USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- This month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, invalidated the ATF’s Rule classifying bump stocks as machine guns under the Administrative Procedure Act.
In 2018—after determining that bump stocks were not machine guns on ten separate occasions—ATF changed its position and reclassified bump stocks as machine guns, thereby banning any bump stock produced after 1986, effectively all of them. That decision prompted several legal challenges under the Administrative Procedure Act, which directs courts to “set aside” government actions that are “not in accordance with law.” The Fifth Circuit ultimately held that a bump stock does not meet the federal definition of a machine gun, because it does not allow the firearm to discharge multiple rounds by a single action of the trigger, and ATF’s Rule was not in accordance with the law.
But the decision goes well beyond bump stocks. The court said the Rule “purports to allow ATF—rather than Congress—to set forth the scope of criminal prohibitions.”
That position was squarely rejected over 200 years ago when Chief Justice Marshall, writing for the Supreme Court, declared, “the power of punishment is vested in the legislative, not in the judicial department. It is the legislature … which is to define a crime, and ordain its punishment.”
Thus, Congress, not ATF or the courts, must decide if bump stocks—or any other firearm—should be criminally outlawed, and Congress has not done that with bump stocks.
The Court’s decision tracks the argument that NRA-ILA made in an amicus brief filed in this case, other amicus briefs that NRA-ILA filed before the Supreme Court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in related cases, and comments that NRA-ILA made to ATF when it was considering the rule.
The ATF now must decide if it wants to appeal the Fifth Circuit’s decision to the United States Supreme Court, which recently signaled that it may rein in federal agency rulemaking.
The case is captioned as Cargill v. Garland.
Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org for future updates on NRA-ILA’s ongoing efforts to defend your constitutional rights.
About NRA-ILA:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess, and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
This needs to be applied to the braces rule.
Little late to the party, NRA, and yet as usual you imply you have single-handedly saved our gun rights. Fact of the matter is NRA is behind every legislative gun infringement /gun law in history in America, often helping to write the damn thing. We wouldn’t have the NFA or GCA if not for the NRA.
run forced reset triggers through the 5th too
The ATF is nothing short of a citizen harassment agency that polices 3 LEGAL products. Alcohol. Tobacco and Firearms.
When I said non compliance was the way to handle the bump stock ban I was jeered and told that the piece of plastic was not the hill to die on. So, folks how about the pistol brace ban? What hill is worth dying on?
On tonight’s episode of “The NRA tries to take credit for something it had absolutely nothing to do with and in-fact actively opposed”