Office of the Solicitor General Supreme Court Briefs for U.S. Department of Justice -bump stocks-
There’s one case you really should pay close attention to —given the unrelenting gun violence. For the record a bump stock allows for a semiautomatic weapon to essentially become a machine gun…
Earlier today my inbox received notification from the SG’s office — I’ve taken the liberty of copying & pasting the text of the email notification below because I believe in the “sharing is caring” doctrine. And while on its face the one case appears to be solely about the ATF’s authority or exceeding their authority. In short I believe the district court errored in its ruling. Because the plaintiffs argue that the ban on “bump stocks” is both unconstitutional and the AFT exceeded their authority… so when I say “hey this is important” that’s not me over selling the importance of that case.
On brief filed by Solicitor General Office -SCOTUS
If I need to refresh your memory, I think a lot of you can recall the countless threads, during the Trump Administration —specifically the thread where I explained that the Trump Admin doesn’t respect or honor law enforcement. As Trump allowed for the CAD drawings of 3D print guns to occur. Which was a 180 degree turn of events. I’m not going to bore you with a regurgitation of my previous (twitter) research. It’s gone but you’ll have to trust me that when I was on Twitter I used that platform to push out a ton of facts related to both guns but the lethality of Ghost Guns:
Should you be inclined you can click on this White House query that I ran and it will provide you with additional read-outs, speeches and fact sheets. There are several interrelated issues here: can the ATF promulgate “new rules” on gun accessories and “gun violence in America” —
What are State and Local Governments doing to combat gun violence…
If you know how the NRA and more broadly the gun-nuts of the Republican Party positions itself —then you’d know that the pivot to “it’s a state/local issue” is a disgusting attempt to muddy the waters. On June 6, 2022 the New York Governor signed ten NEW gun/commonsense legislation. (My educated guess is these new laws will be immediately challenged) —Also, as some of you you might already know, late last week the City of Baltimore Files Lawsuit Against Ghost Guns (see Baltimore v. Polymer80 Filed Complaint) the Baltimore Mayor’s press release reads in part:
… Polymer80 intentionally undermines federal and state firearms laws by designing, manufacturing, selling and providing ghost gun kits and parts to buyers who do not undergo a background check. Polymer80’s primary markets consist of those who want to evade law enforcement or who cannot obtain a gun from a Federal Firearms Licensee, including underage buyers, buyers with criminal convictions and gun traffickers. While the Maryland ban on the sale of ghost guns went into effect on June 1, 2022, the lawsuit alleges that Polymer80 intentionally undermined other laws like the Gun Control Act, the Maryland Handgun Register law, and the Maryland Handgun Qualification License law for years prior to June 1, 2022.
Before we dive into the Solicitor General’s brief —I think it would help you to watch this recent Reuters Video regarding SCOTUS. My impression is it certainly appears the Conservative Justices appear to be willing to strike down (in this case it’s New York) State laws that the court believes are unconstitutional or exceeding authority… apparently the ultra conservatives of the current Supreme Court are okay with children being massacred by young white male, who’s armed with an AR-15… I know that’s an offensive statement but I’m tired of the never ending mass shootings in our Country. I’m tired of the tens of millions of dollars poured into (mainly) Republican campaign coffers. I’m tired of muting my TV so my children won’t hear about the latest masks shooting. I am sick and tired of the bullshit “thoughts and prayers” but I am equally tired of Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans (looking at you Manchin & Sinema they aren’t democrats they are McConnell-lite Senators) —at what point do we as a Country finally demand our law makers in DC to simply do their job?
…and apparently the ultra conservative Supreme Court justices appear take Justice Scalia’s majority ruling in DC v Heller to the woodshed. Clearly “stare decisis” is for L-O-S-E-R-s and this is why elections matter. Because that insurrectionist lawless POS former president of ours biggest achievement was filling 3 SCOTUS seats.
As I’ve repeatedly explained and pointed out what Justice Scalia actually wrote in the majority opinion—the current justices appear to have the desire to literally rewrite Scalia’s opinion and subject more American Children and Americans writ large to just accept “our new normal” while completely ignoring our collective “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” because the conservative justices are either spineless or they simply do not care how many children and innocent Americans are murdered everyday via guns.
In 2008 DC v Heller — SCOTUS and Assault Weapons -Justice Scalia who wrote the majority opinion , which stated in part and it’s the later section of the opinion that consistently gets overlooked, again this is secular to “assault weapons” but important nonetheless…
“…We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms. ‘Miller’ said, as we have explained, that the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time.’ 307 U.S., at 179, 59 S.Ct. 816. We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’”
“It may be objected that if weapons that are most useful in military service — M-16 rifles and the like — may be banned, then the Second Amendment right is completely detached from the prefatory clause. But as we have said, the conception of the militia at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification was the body of all citizens capable of military service, who would bring the sorts of lawful weapons that they possessed at home to militia duty. It may well be true today that a militia, to be as effective as militias in the 18th century, would require sophisticated arms that are highly unusual in society at large. Indeed, it may be true that no amount of small arms could be useful against modern-day bombers and tanks. But the fact that modern developments have limited the degree of fit between the prefatory clause and the protected right cannot change our interpretation of the right.”
GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA, INC., ET AL., PETITIONERS v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL…
To be clear this particular case strictly deals with “bump stocks” furthermore you can read the various after action reports, incident reports below because the facts previously elucidated makes for a very compelling argument that bumpstocks are intended to maximize fire power.
To help you understand how the “bump stock” allowed the gunman, Stephen Paddock to fire more than 1,100 rounds of which both federal, state and local law enforcement confirmed that Paddock fired 280 rounds in less than 31 seconds;
Resulting in 60 deaths, —36 women and 22 men —two deaths occurring at the hospital. Moreover this gunman/murderer also juried more than 867 concert attendees, of which 411 individuals had gunshot wounds or shrapnel injuries. The use of a bumpstock to allow for this kind of carnage is exactly why bumpstocks should be illegal.
Whether the district court abused its discretion in denying petitioners’ request for a preliminary injunction in this challenge to a final rule interpreting the term “machinegun,” 26 U.S.C. 5845(b), to encompass devices known as bump stocks, which permit users to fire a semiautomatic rifle continuously with a single pull of the trigger.
The classification process enables ATF to provide manufacturers with “the agency’s official position concerning the status of the firearms under Federal firearms laws,” to assist manufacturers in “avoid[ing] an unintended classification and violations of the law” before a manufacturer “go[es] to the trouble and expense of producing” the weapon or device. Ibid.; cf. 26 U.S.C. 5841(c) (requiring manufacturers to “obtain authorization” before making a covered firearm and to register “the manufacture of a firearm”). ATF has made clear, however, that “classifications are subject to change if later determined to be erroneous or impacted by subsequent changes in the law or regulations.” Emphasis Added
..Bump Stocks allows approximately 650 rounds per minute…
Yes you are reading that correctly, it’s literally on page four, second paragraph last sentence and the fact that previously the ATF admitted that the statute doesn’t given them the authority to regulate bumpstocks, well maybe it should.
Come on, did you really think I was being facetious when I specifically stated page 4, second paragraph, last sentence? In short a bumpstock (such as the Akins Accelerator) does in fact turn a semi-automatic weapon (of war) into a fully functional and deadly machine gun. Thereby exponentially increasing the lethality of an AR-15 or assault weapons. Which the SCOTUS has already ruled are “weapons of war” and are not protected by the 2nd amendment.
This fact is evident in the aforementioned after action reports. Think about that Las Vegas shooting, 60 dead and over 860 injured by murder Stephan Paddock. This link is to a video the Guardian published, shortly after the shooting. It was minutes of terror as hundreds of rounds of .223 bullets rained down on the concert goers. The bumpstock allowed this murder to commit more murders and injuries had his assault rifle not had the bumpstock accessory….in a very short timespan. By my rough estimation he was firing about 11 rounds per second. Again the .223 caliber ammunition is meant to do maximum carnage and the bumpstock circumvented the trigger spring thereby making the assault rifle an actual machine gun.
The Akins Accelerator, which attached to a standard semiautomatic rifle, used a spring to harness the recoil energy of each shot, causing “the firearm to cycle back and forth, impacting the trigger finger” repeatedly after the first pull of the trigger. Ibid. Thus, by pulling the trigger once, the shooter “initiated an automatic firing sequence” that was advertised as firing “approximately 650 rounds per minute.” Ibid.
18 U.S.C. 921(a)(30), 922(v) (2000). Those provisions had been enacted in 1994 with a ten-year sunset provision. See Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, Pub. L. No. 103-322, Tit. XI, Subtit. A, §§ 110102, 110105, 108 Stat. 1996-1998, 2000.
I spent my career as a senator and as vice president working to pass common sense gun laws..,We can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have a positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled."
And as predicated many on the ultra-right-conservative media lost their minds with the one sentence Biden said — here’s the thing, Biden wasn’t pulling a random number out of the sky. In fact he was referencing as 2019 study from New York University’s School of Medicine. Their study found that mass shooting deaths caused assault weapons actually fell slightly in the decade of the federal assault weapon ban. Only then to dramatically increased in the decades that followed.
For now I think you have a basic understanding of the brief filed by the Solicitor General but I want you to think about the temerity of this lawsuit. That Las Vegas Music Concert shooting was a carnage that no one thought could or would happen. The deaths and injury were intensified because of the bumpstock but apparently the American Gun industry doesn’t care about lives, they care about profits. I am genuinely sick of the gun violence in America and I’m stone cold serious if (lawless) president Trump can “claim” a National Emergency and run like a little baby to SCOTUS —then I fully expect President Biden to declare a National Emergency for gun violence… turn about fair play and precedence is on Biden’s side…
And lastly here’s your daily saltwater therapy, I took this video last fall —the little known secret is the ocean stays relatively warm in September/October and since the air isn’t as humid as the Spring/Summer —the sunrises tend to be deeper reds and oranges. This is also applicable to sunsets.
I’m still taking a few days off because I have other professional obligations that will test my multitasking skills but I’ll likely publish a few articles this week, if my schedule permits. Until then, Be Well -Filey
