A Utah gun rights advocate filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the United States District Court alleging that the ban on bump stocks implemented last month by the Trump administration is unconstitutional.
Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, argues in the suit that the executive branch cannot rewrite laws “as it sees fit.” But he contends that’s exactly what the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — named as defendants in the lawsuit — did to establish the new regulation.
“At its most basic, this is about constitutional order and about who has lawmaking power,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, litigation counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit civil rights organization that is representing Aposhian in his case.