SAF WILL OPPOSE DOJ STAY REQUEST TO SUPREME COURT IN GUN PARTS KIT CASE

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and its attorney, Chad Flores, are preparing a response to an application to the U.S. Supreme Court by the Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to stay a ruling which vacated the “final rule” defining gun parts kits as firearms in a case known as VanDerStok v. Garland.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor handed down the ruling, and the government wants a stay pending appeal to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. SAF was allowed to intervene in the case. Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit refused to stay portions of the rule SAF successfully challenged, pending appeal. Issues which SAF did not challenge when it intervened in the case were granted a stay.

“This case ultimately challenges the authority of the ATF to simply change rules and definitions of firearms without Congressional authority,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We will vigorously pursue this issue through the courts.”

“The Fifth Circuit last week issued a ruling which declined to stay our successful challenge during this appeal,” SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut recalled. “We expect to prevail on the portions of the Final Rule that we challenged, which the government wants to enforce while this case winds its way through the courts, despite the fact that the court found ATF had not demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits, which bodes well for SAF and its members.”

Gottlieb said SAF’s response will oppose the request for a stay, and will likely be filed next week. 

“The government is saying that a kit to make a firearm should be treated the same as a firearm, and that an incomplete firearm is also a firearm,” Gottlieb noted. “Their position is simply nonsense.”