Feds Dropping Weapons Charges To Keep Regulations On The Books

[txradioguy]

U.S. Attorneys have quietly dropped at least two cases against individuals charged with illegally possessing a lower receiver after two different federal judges ruled that the lower receivers do not meet the federal definition of a firearm, according to a new CNN story. The first case was back in 2016, and involved a convicted felon named Alejandro Jimenez who bought a lower receiver in an ATF sting operation. After a judge ruled that the receiver wasn’t an actual firearm under federal law, the case against Jimenez was dropped.

Earlier this year, according to CNN, federal prosecutors also dropped similar charges against a California man named Joseph Roh, who was accused of running an illegal gun factory outside of Los Angeles. While the judge in the case ruled that Roh was guilty of selling finished firearms without a license, the judge also decided that the ATF had improperly ruled that 80% finished receivers as well as the finished receivers themselves were firearms.

He rejected the prosecution’s argument that the ATF’s interpretation of the regulation describing a receiver could reasonably be applied to the device at issue in Roh’s case.

“There is a disconnect,” the judge wrote.

Selna added that the combination of the federal law and regulation governing the manufacturing of receivers is “unconstitutionally vague” as applied in the case against Roh.

“No reasonable person would understand that a part constitutes a receiver where it lacks the components specified in the regulation,” Selna wrote.

Therefore, the judge determined, “Roh did not violate the law by manufacturing receivers.”

Instead of accepting the judge’s ruling, the U.S. Attorney handling the case ended up offering Roh a plea bargain that would keep him out of prison, and keep the judge’s ruling from being used as an argument in future cases.


https://bearingarms.com/cam-e/2019/10/12/feds-dropping-weapons-charges-keep-bad-regulations-books/

[Elderberry]

KOLD 13 News October 12, 2019

An undercover investigation into an assault-style weapons factory found that felons were able to build their own untraceable weapons and parts without undergoing any background checks.

Then federal prosecutors dropped the case.

For more than a year, investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) captured undercover video of Joseph Roh's shop.

The video showed that anyone off the street could walk into Roh's shop and make a gun, including more than two dozen people banned from owning one.

Roh helped customers assemble AR-15s at the unlicensed do-it-yourself assault-style weapons factory for about $1,000 per gun or they could make their own by pushing a button on his machine.

Investigators say Roh never performed background checks.

Agents with ATF warned Roh that he was breaking the law, but he continued to operate.

Agents raided the shop and he was indicted. If he had been convicted, he may have served a prison sentence.

In a strange legal turn of events, the judge wrote a tentative ruling, suggesting Roh was right all along: He didn't need a license to manufacture a key component of an AR-15.

It came down to what does and does not constitute the manufacturing of a firearm and whether a part on an AR-15 in the lower receiver is legally regulated. The ATF had long considered this part a firearm, but the judge didn't agree.

Adam Winkler, a UCLA Law professor, said this could jeopardize future prosecutions.

More: https://www.kold.com/2019/10/12/man-admits-selling-ar-s-illegally-feds-drop-charges/

[Elderberry]

BATFE Drops 80% Receiver Case in California; Fears Precedent

Ammoland  10/13/2019  https://www.ammoland.com/2019/10/batfe-drops-80-receiver-case-in-california-fears-precedent/#axzz62LPYqz60

The judge ruled BATFE had not followed proper procedures when they created the regulations, and the definition of what was a firearm was unconstitutionally vague.

According to wfmz.com, BATFE officials agreed to a plea deal to stop the judges ruling from having any legal effect. A plea deal would not require the judge to make a ruling; the tentative ruling would not become a part of the case. From ktla.com:

    At issue in Roh’s case was whether the law could fairly be interpreted to apply to just the lower receiver of the AR-15, as the ATF has been doing for decades.

    To rule otherwise “would sweep aside more than 50 years of the ATF’s regulation of AR-15s and other semiautomatic firearms,” prosecutors wrote prior to the judge’s order.

    Federal law enforcement officials — and members of Congress — have been on notice about a potential problem with the language in federal gun law as applied to AR-15s since at least 2016.

[Elderberry]

Feds Dropping Weapons Charges To Keep Regulations On The Books

https://bearingarms.com/cam-e/2019/10/12/feds-dropping-weapons-charges-keep-bad-regulations-books/

U.S. Attorneys have quietly dropped at least two cases against individuals charged with illegally possessing a lower receiver after two different federal judges ruled that the lower receivers do not meet the federal definition of a firearm, according to a new CNN story. The first case was back in 2016, and involved a convicted felon named Alejandro Jimenez who bought a lower receiver in an ATF sting operation. After a judge ruled that the receiver wasn’t an actual firearm under federal law, the case against Jimenez was dropped.

Earlier this year, according to CNN, federal prosecutors also dropped similar charges against a California man named Joseph Roh, who was accused of running an illegal gun factory outside of Los Angeles. While the judge in the case ruled that Roh was guilty of selling finished firearms without a license, the judge also decided that the ATF had improperly ruled that 80% finished receivers as well as the finished receivers themselves were firearms.


    He rejected the prosecution’s argument that the ATF’s interpretation of the regulation describing a receiver could reasonably be applied to the device at issue in Roh’s case.
    “There is a disconnect,” the judge wrote.
    Selna added that the combination of the federal law and regulation governing the manufacturing of receivers is “unconstitutionally vague” as applied in the case against Roh.
    “No reasonable person would understand that a part constitutes a receiver where it lacks the components specified in the regulation,” Selna wrote.
    Therefore, the judge determined, “Roh did not violate the law by manufacturing receivers.”

[skeeter]

Provided there’s an iota of integrity left in the judicial system eventually these gun laws will be tossed out.

[verga]

Must be nice to be in a "protected" class.