American Bar Association Expands Promotion of Gun Control Monday, February 24, 2020
Support NRA-ILA
The American Bar Association (ABA) has long supported restrictions on the rights of gun owners. While it has defended the due process rights of some very unpopular groups, including, enemy combatants, terror suspects, and convicts on death row, in 2017 the ABA decided that gun owners should not be afforded similar due process protections.
This year, the ABA decided it should increase its assault on the Second Amendment, and perhaps other constitutional protections.
Under the guise of “gun safety regulations,” the ABA adopted three resolutions that should call into question the group’s claim that it seeks to “[e]liminate bias in…the justice system.” It seems that “bias” against gun owners is OK.
The first resolution takes on the most recent anti-gun bogeyman; “ghost guns.”
This term was invented by anti-gun California State Senator Kevin de Leon (D), originally to describe homemade plastic firearms manufactured with the use of a 3-D printer. Following efforts by gun control activists and the mainstream media to provoke the public, “ghost guns” has become an umbrella term for all unserialized firearms. Gun control proponents have shown particular interest in regulating unserialized homemade firearms made through the use of a 3-D printer and those constructed from an unfinished frame or receiver.
Apparently, the ABA has abandoned the plastic firearms aspect, as its release does not mention them, and appears focused on “any unfinished firearm frame or receiver.”
Under 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(3) the definition of a firearm includes “(A) any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; [or] (B) the frame or receiver of any such weapon…”
As is made clear by federal law, the frame or receiver of a firearm is the only part that is legally considered a “firearm.”
Gun control advocates contend that this system permits those who would otherwise be prohibited from possessing firearms to make their own firearms, circumventing the background check provisions of the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act. Anti-gun activists also contend that unserialized firearms inhibit law enforcement’s ability to trace firearms back to their initial point of sale through the ATF’s National Tracing Center.
But any attempt to require serialization in this context would have no impact on criminals. In Haynes v. U.S., the United States Supreme Court ruled that a convicted felon could not be convicted for his failure to comply with the registration provisions of the National Firearms Act, as doing so would implicate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Any requirement that a gun owner alert the federal government to the manufacture of a firearm, such as supplying proof of serialization, could not be enforced against those prohibited from possessing firearms.
In reality, as with most anti-gun proposals, the ABA is really targeting law-biding gun owners. Making and customizing your own firearms is an American tradition, which is why the provisions of the Gun Control Act do not prohibit individuals from making firearms for non-commercial purposes.
If the federal government were tasked with determining what constitutes “manufacturing” in the non-commercial context, it could implicate the ordinary behavior of millions of gun owners. In the commercial context, ATF has already set a low bar for “manufacturing” that has forced some gun dealers to refrain from assisting customers with simple gunsmithing tasks.
For instance, ATF has concluded that a gun dealer who adds some aftermarket accessories or finishes to firearms in inventory before resale is manufacturing firearms and must be licensed as a manufacturer.
Click for Full Text!