O’Connor’s decision means the nation’s largest unfinished firearms parts manufacturer, Polymer80, is not subject to the White House’s prohibition on homemade gun kits.
The judge found that the ATF surpassed its authority when it tried to redefine a handgun. The agency did so with the goal of impeding sales of homemade gun kits and unfinished parts.
Judge O’Connor wrote in his decision in Polymer80 v. Garland, “that which may become a receiver is not itself a receiver.” He noted that the ATF’s Final Rule redefining a “frame or receiver” contradicted the statute’s clear standards.
The Gun Control Act set the definition of a “firearm,” and that definition clearly did not include all parts of the weapon. Rather, it specified “the frame or receiver of any such weapon” defined as a firearm by Congress.
This important decision came on the heels of another recent ruling by O’Connor in a different case concerning manufacturers of unfinished gun parts. Yet another administration attempt to change the law through agency rulemaking was thwarted by both of his decisions.
Herein lies the problem. Legislative decision-making is the clear constitutional role of Congress. Agency rules and executive orders are dubious means of circumventing this time-honored standard, and they are subject to being struck down by judges who follow the rule of law.
Clearly the president’s gun control agenda is grasping for straws. It is less than a year since Biden announced new rules bringing the hammer down on these supposedly “untraceable firearms,” but these regulations are taking on water faster than they can scoop it out.
This only adds to recent judicial momentum striking blows at the heart of unilateral federal actions that bypass the legislative process. The blocking of the bump-stock ban by the full Fifth Circuit is another signal that the recent pistol stabilizer brace rule is in serious jeopardy.
The Biden administration was set to expand the ATF’s already significant power by changing the definition of a firearm. Under this sweeping act, those selling unfinished gun parts would be legally defined as “engaged in the business” of producing and distributing firearms.
Thus, it became necessary for them to acquire federal licenses to conduct business. This would bring to fruition an effort ongoing for years by anti-gun activists to end the commerce in gun parts and homemade gun kits. These may be sold without serial numbers or background checks due to there being considerably more work left to transform them into functioning weapons.
Interestingly, the Second Amendment did not play into this most recent victory for gun rights advocates.
Rather, Judge O’Connor based his decision on the Administrative Procedures Act. This important statute dictates the lengths federal agencies may go to interpret and enforce federal laws.
Under this rule, the judge determined that the ATF overreached its authority under the Gun Control Act. But the judge went further.
O’Connor blasted the ATF for “copying language used throughout the statutory definition” of a firearm and rewriting it into confusing wordplay. He said the agency cherry-picked certain phrases throughout the statute and pieced them together in a Frankenstein-like fashion to reach a new, agency-approved definition of a firearm.
The judge also declared that the ATF “has no general authority to regulate weapon parts.”
The ruling was handed down on Sunday and hailed by Polymer80 as a “massive win.” Loran Kelly, the company’s founder and CEO, posted that the business has resumed selling and shipping its products across the nation.
