DOJ says it won
Washington — The Justice Department said on Friday it will no longer enforce certain provisions of a 1934 law that was passed by Congress to regulate the types of firearms often used by mobsters, after a federal judge declared large parts of the law were unconstitutional.
Under the new guidelines, the federal government will no longer require individuals to apply and receive regulatory approval before making or transferring short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, suppressors and other various types of concealable firearms.
CBS News exclusively reported last month that President Trump had ordered the Justice Department not to appeal the court ruling in Texas that loosened the limits on what used to be called "gangster weapons."
The law was aimed at addressing the most dangerous and easily concealable weapons that were often used by mobsters during the Prohibition era.
But in August, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee in the Northern District of Texas, ruled that most of the restrictions on all but two categories of specialized firearms regulated under the National Firearms Act are unconstitutional after Congress last year eliminated a $200 tax imposed on them.
The decision came in two consolidated cases brought against the government by 15 red states and a number of Second Amendment gun rights groups and individuals, including the Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation.
Although the court's ruling blocking the ATF from enforcing large parts of the law only applied to the parties in the lawsuit, its wording had created challenges for prosecutors.
Given that loophole, the ATF said on Friday that going forward it will not enforce the provisions of the National Firearms Act at the heart of the lawsuit against "any person as applied to the domestic manufacturing, possession, and transfer of short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers" and other applicable devices or weapons.
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- Washington — The Justice Department said on Friday it will no longer enforce certain provisions of a 1934 law that was passed by Congress to regulate the types of firearms often used by mobsters, after a federal judge declared large parts o
- Under the new guidelines, the federal government will no longer require individuals to apply and receive regulatory approval before making or transferring short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, suppressors and other various types o
- CBS News exclusively reported last month that President Trump had ordered the Justice Department not to appeal the court ruling in Texas that loosened the limits on what used to be called "gangster weapons."
- The law was aimed at addressing the most dangerous and easily concealable weapons that were often used by mobsters during the Prohibition era.
- But in August, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee in the Northern District of Texas, ruled that most of the restrictions on all but two categories of specialized firearms regulated under the National Firearms Act ar