Court Strikes Down ATF Firearm Misclassifications

We’re all hoping that 2025 would be the 12 months the place we push again towards many years of 2nd Modification encroachment. Latest courtroom rulings have been trending professional 2A and the most recent courtroom victory by Franklin Armory and the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (FRAC) over the ATF appears to be persevering with that development.

The U.S. District Court docket in North Dakota issued its opinion within the FRAC and Franklin Armory firearms classification-related lawsuit towards ATF. The lawsuit was filed again in 2023 and pertained to the best way that ATF labeled Franklin Armory’s Reformation and Antithesis firearms. The Reformation is a brief barreled firearm chambered in .300 Blackout that used straight rifling. ATF thought of the Reformation to be a firearm topic to GCA however not topic to NFA, however stated they wanted to give you a correct classification for it. The Antithesis is a .410/.45 Colt firearm. ATF designated it a Brief Barreled Rifle topic to each the GCA and NFA, regardless of not not assembly the authorized definition of an SBR. Regardless of years of making an attempt to work with the ATF on correct classifications, ATF refused and continued to stall. Thus the 2023 lawsuit to pressure the ATF to behave.

It’s taken 2 years, however on February 18th, 2025 Choose Daniel M. Traynor issued his ruling vacating the ATF’s prior misclassifications of Franklin Armory’s Reformation and Antithesis firearms. Franklin Armory factors out that Choose Traynor’s ruling solidifies what the firearms business has recognized for years: that the ATF has been abusing its firearms expertise classification powers. They’ve gotten away with it for many years unchallenged nevertheless it appears just like the courts are lastly taking discover.

The Court docket’s Opinion:

Franklin Armory offered a sq. peg, and ATF shoved it right into a spherical gap. If Congress wished “shotgun” to be a catch-all class for something that doesn’t match “rifle,” it might have carried out so. . . . . It isn’t for ATF to redefine the phrases as a result of it thinks Congress didn’t intend a sure final result. Due to this fact, ATF exceeded its authority in defining “smoothbore” as something missing “useful rifling.”

So, does this imply that the Reformation and Antitheis will lastly be accessible for buy? Hopefully, nevertheless it’s slightly early nonetheless. FRAC and Franklin Armory are having their authorized counsel evaluation Choose Traynor’s ruling to find out the way forward for each Reformation and Antithesis beneath the regulation. The ruling is an effective precedent for different ATF overreach circumstances although. In response to ATF’s arguments, Choose Traynor replied that “Administrative businesses want to recollect they’re within the government department and depart legislating to Congress.”

Assertion from FRAC and Franklin Armory

FRAC President & CEO, Travis White, acknowledged that “the ATF has egregiously abused the firearms expertise classification course of, and it is a landmark ruling in reining in such abuses.” Franklin Armory President Jay Jacobson stated, “we spent years making an attempt to cause with ATF management as they did not classify firearms accurately. We hope that future company leaders will persist with the regulation as handed by Congress. All we ever wished was a very good referee, not somebody to throw the sport.”

Choose Traynor’s abstract judgment ruling in FRAC v. Garland, No. 1:23-cv-00003, might be discovered right here.