The Trump administration is having to defend its unconstitutional ex post facto bump stock ban in a federal appeals court due to the relentless fighting of Gun Owners of America, who simply isn’t going to give the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) a pass when it comes to not only violating the Constitution by making “law” themselves, but also attempting to enforce that pretended legislation with the approval of President Donald Trump.

Understand that whether you like bump stocks or not or think they are worthless or not is not the issue here. It’s an issue of who has authority to write law and what those laws can be written concerning. Furthermore, our Constitution is clear that ex post facto law is prohibited.

According to a letter from Gun Owners of America’s Senior Vice President Erich Pratt, “Gun grabbers are not happy with Gun Owners of America.”

He writes:

One always has to be cautious when interpreting questions from judges. But it should be encouraging to know that the anti-gun Left was VERY discouraged by the grilling the judges gave the DOJ attorney.

Consider the rant issued by the very liberal Wonkette. The author began by attacking GOA for believing that guns should be “even more readily available to the public.”

From there, the tabloid expressed its lament for the line of questioning from the judges:

The panel seemed skeptical of the government’s arguments in favor of the bump stock ban. This is not great.

In particular, one appellate judge was very concerned that, in the future, the “ATF could choose to redefine ‘machine gun’ as including all semiautomatic weapons that can be modified with a device like a bump stock.”

Of course, this is exactly the point that GOA has made in its briefs to the court. If the ATF can claim that a bump stock can turn an AR-15 into a machine gun, then the same can be said about rubber bands or belt loops.

Given the latter two items are found in every home in America, a future anti-gun president could use the doctrine of “constructive possession” to justify a ban on all semi-automatic rifles in the country.

Pratt went on to point out exactly what letting this pass opens the door too, which many either ignore or are ignorant concerning.

He wrote:

Here’s the bottom line: If bump stocks can be defined as “machine guns” because they supposedly cause a semi-automatic to fire automatically, then, using the same line of reasoning, semi-automatics are machine guns too.

Finally, Pratt commented:

It was good to see that the judges appeared to understand this important point. But this was just the tip of the iceberg.

During the oral arguments, GOA’s attorney pinned the ATF down on how a bump stock does not make a gun fire automatically. He emphasized to the court that the ATF could not rewrite the legal definition of a machine gun to fit its political agenda.

And he presented forceful reasons why a nationwide injunction was required, as GOA had members nationwide.

A good summary of the oral arguments can be read here at the Court News.

There is no timetable on when the judges will render an opinion, but it will most certainly will not come until well into the new year.

I’ve written on this stupid and lawless bumpstock ban before, but just to show you how not only lawless, but stupid it is, take a look at bump firing without a bumpstock. The ban stopped nothing, but infringed on everything.

Article posted with permission from Sons Of Liberty Media