On October 18, 2024, Palmetto State Armory, alongside FRAC (Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition), Gun Owners of America, B&T USA, and eight states, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. This filing opposes the ATF’s controversial unauthorized expansion of the 1986 machine gun ban, known as the Hughes Amendment, which was leveraged against former Iowa Police Chief Bradley Wendt. This case marks a critical battle over gun rights and government overreach.
The Hughes Amendment, part of the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA), restricts the civilian ownership of machine guns manufactured after May 19, 1986. The law aimed to curb access to machine guns for the general public, but its enforcement has been increasingly scrutinized for overstepping its original scope. In United States vs. Wendt, the ATF prosecuted Wendt, who had taken a machine gun registered to his police department to a public range event. Wendt, formerly the Police Chief of Adair, Iowa, was sentenced to federal prison in July 2024 for this conduct.
ATF Overreach
The ATF argued that Wendt’s actions were outside his “official duties” as a police officer, a phrase absent from the Hughes Amendment’s legal text. Critics argue that the ATF’s insistence on this interpretation represents an alarming trend in the agency’s efforts to broaden the scope of laws beyond what Congress intended.
Click the link to read the whole article: Standing Against ATF Overreach
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