The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday issued a unanimous ruling rejecting a constitutional challenge to the federal ban on machine guns manufactured post-1986.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 was amended in 1986 to ban the possession or transfer of new automatic weapons. United States v. Jamaion Wilson challenged this statute by arguing that the machine guns are constitutionally protected.
Defendant was charged with using an illegal ‘Glock switch’ in a 2023 shooting
But the appeals court turned away the challenge, ruling that the Second Amendment does not cover such arms. Referencing the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2008 Heller decision, the panel said that the case simply upheld the right of law-abiding citizens to possess handguns to protect their homes.
Wilson was convicted of using a handgun modified with a “Glock switch” to convert it to fully automatic functionality. He shot and killed a person who allegedly sold a fake weapon to him in a Texas gas station parking lot in 2023.
Along with a host of charges was one for machine gun possession, which could result in a decade behind bars.
Latest ruling another judicial strike against automatic weapons
Wilson appealed, arguing that conversion devices such as the one he used are now “common” and thus protected arms. That argument fell flat as the appeals court turned to its 2016 Hollis v. Lynch ruling as the primary basis for its decision.
That determination held that the Second Amendment does not protect machine guns. The court concluded that such firearms are “dangerous and unusual” and are not in “common use” for lawful purposes.
Judges noted that most modern machine guns are held by government authorities, thus rendering the “common use” argument invalid. The appeals court further rejected attempts to use the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 Bruen decision to strike down the automatic weapon ban.
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