On August 20, NRA filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge to the ATF’s Final Rule that redefines the Gun Control Act of 1968’s definition of “firearm” to include precursors of frames or receivers and weapon parts kits.
The Gun Control Act allows for the regulation and taxation of certain “firearms.” The Act includes in its definition of “firearm” “any weapon ... which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive” and “the frame or receiver of any such weapon.”
The ATF’s Final Rule, which intended to address privately made firearms—sometimes called “ghost guns”—expanded the definition of “frame or receiver” to include “a partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional frame or receiver” and expanded the definition of “firearm” to include a “weapon parts kit.”
The Final Rule was challenged, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the ATF exceeded its authority by essentially rewriting the law.
NRA’s brief argues that the Final Rule infringes upon the constitutionally protected right to privately build firearms. It provides a detailed historical analysis explaining that gunmaking by private individuals was a celebrated craft in colonial America; privately made firearms were essential to the Americans’ success in the Revolutionary War; the Founders intended to protect private gunmaking in the Second Amendment; many of the greatest innovations in firearms technology derived from amateur gunsmiths; and that there were no historical restrictions on private gunmaking. In short, as Thomas Jefferson explained, “Our citizens have always been free to make . . . arms.”
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