Up to now ghost gun kits somehow did not meet the definition of a firearm and were exempt from the ATF requirement that they have a serial number. But a new rule went into effect that certain parts of a ghost gun kit, the incomplete frames and receivers , key parts of the kit, have to be serialized. The rule also asks federally licensed gun dealers to keep records of gun kit sales until they go out of business. Ghost guns are usually sold unassembled and are often sold to people who want to put them together as a hobby. But recently they have increasingly been found at the site of mass shootings, neighborhood homicides and in raids of makeshift gun factories. It is not the entire gun that will be serialized, only key parts of it, but obviously that will make a difference. The new rule mainly affects people with a record, or people with a domestic violence history. It is not a panacea just puts under ATF jurisdiction a category of guns which were previously totally under the radar. As can be expected this new rule from the current administration does have its detractors. Division 80, a manufacturer of the kits key parts is suing to stop the rule. Another suit to request an injunction on the rule was filed by an individual gun owner, firearm dealer and gun right advocate in North Dakota, and he has been joined by people in 17 states. They claim that the rule would bring irreparable damage to the industry and interfere with individual owners building their own guns. Still the lawsuits are not expected to stop the rule from going forward. Ghost guns are easily trafficked and this new rule would make it a little harder to traffic guns, it is therefore welcomed.
Danielle Levy
-
Upside to Aging
Aging for anyone who is experiencing it does have its downside. There’s an altered appearance which can be distressing and there’s a loss of energy which can be limiting. Cognition can be impaired too. But there’s an upside, a handling of emotions that makes life much easier. Susan Turk Charles, a psychologist at the university of California, Irvine has been focusing on how older people regulate their emotions and what she found is that when it comes to emotions it’s the reverse of what happens physically, older people have greater ability to handle and regulate their emotions. It’s due to experience, and it’s also perhaps the fact that being closer to the end of their lives, older people tend to have a perspective which eliminates smaller issues. They know how to pick their battles, and as a result can eliminate certain amount of stress. Of course it may not be universal, because many of the people studied had a certain level of financial well being, but not surprisingly it does apply to people with certain level of cognitive impairment. Apparently the impairment does not necessarily interfere with a certain level of happiness. The hope is that by better understanding what makes older people better adjusted becomes something that can be applied to those who are younger. The research as far as I can gather is still in a new field, but it does make a too often overlooked point that aging has positive aspects, that the experience we gather as we live, does matter and if we allow it we can benefit from what we learned or lived through.