FireArm Friday: Short Barrel Rifles Making a Come Back? - #2A
Supreme Court Asks for Justice Department’s Position on SBRs
Supreme Court Asks for Justice Department’s Position on SBRs
A facial challenge to the federal requirement for registration and paying a tax in order to possess short-barreled rifles has made its way to the Supreme Court. A facial challenge is a direct challenge to the statute, claiming the statute itself is unconstitutional.
The case of Jamond M. Rush v. United States started in February 2022 in the Southern District of Illinois. Rush was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, an Anderson Manufacturing AR-15 .223 rifle. The court suppressed the original charge.
A superseding indictment, substituting a new charge for the old charge, was issued on August 16, 2022. The latest indictment was for the possession of an unregistered firearm, under the National Firearms Act (NFA), presumably for the same Anderson Arms AR-15 type rifle with a 7.5″ barrel.
Rush entered a conditional guilty plea to possessing the rifle under the National Firearms Act (NFA), with the proviso that the case could be appealed on the basis of the law being unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and the Bruen decision. The Seventh Circuit upheld the Circuit Court decision, primarily using the 1934 Miller case, which failed to find the 1934 National Firearms Act unconstitutional. For many reasons, Miller was not a clear statement on…