West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is co-leading with Montana a 27-state amicus brief, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rein in the Biden administration’s so-called “Frame or Receiver” firearms rule.
The rule, issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2022, broadened its interpretation of “firearm”— which now includes certain weapon parts kits that may be readily converted into firearms, as well as certain partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional frames or receivers.
“Here again is an example of how the Biden administration uses bureaucratic agencies, this time the ATF, to act as legislators instead of enforcing the laws Congress passed,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “This exceeds the limits of what this agency could do, all to advance this administration’s anti-Second Amendment agenda.”
The brief argues: “Congress has not outlawed weapons parts kits, stabilizing braces, or bump stocks. Nor has it dubbed every person handling a gun a firearms dealer. ATF can’t take these actions in Congress’s place."
In November 2023, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously struck down the “Frame and Receiver” Rule because ATF was making laws instead of doing its real job—enforcing the laws passed by Congress—the rule “flouts clear statutory text and exceeds the legislatively imposed limits on agency authority in the name of public policy.”
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming joined the West Virginia- and Montana-led brief.
Original source can be found here.
