Here’s another important Second Amendment case to watch.
The case is US v. Matthew Raymond Hoover. Hoover was arrested and charged with an NFA violation; specifically that he was selling Auto Key Cards, pictures of parts that could be assembled into a “lightning link,” and subsequently installed in an AR-pattern rifle converting it into a machinegun. Others have been similarly charged for selling pictures.
Every news outlet that included pictures of the Auto Key Card in their reports should also be watching this case.
Hoover has moved to dismiss the charges in light of NYSRPA v. Bruen.
“[W]hen the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. The Government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation. Only then may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command.'”
Having explained the reasoning of NYSRPA v. Bruen to the court, they demonstrate the applicability to this case.
Further, the TAF’s decision that the tchothke at issue — a stainless steel card with some lines lightly thereupon engraved — was a machinegun came completely by administrative fiat, absent even notice and comment. Our Nation’s history and tradition does not, and cannot, support a finding that an alleged drawingof a part is that part merely because an elected bureaucrat unilaterally willed it to be.
I was just discussing this morning the fact that the NFA of 1934 was completely unprecedented in prior legislation. Because the applicability of NYSRPA v. Bruen to the NFA is extremely obvious.
However, since they mentioned an “elected bureaucrat unilaterally” usurping Congress to make their own “laws,” I would also have cited West Virginia v. EPA, in which the Supreme Court slapped down the EPA for doing exactly that.
I can’t see an honest court upholding these charges in view of NYSRPA v. Bruen. But we have a major problem with American courts, in that respect. So I won’t be terribly surprised if this ends up going to SCOTUS eventually. For a change, and elimination of federal bureaucratic power and abuse, as dramatic as tossing the NFA, this pretty much has to go the the Supremes.
Added: I almost missed it, but this is one of the Firearms Policy Coalition‘s cases. It’s another example of why I’ve long believed they deserve the support of those believe in the Second Amendment.
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