WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a motion Application for Summary Judgment today in Aposhian vs. Garland, et al., which questions enforcement of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule banning shock supplies. ATF changed its position regarding the meaning of a federal law to misinterpret non-mechanical shock stores as “machine gun”.[s]’, and then ordered Americans in possession of these devices to destroy them or turn them in to an ATF office. NCLA, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, is asking the US District Court for the District of Utah to invalidate the ATF’s “Bump Stock Rule” and demand that the government return stocks seized from plaintiff Clark Aposhian.

In this case, it’s not about gun control. Rather, the issue is who has the constitutional prerogative to change criminal law when changes are warranted. The current law, adopted in 1986, defines “machine gun” in a way that includes non-mechanical shock stores. It is unlawful for a prosecutor’s office like ATF to rewrite existing laws without Congressional approval. Any change in gun laws must come from Congress. Indeed, in 2022, Congress passed major new gun control legislation and signed President Biden into it, but the new law doesn’t change the definition of “machine gun” and doesn’t ban stockpiles. The court should stop efforts by the ATF to legislate on its own.

On January 16, 2019, before the Final Rule was due to take effect, Mr. Aposhian filed his lawsuit seeking an injunction against enforcement of the Bump Stock Rule. The district court denied Mr. Aposhian’s request for an injunction but has not yet ruled on the merits of the case. Mr. Aposhian would eventually take his appeal against the denial of the injunction motion to the US Supreme Court. Following the postponement of the consideration of Mr. Aposhian’s Certiorari petition on March 21