{"id":84935,"date":"2022-08-26T23:54:58","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T04:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=84935"},"modified":"2022-08-26T23:54:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T04:54:58","slug":"84935","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=84935","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

ProPublica Horrified That a Lawful Business is Defending Itself in the Courts<\/a><\/p>\n

After the 2021 ghost gun law passed in Nevada, Polymer80 hired the New York City law firm Greenspoon Marder to file the lawsuit in Yerington, an onion farming town that\u2019s the seat of the county that\u2019s home to Polymer80. One of the firm\u2019s managing partners, James McGuire, traveled to Yerington to argue before Judge John Schlegelmilch that the law was written so vaguely it would be impossible to enforce and would be ripe for abuse.<\/p>\n

McGuire said in an email he no longer represents Polymer80 and referred questions to another lawyer at the firm, who didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

In court, McGuire argued the law failed to define key terms such as \u201creceiver\u201d and \u201cframe,\u201d and used \u201cmurky and undefined terms\u201d to explain what an \u201cunfinished receiver\u201d is. He also argued the law doesn\u2019t specify when in the manufacturing process an unfinished receiver actually becomes a receiver.<\/p>\n

During two hearings on the lawsuit, Schlegelmilch seemed to have little patience with the state\u2019s argument that the law relies on industry-specific terms that are well understood by Polymer80. Instead the judge agreed with McGuire that the law didn\u2019t adequately define an unfinished receiver. At one point he asked whether his 5-year-old\u2019s rubber band gun could be considered an unfinished receiver simply because it looks like a gun<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if I\u2019m at home, and I\u2019m machining a piece of wood. OK? And my 5-year-old wants a rubber band gun. OK? So, I take that piece of wood, I turn it, I make it into \u2014 you know, I take a band saw, and I cut out what looks like a firearm. And I put a couple of sticks on it so that you can put a rubber band on it when you push it up. You\u2019ve seen a rubber band gun before, right? So, is that mostly completed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, a rubber band gun\u2019s not a firearm,\u201d responded the state\u2019s attorney, Greg Zunino. \u201cI don\u2019t think you would ever be prosecuted under that scenario because you still have to have an intent to turn something into a firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schlegelmilch ruled in favor of Polymer80 and enjoined the state from enforcing the section of the law that prohibited the possession and sale of unfinished frames and receivers. Schlegelmilch let stand the rest of the law, which Polymer80 didn\u2019t challenge and prohibits the possession of a completed ghost gun<\/p>\n

The state has appealed Schlegelmilch\u2019s ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Schlegelmilch declined an interview request because the appeal is pending.<\/p>\n

[Polymer80 president Loran] Kelley declined to comment on the decision to file the lawsuit on his home turf in Lyon County.<\/p>\n

Other courts have ruled differently.<\/p>\n

A similar lawsuit filed in federal court in Reno the same month was quickly tossed by a judge who decided the law \u201cis a valid exercise of the government\u2019s police power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened here, with the state court being more successful for them, indicates politics and ideology within the judiciary,\u201d [Giffords deputy chief counsel David] Pucino said.<\/p>\n

This month, a judge in Washington, D.C., found Polymer80 sold illegal firearms in the district and ordered it to pay $4 million in penalties.<\/p>\n

The ATF is also seeking to impose a new rule that would require unfinished receivers and frames to include a serial number \u2014 one of the federal strategies that Pucino said would be more effective than a state-by-state approach. The new rule, seen as a way to close the ghost gun loophole, is set to take effect on Aug. 24, but it faces at least three lawsuits from the ghost gun industry seeking to block its implementation.<\/p>\n

McGuire, the lawyer who represented Polymer80, authored a 27-page public comment submission on the new rule arguing, in part, that it\u2019s impermissibly vague, the same argument that he used successfully to stop the Nevada law.<\/p>\n

To some, there\u2019s an easy solution: Polymer80 could stamp serial numbers on the unfinished frames and receivers they sell.<\/p>\n

Kelley said putting a serial number on his products wouldn\u2019t hurt his company. But using those numbers to require background checks is a \u201ccritical threat\u201d to his business, which he said relies on a growing market of individuals who \u201cvalue their Fourth Amendment rights\u201d to privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a problem when people\u2019s right to privacy is infringed and a government agency is looking at what you bought whenever they want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ProPublica Horrified That a Lawful Business is Defending Itself in the Courts After the 2021 ghost gun law passed in Nevada, Polymer80 hired the New York City law firm Greenspoon Marder to file the lawsuit in Yerington, an onion farming town that\u2019s the seat of the county that\u2019s home to Polymer80. One of the firm\u2019s … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rights","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84936,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84935\/revisions\/84936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}