Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Case Centered on ATF’s Redefinition of a ‘Firearm’

The Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments Tuesday in VanDerStock v. Garland, a case focused on the ATF’s unilateral action to redefine what constitutes a “firearm.”

The case revolves around ATF Final Rule 2021-05F, which placed new controls on gun parts kits and firearms which Democrats describe as “ghost guns.”

A central part of this rule was redefining what the word “firearm” meant so as to designate “partially completed pistol frames” and other gun parts as “firearms.”

The ATF observed:

Partially complete Polymer80, Lone Wolf, and similar pistol frames with any kind of indexing or material removed from the front or rear fire control cavities for installation of the trigger mechanism and sear, or slide rail attachments to connect the trigger mechanism and sear to the frame, have reached a stage of manufacture where they “may readily be completed, assembled, restored, or otherwise converted” to a functional frame. As examined, they are classified as a “frame” and also a “firearm,” as defined in the GCA, 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3)(B), and implementing regulations, 27 CFR 478.12(a)(1), (c). They are classified as firearms even if they are not sold, distributed, marketed, or possessed with any associated templates, jigs, molds, equipment, tools, instructions, or guides.

VanDerStok v. Garland points to the Administrative Procedures Act in challenging the lawfulness of ATF’s redefinition of a “firearm.”

On Friday, June 14, 2024, SCOTUS struck down the ATF’s bump stock ban, specifically noting that a bump stock does not convert semiautomatic rifles into “machineguns” as the ATF claimed.  It is worth noting that the bump stock ban, along with the various other ATF rules issued during the last six to eight years, use the same language and are structured in the same fashion.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.