Internal Revenue Service IRS
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By Larry Keane

The Biden administration’s plan to fund a multitrillion-dollar spending plan includes having the IRS snoop into every American’s bank account to examine transactions that are $600 or greater. This alarming proposal has implications far beyond the government looking to extract tax money. It is also a potential way for the Biden administration to track who is purchasing firearms.

Treasury Sec. Janet Yellin was on Capitol Hill defending the Biden administration’s proposal.

“I think it’s important to recognize that we have a tax gap that’s estimated at $7 trillion over the next decade,” Sec. Yellen said, according to a Fox Business report. “That is taxes that are due and are not being paid to the government that deprive us of the resources that we need to do critical investments to make America more productive and competitive.”

Not Just Taxes, But Purchases

The Biden administration proposes that banks and credit unions report every transaction at the $600 threshold to counter tax cheats. That’s got privacy advocates howling. It is especially concerning for the firearm industry and its customers that the government would collect information that could potentially include firearm purchases. While many firearms sold might not meet that $600 reporting requirement, a significant number would. It threatens to become a back-door gun registry.

Sec. Yellen balked at the notion the government is intruding on financial privacy, explaining the IRS already has “a wealth of information about individuals,” citing examples such as the W-2 form filed for a person’s job, but said the IRS needs more information on “higher-income individuals who have opaque sources of income … not low-income people.”

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) grilled Sec. Yellin over the proposal in a Senate hearing.

“There are obvious privacy concerns for all Americans here and this represents a dramatic new regulatory burden for community banks and credit unions in Wyoming and elsewhere,” Sen. Lummis said. “Do you distrust the American people so much that you need to know when they bought a couch? Or a cow?”

Or a gun.

Do You Trust the IRS?

The proposal is being met with fierce resistance, as it should. The IRS has already proven to be untrustworthy of personal information. The agency has been weaponized for political overreach before. The Department of Justice (DOJ) settled a lawsuit in 2017 brought by dozens of conservative groups after the IRS unfairly scrutinized the tax exempt status of organizations based on political leanings under the Obama administration, while President Joe Biden was vice president. That was the 2013 scandal in which then-Acting Director of Exempt Organizations at IRS, Lois Lerner remained defiant when called before Congress.

Lois Lerner
In this May 22, 2013 file photo, Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner listens during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

It’s also ironic that the Biden administration is prying into Americans’ private expenditures when it just surfaced that President Biden avoided paying $500,000 from earnings on speaking tours and book sales prior to his White House election.

Congressional Opposition

The attempt to track Americans’ spending on items $600 or more, which would include firearm purchases, isn’t sitting well with banks or lawmakers. The American Bankers Association wrote to both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate that the proposal, “…implicates customer privacy and data security on a massive scale…” The letter added that the IRS already collects massive amounts of data it is unable to manage.

Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), a member of the Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, published a column in The Hill, ripping the proposed reporting requirements as reckless and ripe for abuse.

“Given the IRS’s track record on data security, including a 2015 data breach, tasking the agency to secure additional taxpayer information from nearly every American is a complicated and hazardous gamble, and one the federal government isn’t historically capable of winning.”

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) introduced the Tax Gap Reform and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Enforcement Act in both chambers as S. 2721 and H.R. 5206. Rep. Brady said in addition to getting a true assessment of the IRS so-called tax gap, “This bill also protects taxpayers from IRS targeting based on their political or religious beliefs and closes loopholes that risk leaking private taxpayer returns.”

Sen. Crapo added, “This legislation places important guardrails around IRS funding to protect taxpayers’ rights and privacy.”

Tommy Tuberville
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) introduced S. 2857, the Banking Secrecy Act, to prohibit any Federal agency from requiring financial institutions to report on the financial transactions of their customers. Sen. Tuberville told media he wants Americans to pay their fair share of taxes, “But I don’t want the federal government, ‘big brother,’ to be harassing private citizens.”

The prospect of a government agency monitoring every $600 expense is deeply concerning. When that prospect is also being brought by an administration bent on enacting gun control by any means and proposed for an agency with a poor track record of securing taxpayer privacy, it is a recipe for disaster. The IRS has no place delving into Americans’ wallets, especially when it is a means to access what is in their gun safe.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

 

112 COMMENTS

  1. What’s even worse is the left wants a cashless society, forever ending the possibility of any discreet transactions. Or so they think. Honest law abiding citizen/subjects may comply but the criminal element will always find a way around.

    • Cashless will never truly be implemented fully. As has happened many times before, I was in yet another store last week that had posted a sign on its door saying “No Credit/Debit Payments At This Time Due To Phone/Internet Connection Down.” Only cash was accepted…which I happily paid as always. Before that, it was my local corner gas station whose phone line had gone down and was only taking cash. Before that, a semi truck in another part of town hit a telephone pole and took out the connection to several blocks of businesses for two full days. Nearly all of those businesses shut down, and the few that smartly chose to remain open and accept cash had lines of customers out their doors.

      It doesn’t have to be a widespread power outage, or an EMP/CME, or such. It can be a simple connection issue.

      • Never is a long time, but I’d concede it isn’t happening in my lifetime, but not for the reason you mentioned. We can’t give up the damn penny, how do you think eliminating the $20 bill would go over?

  2. Yellen still has a hard-on for Fedcoin so worrying about financial privacy is pretty pointless.
    They want to track every transaction and be able to switch your ability to transact on and off depending on how well behaved you are. New monetary theory requires it not be worth anything on its own but have value as a stick or carrot to steer you away from wrongthink.

    Meanwhile the “fair share” people want to hand free money to households making $400,000 and punitively spy on people spending $600 to fill their heating oil tank. Politicians are not your friends.

    • One of the features of the cashless/electronic system is that your “credits” or whatever they will be called expire at a date determined by the bankers/IRS… No savings allowed.

    • ‘Just remember who has boatloads of gunz.’

      All I need is some SCUBA lessons so I can go retrieve them.

      • Ever hear of the Holodomor? When the men with guns come they will take your food and leave you to starve (if you’re lucky).

        • For many farmers/ranchers, when the men with guns come they will fertilize the fields. When others come to find out what happened to them, *they* will then fertilize the fields. When a larger contingent is dispatched, neighbors will have become involved and they ALL will fertilize the fields. Eventually it will cease being fun, and they will stop coming. It’s OK, there is fertilizer for sale at the store.
          Meanwhile, a $20 deposit will hold my purchase while I run to the bank and withdraw the rest of $1500 to purchase my new toy.

  3. Yellen conceded, “That’s correct, but it’s important to have comprehensive information so that individuals can’t game the system and have multiple accounts.”

    I like “gaming the system”. It’s an American tradition, and people have been doing it forever.

  4. Its good to be informed. But Biden has lots of plans, plots, and schemes that will never come to fruition. They just make great talking points when out on the stump.

  5. Combine this proposed vile intrusion into our financial privacy with the drive to eliminate cash. Total government oversight of your life. The old saying, “You can tell what is important to a man or woman (I still admit there are two sexes with distinct, inarguable differences) by observing his or her spending habits”.

    The DemoCommies want to collect and use big data to profile us, to find reasons to prosecute us, to intimidate us, to remove liberty through regulation (avoiding legislation), and to end this glorious Republic. Yeah, I know, this Republic is already on its knees and gasping since the 2020 election fraud-spiracy.

    We win by fighting, resisting, refusing to comply, getting the word out, organizing, looking past our differences, being well-informed, and being well-armed. We only lose when we stop fighting.

    • The gradual slide is toward total control, and we believers know it’s coming at some point. The USD’s eventual collapse and death is now baked in the cake due to decades of mismanagement. The Guv has already tasked the USPS with development of a national crypto (yeah, I know, I couldn’t believe it at first when I read it, either…the Post Office?), so the theory is that there will be a United States Crypto introduced within the next few years. Hyperinflation is always a societal phenomenon in which a loss of confidence in a currency results in its collapse, so when people are told the already-shaky and declining USD will be discontinued by a certain deadline, everyone will either follow directions and convert to the FedCoin or attempt to spend what they have before it’s useless, and that will drive the final nail into the USD’s coffin. At that point, cash will finally no longer be legal tender, and the Guv will have access to all transactions. One of the final dominoes will be in place to fulfill the End Times.

      Remember when – not too long ago – it was difficult to imagine Revelation’s description of the entire world viewing the bodies of the two slain Messengers and “rejoicing and giving gifts to each other because they were no longer tormented by their message”? Now we all have smartphones in our hand and can view anything from pretty much anywhere. Spooky.

      Of course, read a couple of verses further, and the Lord revives them…also for the entire world to see.

      • Haz,
        For decades, I have always discounted forecasts of the apocalypse because the mechanisms for global control did not exist. Now, with a global communications network combined with geoengineering and genetic warfare (can you spell Covid?) those mechanism are being put in place.

      • Not to be stupid, but the entire concept of Crypto is to avoid government tracking and/or interference, why would ANYONE think US government issued/tracked Crypto is going anywhere?

        • “…why would ANYONE think US government issued Crypto is going anywhere?”

          USG once banned possession of gold. USG once removed gold backing from currency. USG can declare currency and coin to no longer be “legal tender” for “all debts, private and public.” The USG can declare that all bank and financial institutions must use only government issued crypto currency, and must decline any other form, including for international transactions. The USG can use any form of payment it needs to conduct foreign transactions. No underground market can sustain an entire nation.

        • Sam, in that event it will not be crypto currency, it will have become U.S legal tender and our only currency, no different than the currency we use now. And the current crypto currencies will still hold the exact position they now hold. There is no magic.

    • I believe the European banks have been browbeaten into sharing with the IRS information about accounts held by US citizens. The days of hiding your assets over there are gone. There may be some Caribbean countries that are holding out because they make so much money handling accounts for drug cartels.

      • I respect your opinion but I’d take my chances if necessary. The Swiss are neutral and not easily intimidated. They make too much money off of everybody else’s money. They don’t need the US purse assistance and never have.

        • “The agreement was signed back in June of 2014, and it allows the US government to request information on accounts held by US citizens. The account holder has to consent to this sharing of information.

          If they do not, the bank is still obliged to send the US government aggregated data anonymized. Should the US government identify any illegal activity, it can request information on particular clients as part of its investigation.”

          https://bankbonus.com/guides/swiss-bank-account/

          Since the US government has no problem seizing assets they assume are fraudulently gained (civil asset forfeiture) there is zero reason to believe they would not easily identify “illegal” transactions if they were trying to crack down on a particular segment of the population.

  6. Guess there’s going to be daily $599 transactions until the item is paid for. Then it will ship or be transferred to the buyer. Installment plans are the way to go.

    • Eh, think there is a 10k rule for IRS reporting on deposits to accounts. But if you frequently deposit amounts BELOW that, apparently that can still raise an alarm somehow. Probably because the banks are petrified that if they don’t report every questionable transaction, the fed will come down hard on them.

    • The gov has algorithms for that and law exception that allow them to look at transactions under the current 10K$ criteria. They’ll do the same for the new $600 limit.

      • So if I withdraw $9000 in Benjamins, they know *what*? They can ask me, and I can reply “fuck you”. This is fruitcake conspiracy silliness, guys, a waste of time.

  7. Sounds like working under the table for cash will become normal, maybe not in corporate America but in small communities, Car repair shops, Muffler repair and all small businesses to avoid taxes.

    If successful, Government can start to mandate no cash sales, therefore they will know every transaction and increase tax rates. They won’t call it a tax, it will be called a transaction fee. By the way, this is not in the future, it’s happening now.

    • Ive often thought about this. But in this day and age it would be impossible to prove your innocence (what an audit is) because you simply won’t be able to legitimately account for even relatively small purchases. I ate out every night and paid cash. Where did the cash come from? Estimate $25/night, that’s $750. What did you do to earn that? Then go to the supposed customer and ask them. If they want to get us/you/them, they can.

      NOTHING is untraceable except face to face transactions that are random happenstance (private citizens transacting at a gun show for instance, but not vendors) and aren’t on camera.

  8. The current 10K$ snooping criteria was enacted in 1970 when the median family income was 9.6K$. Today the median family income in 2020 is 67K$.

    The 10K$ has not risen with inflation.

    Therefore the clip level today is just 16% of a family income and thus sweeps up a huge amount of family expense data.

    This $600 will not change forever so eventually every box of ammo your grandkids buy will be tracked.

    • “eventually every box of ammo your grandkids buy will be tracked.” Sounds like California with their license to purchase ammo laws. Don’t remember if the law also requires a photo with purchase, if not it will be,,, just around the corner.

      • I thankfully escaped that commie state. It is beyond ridiculous. What’s worse is that it worked as expected by the liberal overlords there. Many people who could legally purchase ammo were refused because of glitches in the system and errors in submitting names, etc.

    • Yeah, I love the implication that $600+ means I’m in the ‘higher income’ bracket. I’m not rich but I’m not *that* poor either, geeze.

    • the ways things are going there may not be any ammo to buy by the times the grand kids are old enough to buy ammo.

    • Billy…..Was going to say the same thing. This is a good indicator or the kind of evil trash we have in THEIR government. Instead of saying they need to cut back on spending , they want more of other peoples’ money till it runs out then print until it’s worthless and we’re almost there now.

  9. Honestly, this was predicted in the Bible going into the end times, especially the idea of the government controlling the currency so groups they disagree with can’t spend money. This could easily be turned into a weapon. A big example is churches. If they don’t support gay marriage, abortion, or any other liberal agenda antithetical to the church, they use this as a weapon against them. This is especially the case if they can get rid of cash and so see every transaction made.

      • Yeah, I did see it. If this discussion board had a way to like a comment, I’d have liked yours. Very well stated. Cheers mate.

        • “If this discussion board had a way to like a comment, I’d have liked yours.”

          “+1” has been adopted as the most common means of commuincating “likes”.

          It is also possible to copy and paste an icon from outside the blog.

    • The bible says everything and anything you want it to say, proving nothing. It is nonsense, because there is no such thing as magic. Sorry, but it’s time to wake up!

      • Ok Larry, whatever you say. But I have to ask you this: what does it matter to you if I believe the Bible? What does it matter if I believe God exists and that he loves us? It obviously matters to you if you are willing to take the time to comment on something I have said. So out of curiosity, I’d love for you to respond to this.

        • You made a comment, unrequested, attesting to the advance knowledge of today’s events from a human author of children’s bedtime stories 1500 years ago just as though that made any sense. On a discussion board. I made a comment discussing it. Why does making such comments reach a level of importance to you that you stick such nonsense into discussions about reality? Do you believe the fortune teller at the county fair knows the future? Because that charlatan has a LOT more current info with which to fabricate guesses than someone who died 1500 years ago and had the equivalent of today’s first grade education at the best.

        • OOoops! I did not check, if the silliness about “the end times” was from the Old Testament, change those references to “1500 years ago” to “4500 years ago” instead. Even more silly!

        • Larry, it’s not so silly when most predictions have come true and those that haven’t, haven’t happened yet (such as end time prophecy), unlike the charlatans with modern knowledge you speak of at the fair. Now you may say that my sources are Christian, but they are still sources, which is more then you have provided.

          https://www.kcmifm.com/blog/2019/10/14/does-the-bible-have-prophecies-which-have-actually-come-true

          https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/watchtower-no2-2018-may-jun/bible-prophecies-fulfilled/

          https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/fulfilled-prophecy-evidence-for-the-reliability-of-the-bible

          And sure you can comment, but that wasn’t my question. My question is why do you care? Yeah, I did post to this discussion board my Christian beliefs (which btw, what I said was relevant as in the Bible, a currency that can be easily withheld is discussed in regards of the end times), but you notice that you’re the only one to question my sanity for what I believe in. And you asked why this is a level of importance to go in the discussion board. It’s because my faith is that important to me, so why not? Whether there are others that disagree with what I believe in, we don’t know right now. What we do know is if anybody else does disagree with my beliefs, they haven’t said a word, but instead ignored me. As a matter of fact, our resident socialist (dacien) should have chimed in by now, since as a socialist, I’d expect him to be anti-religion but even he hasn’t. Just you. Furthermore, there are others who believe the same thing who have even mentioned it a little on here, so you question their sanity as well… again without anything to support your conclusion. Honestly, you are sounding like dacien right now.

          Btw, when you look at history, it is a fallacy to look at historical times and compare them to modern times. Historians usually try not to do this. Just a little advice there.

  10. WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another…

    That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…

    But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government…

    He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance…

    For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent…

    He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us…

    In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury…

    Sound familiar?

    • “He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance…”

      Of the 27 abuses outlined in the DOI, this is the one I have memorized, and use in conversations with people. I find that they tend to connect with the DOI better when they hear something that’s similar in their lives today.

      • In 1768, John Dickinson wrote: A Song Now Much In Vogue in North America, also known as “The Liberty Song.” It’s worth a read. One of the stanzas was:

        Swarms of placemen and pensioners soon will appear, like locusts deforming the charms of the year:
        Suns vainly will rise, showers vainly descend,
        If we are to drudge for what others shall spend.

        • I forgot to add the stanza that went before the above:

          How sweet are the labors that freemen endure,
          That they shall enjoy all the profit, secure –
          No more such sweet labors Americans know,
          If Britons shall reap what Americans sow.
          In freedom we’re born -“

        • Well, DAMN, Ticked! And 8 years prior to the efforts of 1776? Wonderful quote, thanks so much.

          I guess now we should substitute “Socialists” for “Britons”, and it’s ready for reissue.

  11. We don’t need taxes that didn’t exist in the year 1900. User fees can pay for the rest.

    • John, I actually consider that a bit too extreme, but if approved by the process of Constitutional Amendment, I could live with it.

  12. And republicans in Pennsylvania want the state to turn over the private information of every voter including name, address, phone number and social security number. Choose your poison children.

    • They also want those addresses to be somewhere in America, even Pennsylvania, and the SSNs to be real and associated with those names and addresses. What is wrong with that? Does it deny the traditional vote of your great-great grandfather who died in 1960?

  13. The greatest accomplishments of evil are persuading people that it does not exist, and people are inherently “good”.

  14. The government does not need the new law to track your purchases because they are already doing it every time you use a credit card.

    The ATF has in the past been caught filming license plate numbers at gun shows.

    Now that most businesses have security cameras those too can be hacked by the government especially at gun shows and gun stores and some flea markets.

    The government can and probably does watch gun forums just like this one.

    If you subscribe to any gun magazines the government already has that info

    If you bought a hunting license or fishing the government has that info on you.

    If you have a concealed carry permit the government has that information on you.

    If you bought a gun or ammo on credit the government has that information on you.

    The new spy machine that can look into your house by the cops from their police cars has been ruled constitutional by the corrupt gun hating courts. If you have any weapons they will be able to see them without even getting out of their cruiser.

    Your cell phone tracks your position and is available to the police.

    Your black box in your car tracks your activity and the government can access that info.

    Your credit card purchases track your whereabouts when you use them and what you used them to buy.

    I think you can begin to see how silly it is to think the population could ever have an uprising against the government. Trumpite anarchists already have found that out as they are currently sitting in prison.

    The government could seize control of all ammunition plants anytime it wants to.

    The government could seize control of all weapons manufacturing plants anytime it wants to.

    There is no more U.S. lead smelter plants that used to sell lead to the ammo companies as the EPA shut down the last one several years ago. All processed lead is now shipped in from outside the U.S. and those shipments must be ok’d by the government.

    Even if we still lived in 1776 the government could seize weapons simply by posting a notice in the newspapers giving you warning you had only so many days to turn in banned weapons or you would be fined as in the current machine gun law which fines you $250,000 and puts you in prison for 20 years. In other words registration is not needed and never was needed to confiscate guns.

    Prior to and after 1776 Historians uncovered a plethora of anti-gun laws at the local and state levels that were already on the books in those days that put various restrictions on owning, using or carrying weapons. In other words gun control is not new and pre-dated the Constitution and went on after the Constitution and 2A was adopted. The last MNBC program on guns and the NRA a few weeks ago went over this and it surprised many people that there were so many anti-gun laws in the 1700’s in the U.S. That info shows the framers of the Constitution and 2A did not write 2A to cover the right of private citizens to own weapons restriction free because plenty of such restrictions already existed and continued to exist after 1776.

    • ” If you have any weapons they will be able to see them without even getting out of their cruiser.”

      I’m sure that happens all the time in Chicago! LOL

    • And the government and their agents are notoriously incompetent and historically lazy, not to mention chickenshit, while I agree they should not have the mentioned encouragements, I’m not particularly worried that they will suddenly become efficient.

      And let us not forget, the mentioned gun control laws preceding the Constitution and Bill of Rights in 1791 were perfectly fine, and disappeared as legal factoids after that.

  15. Republicans under Trump cancelled trillions in taxes for 600 Billionaires but claim we should not cancel student loan debt or pass a National Health Care Bill.

    And the war in Afghanistan cost 300 MILLION PER DAY FOR 20 YEARS but Republicans again say we cannot afford a National Health Care bill or cancel Student Loan Debt.

    “Two things are infinite: The Universe and Republican Conservative stupidity; and I’m not sure about the Universe.”

    • Remember,guys. little d has proven himself to be severely mentally ill.

      You wouldn’t kick a puppy, would you? So just leave him alone.

    • “The last MNBC program on guns and the NRA a few weeks ago went over this and it surprised many people that there were so many anti-gun laws in the 1700’s in the U.S. That info shows the framers of the Constitution and 2A did not write 2A to cover the right of private citizens to own weapons restriction free because plenty of such restrictions already existed and continued to exist after 1776.”

      Do you mean laws like this: (Spelling is based on the time period and the writings of those periods)

      From 1619 “That no man do fell or give any Indians any piece ƒhott, or poulder or any other armes offenfive or deffenfive upon paine of being held a Traytor to the Colony, & of being hanged…”

      Or from 1642
      “Be it also enacted and confirmed, that what person or persons soever shall sell or barter with any Indian or Indians for piece, powder and shot and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall forfeit his whole estate . . . and if any person shall barter or trade with the Indians for any other commodities such person shall suffer imprisonment at the discretion of the Governor and Counsel. . . What person or persons soever within the colony, shall lend any Indian either piece, powder and shot, it shall be lawful for any person meeting with any such Indian so furnished, to take away either piece, powder or shot, so as such person taking away . . . the party delinquent for his just offence shall forfeit two thousand pounds of tobacco . . .”
      or:
      In 1656, the Colony of Massachussetts Bay “General Court” ordered:
      “…henceforth no negroes or Indians, although servants to the English, shall be armed or pmitted to trayne…”

      1664 “The Colony of New York. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that it shall not be lawful for any slave or slave to have or use any gun, pistol, sword, club or any other kind of weapon whatsoever, but in the presence or by the direction of his her or their Master or Mistress, and in their own ground on Penalty of being whipped for the same at the discretion of the Justice of the Peace before whom such complaint shall come or upon the view of the said justice not exceeding twenty lashes on the bare back for every such offense.”

      1715 “That no negro or other slave within this province shall be permitted to carry any gun, or any other offensive weapon, from off their master’s land, without licence from their said master; and if any negro or other slave shall presume so to do, he shall be liable to be carried before a justice of peace, and be whipped, and his gun or other offensive weapon shall be forfeited to him that shall seize the same and carry such negro so offending before a justice of peace.”

      Other laws required certain folk to be armed at certain times and places, to include Church. There were all laws that stated the head of household was required to own a firearm and sufficient powder and ball. If they were too poor to afford, they were to bring tradeable items like food or animals to trade for with the magistrate.

      I am curious of which types of laws you are wanting for today? We know you would reword some of them, like instead of negro, black, slave or Indians, you would instead say hillbilly, hill jack, redneck, conservatives, Republican’s or just those you don’t agree with.

      • Were muskets in 1777 better regulated than assault rifles in 2017? Jana Shea/Shutterstock.com
        Five types of gun laws the Founding Fathers loved
        The Second Amendment is one of the most frequently cited provisions in the American Constitution, but also one of the most poorly understood.

        The 27 words that constitute the Second Amendment seem to baffle modern Americans on both the left and right.

        Ironically, those on both ends of our contemporary political spectrum cast the Second Amendment as a barrier to robust gun regulation. Gun rights supporters – mostly, but not exclusively, on the right – seem to believe that the Second Amendment prohibits many forms of gun regulation. On the left, frustration with the lack of progress on modern gun control leads to periodic calls for the amendment’s repeal.

        Both of these beliefs ignore an irrefutable historical truth. The framers and adopters of the Second Amendment were generally ardent supporters of the idea of well-regulated liberty. Without strong governments and effective laws, they believed, liberty inevitably degenerated into licentiousness and eventually anarchy. Diligent students of history, particularly Roman history, the Federalists who wrote the Constitution realized that tyranny more often resulted from anarchy, not strong government.

        I have been researching and writing about the history of gun regulation and the Second Amendment for the past two decades. When I began this research, most people assumed that regulation was a relatively recent phenomenon, something associated with the rise of big government in the modern era. Actually, while the founding generation certainly esteemed the idea of an armed population, they were also ardent supporters of gun regulations.

        Consider these five categories of gun laws that the Founders endorsed.

        #1: Registration
        Today American gun rights advocates typically oppose any form of registration – even though such schemes are common in every other industrial democracy – and typically argue that registration violates the Second Amendment. This claim is also hard to square with the history of the nation’s founding. All of the colonies – apart from Quaker-dominated Pennsylvania, the one colony in which religious pacifists blocked the creation of a militia – enrolled local citizens, white men between the ages of 16-60 in state-regulated militias. The colonies and then the newly independent states kept track of these privately owned weapons required for militia service. Men could be fined if they reported to a muster without a well-maintained weapon in working condition.

        #2: Public carry
        The modern gun rights movement has aggressively pursued the goal of expanding the right to carry firearms in public.

        The American colonies inherited a variety of restrictions that evolved under English Common Law. In 18th-century England, armed travel was limited to a few well-defined occasions such as assisting justices of the peace and constables. Members of the upper classes also had a limited exception to travel with arms. Concealable weapons such as handguns were subject to even more stringent restrictions. The city of London banned public carry of these weapons entirely.

        The American Revolution did not sweep away English common law. In fact, most colonies adopted common law as it had been interpreted in the colonies prior to independence, including the ban on traveling armed in populated areas. Thus, there was no general right of armed travel when the Second Amendment was adopted, and certainly no right to travel with concealed weapons. Such a right first emerged in the United States in the slave South decades after the Second Amendment was adopted. The market revolution of the early 19th century made cheap and reliable hand guns readily available. Southern murder rates soared as a result.

        In other parts of the nation, the traditional English restrictions on traveling armed persisted with one important change. American law recognized an exception to this prohibition for individuals who had a good cause to fear an imminent threat. Nonetheless, by the end of the century, prohibiting public carry was the legal norm, not the exception.

        #3: Stand-your-ground laws
        Under traditional English common law, one had a duty to retreat, not stand your ground. Deadly force was justified only if no other alternative was possible. One had to retreat, until retreat was no longer possible, before killing an aggressor.

        The use of deadly force was justified only in the home, where retreat was not required under the so-called castle doctrine, or the idea that “a man’s home is his castle.” The emergence of a more aggressive view of the right of self-defense in public, standing your ground, emerged slowly in the decades after the Civil War.

        #4: Safe storage laws
        Although some gun rights advocates attempt to demonize government power, it is important to recognize that one of the most important rights citizens enjoy is the freedom to elect representatives who can enact laws to promote health and public safety. This is the foundation for the idea of ordered liberty. The regulation of gun powder and firearms arises from an exercise of this basic liberty.

        In 1786, Boston acted on this legal principle, prohibiting the storage of a loaded firearm in any domestic dwelling in the city. Guns had to be kept unloaded, a practice that made sense since the black powder used in firearms in this period was corrosive. Loaded guns also posed a particular hazard in cases of fire because they might discharge and injure innocent bystanders and those fighting fires.

        #5: Loyalty oaths
        One of the most common claims one hears in the modern Second Amendment debate is the assertion that the Founders included this provision in the Constitution to make possible a right of revolution. But this claim, too, rests on a serious misunderstanding of the role the right to bear arms played in American constitutional theory.

        In fact, the Founders engaged in large-scale disarmament of the civilian population during the American Revolution. The right to bear arms was conditional on swearing a loyalty oath to the government. Individuals who refused to swear such an oath were disarmed.

        The notion that the Second Amendment was understood to protect a right to take up arms against the government is absurd. Indeed, the Constitution itself defines such an act as treason.

        Gun regulation and gun ownership have always existed side by side in American history. The Second Amendment poses no obstacle to enacting sensible gun laws. The failure to do so is not the Constitution’s fault; it is ours.

        https://theconversation.com/five-types-of-gun-laws-the-founding-fathers-loved-85364

        Beth Daley

        • Yeah right. The Founding Fathers left Britain to come form another government just like the one they left. That’s why they shot Gen. Gage’s army too right? I call BS on your …BS

        • No Paratrooper I proved I was right and you knew zero about gun laws in the 1700″s. Be man enough to admit you were wrong. And by the way MSNBC went into more detail than that as they broke it down city by city. Too bad you do not watch education programs instead of all the right wing baloney you see on Fox News.

        • No, what you did was copy and paste a opinion of someone else. I pulled actual laws from the time period. Those laws showed racial prejudice in the application of the laws.

          We do know you approve of those laws.

        • And hypocrite Paratrooper you copy and pasted the same as I did. And what I pasted was documentation of by man who researched actual laws which you rejected with a wave of the ignorant hand because it did not fit your fantasies of what gun laws and life were like in the 1700’s. A Historian you certainly are not.

        • And Fake Paratrooper

          As a matter of fact MSNBC proved that anti-gun laws exploded as the Naked White Ape invaded the Western U.S. with his wars of mass genocide and as the new cities grew so did the anti-gun laws that were expanded at a more rapid rate after 2A was written.

          quote————–We do know you approve of those laws.———–quote———–quote

          Most of those laws are still on the books today fake Paratrooper, and upheld as Constitutional. I know this is a complete shock to the uneducated like yourself.

          Try again fake Paratrooper you are only attempting to reject history and in the process making a complete fool of yourself because Sordid American History, not Myself , is making a complete idiot of you.

        • I copied and pasted the actual laws, not someone else’s opinion of laws.

          Those laws your copy and paste came from were generally applied to anyone other than whites. A few exceptions for the Irish and others.

  16. Only FAR RIGHT criminal gangster Republicans would worry about such a rule. The compassionate administration we currently have is ONLY INTERESTED IN TAXING THE RICH! LIKE PEOPLE THAT MAKE OVER $400,000! No one needs that much money!!! Except the government!!! And Obama!!

    • Its about time we tax the rich because they are stealing your tax money in the form of Corporate subsidies. Under the Trump tax rape bill the rich were practically granted immunity from taxation which ran the deficit up by 3 trillion dollars.

      You deserve some of your own tax money back in the form of social programs when you need them and that includes health and drug care and education expenses. Are you Moron enough to say know I want all my tax money to fill the greedy pockets of the super rich?????????

        • Bullshit. Amazon made 2 billion in profit last year and under the Trump tax rape law paid zero taxes in 2020. None of this loot was shared with the troglodyte worker slaves. Many more corporations also paid zero taxes but many also got your tax dollars in the form of wheel barrel’s full of cash in the form of corporate subsides. In other words they laughed all the way to the bank with wheel barrels full of your money. Such is life under the yoke of the Capitalvanian greed monger gangster criminals.

        • True it was not but read your own post genius boy as you quoted the year 2017 not the later Trump Tax Rape Bill which also guaranteed Amazon and hundreds of other businesses they would pay no taxes. Now what part of this do you not understand?????? Nice end run around the truth and the use of smoke and mirrors. It did not work

        • It means it was happening before Trump.

          But I get it, it was Trumps policies that had not been passed that allowed Amazon to use the tax system as both Parties designed it.

        • quote————But I get it, it was Trumps policies that had not been passed that allowed Amazon to use the tax system as both Parties designed it.————quote

          Hey Paratrooper where in the world to you come up with such outlandish bullshit. The Dems fought the Trump Tax rape bill tooth nail and claw.

          And the Dems never supported the former law either.

          And at a party after the bill was passed Trump laughed and said to his Gangster Criminal Republicans “I made you guys rich beyond your wildest dreams because I screwed the Dems good and now they are fuming over it.”

        • It happened before Trump as you acknowledged earlier. What Trump did is not relevant to the fact they didn’t pay taxes before.

  17. Ha ha ha.
    theBidens plan?
    They’ve been doing that since the system went computer. Only thing is dropping the limit to $600.
    Have you ever asked why if you cant afford a cell phone the government will give you one? Why everyone gets a credit card? Why direct deposit is the only way to get paid?

  18. “D Y October 2, 2021 At 11:23

    “The agreement was signed back in June of 2014, and it allows the US government to request information on accounts held by US citizens. The account holder has to consent to this sharing of information.”

    I don’t agree with you. Obviously you don’t know the Swiss. That agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. They can give any information they want including false information which can include denial of account t existence.

    If these fucking idiots and communists in DC persist I will definitely be moving funds to a Swiss bank where I can open an account under any name I choose. Not that I fear them taking it but I want it secured during the next hot civil war here.

  19. It has been decades since Swiss bank accounts were secret. The US threatened to destroy their banking system, and the national economy, if the banks refused government demands for banking information. Last I heard, your best bet is the Caymans.

    • I stick by what I know. I’ll stay with the Swiss. They’re never intimidated by the USA nor anyone else anyway.

  20. They were interested in him being a useful idiot and with his chances of being the head of the ATF dashed he’s now just a useless idiot so there’s no interest….wwwsmartcash1.com

  21. I purchased four guns in 2020. I paid cash for all of them. One was a new gun. The other three were used. Three I got in the same month. No 30 day, one a month limit for me!!!
    The fourth gun a got the next month. If you are a real prepper you should be saving a little money from every paycheck.

  22. All the more reason for us to take back our Government and scale it back to pre 1800 size. No more funding the lettered agencies not directly specified in the Constitution and definitely term limits with no benefits except salary for time served.

  23. These clowns proposing this are the ones hiding money in off shore bank accounts . Biden owes 500 thousand in taxes but yet these idiots are worrying about what people are spending thier money on when the purchase exceeds $600 ? Maybe we should start tracking every penny a politician receives in thier back door deals and make them account for the money they deposit and spend with those offshore accounts .

  24. @LarryinTX
    “Sam, in that event it will not be crypto currency, it will have become U.S legal tender and our only currency, no different than the currency we use now. And the current crypto currencies will still hold the exact position they now hold. There is no magic.”

    Two things, here:

    1. Cash transactions can be untraceable. A government created crypto currency will be made traceable at every point in the above ground economy. Government crypto currency will not be like BitCoin, Litecoin, Cardano, etc. Indeed, those crypto currencies can be declared counterfeit via legislation.

    2. My response was to the proposition that due to the inability for government to eliminate the penny coin, eliminating cash currency can never happen in the US. I was simply pointing out how government managed gold, resulting in extremely limited use as “legal tender”, at one point in our history, and that government can, indeed, do that again.

    Declaring what government cannot do is simply foolish.

    And a freebie throw-in: Whoever it was gave us the caution, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” gave us the key to controlling government. That key is not more law to prohibit government tyranny, but the monitoring and action to ensure government, through law, does not grow beyond the Constitution.

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