{"id":1432147,"date":"2022-04-12T07:30:10","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T11:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1432147"},"modified":"2022-04-12T07:30:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T11:30:25","slug":"22-state-ags-file-brief-with-scotus-opposing-federal-firearm-accessory-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/22-state-ags-file-brief-with-scotus-opposing-federal-firearm-accessory-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"22 State AGs File Brief With SCOTUS Opposing Federal Firearm Accessory Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F22-state-ags-file-brief-with-scotus-opposing-federal-firearm-accessory-ban%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1432147&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/social_media_share\/public\/2022-02\/GettyImages-1058050810.jpg?h=9513f485&#038;itok=b9GjTsAG\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Twenty-two state attorneys general, led by Montana and West Virginia, have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court over a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule they argue would immediately transform hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners into criminals.<\/p>\n<p>Through its rulemaking, the ATF is attempting to regulate bump-stock accessories by claiming that they transform the firearms they attach to into machine guns as defined by the National Firearms Act of 1934.<\/p>\n<p>The AGs filed an amicus brief in support of Gun Owners of America, Inc., which sued U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, and are asking the court to hear the case after the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals was evenly split on the issue.<\/p>\n<p>The ATF\u2019s rule is a way for the federal agency to circumvent Congress and rewrite law that only Congress has the authority to do, the AGs argue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Final Rule effectively transforms commonly owned firearms into banned machine guns simply because of the use of non-mechanical bump-stock accessories. This interpretation categorically expands the text of the criminal statute in a way that Congress couldn\u2019t possibly have intended,\u201d they argue in their brief. \u201cAnd it expands criminal liability at the expense of Second Amendment rights, diminishing the latter absent a sufficient and compelling justification. When the ATF \u2013 or any agency \u2013 invades protected rights by interpreting statutes too broadly, this Court should step in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A bump stock, or stabilizing brace, isn\u2019t a weapon. It\u2019s a device that attaches to the rear of a pistol and slips around the user\u2019s forearm. They&#8217;re often used to reduce recoil, prevent injury, and allow the user to more safely and accurately fire their gun. They don\u2019t transform semi-automatic rifles into automatic machine guns. Tens of millions of stabilizing braces are sold nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe significance of this case goes beyond any firearm accessory and gun rights. No federal agency should be able to create criminal code without Congressional authorization,\u201d Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said. \u201cThe Supreme Court must take up this important case to uphold the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment and affirm this important check on the federal executive\u2019s power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the ATF doesn\u2019t \u201cget to overrule the Constitutional rights of firearm owners across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morrisey also points out that the ATF has recognized that \u201cbump firing\u201d has been around for as long as there have been semi-automatic firearms and common items like rubber bands, belt loops, and shoestrings can all be used to the same effect as bump stocks, which the ATF is attempting to criminalize.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cActions like the ATF\u2019s do not just violate important principles of administrative law. They also illustrate how the government can endanger fundamental rights through creeping, incremental, and seemingly benign regulatory depredations,\u201d the AGs argue in their brief. \u201cIf Congress had wanted to categorically expand the NFA to cover semiautomatic firearms that use a bump-stock accessory, it would \u2013 and must \u2013 have done so explicitly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Judges on a Sixth Circuit panel ruled against ATF last March, concluding that bump stocks don\u2019t transform commonly used semi-automatic firearms into machine guns. However, when brought before the full Sixth Circuit Court, the judges were evenly split, resulting in the lower district court\u2019s ruling being upheld, allowing the ATF\u2019s rule to stand.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys general from West Virginia, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming signed the amicus brief.<\/p>\n<p>Their petition comes after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and more than 140 Republican members of Congress last June took issue with the ATF\u2019s rule change, arguing it violates federal law, contradicts longstanding ATF policy and is unconstitutional. They also argue ATF\u2019s rule change wrongly targets veterans and hurts law-abiding gun owners.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton said in a statement that a federal agency \u201ccannot, through the administrative \u2018interpretation\u2019 of law, criminalize conduct that will send people to prison. Federal criminal laws must be enacted democratically, with the approval of both houses of Congress and the president.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to a recent Congressional Research Service report, \u201cthere are between 10 and 40 million stabilizing braces and similar components already in civilian hands,\u201d and \u201c[a]ltering the classification of firearms equipped with stabilizing braces would likely affect millions of owners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty-two state attorneys general, led by Montana and West Virginia, have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court over a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule they argue would<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1432147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1432147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1432147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1432147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1432147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}