Bump stocks not 'machine guns' and not subject to ATF ban, federal appeals court rules

A federal appeals court Thursday ruled that a federal regulation barring bump stocks is likely illegal and was incorrect in claiming that the devices make a weapon a machine gun. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the accessories are not subject to a 2018 ban imposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) at the order of then-President Donald Trump. Bump stocks are plastic accessories that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire continuously in the manner of a machine gun, which have been more-or-less banned for decades. But, the 6th Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision, the 2018 finding by BATF that bump stocks were machine guns, which reversed a 2010 finding on the same subject, was in error and the lower-court was wrong to refuse to issue an injunction against the regulation. In the 2-1 decision, Judges Alice Batchelder and Eric Murphy ruled that the regulation alters criminal law and thus has to be done by Congress. “it is not the role of the executive – particularly the unelected administrative state – to dictate to the public what is right and what is wrong,” they wrote. The judges said U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Michigan should have issued an injunction and ordered the case back to his court. The gun-rights groups that brought the case “are likely to prevail on the merits and … their motion for an injunction should have been granted,” the appeals court said. The 6th Circuit ruling said that the presumptions granted to regulatory agencies should not have been applied by Judge Maloney, in large part because the ATF regulation was factually incorrect...MORE