The Satuit Nimrod

Quotes of the Month

"I enclose you a list of the killed, wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of hostilities at Lexington in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since which there has been no event of any consequence… I think that upon the whole it has been about one half the number lost by them, in some instances more, but in others less. This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy  ."

~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to Giovanni Fabbroni, June 8, 1778 

"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed — where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."

~ Judge Alex Kozinski, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

"If you think I’m dangerous with a pen, wait until you see me with a gun!"

 ~ Unknown

ATF Announces Sweeping Package Of Regulatory Reforms

from Renzulli Lawfirm LLP 

[Ed. Note: Renzulli Law Firm is who represented the Club when we were sued over bullets allegedly leaving our property.]

On April 29, 2026, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) released a total of thirty-four notices of final and proposed regulatory reforms in the wake of its review of existing regulations in compliance with President Trump’s recent Executive Order related to protecting our Second Amendment rights. In its press release, the ATF noted that this “landmark release” is only the first in a series of regulatory updates planned by the agency.

Overall, the rules are aimed at reducing burdens on regulated persons and entities, while modernizing and clarifying regulations to harmonize them with current laws and ATF practices. The package touches on many important industry topics, including clarifications of definitions of what constitutes a “willful” violation of the Gun Control Act (GCA) and an illegal straw purchase, along with changes to  record retention periods and requirements to notify law enforcement of the purchase of items regulated by the National Firearms Act (NFA).

The ATF organized the newly proposed rules into five categories – Repeal; Modernize; Reduce Burden; Clarify; and Align. Here, we focus on the Repeal category, which contains three proposed rules and one Final Rule:

Proposed Rules

Removing Criteria for Firearms with Attached “Stabilizing Braces”

This proposed rule would formally rescind regulatory changes made under the Biden administration regarding firearms equipped with stabilizing braces. The existing 2023 rule has been enjoined, stayed, or vacated by multiple federal courts across numerous jurisdictions. This proposal removes language from the regulation that the ATF calls “largely unenforceable,” and restores definitions that are consistent the relevant statutory definitions.

Revising Regulations Defining “Engaged in the Business” as a Dealer in Firearms

This proposed rule rescinds certain provisions that were added to the definition of “engaged in the business” by the prior administration beyond what was enacted by Congress in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). This included providing “examples” of covered activities that established rebuttable presumptions of being engaged in the business of dealing in firearms. According to the ATF, the additions that are to be rescinded have not produced the expected impact on federal firearms licensee applications, administrative licensing actions, civil forfeitures, or other anticipated effects. This rule proposes to simply define “engaged in the business” pursuant to the BSCA as “a person who devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominantly earn a profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms.”

Removing Youth Handgun Safety Act Notice

ATF also proposes rescinding the requirement for Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to post a sign and provide a written notification to each handgun purchaser regarding the Youth Handgun Safety Act. According to the ATF, the purpose of this 1998 regulation was to advise the public of the 1994 Youth Handgun safety Act. ATF proposes rescinding this requirement placed on FFLs because it places an unnecessary burden on the industry and the information has been readily accessible to the public for more than thirty years.

ATF is encouraging public participation in the regulatory process and invites input and comments on the proposed changes, which can be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal found at https://www.regulations.gov/. Generally, comments can be submitted for 90 days after the date of publication, though that time may vary.

Revising Machine Gun Definition in Response to Supreme Court Decision

In addition to the proposed rules above, ATF also announced that it is revising its three regulatory definitions of “machine gun” to remove references to bump stocks. This brings the definitions into alignment with the U.S. Supreme Court’s statutory interpretation of the term “machine gun” in its 2024 decision in the Garland v. Cargill case, which held that semiautomatic rifles equipped with bump stocks do not satisfy the NFA’s definition.

Why Bullet Shape Matters

by Jo Deering, posted on May 3, 2026 in NRA Woman.

Hundreds of years ago, muskets were loaded with simple round balls of lead. Now, a ball is not exactly what you’d call an aerodynamic shape, and we eventually figured out that bullets would fly faster, farther and more accurately if we formed them into longer cone shapes and shot them out of rifled barrels. Fast forward to today, and we’ve got quite a variety of bullet shapes to choose from, all in that elongated, conical vein. But why? Why are handgun bullets so short and squat, while precision rifle projectiles are sleek and skinny?

To make this really oversimplified, rifle bullets need to travel long distances, and to be accurate, their flight needs to be stable. The less the bullet has to fight the wind, the farther and more accurate it will be. Long, skinny bullets are aerodynamic and therefore hold their velocity longer. This is the most efficient shape for traveling fast with minimal wind drag.

On the other hand, handgun bullets don’t have such concerns—they’re fired at closer ranges and lower velocities. You just can’t get a ton of velocity out of such a short barrel, nor do you need it (or extreme stabilization). So the reason handgun bullets aren’t long and skinny is partly because they don’t have to be.

On top of that, the size of the gun itself is a limiting factor. If you make pistol rounds too long, it affects the size of the gun to a noticeable degree—you’d have to make the grip and/or the chamber longer to accommodate a longer bullet, and the whole point of handguns is to keep them compact and comfortable to shoot from the hands. You have to keep a pistol round short enough that it fits in the grip of a gun. If you want to make said bullet bigger and heavier, you can’t make it longer, so you have to make it fatter.

What about the tip? Why are some bullets flat, some round, some pointed and some caved in? Well, again, think about aerodynamics—a pointed bullet is more aerodynamic than a flat hunk of lead in the same way a Ferrari is more aerodynamic than a monster truck. Ferraris and monster trucks both have their place, but one is built for speed and the other is built for destruction.

There are various types of points you’ll find on bullets. These are the most common:

Pointed (Spitzer) Bullets: The point minimizes drag and allows for flatter trajectories, higher retained velocity and better performance at long ranges. They’re made for distance, so they may not expand as well as you’d like at super-close ranges depending on the rest of the bullet’s construction.

Round-Nose Bullets: You don’t see a lot of these anymore, as a rounded nose is less aerodynamic than a pointed nose. But they do feed well, and they’re suitable for shorter-range hunting because they’re designed to expand and mushroom dependably.

Flat-Nose Bullets: Lever-action rifles usually use flat-nose bullets for safety reasons, because cartridges are stored end-to-end in a tubular magazine. You can’t have a pointy tip stabbing the primer of the cartridge in front of it or things could go boom when they’re not supposed to. These bullets don’t fly as well as Spitzers or even round-nose bullets, but they’re great at dumping a lot of energy into the target quickly, making them good game-dropping bullets at relatively close ranges. They also do well in (light) brush because they’re good at maintaining a straight trajectory—which is how the flat-nosed 30-30 got its reputation as a “brush busting” round.

Hollowpoint Bullets: The tip of a hollowpoint bullet is actually concave, and these projectiles are designed to expand quickly—upon impact, the tip peels back in petals, increasing the overall diameter and producing a big, nasty wound channel. They don’t fly all that well compared to pointed bullets, but the close-range effectiveness is what you want in a self-defense situation for maximum, rapid stopping power. Thus, you’ll mostly see this in handgun ammo. Hollowpoints are good at dumping most or all of their energy into the target, which reduces concerns about over-penetration.

Polymer-Tipped Bullets: A bullet that has a little polymer point on the tip is giving you the aerodynamic advantage of a pointed shape while also offering the terminal performance of a hollow point. It’ll travel fast and true with minimal drag, like a Spitzer, but on impact, the polymer tip helps initiate the same kind of expansion as a hollowpoint has, creating that large wound channel and dumping most or all of the bullet’s energy into the target. These are great hunting bullets for that reason.

…And Finally

Club Calendar.

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

Monday, June 1st – 7:30 pm

MONTHLY MEETING

Monday, June 1st – 8:00 pm

SKEET
Sundays: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.
Wednesdays: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm.

TRAP

Tuesdays: 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Saturdays: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm.

PISTOL
Combat Pistol Match, Date TBA

COWBOY
Cowboy Action Match, Sunday May 17th, 9:00 am.

SAFETY COURSE
Wednesday, June 3rd –7:00 pm & Thursday, June 4th  – 7:00 pm. Register here.

RANGE ORIENTATION CLASS
Thursday, June 4th – 5:00 pm Register here.