Aguila Blanca
Staff
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/arti...ls-court-blocks-ban-on-rapid-fire-bump-stocks
This means there is now a circuit split, which may result in the bump stock ban being reviewed by the SCOTUS. It was refreshing to me to see that the majority at the 5th Circuit decided that words have meaning. Who'd a' thunk it?
However, as to this:
There is nothing ambiguous about the particular regulation in question. It clearly and explicitly states that a machine gun is a firearm that "is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger."
This means there is now a circuit split, which may result in the bump stock ban being reviewed by the SCOTUS. It was refreshing to me to see that the majority at the 5th Circuit decided that words have meaning. Who'd a' thunk it?
The full appeals court Friday sided with opponents of the ATF rule. They had argued that the trigger itself functions multiple times when a bump stock is used, so therefore bump stock weapons do not qualify as machine guns under federal law. They point to language in the law that defines a machine gun as one that fires multiple times with a “single function of the trigger.”
“A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machinegun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act,” Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote in the lead majority opinion.
However, as to this:
Most of the majority also agreed that if the law is ambiguous, it's up to Congress to address the issue under a court doctrine known as “lenity."
There is nothing ambiguous about the particular regulation in question. It clearly and explicitly states that a machine gun is a firearm that "is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger."