In December of 2018 the Department of Justice amended the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to clarify that bump-stock-type devices meaning bump fire stocks, slide-fire devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics are machine guns as defined by the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968 because such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.
On January 6, 2022, the Fifth Circuit handed down a 13-3 decision against the ATF bump stock ban. (FUCKING 13-3)
Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote the majority opinion, noting a focused push to ban bump stocks following the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas attack. Bump stocks were used on some of the numerous firearms possessed by the Las Vegas attacker.
Elrod wrote:
Public pressure to ban bump stocks was tremendous. Multiple bills to that effect were introduced in both houses of Congress. But before they could be considered in earnest, ATF published the regulation at issue here, short circuiting the legislative process. Appellant Michael Cargill surrendered several bump stocks to the Government following publication of the regulation at issue. He now challenges the legality of that regulation, arguing that a bump stock does not fall within the definition of a machine gun.
Additionally, Elrod explained that the court majority found the ATF bump stock ban violated the rule of lenity by imposing criminal liability on people who had legally purchased a product against which there was no law.
Elrod wrote:
A rich legal tradition supports the well known rule that penal laws are to be construed strictly .
As Chief Justice Marshall explained long ago, the rule is founded on the tenderness of the law for the rights of individuals; and on the plain principle that the power of punishment is vested in the legislative, not in the judicial department. It is the legislature, not the Court, which is to define a crime, and ordain its punishment.
A reminder that the Constitution means what it says.
I am not at all confident Joe Biden has a clue.
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