August 30, 2023
In a significant win for gun rights advocates, Texas Gun Rights (TXGR) has been granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) by a federal court in the Northern District of Texas. This legal move freezes the status quo, providing some temporary respite to gun owners who have been impacted by the ATF’s recent actions.
The court observed that TXGR is “very likely to succeed on the merits,” pointing to the 5th Circuit’s Cargill ruling. This ruling establishes that bump stocks are not machine guns, a line of reasoning that was extended to Forced Reset Triggers (FRTs) in this case. According to the longstanding definition in federal law, a machine gun is a “weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.”
The ATF’s reclassification of FRTs as ‘machine guns’ appeared to be an overreach, a conclusion now bolstered by the TRO granted to TXGR. Even as the ATF claimed they were acting on behalf of “multiple concerned citizens,” Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests revealed no records of any citizen contacting the ATF with concerns about Rare Breed’s FRTs. This further casts doubt on the ATF’s motives behind the abrupt reclassification.
The TRO serves as a critical stepping stone for TXGR as it aims for a more permanent legal remedy to protect the rights of its members and supporters.
“We are going to prove to the ATF that they lack the authority to criminalize millions of Americans on a whim,” said Chris McNutt, President of Texas Gun Rights.
Texas Gun Rights is not just fighting this battle for its members but for all gun owners who have been infringed upon by the ATF. This TRO grants the group some legal ground and strengthens its stance for future battles.
“We are confident this TRO will lead to a full injunction protecting all our members from this unlawful action by the ATF.
Texas Gun Rights is the leading “no compromise” pro-gun organization in Texas.
Click here to read the Opinion & Order on Plaintiff’s Motion for Temporary Restraining Order.
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