BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case challenging the ATF’s “Final Rule” equating firearms parts kits and gun components with functioning firearms. The case is known as Garland v. VanDerStok.
Joining CCRKBA in this important brief are the Western States Sheriffs’ Association, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, California Rifle and Pistol Association, Second Amendment Law Center, Second Amendment Defense and Education Coalition, Ltd., International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and the National Association of Chiefs of Police. They are represented by attorneys C.D. Michel of Long Beach, Calif., and Dan M. Peterson of Fairfax, Va.
In their brief, CCRKBA and its partners note that Congress “has implicitly approved that longstanding definition by amending the Gun Control Act of 1968 on multiple occasions while leaving the definition of “frame or receiver” untouched and uncriticized. It has delegated no power to ATF to change that definition.”
“Congress,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “restricted ATF’s rulemaking authority in the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986. ATF changed the definitions in its ‘Final Rule,’ essentially by administrative fiat on the grounds this is necessary for what it considers to be reasons of public policy. However, ATF knows, or at least should know, that public policy is determined by Congress, not ATF. This has become a problem with ATF under the Biden-Harris administration, as the agency has unilaterally tried to stretch its rule making authority.
“The agency contends it needs to change the rules because it needs to trace firearms,” he continued, “but as we note in our brief, there is no effective tracing by serial number now of guns purchased by criminals, and there hasn’t been since the 1980s, because criminals don’t get their guns by purchasing them from licensed dealers under their own names. The ATF knows this, yet they are attempting to expand their authority by dancing around Congress. We’re confident the Supreme Court will not allow that to happen.”
“We are especially happy that three law enforcement groups joined our amicus,” said CCRKBA Managing Director Andrew Gottlieb. “Their participation underscores the commitment law enforcement professionals have to the Second Amendment.”