So...what is an Auto Key Card and why should I care about them?

The year was 1986.
Renaldus Maximus was the President.
Gas was under a buck.
Top Gun was a top movie.
The Chicago Bears actually HAD a winning season.

AND.....you could build a no-kidding, for-real machine gun with a hacksaw, an inscribed serial number, and a $200 NFA stamp!

The Biden Administration is FAR from being the first to make laws with titles that are the exact opposite of their intended purpose.
AFTER the "Firearm Owners Protection Act" of 1986 was signed, serialized lightning links with the $200 stamp were suddenly worth thousands of dollars, but few people knew or cared about them.
The VeetNam war was a relatively recent and bitter memory, and M16s were not a happy symbol of that unhappy time and place!
Their civilian counterparts (AR15s) were about as popular as our current President....OR his predecessor (or both!) and a heckuva lot less divisive.
People just didn't give a rats about them.

Until 1993, when the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act became law.
(see what I said about law titles?)

Of course now, AR style rifles are the second most prolific weapon on the planet, and instead of being a finicky, expensive, ugly black jam prone rifle with a mouse sized caliber, they are very reliable, effective, and very cheap - even post pandemic and post defund.
I just checked and you can get one for less than $400 if you know what you're doing.

So WHAT does that have to do with Auto Key Cards??
Florida resident Kristopher Ervin (where else??) came up with a unique business card.

Unlike my goofy titanium Goldman Sachs card with an apple printed on it, Kristopher's card is brushed aluminum, and it had the outline of an "auto key" (Lightning Link) printed on it.

The BATFE was not amused!

They arrested Mr Erwin for illegally selling.........unlicensed, unserialized,....machine guns.
AutoKeyCard Explained: Why Did the ATF Shut It Down? - Pew Pew Tactical

SO?? Why do I care?
Maybe you don't.
Personally I don't know whether Kris Erwin is an idiot or a genius, but I do know he's in jail with thousands and thousands of counts of manufacturing and selling machine guns, so I'm leaning towards idiot myself.

However (comma!!!)

'Some people say' that this is sort of a FIRST Amendment thing, and this case will wind up in the SCOTUS, probably more quickly than Dobbs.
They could (and may!) rule narrowly and just free Kris, and let him punch out his cards.

....or?
They could strike down the NFA, which would have some interesting and immediate effects on ALL kinds of things like silencers(*) short barreled rifles and shotguns, aaaaaand!!!
Machine Guns.
*(they're really 'suppressors' but the LAW says silencers.)
Trigger laws are already in place....pun almost unintended.

You still may not care, but at least now you know.

 

Update:
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/courts/2023/04/21/machine-gun-trial-goes-to-jacksonville-jury-after-arguments-on-gun-law/70136546007/

SO....I was wrong.

Dobbs beat this to the Supremes, and now with a de-jurer criminal awaiting federal sentencing beef the system is very biased against even HEARING an appeal and if one of them does, the best (worst) thing that Ervin can hope for is a dismissal on some kind of trial technicality.

Those who would look over their shoulders for the fainting couch when a thin-skinned, sanctimonious red-state governor "bans books" (prohibits porn in grade school libraries) beware.....
This isn't a second amendment issue.

One of my subs on the YouTubes has words:
They're attorneys but then, we ALL fall short....

 

That's a valid opinion I suppose, but it's been thoroughly debunked as a matter of 'text, history, and tradition.'
EVEN before SCOTUS became so lopsided.....

In case you run into another person with some passing knowledge of military history, you may want to lean away from the 'Flinchlock' argument.
If you're just trading gossip with another civil rights opponent, then yeah....keep that one in your quiver.
Maybe try the "Deer wearing Kevlar vests" argument?

@ Flintlocks
They came in two flavors.
Rifled and smooth-bore (or unrifled.)
Our erstwhile oppressors used the latter because of faster reload times resulting in greater volume of fire.
The rebels used rifles because of accuracy and insurgency warfare made them the better weapons for that task.
If cap and ball pistols were technologically available in that time, 2A would cover those.
Same with lever actions....bolt action....etc...etc....
Weapons of war are WHY 2A was written and ratified, meaning the CURRENT technological standard.

So....
There WERE and ARE limits.
Even then.
Some weapons (cannon, mortars, bombs) were generally thought at the time to be what military people now refer to as 'crew served' instead of PERSONAL weapons....which is why they say KEEP and BEAR in the Second Amendment somewhere before SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.

Even so.....
STATES CAN (and some HAVE) made it illegal to possess some semi-automatic rifles, and some think that low capacity detachable magazines are more evil than standard capacity magazines and those have been banned as well - and so far those bans have been upheld in some cases at the federal level.
EVEN the Article I branch of the federal government CAN (and has) banned non-crew-served weapons that ARE covered by 2A, the last one being signed into law by that well-known, bomb-throwing, leftist radical President Ronald Reagan!

I believe that there is room for debate on some aspects of 2A.
I believe ALSO that the current SCOTUS' recent 'text, history, and tradition' standard is somewhat sketch, being only marginally better than something like the 'Chevron deference.'

If you do not think (like our current POTUS) that personal weapons can protect somebody from a nucular superpower gone rouge, then how do you explain the fall of Saigon or the formation of the Kabul Skydiving Club?

Nope.
Not in Illinoise.
ARs are illegal there, remember?

Besides....lightning links don't work very well.
There are about 900 licensed 'lightning links' in the US which is where the Auto Key Card thing came from.
They're like bump-stocks - made illegal by an EO from the other moronic president that we've had lately.
They both "can" work under very certain ideal circumstances but as a properly trained Marine, YOU above all people KNOW that a properly trained rifleman with a semi-auto rifle will fare much better in a standoff than somebody using the 'spray and pray' method.