Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
A Mississippi attorney established a crowdfunding page Thursday to overturn the federal machine gun ban. Since being established, the project appears well on its way to reaching its $50,000 goal. "Now, my sights are set on ... the machine gun ban," Stephen Stamboulieh announced on the GoFundme.com webpage he established to finance the legal challenge.
"I don't believe this is constitutional in light of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Likewise, the National Firearms Act ('NFA'), which taxes the making and transferring of Title II weapons (machine guns, suppressors, short barrel rifles, short barrel shotguns, etc) is ripe to be attacked on Second Amendment grounds.
Stamboulieh filed a Freedom of Information Act Request in September asking the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for documents related to number of machine guns made or transferred after the May 19, 1986 cutoff date imposed by federal law. He also requested redacted copies of related approvals on Form 1 (Application to Make and Register a Firearm) and Form 4 (Application for Tax Paid Transfer and Registration of Firearm) approvals.
The request was part of his documentation-gathering effort initiated after a letter from ATF's Firearms Industry Programs Branch Chief informed a suppressor manufacturer and dealer that "unincorporated trusts do not fall within the definition of 'person..."
The laws regarding machine gun builds and transfers are complex, as are laws regarding gun trusts. A discussion thread on the AR15.com forum provides as close of a "CliffsNotes" version as the uninitiated are likely to find:
Because ATF ruled an unincorporated trust is not a person under federal law, "the transfer or possession of machine guns ... cannot apply," the summary noted.
"Numerous... trustees submitted Form 1 applications to build new machine guns [and] ATF approved the applications and sent out stamps," the explanation continued. "ATF began calling trustees that received stamps demanding that they be returned, or in the case of eForms, updating their online status from Approved to Disapproved. Those that were called were told they had to return the stamp." [See embedded video, above]
"We have the avenue to attack both the machine gun ban and the NFA with the BATFE's recent approval of a number of Form 1s," Stamboulieh advised on his GoFundMe page. "I have a number of clients that I will be filing a lawsuit on behalf of to seek to overturn the ban and the NFA in different states."