FORT WORTH, TX – Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) filed a new lawsuit challenging the ATF’s rule that would create new terms and enact a slew of regulations for the agency to enforce, including ones that would treat non-frames and non-receivers as if they were actual frames and receivers of weapons. The complaint in VanDerStok v. Garland can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“The Final Rule defies the plain language of the [Gun Control Act] and longstanding agency interpretation suggesting that the items at issue here, sometimes colloquially referred to as receiver blanks, unfinished frames or receivers, or 80% frames or receivers, are not firearms,” says the complaint. “Through this rulemaking, however, the Agencies are attempting to create a broad, sweeping definition by including items that are not yet the ‘frames or receivers’ of such weapons and by including ‘frame or receiver kits.’”

“Neither the president nor any federal agency has the power to make law,” said FPC’s Senior Attorney for Constitutional Litigation Cody J. Wisniewski. “The Constitution is clear–Congress has the power to make law, and the Executive Branch is limited to enforcing that law. But here, President Biden openly admitted that he would circumvent Congress and have the DOJ and ATF issue new regulations that go well beyond congressionally-established law and seek to greatly expand the ATF’s reach. FPC will not stand idly by while the federal government tramples the rights of peaceable individuals through agency rulemaking.” Read more

FPC to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee: Stay in your lane. Our rights are not debatable

Washington D.C. — Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) sent a letter to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee informing it that abrogating fundamental rights are not within its purview. FPC’s letter spotlights the arrogance and immorality of attempts to vote away fundamental rights away from the People.

“For a legislative body to suppose that it can abrogate the human rights of the very people that delegate limited, enumerated powers to it is the height of conceit. Especially following the United States Supreme Court decision of N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen… to even propose such a measure is to show unbridled recalcitrance and disrespect to the People the Congress serves. And to consider this legislation, which would if enacted increase state violence by orders of magnitude and put peaceable people in government cages for exercising their rights, is an act of tyranny. We urge you to terminate this awful and contemptible legislation.” Read more

San Diego, CA – Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced a victory in its Campos v. Bonta lawsuit, which challenged policies and practices of California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Firearms that delayed firearm transactions beyond the statutory 10-day waiting period absent a legal basis. The order can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“Demand for firearms surged in 2020 when California citizens saw the rule of law crumbling around them. The California DOJ announced it was too busy to process background checks within 10 days, so it was going to start interpreting the law to give it 30 days. We brought this case to shine a light on the DOJ’s unlawful practice, and we are pleased the court has ordered DOJ to comply with the law,” stated Brad Benbrook, FPC’s counsel in the litigation.

When a person buys, transfers, or is loaned a firearm in California, they are generally required by law to wait 10 days after the DOJ receives the transfer application before taking possession of the firearm. Likewise, the firearms dealer cannot allow the person to take possession of the firearm before the end of the waiting period. But as soon as that 10-day period is over, California law says one of three things must happen:

1. The dealer can deliver the firearm;
2. The application is denied by DOJ; or,
3. The transfer has been delayed for one of three specified, expressly enumerated causes, and the background check and waiting period can be extended up to a total of 30 days. This additional delay to the background check can only be used by the State under a limited set of circumstances. (Cal. Penal Code § 28220(f)(1).)

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN (August 8, 2022) – Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) has filed a motion for summary judgment in its Worth v. Harrington lawsuit, a case that seeks to restore the right of adults under 21 years of age to carry loaded, operable arms in public for self-defense in Minnesota. The motion can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“At the time the Second Amendment was ratified, not only were there no laws in any state that purported to limit the rights of 18-to-20-year-olds to carry firearms for self-defense, there were several laws enacted, including the Militia Act of 1792, that required 18-year-olds to buy and maintain firearms,” FPC argues in the motion. “Defendants will not be able to point to any historical tradition that could justify Minnesota’s attempt to deviate from the plain text of the Second Amendment, therefore this Court must declare the Carry Ban unconstitutional.”

The State of Minnesota also filed its own motion for summary judgment, which began by arguing that this case is “part of [FPC’s] coordinated, multi-state litigation plan to force a determination on the issue of whether the Second Amendment covers the right of 18-to-20-year-olds to publicly carry handguns,” and went on to say that “[t]he plain text of the Second Amendment does not cover those under 21, therefore a historical analysis is unnecessary” and that “18-20 year old women are also not covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.” Read more

NEW ORLEANS – Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced the filing of an important appellate brief, joined by FPC Action Foundation, in the case of Cargill v. Garland, which challenges the ATF’s unconstitutional ban on “bump stock” devices. The brief can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

In December 2021, a 3-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban, saying that “the Bump Stock Rule’s interpretation of the NFA’s definition of ‘machinegun’ is the best interpretation of the statute.” Last June, however, the Court ordered that the panel opinion be vacated and that the full Court would review the appeal (known as a rehearing en banc).

“Because virtually all semiautomatic weapons can be bump fired, and because that technique can be aided by myriad common household products or clothing items, ATF’s definition is necessarily overbroad and would eliminate statutory distinctions between less-regulated semiautomatic rifles and handguns, and more-regulated machineguns,” argued FPC and FPCAF in their brief to the en banc Fifth Circuit. “Bump firing, whether aided by a bump stock, a rubber band, or merely a well-controlled finger, is not shooting automatically and the ease with which any given weapon can be bump fired does not turn semiautomatic firearms into heavily regulated machineguns.” Read more

GW:  The handwriting’s on the wall.

RICHMOND, VA – Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today that, because of Maryland Governor Hogan’s concession and order to cease the state’s utilization of its ‘good and substantial reason’ carry permit standard, the parties have filed a joint motion to dismiss the Call v. Jones litigation as moot. Case documents can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“Both the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen, as well as the Governor’s response, render this case moot,” the parties say in the motion. “By concluding that New York’s discretionary scheme violated the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court’s decision, in effect, thereby also invalidated laws that had ‘analog[ous]’ schemes, including that embodied in Maryland’s ‘good and substantial reason’ requirement. Governor Hogan’s executive action affirmed this conclusion and formalized the State’s intent to comply with Bruen.”

“Make no mistake, although called a dismissal, this is a massive win for all Marylanders, and demonstrates exactly how Bruen will have far reaching effects across the country,” said FPC’s Senior Attorney for Constitutional Litigation Cody J. Wisniewski. “It is encouraging that Mayland has accepted defeat in this instance, but FPC will remain vigilant to ensure that the Old Line State fully complies with both the letter and spirit of not just the Bruen opinion, but the Second Amendment writ large.” Read more