Justice Alito Wrecks ATF’s ‘Ghost Gun’ Argument: Are Eggs and Peppers an Omelet?

PatMiles

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Justice Samuel Alito wrecked the government’s defense of the ATF “ghost gun” rule during oral arguments Tuesday by asking if eggs and peppers are an omelet.

Breitbart News reported that the case is Garland v. VanDerStok, and it is focused on ATF Final Rule 2021-05F. A central part of this rule was redefining what the word “firearm” means so as to designate “partially completed pistol frames” and other gun parts as “firearms.”

Justice Alito asked about “components” and the way they are defined in relation to a “weapon.”

He asked, “Here is a blank pad and a pen. Is this a grocery list?” The government answered no, citing numerous uses for the pad and pen.

He followed up by asking, “If I put on a counter some eggs, some chopped up ham, some chopped up pepper and onions, is that a western omelet?” The government again answered no, again citing “well-known other uses” for the eggs, ham, etc.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett followed Alito by asking if the omelet analogy would change if the ingredients were purchased from Hello Fresh. The government answered in the affirmative.

Justice Neil Gorsuch followed up, asking about the scope of “ordinary meaning,” as applied to “every noun” used by Congress or the U.S. Code — if it can be used to see Alito’s pad and pencil as a grocery list. Therefore, Gorsuch suggests there “has got to be a line that makes [the government’s] theory the case.”

Gorsuch noted that as recently as 2021 “the government represented that an unfinished frame or receiver does not meet the statutory definition of a firearm.”
 
Would that make possession of the GlockaSwitcha legal?
Should remove constructive intent from the books.
That was when whole premise of the well if I have ham and eggs in the fridge does that mean I have an omelette? Possessing does not mean intent.

Something tells me though the court is gonna side with the gov on this one
 
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I can go to PSA 10 minutes from my house and buy a AR15 lower with a standard Magpul stock on the way out the door I see they have this 10” 300Blk Out upper I have been wanting on sale I decide to pick it up while I’m there. I throw the lower in the back seat and put the upper in the front seat of my truck. I legally just purchased two things that I can combine to make an illegal product without a SBR stamp. They have to prove intent. Hillary actually broke some major laws and they let her off because they said she didn’t have intent. They going to charge people who have committed no crime and then say well they were probably going to. Man talk about a double standard!
 
My question is how the ATF redefined the statute. Is it now 70%? 60%? Something must be defined, then once that happens, people will react accordingly. Example, the Shockwave "shotgun". I mean "firearm".
 
once again, put and keep ACTUAL violent offenders in jail, and the crime problem will take care of itself over time.
What, wait, huh…..”that’s racists”. 🙄. That doesn’t fit the narrative which is let’s put people into jail who we think might commit a crime with some parts they have because they are firearm related parts and anything firearm related makes us pee our pants and suck our thumbs.

The funny thing is I think it was Clinton who signed the mandatory sentencing for firearm related crime into law which was the only law I can think of that had a real and measurable positive affect on curbing gun crime gun crime. They eventually got rid of it because it put so many people of color into jail; duhhhh, it’s simple the law wasn’t racist, it was color blind just like it should be.
 
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I can go to PSA 10 minutes from my house and buy a AR15 lower with a standard Magpul stock on the way out the door I see they have this 10” 300Blk Out upper I have been wanting on sale I decide to pick it up while I’m there. I throw the lower in the back seat and put the upper in the front seat of my truck. I legally just purchased two things that I can combine to make an illegal product without a SBR stamp. They have to prove intent. Hillary actually broke some major laws and they let her off because they said she didn’t have intent. They going to charge people who have committed no crime and then say well they were probably going to. Man talk about a double standard!
The Hillary example is a bad one. Although Comey cited intent for rational as to why she wasn't indicted, those laws she broke were very clear that intent was not a component of the statutes and she should have been prosecuted. There's your two tiered legal system.
 
Hillary actually broke some major laws and they let her off because they said she didn’t have intent
He actually said he wasn't going to recommend charges because nobody would actually press charges against Hillary.
Same as Biden's crimes when he was veep, he had dementia and didn't realize what he was doing with the classified documents.
 
So how soon will it be until a block of aluminum sitting on my garage bench is a "firearm"..... How close does it have to be finished before it magically turns into a firearm?? Either it's sold as functional or it's not.....
 
So how soon will it be until a block of aluminum sitting on my garage bench is a "firearm"..... How close does it have to be finished before it magically turns into a firearm?? Either it's sold as functional or it's not.....
That’s the basis of the whole argument. ATF says only when critical machining operations are performed but can’t say what those operations are.