Ever since the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced the official bump stock ban on Dec. 18th, numerous lawsuits have been filed. Gun Owners of America vowed to file a lawsuit as well and that time has officially come.
Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, Virginia Citizens Defense League and three citizens on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker over the bump stock ban.
According to the lawsuit, the ATF's decision to change the bump stock's definition to that of a machine gun is a political in nature.
"ATF's re-classification of bump stocks as machineguns is a political decision designed to circumvent the legislative process, not a legal one based on any technical evaluation," the lawsuit states. "It ignores the plain text of the statute, and all prior ATF determinations and opinions. The classification of bump stocks as machineguns is arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law, obfuscates the way bump stocks operate, and reaches and irrational decision, unsupportable in either law or fact."
GOA believes the bump stock ban can create a slippery slope for other future gun control measures.
“These dangerous regulations can go much farther than just bump stocks. The goal of the anti-gun left is, ultimately, not just banning bump stocks, but, rather, putting ‘points on the board’ toward its goal of banning civilian ownership of all firearms," said Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America. “These dangerous regulations can go much farther than just bump stocks. The goal of the anti-gun left is, ultimately, not just banning bump stocks, but, rather, putting ‘points on the board’ toward its goal of banning civilian ownership of all firearms.”
The plaintiffs are seeing a preliminary injunction to keep the ATF from enforcing the bump stock ban. Eventually, they would like a declaratory judgement that states a bump stock is not considered a machine gun.
The lawsuit was filed in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the Western District of Michigan and is known to be pro-gun.
Here's the full lawsuit: