ProPublica Horrified {That a} Lawful Enterprise is Defending Itself within the Courts

After the 2021 ghost gun legislation handed in Nevada, Polymer80 employed the New York Metropolis legislation agency Greenspoon Marder to file the lawsuit in Yerington, an onion farming city that’s the seat of the county that’s residence to Polymer80. One of many agency’s managing companions, James McGuire, traveled to Yerington to argue earlier than Choose John Schlegelmilch that the legislation was written so vaguely it will be not possible to implement and can be ripe for abuse.

McGuire mentioned in an electronic mail he not represents Polymer80 and referred questions to a different lawyer on the agency, who didn’t reply to requests for remark.

In courtroom, McGuire argued the legislation didn’t outline key phrases resembling “receiver” and “body,” and used “murky and undefined phrases” to clarify what an “unfinished receiver” is. He additionally argued the legislation doesn’t specify when within the manufacturing course of an unfinished receiver really turns into a receiver.

Throughout two hearings on the lawsuit, Schlegelmilch appeared to have little persistence with the state’s argument that the legislation depends on industry-specific phrases which might be effectively understood by Polymer80. As an alternative the decide agreed with McGuire that the legislation didn’t adequately outline an unfinished receiver. At one level he requested whether or not his 5-year-old’s rubber band gun could possibly be thought of an unfinished receiver just because it seems to be like a gun.

“What if I’m at residence, and I’m machining a chunk of wooden. OK? And my 5-year-old needs a rubber band gun. OK? So, I take that piece of wooden, I flip it, I make it into — you realize, I take a band noticed, and I reduce out what seems to be like a firearm. And I put a few sticks on it so that you could put a rubber band on it once you push it up. You’ve seen a rubber band gun earlier than, proper? So, is that largely accomplished?”

“I imply, a rubber band gun’s not a firearm,” responded the state’s lawyer, Greg Zunino. “I don’t assume you’ll ever be prosecuted below that situation since you nonetheless need to have an intent to show one thing right into a firearm.”

Schlegelmilch dominated in favor of Polymer80 and enjoined the state from implementing the part of the legislation that prohibited the possession and sale of unfinished frames and receivers. Schlegelmilch let stand the remainder of the legislation, which Polymer80 didn’t problem and prohibits the possession of a accomplished ghost gun.

The state has appealed Schlegelmilch’s ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court docket.

Schlegelmilch declined an interview request as a result of the enchantment is pending.

[Polymer80 president Loran] Kelley declined to touch upon the choice to file the lawsuit on his residence turf in Lyon County.

Different courts have dominated in another way.

An identical lawsuit filed in federal courtroom in Reno the identical month was rapidly tossed by a decide who determined the legislation “is a legitimate train of the federal government’s police energy.”

“What occurred right here, with the state courtroom being extra profitable for them, signifies politics and beliefs inside the judiciary,” [Giffords deputy chief counsel David] Pucino mentioned.

This month, a decide in Washington, D.C., discovered Polymer80 bought unlawful firearms within the district and ordered it to pay $4 million in penalties.

The ATF can be looking for to impose a brand new rule that might require unfinished receivers and frames to incorporate a serial quantity — one of many federal methods that Pucino mentioned can be more practical than a state-by-state method. The brand new rule, seen as a strategy to shut the ghost gun loophole, is ready to take impact on Aug. 24, however it faces at the least three lawsuits from the ghost gun {industry} looking for to dam its implementation.

McGuire, the lawyer who represented Polymer80, authored a 27-page public remark submission on the brand new rule arguing, partially, that it’s impermissibly obscure, the identical argument that he used efficiently to cease the Nevada legislation.

To some, there’s a simple answer: Polymer80 may stamp serial numbers on the unfinished frames and receivers they promote.

Kelley mentioned placing a serial quantity on his merchandise wouldn’t damage his firm. However utilizing these numbers to require background checks is a “crucial menace” to his enterprise, which he mentioned depends on a rising market of people who “worth their Fourth Modification rights” to privateness.

“There’s an issue when individuals’s proper to privateness is infringed and a authorities company is taking a look at what to procure each time they need,” he mentioned.

— Anjeanette Damon in Why Outlawing Ghost Guns Didn’t Stop America’s Largest Maker of Ghost Gun Parts