A federal appeals court on Thursday shot holes in a rule imposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives intended to crack down on so-called \u201cghost guns.\u201d<\/p>\n
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a 2022 rule aimed at weapons that could be built from parts bought online without a background check exceeded the agency\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n
All three judges on the panel were appointed by former President Donald Trump, according to Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cody Wisniewski, a lawyer for the Firearms Policy Coalition Action Foundation, said the ruling was a \u201cmassive victory against ATF and a huge blow to the Biden administration\u2019s gun control agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n The rule redefined the legal meaning<\/a> of \u201cfirearm,\u201d \u201cframe\u201d and \u201creceiver\u201d as written in the Gun Control Act of 1968.<\/p>\n Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the decision<\/a> that \u201claw-making power\u2014the ability to transform policy into real-world obligations\u2014lies solely with the legislative branch.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere an executive agency engages in what is, for all intents and purposes, \u2018law-making,\u2019 the legislature is deprived of its primary function under our Constitution, and our citizens are robbed of their right to fair representation in government. This is especially true when the executive rule-turned-law criminalizes conduct without the say of the people who are subject to its penalties,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Engelhardt said the rule does what the ATF might want Congress to do, but has not done.<\/p>\n \u201cThe agency rule at issue here flouts clear statutory text and exceeds the legislatively-imposed limits on agency authority in the name of public policy,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n He wrote that ATF \u201cattempted to take on the mantle of Congress to \u2018do something\u2019 with respect to gun control. But it is not the province of an executive agency to write laws for our nation.<\/p>\n \u201cAn agency cannot label conduct lawful one day and felonious the next\u2014yet that is exactly what ATF accomplishes through its Final Rule,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n In a concurring opinion, Judge Andrew Oldham fired a magazine of zingers at the ATF<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cATF\u2019s overarching goal in the Final Rule is to replace a clear, bright-line rule with a vague, indeterminate, multi-factor balancing test. ATF\u2019s rationale: The new uncertainty will act like a Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of American gun owners,\u201d Oldham wrote, referring to an ancient tale<\/a> of a deadly blade suspended by a single strand of horsehair.<\/p>\n \u201cPrivate gunmaking is steeped in history and tradition, dating back to long before the Founding. Millions of law-abiding Americans work on gun frames and receivers every year. In those pursuits, law-abiding Americans (and the law-abiding gun companies that serve them) rely on longstanding regulatory certainty to avoid falling afoul of federal gun laws,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if ATF can destroy that certainty, it hopes law-abiding Americans will abandon tradition rather than risk the ruinous felony prosecutions that come with violating the new, nebulous, impossible-to-predict Final Rule,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n The ATF rule, he wrote, \u201cis limitless. It purports to regulate any piece of metal or plastic that has been machined beyond its primordial state for fear that it might one day be turned into a gun, a gun frame, or a gun receiver. And it doesn\u2019t stop regulating the metal or plastic until it\u2019s melted back down to ooze. The GCA allows none of this. I concur in the majority\u2019s opinion holding the Final Rule is unlawful,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Despite the ruling, the rule is likely to remain in place<\/a>, at least for a while.<\/p>\n As noted by The Hill<\/a>, the Supreme Court has left the rule in place throughout the court battles around it, and is likely to do the same now as the Justice Department moves to appeal the latest ruling to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This article appeared originally on The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post 2A Victory: Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Biden ATF \u2018Ghost Gun\u2019 Limits \u2013 Rules Agencies Cannot \u2018Write Laws\u2019<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A federal appeals court on Thursday shot holes in a rule imposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n