Watson v. Holder: Second NFA Lawsuit Filed Challenging 922(o)
Following on the heels of the Hollis v Holder lawsuit filed in late October, Mississippi attorney Stephen Stamboulieh – along with additional counsel David Scott – have brought a second suit alleging that, through 18 U.S.C. §922(o), 26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq. and the implementing regulations 27 C.F.R. § 479.105(a), the US government has overstepped their powers as provided for under Article I of the US Constitution and violate the Ninth and Tenth amendments by creating a de facto machine gun ban. Additionally, the suit claims, the regulations violate the plaintiff’s (and others’) Second Amendment rights. This is part of the case made in the Watson v. Holder complaint filed last week.
A twist on this case compared to the previously filed Hollis v Holder complaint is that the defendant, Ryan Watson, as a trustee of the Watson Family Gun Trust, had already made the 10.5″ barreled Palmetto State Armory (serial number LW001804) into a machine gun as per the Form 1 as approved by ATF official, Shannon Siviero. It was sometime after this that the ATF “changed their minds,” whited out the relevant portions of the approved From 1, and demanded that Watson “abandon or otherwise surrender” the machine gun and stamp. Following subsequent communications between Watson and the ATF (including a promise of no further criminal prosecution), Watson surrendered, under protest, the new machine gun to the ATF – although maintaining his ownership interest.
This demand for not only the plaintiff’s approved Form 1 and tax stamp (bought, paid for, and issued), but also the machine gun manufactured pursuant to that approval, is the basis for the charge of violating Watson’s Fifth Amendment rights
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. – Amendment V of the United States Constitution
In both cases, declaratory and injunctive relief is sought in the form of either declaring the laws and regulations noted above to be unconstitutional or, alternatively, to find that unincorporated trusts are not prohibited by 922(o) from manufacturing or possessing post-May 19, 1986 machine guns as individuals would be under the Hughes Amendment to the Firearms Owner Protection Act.
Honoring Those Who Served on Veterans Day 2014
Stores and Restaurants Offer Meals and Discounts to Veterans as Tribute
Veterans Day 2014 will be next Tuesday, November 11th. This day marks a special time when we honor those who have served our country. Many of our veterans have returned home to a heroes welcome while, disgustingly, others returned home only to have their countrymen turn their backs on them. Some remain out in the field fighting to keep our country – and the world – safe while countless others made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our nation and did not return at all.
November 11, 1919, was first declared Armistice Day by president Woodrow Wilson, who said of the holiday that marked the anniversary of the end of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918:
To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.
Seven years later, a concurrent resolution was passed to honor the day with appropriate celebrations. Later, in 1938, Congress declared the day to be a legal holiday. Thus, the day was remembered as Armistice Day until 1954, when Congress changed the language to observe “Veterans Day” – a day on which all veterans would be honored, not just those who fought in WWI.
The tradition continues today as a day of remembrance when flags are placed on graves, parades fill city streets and businesses serve those who served our country. Below are some of the many businesses, restaurants and stores offering meals, discounts and more to our veterans. Note that, in most cases, to receive this benefit you will need to be in uniform or present a military ID or DD-214 and not all locations may be participating.
If we missed any, feel free to add them in the comments section below. Continue reading
DOJ Document Dump: 64,280 Pages of Fast and Furious Docs
Documents Released Less Than Two Weeks After DOJ Head Eric Holder Announces Resignation
After years of refusing to share Operation Fast and Furious information – even in the face of House Oversight Committee demands, a lawsuit in federal court, and contempt charges – the Justice Department released more than 64,000 pages of documents related to the botched gun running operation. The move, according to the Committee’s statement, is effectively an admission that the Justice Department never had legitimate grounds to withhold these documents in the first place.
Even given the massive scope of the documents handed over, they still only partially meets the committee’s information request. “When Eric Holder wants to know why he was the first Attorney General held in criminal contempt of Congress, he can read the judge’s order that compelled the production of 64,280 pages that he and President Obama illegitimately and illegally withheld from Congress,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the committee on House Oversight and Government Reform. “Since these pages still do not represent the entire universe of the documents the House of Representatives is seeking related to the Justice Department’s cover-up of the botched gun-walking scandal that contributed to the death of a Border Patrol agent, our court case will continue.” Continue reading
NFA Lawsuit Filed – Holder, Jones Summonsed
UDATE 11/24/2014: The DOJ has filed an Entry of Appearance naming Eric J. Soskin as counsel for the defendants.
UPDATE 11/5/2014: Holder and Jones have both been officially served with their summons as of 5 November, 2014 at 5:22AM. The 60-day clock is ticking.
We recently posted about the Mississippi attorney who was seeking crowd funding for a lawsuit or lawsuits to challenge certain aspects of the gun control regulations laid out in the National Firearms Act, Gun Control Act and associated legislation, ATF rulings, etc.
The complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief in Hollis v Holder et al. was filed yesterday with the goal of either declaring the de facto ban on machine guns to be unconstitutional or finding that 922(0) does not prohibit unincorporated trusts from manufacturing or posessing a machine gun manufactured after the 1986 date created by the Hughes Amendment to FOPA. From the introductory section of the Hollis v Holder complaint:
1. This is an action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from 18 U.S.C. §922(o), 26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq. and the implementing regulations 27 C.F.R. § 479.105(a). These statutory and regulatory provisions generally act as an unlawful de facto ban on the transfer or possession of a machine gun manufactured after May 19, 1986. By imposing such a ban on an entire class of weapons, the statutes and regulations exceed the power of the United States under Article I of the United States Constitution; violate the Second Amendment rights of the Plaintiff and all similarly situated individuals; violate the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and the United States Constitution’s principles of federalism and dual sovereignty; by arbitrarily “disapproving” an already approved Form 1, Defendants’ actions violate Plaintiff’s Fifth Amendment right to due process and is an unjust taking; and violate the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Plaintiff seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against the unconstitutional provisions contained in 18 U.S.C. § 922(o), 26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq. and 27 C.F.R. § 479.105(a); declaring the ban on machine guns unconstitutional under the Second, Ninth and Tenth Amendments and in violation of Article I of the United States Constitution and declaratory and injunctive relief prohibiting Defendants from unjustly taking property without Due Process.
3. In the alternative, Plaintiff seeks declaratory and injunctive relief finding that 18 U.S.C. § 922(o) does not prohibit an unincorporated trust from manufacturing or possessing a machinegun manufactured after May 19, 1986 and/or that the Defendants lack the authority and are thus prohibited from revoking or denying the validity of Plaintiff’s approved tax stamp #RM34755.
The summons notifying recently-resigned Attorney General Eric Holder and BATFE directory B. Todd Jones of the lawsuit, has been issued and is available online specifying that if the defendants fail to respond within the 60 day deadline, judgment by default will be entered against them for the relief described above.
Mississippi Lawyer Accepting Crowd Funding Donations to Fight NFA
You may remember a while back when we shared some information about how the BATFE may have “accidentally” opened the machine gun registry.
This Prince Law Blog post provides most of the background, but the gist is this: Since 1986, thanks to the Hughes Amendment to the Firearm Owners Protection Act, “persons” have been disallowed from making new machine guns (922(o) reads, in part: “it shall be unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun [except] a machinegun that was lawfully possessed before the date this subsection takes effect“). In response to a request for clarification about a NICS check question, an ATF official noted that “Unlike individuals, corporations, partnerships, and associations; unincorporated trusts do not fall within the definition of “person” in the GCA.”
This caused Prince to reach the conclusion that “[P]ursuant to 26 U.S.C. 5812 and 5822, an unincorporated trust may lawfully transfer and make machineguns, as it is not a “person” for purposes of the GCA and Section 922 only applies to “persons” as defined by the GCA“. Word spread and some Form 1s were submitted on trusts to make new machine guns. For better or worse, the BATFE approved a number of them and, rumor has it, some of those approvals were acted on and new machine guns were made. And here we are today… with new Form 1s being categorically rejected, approved Form 1s (and, potentially, new machine guns) out in the wild with the BATFE saying “Oops! Our bad, can you send those back and not make machine guns with them?”
Now, Stephen D. Stamboulieh of Stamboulieh Law, PLLC has taken up the banner and is preparing to take the case(s) to court. Stamboulieh is seeking crowd funding donations through his GoFundMe effort titled Help Overturn 18 USC 922(o) & NFA. The effort has already raised nearly $29k of the $50k goal.
From the GoFundMe page: Continue reading
Cast Your #GunVote at the Polls This November 4th
Learn About the Issues, Find NRA Endorsements & Grades and More
General elections will be held throughout the US on November 4th this year. Early voting is already well underway in many locations and absentee ballots are being circulated.
With controversial issues like healthcare and immigration reform being talked about, an openly anti-gun administration which recklessly wields “a pen and a phone,” personnel shake-ups at the Department of Justice and close decisions by an aging supreme court there is clearly a lot at stake with this election.
If you like the idea of more gun control laws and greater restrictions on individual rights, your task is easy: stay at home and don’t get involved. On the other hand, if you desire to see our constitution upheld and our rights preserved you have a little more work to do. An informed, involved populace is the only thing that will keep our nation on track. Continue reading
