Split Appeals Court Decisions On Bump Stocks
BY Herschel Smith
2 years ago
A three-judge panel issued an opinion on the case in the Fifth Circuit on December 14, 2022.
The three judge panel refused to consider either the separation of powers issues, or the Chevron doctrine, claiming they were irrelevant because the panel ruled bump stocks were machine guns.
The Fifth Circuit was asked to consider the case en banc, which is to say, before the entire court, by a member of the Court. A majority of the members of the Fifth Circuit agreed to hear the case, en banc.
The trend of the case follows the GOA case in the Sixth Circuit. The Sixth Circuit agreed to hear the bump stock case en banc. The Sixth Circuit split evenly, with eight members voting to rule the bump stock regulation invalid and eight-member voting to rule for the government. In the case of a tie vote, the district court ruling was upheld. The GOA case was denied a writ of certiorari on October 3 of, 2022.
The Cargill v. Garland oral arguments were heard by the Fifth Circuit, en banc, on September 13, 2022.
There is a good chance the Fifth Circuit will reverse the opinion of the district court. A majority of the Court agreed to hear the case, starting fresh, en banc. If the Fifth Circuit reverses the opinion and finds for Cargill, the case will create a split in the Circuits between the Tenth, the Sixth, and the Fifth circuits.
This gives the Supreme Court a strong incentive to hear the case.
Maybe.
But it’s either cowardice or mere stupidity that anyone can look at the description of a machine gun in the law and conclude that a bump stock turns a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun.
The Supreme Court isn’t immune from cowardice and stupidity. Therefore, I hold out no hope that the SCOTUS will reverse this awful decision.
As I’ve said before, I have no bump stocks and no arms braces. But that’s not the point.
It doesn’t matter whether I have them – the only thing that matters is whether free men should have to suffer the infringement of controllers who want to disarm them. And … whether a federal bureaucracy has the authority to make law in lieu of the Congress.
On October 24, 2022 at 12:37 pm, PGF said:
A bumpstock is not a machine gun; it just isn’t. The courts should stop playing politics and simply put BATFE in its place, which is defunded and nonexistent.
There is no authority in the constitution for a Gun Control Bureau. Where, under the first amendment, is the Bureau of Speech, Thought, and Media? Or the Bureau of Establishing Religion and Religious Organizations, or Control of Established Religion.