United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Believe it or not, a case at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit could have major implications for the Second Amendment.
Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t touch on any Second Amendment issues directly, but there are major implications for how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) in this ruling.
According to the reporting from Cheddar, this could throw a massive wrench into the workings of the administrative state. Many regulatory agencies (of which BATFE is one) have the ability to act as judge and jury in non-criminal cases. One significant example Second Amendment supporters will note is the recent situation with Rare Breed’s triggers, which BATFE decided were machine guns and is now confiscating from people who bought them believing they were legal accessories.
A very final clock could very well be ticking if the Supreme Court hears this case, based on what happened with West Virginia v. EPA. If Jarkesy v. SEC is upheld by the Supreme Court, then BATFE, as it goes after licensed dealers and manufacturers – not to mention all the times they declare something a “machine gun” – is going to face some big-time changes. Their new “ghost gun” regulations? It could very well be gone.
Reining in BATFE’s administrative abuses would be a good thing. The question would be what happens next, the same question that has to be asked if we were to disband that agency. While many loyal Ammoland readers would like to see a lot of BATFE’s workforce out of work, that is not realistically going to happen.
So, Second Amendment supporters need to come up with a plan. An ATF unable to conjure up “machine guns” out of thin air will need to do something. Perhaps it could be re-focused on carrying out Project Exile-type work in our most violent big cities.
I won’t try to kid anyone and say the Biden Administration will even consider that. No, they’ve got parents raising concerns about school boards to worry about, not to mention other non-sequiturs. The FBI certainly doesn’t act when there are real warnings about people who actually went on to carry out mass shootings. Perhaps that function could be shifted to the ATF agents who no longer would be able to somehow call a stock a “machine gun” in a post-Jarkesy v. SEC world.
That world is not here yet, and it may not get here any time soon. While that is frustrating, it also gives Second Amendment supporters the time they need to come up with plans and push our elected representatives to make every effort to pass them. That will help defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
Your missing the target if its the BATFE. The entire Department of Justice must be flushed as it is the head of the snake.
https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/u-s-department-of-justice
Disband and defund and abolish the org that exists purely to infringe,
Reined in? How about disbanded. Bruen makes the ATF a nonessential entity. The NFA is unconstitutional, the GCA is unconstitutional. The problem is time. These liberal courts can stall until a liberal senate can possibly stack the court with tyrants. The 9th circuit sent this case back to the beginning. That’s wrong. There is nothing right about it.
What happens if the ATF is abolished? Big part of Liberty will be restored. Now, onto the rest of these unconstitutional agencies…
If I were to select a jack-booted group of fascists who are perhaps as large a danger to American society as I could pick today, I would pick BATF [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms]. – U.S. Representative John Dingell, 1980
I refuse to accept as a given that we cannot dissolve BATFE, along with sending the NFA et al to the shredder.
Most countries around the world have had purges…bad or incompatible people ousted one way or another it looks like we may have one of our own.Not on the scale of stalin ..but.not ever seen here before
simple solution is jail all the ones that have been violating rights…remember ignorance of law(constitution )is no excuse ,with all of them doing 20 to life for various actions no need to find them jobs
“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.” – John Adams
Liberty will always be freedom from government. Our ancestors lost that generations ago. If you want liberty and stop being infringed upon, you are going to need a new government.
One can only hope!
What really needs to happen is not going to happen, you are correct. I’m advocating for dismantling the entire federal government, or perhaps those aspects we can safely call the Deep State. If you look at the crux of this federal government, at the root of its power is not We The People, it’s money. It is completely obvious, at this point, that the voters can be manipulated, and even the demographics monkeyed with to mold constituencies into whatever you want. Thus far, only the Democrats have been adept at stooping that low. Corporations and Billionaires have enough money so… Read more »