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In the spirit of our ongoing discussion about the ATF classification of AOW, and largely because I am bored because I cannot watch the news for fear of hearing election news, I wanted to touch base on some of the more outrageous rules that will have you run afoul of the NFA, mostly because ATF rulings can be confusing and arbitrary, to say the least.

There was a case where a man was accused of illegal possession of a machine gun for having an M-14 rifle that had been modified to make it into a semiautomatic rifle. The ATF agent testified that he was able to readily convert the rifle into a machine gun. Read on:

I examined (the firearm) and determined that it was originally manufactured as a machinegun by the Winchester Company in New Haven, Connecticut. (The rifle) can accept machinegun components and has machinegun components installed, but the engagement surface of the sear release has been removed, and the sear release has been welded to the selector shaft. In this condition, (the rifle) is functional as a semi-automatic firearm, but the machinegun parts have been locked in place by the welded sear release/selector shaft.
To determine if (the rifle) could be readily restored to shoot in an automatic manner, I used a multipurpose rotary tool with a cutting wheel to cut through the sear release. I then removed the sear release, selector shaft, and selector-shaft lock from (the rifle) and installed a sear release, selector shaft, selector spring, and selector from an M-14 machinegun.
The technician did not modify the receiver during all of reassembly, and then fired the gun to see if it would fire full auto. At that point, he wrote, “I discovered that the sear … did not have an engagement surface for the sear release.” So, he replaced the trigger group of the rifle with another trigger group which contained the sear with an engagement surface and eventually got the rifle to fire three rounds with a single press of the trigger.

The jury disagreed that replacing the entire fire control group fit the definition of “readily convertible” and found the man not guilty.The man’s name was Albert K. Kwan

Now that I am safely in my new job as a physics and chemistry teacher, I can share a few more facts about my old employer. I am still somewhat restricted for other reasons, but let me share:

 My old school has a very high turnover rate in the core subjects: Science, English, and Math.

There are 22 teachers in those subjects.

• There are nine science teaching positions. In the two years since I was hired there, those nine positions have been filled with 17 different teachers. 
• There are six math positions. During those same two years, those six positions have been filled with eight different teachers. 
• There are seven English positions. During the past two years, there have been nine different teachers.  

22 classrooms filled with 34 teachers in the past two years. That equates to an annual turnover rate of 40% for core subjects, and a whopping 100% annual turnover rate in the Science department. There has not been a single Science teacher who has been there longer than 5 years and the average is less than two years.

Florida has a big problem retaining teachers. Average teacher turnover in the nation is 20 percent, with this school doubling that in the core subjects. Reading the link you can see that students getting teachers fired is not a problem that is unique to my previous employer.

High turnover is expensive. One study claimed that taxpayers in Florida paid out $130 million in additional costs due to the teacher retention problem.

As for me and my new job, I have my work cut out for me. My students have been with substitutes for the past two months, and are woefully behind. There are 60 school days left in the year, and I will be spending them trying to get my students caught up to where they should be and having to make up for them losing nearly a quarter of the school year’s instructional time.

I posted the other day, asking if the Cell phone gun is an AOW. SiliconeGrayBeard asks this:

 I don’t see why it would be an AOW. The bizarre shape? Foldable grip? I don’t see why that’s different than guns like the North American holster grip 22/22Magnum.

I seem to have misplaced my copy of those rules, though.

The rules are arbitrary and stupid, as I posted about in this post here. The difference is that the North American Holster Grip pistol leaves the action and barrel exposed. In other words, it is obviously a handgun. What earns you a classification as an AOW is manufacturing a firearm that doesn’t LOOK like a firearm. This is why Cane guns, pen guns, and previous cell phone guns have been declared to be AOWs.

When contacted, the company claims that it is not an AOW, and that they have classified the weapon as a pistol with a folding grip. The problem is that they do not have anything from the ATF stating that they agree with the manufacturer.

Some claims I read in comments made by the company on their Facebook page:

* working prototype expected in May 2016
* production hopefully begins July 2016, sales shortly after
* was originally conceived as a 3-barrel .22WMR, then changed to .32, then ultimately, .380 acp, which is what the production model will be
* they classify this as a pistol with a folding grip, which they say keeps it out of AOW territory

I think I’d like to see the ATF agree before dropping any money on one of these. I would hate to get a visit from the ATF after buying one.

This is what happened at a Toronto hockey game when the sound system cut out during the US National Anthem.

This is why we don’t need to build a wall on our northern border.

Is this device a handgun, or is it considered an “any other weapon” under the NFA? If it is an AOW, then I do not think that it is legal to carry, even with a CCW.

Who NOT to Vote For: Adam Carolla isn’t going to tell you who to vote for. But he is going to tell you who NOT to vote for. And in a time when candidates running for office promise the moon, one of America’s funniest comedians shares a few tips about how to spot the candidate that you should run from.

It seems like 2016 is the year of celebrity deaths. There are many names that I recognize who have passed on this year. The year is nor even a quarter complete, and it seems like many talented people are leaving us…

George Kennedy: Star in dozens of films
Tony Burton: Man who play Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa’s trainer in the Rocky series
David Bowie: Singer
Harper Lee: Author of To Kill A Mockingbird
Glen Frey of The Eagles
Alan Rickman
Natalie Cole
Craig Strickland of Backroad Anthem
Cara McCollum: Miss New Jersey 2013
Vanity: Singer from the 80’s
Justice Scalia
Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire Feb 3.
Abe Vigoda
Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship
Richard Libertini
David Margulies
Pat Harrington Jr.
Wayne Rogers of MASH
Dan Haggerty – American actor, Grizzly Adams
George Gaynes, best known for his role as Commandant Lassard in the Police Academy movies
Joe Alaskey, voice of many Looney Toons characters
Otis Clay R&B legend

This sovereign citizen movement is a group of people who believe that there is some magic pharse that exempts them from paying taxes or following laws. By wrapping it in a bunch of mumbo jumbo vocabulary words that sound vaguely like legal lingo, the claim that they are exempt from the laws that the rest of us have to follow. Here is a fine example of their ignorant rants, and how they turn out:

This officer has a LARGE amount of patience. You cannot debate these idiots, they will argue with you for hours.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is in the midst of a targeted recruitment campaign aimed at attracting individuals with a strong STEM background for a highly selective summer program, the TEACh Strong Summer Academy. This summer immersion program will prepare participants to become excellent STEM teachers.
In its continued commitment to impacting the academic achievement of the students in its highest need schools, M-DCPS will afford those selected the following opportunities:
• Participation in an intensive six-week summer training (June 1st – July 13th) consisting of enrichment programs, hands-on work experience and a comprehensive professional development curriculum
• Access to mentor teachers and additional support from district Curriculum Support Specialists (CSS)
• Participation in and access to monthly cohort meetings, webinars and an online support community
Immersion in this summer training experience will prepare program participants to make an immediate impact on the students they will serve, and the ongoing professional development and other support opportunities will continue to strengthen their performance as educators throughout the course of the school year and beyond.
Participants will receive a $3,500 stipend to be paid in two equal parts of $1,750 each. First payment will be issued upon successful completion of initial three (3) weeks of the training, and a second installment upon successful completion of the full six (6) weeks.
Minimum Requirements:
• Completion of a Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM field
• No prior teaching experience as teacher of record in a K-12 classroom
• Completion of M-DCPS employment application (see link below)
• Commitment to full six-week summer academy
• Commitment to teach in a M-DCPS high-need secondary school 

So this school system wants people with STEM degrees to come work for them, and they are paying $1750 for three weeks? That works out to $14.58 an hour. Unarmed security guards, which requires graduating from a 40 hour course, pays $12-14 an hour in Miami. How are you going to recruit quality people from outside of Miami and entice them to relocate for ridiculously low pay like that?

The job market CAN’T be that bad.