the container ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge nearly three weeks ago as part of an investigation into the deadly bridge collapse.

Agents boarded the Dali Monday morning and were “conducting court authorized law enforcement activity,” a spokesperson for the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office said Monday, declining to comment further.

The FBI likely is looking into whether any federal laws were broken in the lead up to the bridge disaster, experts said For example, in past American maritime disasters, federal authorities leveraged an old statute known as “seaman’s manslaughter” to prosecute people they believed to have been criminally negligent for people’s deaths.

The Dali, a 984-foot ship which weighed about 112,000 tons loaded with cargo, apparently lost power and rammed one of the Key Bridge’s main support piers in the early morning of March 26, causing the 1.6-mile span to immediately collapse into the Patapsco River along with seven construction workers, killing six men.

Video of the collapse showed the lights aboard the Dali go out and then flicker as it approached the Key Bridge. A local pilot, who was onboard to guide the ship out of the harbor safely, reported losing all power, including the ability to steer, in a “mayday” call shortly before striking the bridge.

The FBI’s criminal investigation would run in parallel to the one by the National Transportation Safety Board, which aims to prevent future accidents.

The NTSB’s investigation has focused on the Dali’s engine room, board chair Jennifer Homendy told federal lawmakers last week.

Officials previously said the Dali’s crew reported to the Coast Guard that they were going to be conducting routine engine maintenance while in Baltimore.

The vessel experienced apparent electrical issues before it left the Port of Baltimore, the Associated Press reported Monday, citing an anonymous source with knowledge of the situation. That person said alarms went off on the ship’s refrigerated containers while it was still docked, likely indicating an inconsistent power supply.

That the FBI said it was onboard conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity” suggests agents were serving a federal search warrant, Rod Rosenstein, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for Maryland, told The Baltimore Sun. Federal judges sign off on such warrants only after agents present probable cause that there was crime, he said.

More: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/04/fbi-boards-ship-amid-investigation-into-what-caused-francis-scott-key-bridge-collapse/