Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Believe it or not, a case at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit could have major implications for the Second Amendment.
Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t touch on any Second Amendment issues directly, but there are major implications for how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) in this ruling.
According to the reporting from Cheddar, this could throw a massive wrench into the workings of the administrative state. Many regulatory agencies (of which BATFE is one) have the ability to act as judge and jury in non-criminal cases. One significant example Second Amendment supporters will note is the recent situation with Rare Breed’s triggers, which BATFE decided were machine guns and is now confiscating from people who bought them believing they were legal accessories.
A very final clock could very well be ticking if the Supreme Court hears this case, based on what happened with West Virginia v. EPA. If Jarkesy v. SEC is upheld by the Supreme Court, then BATFE, as it goes after licensed dealers and manufacturers – not to mention all the times they declare something a “machine gun” – is going to face some big-time changes. Their new “ghost gun” regulations? It could very well be gone.
Reining in BATFE’s administrative abuses would be a good thing. The question would be what happens next, the same question that has to be asked if we were to disband that agency. While many loyal Ammoland readers would like to see a lot of BATFE’s workforce out of work, that is not realistically going to happen.
So, Second Amendment supporters need to come up with a plan. An ATF unable to conjure up “machine guns” out of thin air will need to do something. Perhaps it could be re-focused on carrying out Project Exile-type work in our most violent big cities.
I won’t try to kid anyone and say the Biden Administration will even consider that. No, they’ve got parents raising concerns about school boards to worry about, not to mention other non-sequiturs. The FBI certainly doesn’t act when there are real warnings about people who actually went on to carry out mass shootings. Perhaps that function could be shifted to the ATF agents who no longer would be able to somehow call a stock a “machine gun” in a post-Jarkesy v. SEC world.
That world is not here yet, and it may not get here any time soon. While that is frustrating, it also gives Second Amendment supporters the time they need to come up with plans and push our elected representatives to make every effort to pass them. That will help defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.