Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and FPC Action Foundation (FPCAF) announced the filing of their Response Brief with the United States Supreme Court in its lawsuit challenging ATF’s “frame or receiver” rule.
In November 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that portions of ATF’s “frame or receiver” rule are unlawful. In February of this year, the government filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, arguing the Fifth Circuit wrongly ruled on FPC and FPCAF’s favor. FPC and FPCAF agree with the government on a single point–that now is the time for the Supreme Court to hear this case. This will ensure that a final resolution can be reached on this issue for the entire country in the most efficient and expeditious manner possible. The brief in Garland v. VanDerStok can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.
“The definition of ‘firearm’ under federal law is an important issue that was precisely addressed by Congress in the Gun Control Act of 1968,” argues the brief. “If that definition has become obsolete or unsatisfactory in any way, that is an issue for Congress to address. The Fifth Circuit properly held that ATF overreached by effectively attempting to amend the statute itself. The Court should grant certiorari and affirm.”
“Now is the time for the Supreme Court to settle this issue once and for all,” said Cody J. Wisniewski, FPCAF’s General Counsel and Vice President of Legal, and counsel for Plaintiffs. “We have won at every phase of this case, but the Supreme Court saw fit to pause our victory. Now, the Court should take this case to review ATF’s unconstitutional and unlawful Rule in its entirety and put it where it truly belongs–in the dustbin of history.”
Plaintiffs in this case are two individual FPC members, Tactical Machining, LLC, and FPC. FPCAF represents the Plaintiffs, alongside Cooper & Kirk and Mountain States Legal Foundation.