National Association for Gun Rights Wins Lawsuit Against ATF Trigger Ban
In a significant victory for gun rights advocates, the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) won a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) over the classification of forced reset triggers (FRTs) as “machineguns.” The ruling was handed down by Judge Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court, Northern District of Texas, who found the ATF’s ban on these devices unlawful.
National Association For Gun Rights, Inc., Et Al., Plaintiffs, V. Merrick Garland, Et Al., Defendants.
Judge O’Connor’s decision vacated the ATF’s classification of FRTs as machineguns, stating that the agency had exceeded its statutory authority. This ruling follows the Supreme Court’s recent Cargill decision, which similarly struck down the ATF’s bump stock ban.
SUMMARY JUDGMENT!!! We just won summary judgment striking down the ATF’s forced reset trigger ban in a scathing 64-page ruling. I’ll drop some highlights below as I go thought it. This is a huge win!!! pic.twitter.com/Z2CwWky1KQ
— Hannah Hill (@hannahhill_sc) July 24, 2024
Hannah Hill, Executive Director of the National Foundation for Gun Rights (the legal arm of NAGR), expressed her satisfaction with the court’s decision:
“We are absolutely thrilled that the court has dealt such a decisive blow to the ATF’s unconstitutional agency overreach. The ATF under the Biden/Harris regime has utterly trampled the Constitution and the rule of law in their eagerness to destroy the Second Amendment.”
Hill noted that while the ATF may appeal the ruling, both precedent and momentum are on the side of gun rights advocates.
“We fully anticipate the absolute end of the ATF’s unlawful, unconstitutional ban on forced reset triggers,” she added.
This ruling is not only a win for NAGR and its members and supporters but also for Rare Breed Triggers and its customers, who have been unlawfully targeted by the ATF and the Department of Justice.
Key Points from the Court’s Forced Reset Triggers Decision:
- Exceeding Authority: The court found that the ATF had acted beyond its statutory authority in redefining FRTs as machineguns. The judge emphasized that only Congress has the power to change statutory definitions.
- APA Violation: The ruling referenced the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), highlighting that the ATF’s actions violated this federal statute by overstepping its regulatory boundaries.
- Standing: The court rejected the ATF’s argument that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue, affirming the legitimacy of the claims brought by NAGR and Rare Breed Triggers.
- Injunction: The court issued a broad injunction preventing the ATF from enforcing its classification of FRTs as machineguns. This includes halting criminal prosecutions and civil actions based on the now-vacated definition.
Commentary from John Crump:
AmmoLand News’ John Crump, an investigative journalist known for his reporting on Second Amendment issues, covered the case extensively on AmmoLand News and his YouTube channel. Crump highlighted that the court’s decision follows a pattern of recent rulings that favor gun rights. He pointed out that the ATF’s attempt to classify FRTs as machine guns was flawed because these devices require the trigger to reset between each shot, a key characteristic that distinguishes them from machine guns.
Crump also noted the influence of the Supreme Court’s Cargill decision, which ruled against the ATF’s authority to redefine machineguns to include bump stocks. He explained that the same legal principles applied in the FRT case, leading to a similar outcome.
Looking Forward:
While the ATF may appeal the ruling, the path ahead appears challenging. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, known for its conservative leanings, is likely to uphold the lower court’s decision. Moreover, the Supreme Court has shown a willingness to rein in regulatory overreach, making a reversal of the ruling unlikely.
For now, this ruling represents a significant victory for the gun community, reinforcing the importance of adhering to the statutory definitions set by Congress and respecting the constitutional limits of federal agencies.
Stay informed, stay vigilant, and keep fighting for your rights.
pg 62 and 63 has to be making batfe furiously mad, having to return all the frt’s that they confiscated and send all those letters acknowledging they were wrong. ha, ha, ha.
hey, if you are not breaking the law you have nothing to worry about, right? guess that works for the government also.
the goobers that went armed to steal should be jailed and people should get the evidence back, if destroyed a brand new one in package with a po to pay an 07 to install and test it for owner if they want
Good luck enforcing that piece of the ruling. AFT likely has destroyed or disposed of many of the confiscated items, while majority of the rest have disappeared into agent’s personal safes. For whatever items they still have, they did not inventory or track where each came from unless they were preserving evidence for prosecution.
Enforcing anything against a federal, state, county, city, town or village agency requires going to court. Without the keys to the courthouse, agencies always blow us off. You have to get a lawyer. And an agency destroying private property sounds like a proper situation for a class action.
that is why fbi stole all the stuff in safe deposit boxes in comifornia
Bastards. They had no right.
Once the court has issued it’s order, and the agency does not deliver the goods they confiscated from you, you have the power to enter that agency’s facility and retrieve your property. If you are met with resistance, it is you duty to quell that.
HLB
Maybe, the atf — who are sworn to uphold the constitution — should actually read it. What part of “Shall not be infringed” is difficult to understand??? What the atf did was both treasonous and tyrannical, both of which are capitol crimes and both rate capitol punishment, so when is that supposed to happen??? I have plenty of rope, tar and feathers, and I do have tall trees should the opportunity come my way.
I will be buying one of these triggers as soon as I can afford it.
Arm up and carry on
Another positive result from the Chevron Deference decision.
Amen, you are right.
Ok, you have said in the past that you get the tyranny you deserve many times and have implied that we are not taking care of problems the right way. I submitted to you that there is still time to take care of it the legal way a couple times and that this is not the time. This is proof that the system not only works but it is working in America and our old country is coming back without a war. So far if we can keep the supreme court the way it is and ObDUMB doesn’t change it… Read more »
Our courts, from SCOTUS down, move too slowly, too passively, and too reactively. A right delayed is a right denied. When they observe an infringement, they should take swift action to remedy it.
I can relate to what you are talking about whenever I think about the J-6ers. They should have never been arrested and tried under insurrection, but regardless of what the offense is, it should have all been over by now. It is a travesty and injustice what is happening to them and now that the court has said that Trump did not lead an insurrection, they should be freed, all those that have not been tried and those that have been convicted should be reversed and freed.
True so far. But authoritarian thugs who exercise unlawful and evil authority behind closed doors are not above putting us in prison camps or putting bullets in us. Power corrupts absolutely.
that’s why our fore fathers made sure we have a 2nd amendment that we may forbid them from putting us in Hitlary camps and stop tyranny. The left has had a coup against ObiDUMB and made it where their own has been eliminated. The demoncrats cannot vote for their choice, they will have to take whoever the powers that be decide is their candidate. That should tell the left that their own government, the ones that are in control now, are their masters because they have been denied the opportunity to exercise their vote in a democratic setting and they… Read more »
Really, that’s amazing. I would think that they would want her more because she is black with the exception of mikey!!!!
I expect younger people that are in college to vote for her even though she says they are stupid, black people to vote for her like they did obummer only because he was black and white women to vote for her along with the people that feel brow beat that if they don’t vote for her that they are racist and others because she is a woman!!!!
You know it is always the same with them.
They complain when the right gets what it wants and they complain when the left doesn’t.
If they need it and they get it, they are ok with it so long as the right doesn’t get the same thing if they need it.
Total two faced bigots.
awaiting
True story. Deconstructing the consequences of Chevron will be a long process because the disease in law resulting from Chevron runs deep across the entire federal regulatory monster. Every agency was involved in using and abusing the CFR for ideological gains and finding and deconstructing each and every poison pill will be a long process. But it is possibly the most necessary and effective tack to take on reigning in rogue federal agencies and agents while we rope and neuter our rogue federal government.
Amen to that.
This will not stop the ATF arresting innocent people and turning their lives upside down. They need to be disbanded and all the NFA, GCA and all the other infringements go away forever.
I must compliment AmmoLand and their authors within for reporting these events to us.
HLB
They keep filing unconstitoutional laws , it smacks of Malfeasance when its repeated. We should have a rule if they do this against the constitoution they should be automatically recalled.
and a law that says any unconstitutional bill that is made with tax dollars should have tax dollars funded to fighting it. That will stop the madness because it will end the he with the most bucks wins.
and you can buy them from about 300 to 380.
Let freedom ring.
The problem is.. the definition.
Yet, we have democrats trying to redefine the two sexes…. and there is the perplexing problems for democrats who pandered to the far alt left freaks.
I have several of these… quite fun and not a “single function of a trigger”
Unfortunately, it’s a rather meaningless decision with no teeth. The Democrat lawfare activists posing as Federal officials will simply take another bite of the apple elsewhere. They use the citizen’s own tax dollars against the citizens, to unconstitutionally restrict the citizen’s human rights, with absolutely no consequence when they lose, and then, do it again and again. Meanwhile, the citizens must raise $millions, even hundreds of $millions in defense, to over turn their lawless edicts. That’s the beauty of lawfare, i.e. it’s self-funded, where “self” is the citizen’s own tax dollars. (Then they stage fake elections when citizens object to… Read more »
And why is it that we have to obey any criminal cabal’s “orders”, especially the legal system? No one seems to have even a bad answer to that question!
Because we have the laws though illegal they are the law which we are supposed to follow. There is one stipulation in Acts 5 that says that we are not to take part of a government that goes against Gods law which is that we must submit to LGBTQ or that we must put down our arms because in Luke 22:36 it says he who has no sword should sell his cloak and buy one! For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled. Revelations is full of prophecy about the end times. I look at… Read more »
I sent a friend a text yesterday with a link to this article because I wanted to share the good news. He told me that the new Omnibus bill says that FRT and Binary triggers will be illegal come Jan 1 2025.
Is that Omnibus bill a state budget? Are you talking about WA-state?
I was told that is a bill by the house in congress.
This is a victory, but I’ll wait for at least two Appeals Court rulings before the Victory celebration.