NRA-ILA Files Friend of the Court Brief Urging the Sixth Circuit to Vacate ATF’s Bump Stock Rule

[Charlie T Waite]

Last week, NRA-ILA filed an amicus curiae (or friend of the court) brief in support of a challenge to ATF’s 2018 rule that classified bump stocks as machineguns. The case is before an en banc panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

ATF had determined that bump stocks were not machineguns on ten separate occasions from 2008 to 2017. But that changed in 2018, when ATF announced that it would review its regulatory definition of machinegun. NRA-ILA filed comments opposing ATF’s reinterpretation at that time. Nevertheless, ATF reversed course and classified bump stocks as machineguns. That change prompted several lawsuits.

Congress defined machinegun “objectively based on the trigger’s mechanics, nothing else,” the brief argues. But in reinterpreting “machinegun,” ATF “moved the goalposts” and looked to factors beyond the function of the trigger. “ATF went off target.” 

But this case is about much more than bump stocks. At its core, it’s about how much discretion ATF has to interpret provisions of the Gun Control Act that impose criminal liabilities. The brief argues that for 200 years, the Supreme Court has consistently held that “the power to create crimes lies exclusively with Congress.” Thus, when criminal liability is on the line, “ATF’s position is ‘not relevant at all.”’

The case is captioned as Gun Owners of America v. Garland.