The Weekly Reload Podcast

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I break down the ongoing political fallout from the Annunciation Catholic school shooting in Minnesota that has now prompted both Governor Tim Walz and the Trump DOJ to explore possible gun restrictions. We also analyze what the latest monthly gun sales data says about the ongoing state of the industry.

This week, we're taking a look at the AR market.

There has been a rash of bankruptcies and acquisitions among AR-15 makers in the past year. Some of the largest producers, like Anderson Manufacturing, have shut down their operations. To explain what's going on, we have KE Arms director Russell Phagan on the show.

Phagan has been selling AR-15s and parts for over 20 years. He said the market has shifted significantly since the guns were first put on the market over 65 years ago. He said the gun's popularity was built on the back of bans, military adoption, and even pop culture prominence.

However, he argued the market dynamics have shifted the past two decades. They've become more dependent on the threat of new bans in a feast-famine cycle. And the 2020 surge was so large that Phagan argued it nearly saturated the market. Combine that with a handful of other demand-depressing factors, and things are looking grim for those specializing in ARs today.

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I cover the Air Force Global Strike Command's recent decision to bring back the Sig M18 pistol for active service. We also talk about the 5th Circuit's re-decision in a case challenging the constitutionality of the NFA's restrictions on suppressors. We wrap up by discussing a new ruling upholding Connecticut's AR-15 ban, as well as the continued lack of clarity surrounding gun arrests in Washington, DC, under its federal takeover.

This week, we're zooming out a bit and looking at the state of the federal judiciary.

To help us understand what's going on, we've got William & Mary law professor Jonathan Adler back on the show. He recently wrote a piece that laid out just how few judicial appointments President Donald Trump has actually made since the beginning of his second term. Not only that, but just how few opportunities he has to make new appointments from here through the end of his term.

Adler said there are just not as many federal judges retiring or creating openings by taking senior positions as there have been for other presidents, or even for Trump's first term. He said Trump's controversial appointment of his former personal lawyer Emil Bove to an appellate seat, and the potential shift in approach toward vetting it represents, may be giving current judges pause. But, he argued non-political factors, such as the increasing longevity of judges, may be playing an even bigger role.

Adler said the slow pace of vacancies and the uncertain nature of Trump's approach to his second-term appointments cast doubt on whether he'll have as much of an impact on the ideological balance of the federal judiciary as he did the first time around.

Special Guest: Jonathan H. Alder.

Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman and I look at the growing discontent among gun-rights groups with the deployment of the ATF and emphasis on gun possession arrests under President Donald Trump's federal takeover of Washington, DC's policing. We also cover the odd legal manuevering in the Third Circuit that may lead to a new circuit split on the constitutionality of so-called assault weapons bans. Then we discuss a Tenth Circuit ruling against New Mexico's gun sales waiting period, a new suit against a major gun-control group, and Florida's request for the Supreme Court to overturn one of its own gun laws.

This week, President Donald Trump federalized policing in the nation's capital. He deployed the National Guard and federal agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The move has been met with mild pushback from some gun-rights activists.

Karl Kasarda from InRangeTV joins the podcast to explain why he thinks there should be more. The prominent GunTuber, who has criticized President Trump more than most other gun-rights activists, argued that sending troops and ATF agents into the streets of DC for general crime control should be a red flag for gun-rights advocates.

He went so far as to say that Trump's aggressive use of masked law enforcement, including at one point the ATF, as well as military troops in American cities risks moving in an authoritarian direction. He pointed to the deportation of certain immigrants to an El Salvadorian prison without due process as an example of what concerns him most. He argued the deployment of federal police and troops in connection with those sorts of tactics is a threat to everyone's liberty.

Kasarda agreed that the Trump Administration has made a number of pro-gun reforms, like rolling back the ATF's zero-tolerance policy toward gun dealers and effectively neutering the pistol brace ban. But he argued those reforms shouldn't outweigh the limit-pushing nature of Trump's military and police deployments, even if what the President has done thus far hasn't exceeded constitutional bounds in most instances.

Special Guest: Karl Kasarda.

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I talk about my time as a CNN contributor coming to an end after three years with the network. We also discuss why 18-20 year olds still can't buy handguns in states like Texas and Louisiana despite a Fifth Circuit ruling that says they have a constitutional right to purchase them. Plus, William Kirk from the Washington Gun Law Youtube channel joins me to give his thoughts on the ongoing saga surrounding Sig's P320 handgun.

After Congress slashed the National Firearms Act (NFA) tax on silencers and short-barreled firearms, nearly every gun-rights group in the country promised to sue in an effort to overturn those sections of the law outright.

Now, a few weeks later, those groups have nearly all sorted into two coalitions, and they've both filed suit. One coalition, led by Gun Owners of America (GOA), filed in the Fifth Circuit. Another, led by the National Rifle Association (NRA), filed in the Eighth Circuit.

To analyze the arguments of each case, we've got independent gun-rights lawyer Matt Larosiere on the show. He's brought both tax power and Second Amendment challenges against the NFA before. So, he has direct experience with the claims at issue in both cases.

Larosiere said he is on board with the logic behind the GOA and NRA lawsuits, but he argued they face a difficult climb to achieve their goals. He said tax challenges are more complex than most people imagine, and it can be difficult for Second Amendment attorneys to navigate the waters of a successful pleading. He said the Second Amendment claim in the NRA case may have an easier path, but noted it wasn't a new tactic and has failed in the past.

Special Guest: Matt Larosiere.

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I cover new data showing monthly gun sales have dropped below one million for the first time since 2019. We discuss the headwinds facing the industry and why the sales slide is likely to continue. We also unpack a pair of dueling rulings out of Minnesota on the legality of unserialized firearms and a federal court ruling upholding "may-issue" gun permitting for open carry in Rhode Island.

Sig Sauer's premier pistol has faced a flood of bad news this week.

After a recent fatal incident on Warren Air Force Base that involved the M18, commonly sold to civilians as the P320, the Global Strike Command joined a rash of law enforcement and civilian training groups that have paused the use of the gun. Active Self Protection is also among those groups. So, we have its president, John Correia, back on the show to explain why he decided to ban the P320.

John said ASP actually stopped allowing the P320 in class at the beginning of the year, and recent incidents have only reinforced that decision. He said he hasn't yet seen a clear explanation for what's causing the P320's issues. However, he said there was too much smoke around the gun to ignore the problem.

John argued that he and his team simply didn't have confidence an unintended discharge, like the many that have been caught on camera in recent months, couldn't happen at one of their classes. He said they wouldn't allow them back into class until Sig identified and fixed the issue or issues causing the incidents. He also criticized the company's handling of the repeated problems with the pistol.

Special Guest: John Correia.