Trump’s DOJ Fixing Fifth Circuit Ruling?

FIFTH CIRCUIT GOT IT WRONG, NOW IS TRUMP’S DOJ WORKING TO MAKE IT RIGHT?

Trump’s DOJ is fixing a Fifth Circuit Ruling. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals got it wrong. Is the Trump DOJ working to make it right? How, Dave, do you say that now? You may recall that a few months ago, in the Peterson case, the 5th Circuit ruled that suppressors are not protected under the Second Amendment. We’re all excited that the “Big Beautiful Bill” that passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives would remove suppressors and their $200 transfer tax. But to have the DOJ now argue in a backhanded way that they may or may not have 2A protection. WTH?

NEW DOJ SOLICITOR GENERAL LAYS DOWN THE LAW

John Star, as the new Solicitor General, submitted an update brief late last Friday night requesting the three-judge panel rehear the Peterson case. The new arguments that the DOJ submitted were at best weak and more likely designed to get a favorable ruling that the entire taxing scheme of the 1934 National Firearms Act is an unconstitutional tax on a Constitutional Right. Such taxes have been repeatedly struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. We can expect a full-on corrected brief to be filed shortly. 

We all remember Poll Taxes which were made unconstitutional in Federal Elections by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment. We might even remember that SCOTUS said, when it comes to taxing newspaper ink in Minnesota not that long ago, that the “power to tax is the power to destroy“. Well, if a $1.50 poll tax is unconstitutional, then what the heck is a $200 tax on a firearm accessory?

The Trump DOJ has conceded in that brief that suppressors are firearms accessories, and like all accessories, are an important part of “the Arms” as covered within the original intent of the Second Amendment. 

So now we have the U.S. government admitting that we have the right to possess arms, train with them, keep them immediately at-the-ready for the defense of self and the state, and that accessories like suppressors are “Arms”. Hopefully, soon standard capacity magazines will also be added to that list. It now looks like the Trump DOJ is actively working to undo the decades of damage that those dangerous quacks have inflicted on the Second Amendment. 

Never forget that every ruling in favor of the Second Amendment builds a wall protecting that right. It’s important that the previous ruling in the 5th Circuit be overturned as is so eloquently explained by Mark A. Smith over at the Four Boxes Diner. Even if Congress somehow screws up getting suppressors removed from the NFA, this ruling then becomes even more important. 

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Dave Funk
Member, Board of Director
Iowa Firearms Coalition
#2A4IA