Read the whole thing – It looks like, in Kansas, for the time being, possession of machine guns is legal. I figure Judge Broomes is going to see some serious efforts at having his decision overruled at the circuit court level. Still, it is rather pleasant to see the second amendment treated as a serious right. Like Toto, I’m not in Kansas, so this doesn’t affect me – but the links are both worth clicking.
The ruling is available at uscourts.gov
“A Kansas US District Court judge has tossed an illegal machine gun possession charge on Second Amendment grounds. The court found that the machine guns in question are clearly “bearable arms,” and in this case at least, the government failed to show a historical tradition to justify their ban.
The court finds that the Second Amendment applies to the weapons charged because they are “bearable arms” within the original meaning of the amendment. The court further finds that the government has failed to establish that this nation’s tradition of gun regulation justifies the application of 18 USC § 922(0) to Defendant.
That’s the portion of the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act that outlaws civilian possession of machine guns.
District Judge John Broomes ruled that the the government failed to meet its burder under Bruen and Rahimi to show historical analogues for banning the kind of machine guns possessed by the defendant (a converted AR platform rifle and a GLOCK switch-equipped pistol). In fact, it doesn’t sound like they tried very hard.
Indeed, the government has barely tried to meet that burden. And the Supreme Court has indicated that the Bruen analysis is not merely a suggestion.”
L. Neil Smith would have approved. Personally, I was raised to be cheap with ammunition (I still have a partial box of 32 Specials left me from my grandfather, and he died 70 years ago). Believing in one shot, one hit leaves me far removed from wanting machine guns or bump stocks – but the present crop of court rulings is interesting.
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