On Sunday night U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Polymer80 against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) final rule on pistol frames and receivers. Now the company has returned to selling kits.
The Texas District Judge’s injunction applies only to Polymer80 and its customers. This case is one of many that has found the ATF out of bounds with issuing their frames rule, which retroactively made frame blanks firearms.
The Court found that the ATF overstepped its regulatory powers by trying to go around Congress.
“The statutory context repeatedly confirms that Congress intentionally chose not to regulate ‘weapon’ parts generally. As further evidence, look to § 921(a)(4)(C), which does allow
for the regulation of ‘parts.’ But it allows for the regulation only of parts of ‘destructive devices’—one of the four statutory sub-definitions of ‘firearm,'” the judge wrote.
The Biden Administration held up a Polymer80 kit at a White House Rose Garden ceremony and implied that it was a tool of criminals. A label that many in the gun community rejected. Now that same kit Biden demonized is once again available to the general public through the Polymer80 website for preorder.
After the final rule was unveiled last August, Polymer80 started selling blank frames alone without jigs. Customers would have to go to one of five secondary sites, such as DLD Hardware, to buy jigs and other parts. Then two days after Christmas, the ATF released an open letter once again modifying its final rulemaking on pistol blanks firearms.
The letter came on the heels of anti-gun groups calling on the ATF to close the “ghost gun loophole.” The letter’s new change never went through the mandatory public comment period. The ATF just decided to change the meaning of the final rule. Many in the gun world saw the reinterpretation of the final rule as a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which regulates how a rule can be introduced.
Polymer80 celebrated the historic victory over the ATF. Company founder, Loran Kelley, was happy to be fully back in business after the Biden Administration tried to shut the company down through rule-making. Other companies also have an injunction, but none with the market share that Polymer80 holds.
“This has been a hard-fought victory,” Kelley told AmmoLand News. “It would not have been possible without our employees and customers. The fight isn’t over, but we intend to see it out until the end.”
With all the defeats of the final rule in Texas, it seems to be on borrowed time. The ATF could appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but that would be a hard-fought battle if the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in the Cargill case is any indication. In that case, the Court ruled 13-3 against the ATF’s bump stock ban and remanded the case back to the district judge to rule in Michael Cargill’s favor and issue the appropriate relief.
AmmoLand News reached out the ATF and the White House for comment on their latest defeat, but neither returned AmmoLand’s request for comment.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Good! FJB and FATF!
It doesn’t look good for the pistol brace ban either.
Remember when this rule came down, Rockey Brass and a few others went out of business. What about them?
It would appear that the AFT had their feelz hurt by Sundays decision that their frame and receiver made up rule is deemed un Constitutional,oh well they are free to get bent or go pound sand.
FJB !
May be time to embrace being a felon.
Nothing undermines rule-of-law and social-stability more than insane laws, broadly ignored or flouted. Guess your legislature is trying to make all of Oregoneistan look like Portland.
I hope Polymer80’s people realize just how big an ATF target they have on their backs.
Just ask Cody Wilson.