Attorney seeks to overturn federal machine gun ban on constitutional grounds

[Tootie]

What do you guys think about this?

A Mississippi attorney established a crowdfunding page Thursday to overturn the federal machine gun ban. Since being established, the project appears well on its way to reaching its $50,000 goal.

“Now, my sights are set on ... the machine gun ban,” Stephen Stamboulieh announced on the GoFundme.com webpage he established to finance the legal challenge. “I don't believe this is constitutional in light of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Likewise, the National Firearms Act (‘NFA’), which taxes the making and transferring of Title II weapons (machine guns, suppressors, short barrel rifles, short barrel shotguns, etc) is ripe to be attacked on Second Amendment grounds.

Stamboulieh filed a Freedom of Information Act Request in September asking the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for documents related to number of machine guns made or transferred after the May 19, 1986 cutoff date imposed by federal law. He also requested redacted copies of related approvals on Form 1 (Application to Make and Register a Firearm) and Form 4 (Application for Tax Paid Transfer and Registration of Firearm) approvals.

The request was part of his documentation-gathering effort initiated after a letter from ATF’s Firearms Industry Programs Branch Chief informed a suppressor manufacturer and dealer that “unincorporated trusts do not fall within the definition of ‘person..."

The laws regarding machine gun builds and transfers are complex, as are laws regarding gun trusts. A discussion thread on the AR15.com forum provides as close of a “CliffsNotes” version as the uninitiated are likely to find:

Because ATF ruled an unincorporated trust is not a person under federal law, "the transfer or possession of machine guns ... cannot apply," the summary noted.

"Numerous... trustees submitted Form 1 applications to build new machine guns [and] ATF approved the applications and sent out stamps," the explanation continued. "ATF began calling trustees that received stamps demanding that they be returned, or in the case of eForms, updating their online status from Approved to Disapproved. Those that were called were told they had to return the stamp." [See embedded video, above]

“We have the avenue to attack both the machine gun ban and the NFA with the BATFE's recent approval of a number of Form 1s,” Stamboulieh advised on his GoFundMe page. “I have a number of clients that I will be filing a lawsuit on behalf of to seek to overturn the ban and the NFA in different states.”

http://www.examiner.com/article/atto...tional-grounds

His gofundme page.

http://www.gofundme.com/fmxlnk

[Philbert]

Not a duplicate thread, but when this ruling first happened there was a discussion of it here

http://forum.pafoa.org/national-11/2...-loophole.html

[Steve_NEPhila]

Perhaps the days of 20,000 USD automatic rifles will come to an end. I think the whole 16 inch barrel thing is pretty arbitrary and capricious myself. Vertical foregrips and other nonsense imposed upon the people of the gun are additional absurd rules that serve no real purpose to this great Republic. This is bad law and it deserves to be tossed into the trash by We The People...

[PAMedic=F|A=]

Perhaps the days of 20,000 USD automatic rifles will come to an end. I think the whole 16 inch barrel thing is pretty arbitrary and capricious myself. Vertical foregrips and other nonsense imposed upon the people of the gun are additional absurd rules that serve no real purpose to this great Republic. This is bad law and it deserves to be tossed into the trash by We The People...

More than that, it was ruled Constitutional because short rifle barrels and shotguns were ruled to have no legitimate purpose in a organized military. However this is nbo longer true. The standard issue weapon of these United States has a 14.5 inch barrel. The MP5 has a 4.9 to 8.9 inch barrel. The Ithaca 37 shotgun has a 13 inch barrel & was used in WWII & vitnam. The M26 is the standard issue shotgun for these United States Army & is replacing the M500. It has a barrel length of 7.75 inches.

Clearly - based on the wording of the SCotUS ruling, SBR and SBS must now be legal. Of course, we wouldn't expect the clear wording of a law or ruling to mean anything.

[nfafan]

Good luck with that.

[Yellowfin]

If we had the right judges at the Supreme Court it would work. Currently we don't. Maybe if this takes 5-6 years to get up there and we were to get a president who's on our side and put 2-3 judges in there to kick out the bad ones it'd be a winning strategy. Until then it isn't.

[IIIIIREPOIIIII]

Its nice to dream every now and then!

[jthrelf]

MGs would be kinda cool, but I'd much rather have the SBR and suppressor non-sense taken care of.

[knight0334]

SCOTUS will not shoot down the NFA.

1. The long standing practice now is only allowing "sporting" type firearms to the citizenry. ...everything now is about "sporting purposes" rather than militia duties. So, the NFA will stand.

2. SCOTUS may overturn the "trust = not a person" thing. But that will be a close fight. Odds are that either Kennedy or Roberts will side with the anti-gun liberal justices though.

I'll bet a box of 9mm ammo that if it goes to SCOTUS the above is how they will rule.

Our government has no desire to loosen up the gun laws. Whether Rep/Dem or Liberal/Conservative - their end goal is to empower the government by killing our rights by a death of a thousand cuts.

We either need Congress to repeal the law or we need revolution.

[Fred762]

Perhaps the days of 20,000 USD automatic rifles will come to an end. I think the whole 16 inch barrel thing is pretty arbitrary and capricious myself. Vertical foregrips and other nonsense imposed upon the people of the gun are additional absurd rules that serve no real purpose to this great Republic. This is bad law and it deserves to be tossed into the trash by We The People...

I agree..it was a bad law anyways. THere should be no diff in price of a scatter gun bks odf 1/8th " of bbl length. Suppressors(lawnmower muffler technology) should be cheap and ENCOURAGED for hearing protection.