Here's some good news that came down last week that I think every gun owner should celebrate.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – and yes, the Ninth Circuit – handed Giffords and California Attorney General Rob Bonta a decisive loss in their lawsuit against the ATF over the "frame or receiver rule" concerning ghost guns. The court ruled these anti-gunners had absolutely no standing to sue in the first place.
Let that sink in. They spent all that time, money, and political capital to get laughed out of federal court.
The judge – Circuit Judge Consuelo M. Callahan, a George W. Bush appointee – made it clear that you can't base lawsuits on speculation about what might happen with firearms. California and Giffords claimed they were "impacted" by ATF's rules, but couldn't articulate how. When your entire legal argument falls apart before you even get to the merits, that's a problem.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms hit the nail on the head when they noted that the gun prohibition lobby keeps using "ghost guns" as their new boogeyman. We've been building our own firearms for centuries – that's not changing just because someone figured out better ways to do it. A right can't exist only when it's inconvenient to exercise.
What makes this sweeter is that it came from the notoriously anti-gun Ninth Circuit. Sure, they might try for an en banc appeal, but why would they? Even if they somehow won, it just heads to the Supreme Court – where recent decisions haven't exactly been friendly to their agenda.
For us in the gun business, this matters. The ATF's rule is essentially dead in the water, and that's how it should be. We don't need more regulations on what law-abiding citizens can build, buy, or own.
California and Giffords got exactly what they deserved – a swift kick back to reality.