Is SCOTUS Getting Gun-Shy?

 After it punted a dozen 2A-related cases back down to lower courts for review in light of the Rahimi decision, the Supreme Court won't be hearing any Second Amendment-specific lawsuits in the fall term (though it will decide whether the ATF's rule on unfinished frames and receivers violates the Administrative Procedures Act).  Is the Supreme Court getting gun-shy? On today's Bearing Arms' Cam & Co, California Rifle & Pistol Association president Chuck Michel offers his take on the Court's latest decisions, and what they mean for 2A advocates in the months ahead.

"It could have been worse," is Michel's succinct judgment, and he does have a point. The justices could have simply upheld all of the prohibited person cases where the plaintiff was appealing the loss of their Second Amendment rights, while remanding back to the lower courts the cases where the plaintiffs had prevailed. They could have denied the cert petitions for the Illinois gun and magazine ban cases without comment, instead of the strong statement issued by Justice Clarence Thomas. And they could have rejected outright the Antonyuk case challenging New York's "good moral character" requirement for concealed carry licensees instead of remanding the case back to the Second Circuit for a do-over in light of Rahimi. 

But if it could have been worse, it also could have been better...more

NSSF: The ATF Keeps Breaking Laws Barring Release of Gun Trace Data

 

The executive branch of government is charged with enforcing federal laws. Part of that, for better or worse, includes the ATF and their enforcement of laws regarding alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives--which sounds like a hell of a July 4th party if you ask me.

Sometimes, though, enforcing the law requires someone like the ATF to not do things, such as releasing specific data. 

I'm talking about gun trace data, which they cannot lawfully release due to the Tiahrt Amendment, which bars that specific act. It's not a difficult law to follow, either. You just don't do something that requires more work for ATF personnel. It should be as easy as it gets.

Unfortunately, it seems that the ATF is completely unable to do so and the NSSF's Larry Keane is less than pleased by this.

Someone at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) believes it is easier – or more politically convenient – to roll over to gun control activists and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit than it is to defend a federal law protecting firearm trace data.

For the second time in less than a year, the ATF chose to ignore the Tiahrt Amendment – the federal law that prohibits the disclosure of sensitive firearm trace data to anyone outside of law enforcement circles for use in a bona fide investigation – and instead released it to the public. This time, the ATF handed over the trace data to The Trace, the mouthpiece for the activist gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. Just six months ago, ATF handed over firearm trace data to USA Today through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request – despite the fact that firearm trace data isn’t subject to FOIA requests...

LINK 

Supreme Court won’t review Illinois ban on certain semiautomatic guns

 

The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Illinois’s ban on certain semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines Tuesday, avoiding what would’ve been a blockbuster Second Amendment case.

In a brief order, the justices turned away a series of challenges to Illinois’s law and local ordinances. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito publicly dissented, voting to take up the case.

The decision leaves the bans in place, for now, though the challenges will continue in lower courts. Taking up the appeals could’ve stood to impact laws passed in more than a dozen states banning assault-style weapons like the AR-15 rifle or certain magazines.

...Bans on assault-style rifles have become a flashpoint of the constitutional debate surrounding gun control following the Supreme Court’s landmark Second Amendment decision two years ago that changed the test for weighing the constitutionality of gun laws,

That ruling has led lower courts to strike down a dizzying array of restrictions.In six related cases consolidated by a lower court, more than two dozen plaintiffs — which include gun-rights groups, gun shop owners and individual Illinois residents — contended bans like those passed in Illinois are unconstitutional under the new test...MORE

Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era federal ban on bump stocks

 

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a "bump stock" attachment does not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a "machine gun," which is prohibited under federal law. The 6-3 vote aligned with the conservative supermajority's previous decisions in gun cases, such as its 2022 decision to expand gun rights.

The court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority by enacting the ban on bump stocks when it determined that the devices were classified as machine guns. Civilians now have access to bump stocks again.

In the aftermath of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that killed dozens of people, the ATF issued a rule that said rifles equipped with bump stocks should fall under the legal definition of machine guns, which have been banned since 1986.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock does not make it a fully automatic machine gun. A machine gun is defined as a weapon that can fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger,” which is not the case for rifles with bump stock attachments...more

U.S. gunmakers ask high court to block lawsuit by Mexico

The Supreme Court could soon decide whether the Mexican government can sue U.S. gun manufacturers, arguing that America’s gun industry is partly responsible for mayhem committed by drug cartels.

Mexico claims the companies engaged in bad business by selling guns that hold more than 10 rounds, including semiautomatic rifles. The Mexican government, which says the guns were smuggled across the border to commit crimes, is asking for billions in damages and for the court to impose an injunction on the companies so they have to meet new safety requirements.

“Mexico’s suit has no business in an American court,” wrote Noel Francisco, former President Donald Trump’s solicitor general and a current partner at the law firm Jones Day, which specializes in antitrust cases and is representing the gun companies.

Those being sued are: Smith & Wesson Brands Inc., Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc., Glock Inc., Beretta U.S.A. Corp., Witmer Public Safety Group Inc., Sturm Ruger & Co. Inc., Interstate Arms, Colt’s Manufacturing Co. and Century International Arms Inc.

In their appeal to the Supreme Court, the companies argue that the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong in permitting Mexico’s lawsuit to move forward, warning that other foreign governments could file lawsuits

In their appeal to the Supreme Court, the companies argue that the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong in permitting Mexico’s lawsuit to move forward, warning that other foreign governments could file lawsuits...more

ABQ homeowner proves why the Second Amendment shall not be infringed

 

In Albuquerque, a recent incident has underscored the Second Amendment’s critical importance and citizens’ right to protect their homes and families. The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) apprehended 32-year-old Joseph Rivera following a dramatic sequence of events that ended with Rivera being shot by a homeowner during an attempted burglary.

...In a moment of quick thinking, the homeowner managed to lock Rivera out after he momentarily left the premises. However, Rivera, undaunted, forced his way back into the home, further demanding keys. Faced with an increasingly perilous situation, the homeowner retreated to her bedroom and armed herself with a firearm.

When Rivera refused to heed the homeowner’s warnings to leave, she was left with no choice but to defend herself. She shot Rivera and then, displaying remarkable composure, administered first aid until law enforcement arrived...more

Law Enforcement Trainers File Scotus Amicus Brief against Maryland Rifle Ban

 

Last week the International Law Enforcement Educators & Trainers Association filed an amicus brief in a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging Maryland's ban on many common semiautomatic rifles. The case is Bianchi v. Brown, and it has an unusual procedural posture; it is a petition for certiorari before judgement. Yet the case is one on which the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled.

The facts about the banned rifles

As detailed in the amicus brief, the semiautomatic rifles banned by the Maryland General Assembly fire only one shot each time the trigger is pressed. This is the same rate of fire as the most common semiautomatic handguns, such as those made by Glock, Smith & Wesson, or Ruger.

The claim by gun prohibition advocates that such guns fire 300 to 500 times per minute has no basis in fact, and is contrary to common sense. It would take a superhuman trigger finger pull a trigger at the rate of 5 to 8 times per second, let alone do so for a full minute.

Nor are the banned rifles, including those based on the AR-15 platform, more powerful than nonbanned rifles. To the contrary, their standard ammunition is .223 inch or 5.56mm bullets that are small compared to most other rifle ammunition. Accordingly, their kinetic energy is lower.

Because the banned rifles are more powerful than handguns, but less powerful than most other rifles, the relatively low wounding power of this ammunition has been confirmed by decades of study by the US Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory.

Moreover, as documented in police training manuals, the banned rifles are the safest for defensive use within buildings, because their ammunition is especially unlikely to penetrate a wall...more

 

 

Appeals court puts controversial Texas immigration law back on hold

A federal appeals court late Tuesday night put Texas’ controversial immigration law back on hold, hours after the Supreme Court had cleared the way for the state to begin enforcing the measure. In a brief order, a three-judge panel at the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to wipe away a previous ruling from a different panel that had temporarily put the law, which would allow state officials to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally, into effect. The panel of judges that ???//issued Tuesday night’s order is already set to hear arguments Wednesday morning on Texas’ request to put the law, Senate Bill 4, back into effect pending the state’s appeal of a federal judge’s block on the law. One member – Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham – publicly dissented, saying he would let the law remain in effect for now. “I would leave that stay in place pending tomorrow’s oral argument on the question,” he wrote. Regardless of how the 5th Circuit acts following Wednesday’s arguments, the appeals court will still hold arguments next month over whether the law is unconstitutional and should be blocked indefinitely. The legal jockeying over SB 4 had made its way all the way to the Supreme Court, which earlier Tuesday cleared the way for the measure to go into effect after the justices rejected emergency appeals from the Biden administration and others. The decision had handed a significant – yet temporary – win to Texas, which has been battling the Biden administration over immigration policy...more

Credit card companies greenlight tracking of gun purchases with new code

 Several large credit card companies are taking steps to track gun purchases in California with a new code, CBS News reported on Monday.

American Express, Visa and Mastercard are working on putting a merchant code in place for firearm and ammunition stores, CBS News reported. They are doing this to adhere to a California law that could enable banks to monitor certain gun purchases that are deemed suspect to forward to law enforcement agencies, which Second Amendment advocates have pushed back against.

Gun stores at present are categorized with various retailers, including sporting goods sellers, according to CBS News. These credit card companies previously consented to establish a unique code specifically for firearm vendors but halted the effort following resistance from Second Amendment advocates who said it could violate the rights of lawful gun owners.

However, gun control advocates are hopeful the code can help prevent gun-related crime by detecting questionable purchases, according to CBS News. They compare it to how banks and credit unions notify law enforcement about identity theft or terrorism funding...more

Biden Reportedly Is Planning To Unilaterally Mandate Background Checks for All Gun Sales

 

Nearly a year ago, President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at "increasing the number of background checks conducted before firearm sales, moving the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation." According to the watchdog group Empower Oversight, which cites two unnamed "whistleblowers" at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the agency is working on regulations that would go all the way, purporting to require background checks for all private gun sales. It is hard to see how the ATF can do that "without additional legislation."

Under current federal law, background checks are required only for sales by federally licensed dealers. A rule that the ATF proposed last September would expand the definition of "dealer" to encompass some but not all occasional gun sellers. But even that controversial proposal does not go as far as the plan described by Empower America's sources, who say "the ATF has drafted a 1,300-page document in support of a rule that would effectively ban private sales of firearms from one citizen to another by requiring background checks for every sale."...more

Congressman accuses DOJ of hiding evidence of undercover agents involved in U.S. Capitol riot

Rep. Clay Higgins says the Justice Department is withholding exculpatory evidence from police video and audio recordings that reveal hundreds of undercover law enforcement officers were among the rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and helped incite the attack.

He is seeking more than the closed-circuit security footage from the Capitol riot. He wants the Department of Justice to make public police body camera footage, cellphone video, Go-Pro-type recordings and transcripts of preserved police radio traffic.

“To the extent that I’ve been able to put my own two eyes on some of that evidence, there’s a common thread that is woven amongst the evidence that the DOJ conceals,” Mr. Higgins, Louisiana Republican, told The Washington Times.

The “common thread,” according to Mr. Higgins, is the FBI and Justice Department lawyers using video to prosecute Jan. 6 protesters but refusing to identify people caught on the same video engaged in the same activity. He suspects the rioters protected by the feds are undercover agents and informants...more

FBI Has Massive 15 Month Backlog On DNA Testing For Migrants, Unearthed Emails Show

 

The FBI has a 15 month backlog on DNA testing for migrants and is running out of money to sustain the program, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) email chain reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uses tests from the FBI, which then analyzes and stores them for federal border authorities, to test migrants 14 years old and older, according to the emails. FBI Director Christopher Wray previously raised concerns about the FBI’s abielity to handle the “dramatic increase” in DNA samples given the migration surges in April, according to Voice of America.

The FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is used by federal, state and local labs to connect offenders to crimes, according to the bureau. When it comes to the migration flows to the U.S., federal border authorities have found significant numbers of migrants that are fraudulently making it seem like they’re legitimate families. Border Patrol has a contract for rapid DNA testing of families, according to the emails.

Federal authorities have recorded record flows of migrants crossing the southern border illegally in recent years, with roughly 2.2 million encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 2 million in fiscal year 2023, according to federal data...more

SAF Files Brief Over CA Assault Weapon Ban Ruling

 

Right now, California is just appealing the ruling.

And the Second Amendment Foundation just filed a response brief.

Attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a federal lawsuit which overturned California’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” have filed a 65-page response brief to the state’s appeal of its loss in a case known as Miller v. Bonta.

…

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an appeal with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

“The state is struggling to argue its ban on modern semiautomatic firearms is permissible, but there is no historical analogue supporting such a ban,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “California is attempting to ban firearms which are in common use, after claiming they are only suitable for military use. But that argument ignores one of the major reasons for protecting the individual right to keep and bear arms found in the Second Amendment.”

“California’s arguments fall far short of credulity,” added SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “It is obvious from the outset that the state is trying to mask its efforts to regulate firearms under the sort of means-end scrutiny which the Supreme Court in Bruen clearly rejected.”

more

AG Raúl Torrez offers red flag training for law enforcement statewide

 

In the wake of the mass shooting that happened in Maine last month, New Mexico’s attorney general is now offering red flag training for law enforcement agencies across the state.

While Red Flag Laws have been on the books in New Mexico for years now, they have not been utilized very often.

Red Flag Laws allow concerned friends and family members to alert law enforcement that someone with access to a gun may be a danger to themselves or others.

The attorney general is now offering a refresher course for law enforcement officers walking them through the process of Red Flag Laws.

...But Torrez also wants everyday people to know our Red Flag Laws are in place to protect them, and if they have concerns about a friend or a family member who might hurt themselves or others with a gun, they should feel comfortable going to law enforcement to see if they can get those gun temporarily removed. 

...Torrez also adds our Red Flag Laws aren’t perfect. He would like to see some changes to the law including removing the 48-hour grace period, clarifying who can be a reporting party of red flags, and add protections for those who raise red flag concerns...MORE

Supreme Court orders makers of gun parts to comply with Biden rules on ghost guns

 The Supreme Court on Monday ordered two internet sellers of gun parts to comply with a Biden administration regulation aimed at ghost guns, firearms that are difficult to trace because they lack serial numbers.

The court had intervened once before, by a 5-4 vote in August, to keep the regulation in effect after it had been invalidated by a lower court. No justice dissented publicly from Monday’s order, which followed a ruling from a federal judge in Texas that exempted the two companies, Blackhawk Manufacturing Group and Defense Distributed, from having to abide by the regulation of ghost gun kits.

Other makers of gun parts also had been seeking similar court orders, the administration told the Supreme Court in a filing.

“Absent relief from this Court, therefore, untraceable ghost guns will remain widely available to anyone with a computer and a credit card - no background check required,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, wrote.

The regulation changed the definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun, so they can be tracked more easily. Those parts must be licensed and include serial numbers. Manufacturers must also run background checks before a sale - as they do with other commercially made firearms...more

A closer look at more amici briefs in the next SCOTUS 2A case

 United States v. Rahimi is a case dealing with a prohibited person being in possession of arms. Just the other day I covered one of the many amici briefs that have been filed in support of Rahimi, one that the Second Amendment Foundation wrote. There’s a lot of attention being paid to this particular case, for good reason. It’s quite possible that the U.S. Attorney General is going to use this case as an opportunity to twist and contort NYSRPA v. Bruen.  To date, there have been 21 and counting briefs filed in support of Rahimi and about 36 in support of the U.S. government. 

The Rahimi question is whether or not a blanket prohibition on those subject to a civil domestic violence restraining order would be constitutional. Rahimi, during the course of some less-than-savory acts, got charged with being in possession of a firearm when under such an order. The case at hand is not about whether or not violent people or those who beat their domestic partners should or should not have firearms, but rather about if a civil – not criminal – process should lead to the loss of a constitutional right...more

Along the way, Petrolino discusses these submitted amicus briefs:

The Second Amendment Foundation

 

Law enforcement groups

The Firearm PolicyCoalition

 

National Association for Gun Rights

 

and the 

 

NRA

U.S. judge upholds suspension of right to carry guns in some New Mexico parks

 

A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday ruled as valid a temporary suspension by the governor of New Mexico of the right to carry guns in parks and playgrounds in parts of the state, court records show, in a victory for Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.

U.S. District Court Judge David Herrera Urias declined to block the governor's heavily criticized temporary suspension, saying the government has an interest in protecting a vulnerable population, "such as children" in "sensitive places" such as playgrounds.He ruled the motion for a preliminary injunction of the order was denied.

Lujan Grisham in September initially issued a blanket suspension on the right to carry guns in Albuquerque, the state's largest city and surrounding Bernalillo County, framing it as a public health response to deaths of children in gun violence, including the killing of an 11-year-old boy in a road rage incident...more

Senator Crystal Diamond: NM AG will not defend Gov's order in court

 

No Signs of Cops at Albuquerque Gun Protest

 

There were no citations issued at the first protest of the governor’s gun ban, but her office says not for long

Days after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a public health emergency that, in part, bans firearms in public—both openly carried and concealed—a few hundred armed protestors descended on the plaza in Old Town Albuquerque. The protest, where uniformed law enforcement was notably absent, was the first of many expected later this week over the governor’s order, which stands for at least 30 days and only applies to Bernalillo County

The lack of visible State Police on sight also meant no citations, even though the governor herself said during a news conference last week that those who violate the order could face a civil infraction. Some of those in attendance scoffed at the notion of a civil penalty for carrying a gun in public and said it was a signal of political grandstanding by Lujan Grisham. But the governor’s office assures The Paper. those citations are coming.

...A spokesman for Albuquerque Police did not respond to a request for comment, but Police Chief Harold Medina, Mayor Tim Keller, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman as well as Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen all essentially absolved themselves from enforcing the gun ban portion of Lujan Grisham’s public order...more

Undercover Federal Police Shot and Paralyzed Unhoused Man in Wheelchair

 

According to Brooks Roberts’s wrongful shooting claim, officers opened fire when they saw he had a gun — but he thought his brother was being robbed.

In late August, Brooks and his attorneys filed a claim against numerous government agencies seeking $50 million in monetary damages for “extreme suffering” caused by the shooting. According to the claim, Forest Service officers, in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management, shot Brooks “needlessly and recklessly” on May 19: through his arm and back shoulder, in his armpit and the bottom of his spine, through the middle of his back, and several times in his legs. The officers opened fire when they saw Brooks was carrying a gun — but they were wearing civilian clothing and had not identified themselves as police, according to the complaint...more