3/25/2021. BREAKING: 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Bump Stocks are Not Machine Guns

HorizontalHunter

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Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court decision which had denied Gun Owners of America’s motion for a preliminary injunction preventing the ATF from implementing a final rule classifying bump stocks as machine guns under federal law.

This case was brought by 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,” said GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt. “We are glad the courtapplied the statute ccurately, and struck down the ATF’s illegal overreach and infringement of gun owners’ rights.”

“Chevron deference does not apply to agency interpretation of criminal statute thus court does not need to decide whether agency can waive chevron deference therefore court must determine BEST MEANING of the statute the “statutory context” of “single function of the trigger” “weighs heavily in Plaintiff-Appellants’ favor” adopt our position that it “refers to the mechanical process”

Pratt added that the court understood our argument when they included in the opinion that: “A bump stock may change how the pull of the trigger is accomplished, but it does not change the fact that the semiautomatic firearm shoots only one shot for each pull of the trigger.”

BREAKING: 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Bump Stocks are Not Machine Guns - The Truth About Guns
 
Does this apply only to the states in the 6th circuit?

No it doesn't matter to MA. Because we have a state law that bans them. But doesn't really ban them.

The state law actually considers them to be MGs. But if you have a MG license then possessing an MG is legal. But they didn't really think of that when they wrote the law. Either way, I wouldn't want to be the test case.

One other significant difference between the MA and fed law.
MA residents had the option of moving the stock out of state or selling them out of state. So the ban was not a "taking" of property without due process.

In the case of a Fed law, you can't move them out of state or sell them to another person in another state. So the ATF's ruling is a governmental taking with no due process and no compensation. 100% unconstitutional.
 
I assume this doesnt apply to MA
No it doesn't.

MA has a law against bump stocks now and didn't fall under the federal umbrella. The case is saying that the ATF overstepped its authority and came up with its own interpretations outside the scope of the law it enforced. What this ruling isn't stating is that the ban on bump stocks is unconstitutional.

Important quotes from the ruling:

Because an agency's interpretation of a criminal statute is not entitled to Chevron deference and because the ATF's Final Rule is not the best interpretation of § 5845(b), we REVERSE the district court's judgment and REMAND for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Anyone remember Caetano? This is what this court is doing, they're slapping the pp of the lower courts for f***ing up, they'll have to come up with better logic.

Consistent with our precedent and mandated by separation-of-powers and fair-notice concerns, we hold that an administering agency's interpretation of a criminal statute is not entitled to Chevron deference. Consequently, 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. 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. Accordingly, we find that Plaintiffs-Appellants are likely to prevail on the merits and that that their motion for an injunction should have been granted.

They then go on to say such an injunction "may not exceed the bounds of the four states within the Sixth Circuit's jurisdiction." (Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin)
However, there is some BS to look for in the dissenting opinion:

I respectfully disagree with the majority's conclusion that Chevron never applies to laws with criminal applications. The Supreme Court has applied Chevron in the criminal context in three binding decisions—Chevron itself, Babbitt, and O'Hagan—and has never purported to overrule those cases. Although comments in subsequent decisions may create tension with these cases, they remain binding. Thus, I would apply Chevron. And because the statutory phrase here is ambiguous and the ATF's interpretation of that phrase is reasonable, it is entitled to deference under Chevron.

I don't know what this guy thinks is ambiguous about the trigger pull requirement, but I'm actually pretty f***ing shocked that a court decided that the government couldn't just make it up as they go along.
 
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I was at SHOT show in 2015. Obama had just "discovered" bump stocks and wanted to ban them badly. I spoke to a high level ATF guy at SHOT and he told me that the AG had surveyed the legal landscape and determined that without legislative action there was nothing that could be done. From the ATF's mouth to me.

They were 100% legal. That Trump outlawed them by executive fiat shows the tyrant wanna be that he was. Obama hates guns but realized there was nothing he could do.

There is no grounding in law supporting this ban.
 
No it doesn't.

MA has a law against bump stocks now and didn't fall under the federal umbrella. The case is saying that the ATF overstepped its authority and came up with its own interpretations outside the scope of the law it enforced. What this ruling isn't stating is that the ban on bump stocks is unconstitutional.

I'm actually pretty f***ing shocked that a court decided that the government couldn't just make it up as they go along.
Hey it happens. It is Thirsty Thursday.
 
I was at SHOT show in 2015. Obama had just "discovered" bump stocks and wanted to ban them badly. I spoke to a high level ATF guy at SHOT and he told me that the AG had surveyed the legal landscape and determined that without legislative action there was nothing that could be done. From the ATF's mouth to me.

They were 100% legal. That Trump outlawed them by executive fiat shows the tyrant wanna be that he was. Obama hates guns but realized there was nothing he could do.

There is no grounding in law supporting this ban.
LOL, strap yourself in. The tyrant stuff is just starting under the meat puppet.
 
It has looked like Comm2A was not interested in that battle.

The 6th circuit has 5 Clinton Obama judges, 11 trump bush judges. The 1st circuit in Boston is a lost cause, it’s all liberals and asshat Souter sits on some panels from time to time. It’s a waste of money to take any gun case to the first circuit.
The 5th, 6th, 7,th, 8th, are all dominated by conservatives, 2nd and 3rd tilt conservative. 1st, 4th are not liberty friendly at all.
 
So..... where can I get one?
You don't want one of those stupid f***ing things [rofl]


LOL, strap yourself in. The tyrant stuff is just starting under the meat puppet.

We'll see.

Either way. @dcmdon is correct. Orange man had a murder boner for these stupid things and nuked them in a heartbeat. But yeah, tyrants gon' tyrant.


from all the people that never payed attention to the original unconstitutional order recommendation.
FIFY

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It took over a year to get to this point and there still hasn’t been an injunction on it so they’re not legal yet. If and when an injunction is delivered it will only cover the sixth circuit.

so don’t go digging up the caches just yet
 
Between the ridiculous 9th decision today and this, SCOTUS is slowly being backed into a corner to address 2A. The minority is going to go, kicking and screaming on the ruling.
 
it's great as far as the 2a fight is concerned, but who really cares about those stupid things anyway, nobody turned any in when they were banned anyway and they are pretty useless.
 
it's great as far as the 2a fight is concerned, but who really cares about those stupid things anyway, nobody turned any in when they were banned anyway and they are pretty useless.
They were useless. And that's the point. Dumb item to ban. Yeah you could get quicker with them sometimes. But whats next?

What was the total turned in? 4 or 5?
 
They were useless. And that's the point. Dumb item to ban. Yeah you could get quicker with them sometimes. But whats next?

What was the total turned in? 4 or 5?
Yea something like that, I tried one once. I was actually slower with it than just shooting normally, if you shoot a lot or have been through carbine classes, they are really counter intuitive amd impossible to transition between targets with. It was a stupid thing to ban for sure. The video of Jerry Miculek trying to run one is hilarious he basically can't use it because it forces him to do the opposite of what he trains for.
 
Didn’t have one and still don’t want one but it’s it’s a small step in the right direction. As we are seeing now with 80%’s, braces and auto key card, they were on a power trip and eventually would get past the point of no return. They were told “you can play just the tip” then went balls deep. Thank you to all parties pushing the issue especially Tim “Mac” even though I didn’t get my SVD.
 
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