Posted on 03/25/2021 2:49:46 PM PDT by PROCON
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that bump stock accessories cannot be considered “machine guns” and thus not subjected to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) ban.
On Dec. 26, 2018, ATF classified plastic bump stock accessories as “machine guns” defined in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act, despite them having no ability to fire on their own. The move came after former President Donald Trump’s Feb. 20, 2018 memo ordering the Attorney General to develop the ban, which was spurred by reactions to the deadly Oct. 2017 Las Vegas shooting carried out using bump stocks affixed to rifles.
“The district court erred by finding that the ATF’s Final Rule, which interpreted the meaning of a machine gun as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b), was entitled to Chevron deference,” the 6th Circuit ruling said, in reversing the district court’s decision.
“And because we find that “single function of the trigger” refers to the mechanical process of the trigger, we further hold that a bump stock cannot be classified as a machine gun because a bump stock does not enable a semiautomatic firearm to fire more than one shot each time the trigger is pulled.”
The ruling comes two years after the ATF’s ban went into effect on March 26, 2019, illegalizing an estimated 500,000 bump stock accessories owned by Americans.
The case was filed by Gun Owners of America (GOA), Gun Owners Foundation (GOF), the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), Matt Watkins, Tim Harmsen of the Military Arms Channel, and GOA’s Texas Director, Rachel Malone.
“Today’s court decision is great news and told gun owners what they already knew,” GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt told American Military News. “We are glad the court finally applied the statute accurately and struck down the ATF’s illegal overreach and infringement of gun owners’ rights.”
In 2010, ATF had originally deemed bump stocks different from machine guns and unable to be subjected to the same regulation as machine guns.
Unlike the internal mechanisms of a machine gun that permit high rates of automatic fire in rapid bursts, a bump stock is a plastic accessory that is affixed externally to a semi-automatic gun. Without changing the internal components, a bump stock uses the gun’s recoil to then “bump” the gun back against the user’s finger, causing another round to fire.
A bump stock does not change a semi-automatic gun’s ability to shoot one bullet per trigger pull, whereas a machine gun fires a rapid burst of bullets per single trigger pull. Instead, a bump stock enables the trigger to be pulled quickly, simulating a higher rate of fire than a user can typically achieve with the unaided action of their finger.
The U.S. Supreme Court had refused to hear two separate appeals to the ATF’s bump stock ban in early 2019.
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Next Case on the Docket, the United States Government versus Slinky.
BATCHELDER - G.H.W. Bush
WHITE - G.W. Bush
MURPHY - Trump
So now bump at socks are legal again.
Sucks to be one of the people who surrendered their bump stocks.
Now bumpstocks are safe to come out of the shadows.
I said I the beginning Trump’s EO would not withstand a court test.
Dang it, a lot of FReepers are going to have to dredge the pond behind their house.
Boys inna ‘Hood (First 48 Hours is on right now) almost always turn to the cheap .40s, once in a truly dumbass while a shotgun, even more rarely knives. But dey doo doo it and dey die.
Not quite. only within the jurisdiction of the 6th CCA.
There was never a EO banning bump stocks. It was mere policy, just like DACA.
In reality, bump stocks saves lives. It throws the aim off so shots go erratically. I’m not recommending mandating them but a bump stock ban is nuts.
My 23-year-old tac-triggers do not give a rat’s behind!
I think Trump did an EO. Everyone was all pizzed off about it.
It wasn’t an executive order. The DOJ reclassified them. It was a department administrative rule change. The President was badgered to comment on them and put on the spot after the weird, bizarre Las Vegas massacre and the creepy circumstances behind that. President Trump was bound to try to get the most votes in the next election, suburban women and men with incomes from government and global corporations included.
I believe there is a circuit split now: the 10th Circuit ruled the other way. What will the Supreme Court do? Is Kavanaugh reliable on guns? What about Amy Coney Barrett?
Can we get past bickering over too-clever-by-half gadgets playing chicken with high-stakes laws, and get on with straight-up challenges demanding that which the Founders intended “the people” to own? I want my M4, not some widget little better than a belt loop.
In the past, I have never felt the need for a bump stock. After looking at evilness of this administration, I am beginning to change my mind.
If the courts did this then I imagine any EO biden tries with gun control will result in the same. They asked him about gun control today and his answer was he wanted clean drinking water and ventilation for all schools.
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