Last week, the Ninth Circuit handed Giffords a massive loss. The court ruled the anti-gun group had no standing to sue the ATF over its interpretation of the “frame or receiver rule,” saying it wasn’t expansive enough.
And, to be fair, they really didn’t. Both Giffords and California claimed they were impacted by Example 4 of the ATF’s rule, but failed to articulate how. Considering that the rule itself is currently dead, this is yet another setback for anti-gunners.
Needless to say, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is tickled blued steel.
From a press release:
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms congratulates the three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for unanimously rejecting a lawsuit by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Giffords Law Center (GLC) against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) because they lacked standing as plaintiffs.
The 18-page decision, authored by Circuit Judge Consuelo M. Callahan, a George W. Bush appointee, observed, “Although California and GLC expended resources to combat the spread and use of ghost guns after enactment of the Final Rule, those expenditures were based on their predictions…But we cannot ‘endorse standing theories that rest on speculation about the decisions of independent actors . . . particularly speculation about future unlawful conduct.”
Bonta and the GLC were demanding that ATF adopt tougher regulations on so-called “ghost guns.” But CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb scoffed at the notion, stating, “The gun prohibition lobby and politicians like Bonta are using so-called ‘ghost guns’ as the new bogeyman of American gun politics.”
Gottlieb pointed to language in Judge Callahan’s ruling which added the proper perspective to this case.
“You can’t litigate based on speculation about possible future unlawful conduct,” Gottlieb observed, “and Judge Callahan was pretty clear about it. Thankfully, the justice system hasn’t gotten to the point of acting on speculation. After all, this isn’t make believe and we live in the real world, not one where litigation is based on science fiction.
“The most significant aspect about the decision,” he added, “is that it came from the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit. Historically, such rulings wind up before an en banc panel, which could happen here, but for the moment, Bonta, the Giffords group and all the anti-gun state attorneys general submitting amicus briefs are on the losing side, which is where they belong.”
The rule seems dead, at least until or unless the DOJ decides to file an appeal, which doesn’t seem to be a priority for them, and now California and Giffords got smacked down because they didn’t have standing to challenge the rule in the first place.
While this case isn’t dead because, as Cam noted last week, they can still file for an en banc appeal, I’m not sure they want to do that. Even if they win an appeal, that will just kick things to the Supreme Court, which isn’t really shaping up to be as anti-gun as either entity wants. Yeah, I’m not thrilled about Rahimi, but between Hemani and Wolford, I’m willing to let them slide on that one.
This would just be more of the same for the anti-gun side, so while I’d welcome it, I don’t think they would.
Maybe we can soon be finished with this “ghost gun” nonsense. We all know that historically, people made their own guns and did so for centuries. The fact that new technology and new business ideas have made it easier doesn’t change things from a constitutional standpoint. Something cannot be a right only if it’s difficult to do.
And Giffords is in no position to complain because they don’t like a rule being not strict enough when we’re talking about an actual civil liberty. I’m glad they got smacked down, and California with them, because they deserve it.
Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.”
By that standard, none of these people are.
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