A federal appeals court on Thursday shot holes in a rule imposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives intended to crack down on so-called “ghost guns.”
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a 2022 rule aimed at weapons that could be built from parts bought online without a background check exceeded the agency’s authority.
All three judges on the panel were appointed by former President Donald Trump, according to Reuters.
Cody Wisniewski, a lawyer for the Firearms Policy Coalition Action Foundation, said the ruling was a “massive victory against ATF and a huge blow to the Biden administration’s gun control agenda.”
The rule redefined the legal meaning of “firearm,” “frame” and “receiver” as written in the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the decision that “law-making power—the ability to transform policy into real-world obligations—lies solely with the legislative branch.”
“Where an executive agency engages in what is, for all intents and purposes, ‘law-making,’ the legislature is deprived of its primary function under our Constitution, and our citizens are robbed of…
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