The ATF has started the embarrassing process of returning bump stocks to their original owners after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the agency wrongfully determined they were machineguns, but only if the owners act within 90 days.
The ATF sent letters titled “Notice of Opportunity to Request Return of Bump Stock(s) in ATF Custody” last week. They include an address in Washington D.C. and an email that the former owners can contact to arrange for the return of their property. Once the requests are processed, the letter states, “you will be contacted by someone from the local ATF field office to arrange retrieval of your bump stock(s).”
“In the interest of returning your item as soon as possible, please submit your claim form within 90 days of this letter,” the ATF states. “Bump stocks which remain unclaimed after that time may be considered unclaimed or abandoned and may be subject to disposal.”
Florida Carry, Inc., purchased an SSAR-15 bump stock from Slide Fire Solutions, Inc., for demonstration and educational purposes before the ban was enacted. It was surrendered to the ATF “under protest,” and Florida Carry became a co-plaintiff in Guedes v. ATF, along with the Firearms Policy Foundation, Damien Guedes, the Madison Society Foundation, Inc., and Shane Roden.
Florida Carry co-founder and co-executive director Sean Caranna was, once again, struck by the ATF’s arbitrariness in setting the 90-day deadline.
“Rather than simply returning people’s property, the ATF has established a bureaucratic and paperwork burden on law-abiding Americans in an attempt to run out the 90-day clock that the ATF has created without any statutory authority,” Caranna said. “Clearly, ATF leadership has learned nothing from the Supreme Court’s mandate that government agencies can’t make up new rules that are not expressly provided for by law.”
The ATF letter, which was sent last week to Florida Carry’s General Counsel, Eric Friday, cited the Supreme Court case Garland v. Cargill, stating: “The U.S. Supreme Court held that non-mechanical bump stock – a bump stock that relies on the forward pressure from the shooter’s non-trigger hand to force the rifle and trigger forward after recoil – is not a ‘machinegun’ as defined in the National Firearms Act. Accordingly, you are hereby notified that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is currently in possession of the bump stocks described above in which you may have an interest.”
The ATF never mentioned how the High Court chastised them for flip-flopping on what constitutes a machinegun:
“For many years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) consistently took the position that semiautomatic rifles equipped with bump stocks were not machineguns. ATF abruptly changed course when a gunman using semiautomatic rifles equipped with bump stocks fired hundreds of rounds into a crowd in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 58 people and wounding over 500 more. ATF subsequently proposed a rule that would repudiate its previous guidance and amend its regulations to ‘clarify’ that bump stocks are machineguns. ATF’s Rule ordered owners of bump stocks either to destroy or surrender them to ATF to avoid criminal prosecution,” the Justices wrote in their opinion.
More than a dozen states, including Florida, still prohibit possession of bump stocks. The ATF warns that the owners will be held responsible for complying with state and local laws once the device is returned.
By arbitrarily establishing the 90-day return window, the ATF has created an internal precedent that it will likely use when it is ordered to return other firearm accessories that were unconstitutionally seized by its agents, including pistol braces, aftermarket triggers and more.
Lee Williams is a board member of Florida Carry, Inc.
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About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
Is it just me, or does it strike anyone else that the ATF knows they’ve taken your bump stock but think it’s necessary to send you a letter stating you have 90 days to file a claim to get it back?
They must know they have your bump stock, they sent you a letter!
Why don’t they send a letter saying your bump stock has been shipped to you and it should arrive by such a date, if you don’t have it by then please file a claim for it’s purchase price?
Flipping bureaucracy.
The BATFE knows that the S. Ct. can not get involved in so short a time, so the BATFE thinks that they will get to destroy the bump stocks. The BATFE has obviously not learned their lesson about creating their own rules.
If it does not arrive…..sue for theft of property.
It takes time to fill out forms and correspond. It takes time to drive and pick them up. And I don’t want to answer any questions, I don’t want to answer their Information Gathering forms, questions whose sole purpose is to gather information unrelated to the bump stock. They should be required to mail them at their expense paid from their budget with $500 Insurance. ATF Management still playing the arrogant, punk, bullies. There really needs to be a second lawsuit now to define how to reaquire and at whose expense, and some money for “loss of use” negotiated in.
Note…you’re paying the return either way…..your tax dollars.
They should have to return in person with hat in handle and a written apology for their tyranny.
And people are surprised, a 2A attorney at that, that the ATF would go out of it’s way to burden people with paperwork and God only knows how many other hassles?
Maybe everyone, even those that did not give up a bump stock, should put in for one. Where does a guy get the paperwork, again.
Wouldn’t it just be simpler to return the items straight out? Here they make a bureaucracy , out of a simple return of a stolen item. Why do you have to “apply” for a return.? I’d like to see the warehouse of all the guns they’ve stolen over the years and kept.
You have to wonder wow many request forms will be denied because of a “typo” or “illegible” text, akin to the zero tolerance rejection policy on 4473s.
Fatf
They do it because you were weak enough to turn it over so they know you’re not strong enough to deal with a thief no matter their title, clothing and status. They know at most you’ll try and get an organization to file suit because you still believe politicians are gonna fix things. In fact some of yall believe that the same politicians who messed things up are gonna fix it.
Change Requires Discomfort