
A new petition filed with the Supreme Court on Friday asks the justices to find a nearly 100-year-old firearm regulation unconstitutional.
Under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), rifles with a barrel shorter than 16 inches face tax and registration requirements that can cost violators up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $250,00.
âJamond Rush has been convicted of a felony and sentenced to 30 monthsâ imprisonment for possessing a firearm that is in common use for lawful purposes,â the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Actionâs (NRA-ILA) petition states. âThe Seventh Circuit upheld that conviction while continuing to flout this Courtâs Second Amendment precedents.â
Rush was charged for possessing an unregistered Anderson Manufacturing AR-15 rifle with a 7.5-inch barrel in 2022, according to court records.
Short-barreled rifles were regulated as a distinct class of firearms âfor the first time in the twentieth centuryâ as part of the NFA, which was intended to âaddress Prohibition-era violence committed by organized crime âgangsters,ââ the NRAâs petition explains.
âLower courts are unsure how to adjudicate challenges to restrictions on specific categories of arms and have thus adopted a variety of differentâoften conflictingâapproaches, many of which are inconsistent with this Courtâs precedents,â the petition states. âThis confusion is most pronounced in the Seventh Circuit, which has issued opinions inconsistent not only with this Courtâs precedents and decisions in other Circuits but also with its own precedents.â
NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Doug Hamlin said in a statement that the NFA âimposes burdens on law-abiding gun owners that have no grounding in the text, history, or tradition of the Second Amendment.â
âThe Second Amendment guarantees the right of Americans to own commonly used firearmsâincluding short-barreled riflesâwithout government interference, and weâre hopeful that the Supreme Court will use this opportunity to reaffirm that right,â
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporterâs byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with US, please contact [email protected].
