A federal judge in Kansas has dismissed charges against a man for possessing a machine gun, stating that prosecutors failed to prove the constitutionality of the federal ban on such weapons.
This decision by U.S. District Judge John Broomes seems to be the first instance where a court has declared a machine gun ban unconstitutional since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling expanding gun rights.
In the 2022 ruling, the Supreme Court established that firearms restrictions must be in line with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
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Judge Broomes, appointed by former President Trump, argued that prosecutors in this case didn’t provide sufficient historical evidence to justify charging the defendant under the machine gun ban.
The Department of Justice has the option to appeal this decision, which gun safety advocates have criticized as “extreme and reckless.”
The defendant, Tamori Morgan, was indicted last year for illegally possessing a machine gun and a conversion device. Prosecutors argued that these weapons weren’t protected under the Second Amendment.
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However, Judge Broomes countered, asserting that both the machine gun and the conversion device are considered “bearable arms” within the Second Amendment’s text.
While prosecutors cited historical laws against “dangerous or unusual weapons,” the judge noted that these laws focused on the use of such weapons to terrorize the public, not merely possessing them.
This ruling could have significant implications for future gun control legislation and legal challenges.
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