Three Awful Decisions By The Fifth Circuit Court Of Appeals
BY Herschel Smith
3 years ago
Justifying the unconstitutional bump stock ban.
A federal appeals court in New Orleans is the latest to uphold a federal ban on “bump stocks” — devices attached to semiautomatic firearms so that a shooter can fire multiple rounds with a single trigger pull.
Right there is a falsehood.
The ban was instituted in 2019 by the Trump administration after a sniper in Las Vegas used the device to help him massacre dozens of concertgoers in 2017 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The U.S. Supreme Court could decide next year whether to hear arguments on the ban.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision dated Tuesday, affirmed a Texas-based federal judge’s ruling in a lawsuit challenging the ban.
A challenge failed recently in the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit when judges split 8-8 on the issue. Another challenge is on appeal to the Supreme Court, arising from an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the ban at the Denver-based 10th Circuit.
[ … ]
The ban was instituted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in a rule declaring that bump stocks are classified as “machineguns,” banned by National Firearms Act.
According to the ATF, bump stock devices harness the recoil energy of a semiautomatic firearm so that a trigger “resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.” The National Firearms Act, according to the court records, outlaws weapons that fire continuously with “a single function of the trigger.”
Opponents of the ATF rule argue that the trigger itself functions multiple times when a bump stock is used. Judge Stephen Higginson, writing for the three 5th Circuit judges that ruled Tuesday, disagreed, quoting from a lower court ruling in the 10th Circuit case.
“As one district court has observed, there is no reason why ‘Congress would have zeroed in on the mechanistic movement of the trigger in seeking to regulate automatic weapons,’ given that the ‘ill sought to be captured by this definition was the ability to drastically increase a weapon’s rate of fire, not the precise mechanism by which that capability is achieved,'” Higginson wrote in an opinion joined by judges James Dennis and Gregg Costa.
But that is precisely what Congress did, and they can undo it if they choose to violate the 2A.
Next, they allow Biden’s vaccine mandate to move forward.
Yesterday, two federal courts issued orders that, together, significantly impact the Biden administration’s authority to implement and enforce the COVID-19 vaccine mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The first order, issued by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, has the effect of allowing the federal government to proceed with its efforts to implement the COVID-19 vaccine mandate issued by CMS in more than two dozen states.
Finally, they allow the vaccine mandate to proceed for United Airlines. This is a wonderful dissenting opinion (sent by WiscoDave).
They must be taking their lessons in tyranny from the supreme tyrants.
On December 17, 2021 at 9:41 am, Fred said:
A sniper using a bumpstock. Uh-huh.
I actually agree with the opinion by Higginson in that what he stated was the spirit of the NFA. The problem IS the NFA and GCA, not the bumpstock ban. Maybe the NRA will put its full weight behind overturning the NFA. Bwa ha ha ha.
All of them, yes even your favorite ones, top to bottom, federal and state and local, every last one of them needs to be hanged from the neck until dead.
On December 17, 2021 at 11:19 am, Bill Buppert said:
Fred: “All of them, yes even your favorite ones, top to bottom, federal and state and local, every last one of them needs to be hanged from the neck until dead.”
And left dangling in place in all their glorious decomposition as a warning to others.
And since communists aren’t human beings…
On December 17, 2021 at 11:56 am, Michael (from Utah) said:
The dissenting opinion linked to was excellent. Well thought out, well reasoned, and an excellent defense of the plaintiffs. Too bad judges like this are few and far between.
On December 17, 2021 at 11:59 am, X said:
Courts are not your friends. They are not defenders of your rights. Courts are government institutions staffed by the same woke sophists who staff every other corrupt institution. Anyone who thinks he is going to get a fair shake when he gets “his day in court” is no different than the first calf down the ramp at the slaughterhouse.
On December 17, 2021 at 1:29 pm, Geoff said:
There were no bump stocks in the Las Vegas shooting except for those planted by the FBI AFTER the shooting, the cell phone audio of the shooting indicates a rate of fire of about 600 to 650 rounds per minute (RPM) which is the low range of the M249 Belt fed (100 Rounds per belt) Light Machine Gun (Most likely supplied by the FBI). The 30 second pause between bursts of fire is about the time it takes to change the belt and allow the barrel to cool from sustained fire.
100 rounds in 10 seconds is 600 RPM. A bump stock from a person who is an expert in using a bump stock can dump 100 rounds in a bit over 6 seconds for a rate of fire of about 900 RPM, about the same as the M16 on full auto.
So why did the FBI deny the ATF to examine the firearms? Because they had to remove the M249 and other evidence first and plant the bump stocks.
Just my opinion based on conjecture. You can find teh cell phone video on YouTube, go play it and list for yourself.
On December 17, 2021 at 11:06 pm, Sisu said:
It appears as a country, the (former) United States of America, is about to fail; communication is no longer a viable method for resolving differences.
Now when challenged with the threat of force or an infringement on your liberty (by another or two … five confident in their authority) if you do not “comply”, who is prepared to do the “right thing” knowing they will never know the result of their action ?
A rhetorical question; nothing more.
On December 17, 2021 at 11:42 pm, Dan said:
Need to check the bank accounts of the judges who decided the mandate could go away.
Odds are it was a quid pro quo decision of some kind.
On December 18, 2021 at 6:11 am, Kick Ass said:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
and here we are.