In the topsy-turvy world of 2A Law, the Trump Justice Department has argued to an Appeals Court that Machine Guns are not protected by the Second Amendment.
Calling the guns “atypical” and “not protected by the Second Amendment because a reasonable person would not expect them to be used in militia service,” government lawyers defended federal statute 18 U.S.C. 992(o), which criminalizes possession of a machine gun, to the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals as they sought to uphold a conviction against Jaquan Bridges, who pleaded guilty to the offense after a 2023 shootout with police on a Tennessee interstate highway.
Bridges was arrested with a Glock .40 caliber pistol equipped with a ‘Glock switch,’ an attachment that converted the handgun into a machine gun. He fought to dismiss the charge on constitutional grounds, claiming the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen required dismissal of the charge because machine guns fall under the definition of “arms” used in the Second Amendment.
U.S. District Judge John Fowlkes Jr. disagreed, and cited the 2008 Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller in his decision to deny the dismissal motion. “Heller explained that the type of weapons protected by the Second Amendment ‘were those ‘in common use at the time’ and we think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons,”” he said.
No timetable has been set for the Appeals court’s decision.
