The Weekly Reload Podcast

Reload Reporter Julie Miller and I discuss the new release of the National Firearms Survey, which polled more than 50,000 Americans about gun ownership and defensive use. The survey reveals women and minorities increasingly own guns and estimates how many of those guns are AR-15s. We also cover the Ninth Circuit upholding a California gun store surveillence requirement, and a federal judge upholding Hawaii's under-21 gun ban.

Links:

Special Guest: Julie Miller.

This week, news broke that an extortion group claimed it broke into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

To explain what we know and what may be coming, we have the reporter who broke the story. Stefanie Schappert of Cybernews joins the show to describe how she discovered the hack and what the ATF has said about it.

Schappert said a Russian-language hacker group posted news of the hack on a "victim blog," but didn't post any evidence. She noted that the ATF confirmed it had been hacked but didn't say who did it. Still, it did say the hack only impacted a system related to criminal enforcement.

While the hacker group did post an announcement that it plans to release data from the hack in the coming days, there's little information on what may be in there to this point. Schappert said the ATF's comments offer clues about what may have been compromised, and the hacker group's history provides further insight into how this may all play out. She said the government's policy on dealing with hackers and this group's background make the threat that the stolen information could become public real.

Special Guest: Stefanie Schappert.

Reload reporter Julie Miller and I cover an update to a story we first broke back in 2022. The CDC reinstated an estimate on the number of defensive gun uses after backlash. We also talk about Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee seeming to double down on a proposal to replace the Second Amendment, and a federal ruling upholding Massachusetts' under-21 gun restrictions. Plus, YouTuber JaredAF joins the show to talk about marksmanship and bullseye shooting.

Links

Special Guests: JaredAF and Julie Miller.

This week, the FBI released its latest crime data report, and the news was good.

Murder fell faster than at any point in history, and it hit an all-time low last year. To explain the details of what's in the agency's report, we have one of the most prominent crime data analysts in the country: Jeff Asher.

Asher runs AH Datalytics and tracks real-time crime data. He has been predicting since last year the FBI's numbers would come in pretty much exactly where they did. Still, he said it's impossible to understate the recent trend. We've gone from relative stability in the murder rate to a massive surge to an even greater climbdown.

Now, we've reached an all-time low. And Asher said the decline hasn't stopped. The data he's gathered, which correlates closely with the FBI's data, indicates the murder rate is still falling in 2026. And the drop-off has been consistent across the nation and across demographics.

He said that defies the simplest partisan explanations for the decline. Asher explained his preferred theory for why this is all happening, but he also admitted it's impossible to say for sure at this point.

Special Guest: Jeff Asher.

Reporter Julie Miller and I cover an exclusive interview with a startup founder who says he's developed software to block 3D printers from producing gun parts. We also discuss the DOJ's new gun-rights restoration rule. And we preview the FBI's latest crime data report. Plus, we hear from Reload Member Rob in our latest member segment!

Links:

This week, we're diving back into the injunction against enforcement of wide swaths of the National Firearms Act (NFA).

That's because, in a bit of a surprise move, the Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to appeal the injunction before the stay on it expired. That led to a symbolic sale of an unregistered silencer between several of the named plaintiffs in the case early Thursday morning. But it has also created a lot of new questions about exactly who and what is covered by the injunction.

To try and bring some clarity to the issue, we've got gun-rights lawyer and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) legal research director Kostas Moros back on the show. SAF is a named plaintiff in a similar case in the Eighth Circuit, and its sister organization, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, is a plaintiff in the Texas case. Kostas said the injunction is fairly complex and nobody has all the answers for every potential eventuality.

However, he also said that the ruling appears to be very expansive. He said it enjoins enforcement of many of the NFA regulations associated with silencers, short barrel rifles, short barrel shotguns, and the "any other weapon" category. He said it also covers all named plaintiffs, including all of their members and customers. And it covers both current and future members and customers.

Kostas noted there are a number of caveats, though. For instance, he said it doesn't have any impact on state laws, and many of those could still trip people up. He also said it doesn't cover the entire NFA or even all of the NFA's regulations on the impacted items. He argued there's a lot still left to figure out, and the final answers for many of the open questions will have to come from the DOJ and ATF.

Kostas also discussed the legal strategy at play, including what he'd like to see the DOJ do with a potential appeal and how vulnerable the current legal situation may be.

Special Guest: Kostas Moros.

Reload Founder Stephen Gutowski covers the first legal unregistered silencer sale in nearly 100 years. Then he discusses newly-unearthed videos of Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic senate candidate, where he proposes replacing the Second Amendment. He also explains a new federal court ruling on whether the Second Amendment protects unauthorized gun exports. Plus, he looks at reports on a settlement between DOJ and the LA County Sheriff's Office as well as a new DOJ opinion on the Post Office gun ban.

Links:

This week, we're taking a close look at a federal judge's decision to strike down a wide swath of National Firearms Act (NFA) regulations.

To do that, we have one of the plaintiffs in the case. Travis White is the President of the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (FRAC), which filed suit against the NFA the same day the federal government officially slashed a number of NFA taxes to $0. He said that's what made the NFA vulnerable to a challenge, at least the provisions that regulate silencers, short-barrel rifles and shotguns, and what the law calls "any other weapons."

US District Judge James Wesley Hendrix agreed. He ruled that the NFA sections whose taxes were eliminated also lost their constitutional justification. White said the judge was persuaded by the plaintiffs' argument that the NFA is, at its heart, an exercise of Congress's taxing power and its provisions can only stand if they are in furtherance of collecting revenue.

White said Hendrix agreed with FRAC that a $0 tax can't justify imposing registration, fingerprinting, and various other requirements to prove it has been paid. White argued that if a tax doesn't even try to raise funds, then it can't be considered a tax. Hendrix was persuaded.

But that didn't end the inquiry. White said the judge also determined the remaining NFA taxes on machineguns or gun makers don't mean the regulations on the untaxed items can stand. He also brushed aside a justification based on the Necessary and Proper Clause. And he concluded the NFA doesn't fit under the federal government's power to regulate interstate commerce either.

Special Guest: Travis White.

Reload Founder Stephen Gutowski details the latest on gun sales spiking in Colorado ahead of the state's new permit-to-purchase law going into effect. He also explains the Department of Justice's new case against Montgomery County, Maryland's broad "gun-free zone" restrictions and a dueling set of rulings on foster parents and gun storage requirements. Then he interviews David from The Humble Marksman on why he believes the industry's latest handgun trend may be running out of steam and what might come next.

Sources:

We've looked at the Supreme Court's upcoming Second Amendment case against AR-15 bans with the lawyer who helped craft the Court's view of gun rights and with a professor who is a prominent critic of that view from the left. This week, we're doing the same with a pro-gun critic of the Court's test.

That critic is Cato Institute scholar and George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin. Ever since the Supreme Court handed down a new Second Amendment test in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, most gun-rights advocates have been happy with the outcome of the cases where the Court has applied it. But there is a contingent of pro-gun lawyers and professors who've disputed whether it's a good precedent.

Somin argued that Bruen's reliance on history and tradition creates a lot of grey areas in the law. He said it is "too flabby" as it stands now, and leaves too much wiggle room for judges to impose their own preferences. He noted that liberal critics of the Bruen test have some valid critiques, but where they worry the test will be used to restrict government action, he worries it will be used to restrict Second Amendment rights.

He said he's largely agreed with the outcome of the most recent Second Amendment cases at the Supreme Court, but worried what might come in future cases--especially if the balance of the Court moves left. Somin argued for what he considers a more straightforward test based around the original meaning of the Second Amendment. He argued history could inform that meaning, but he said that the existence of historical laws that contradict that meaning shouldn't mean those laws take precedence over the meaning itself.

Special Guest: Ilya Somin.