The Fifth Circuit Ruling: Why the Fight for the Second Amendment Is Far from Over

 In this episode of Live to Shoot – Defending the Second Amendment, Jeff Dowdle breaks down a court decision that upheld the federal ban on most civilian-owned machine guns, despite recent Supreme Court guidance meant to strengthen Second Amendment protections. While some see this as a narrow or niche issue, the implications reach far beyond one type of firearm. 

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Transcript

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So, welcome to the Live Shoot podcast. My name is Jeff Dial. I've been a licensed firearms dealer for the last 18 years. In this podcast, we talk about all things related to the amendment. So as anything else go in the world sports story or anything else I might find interesting. So welcome, welcome, welcome. It's been a week. I'm gonna talk about some things that's happened at the Fifth Circuit today. But you know, president Trump is in Davos or was in Davos. Brokering a deal for us to gain control of Greenland among other things. And and I am buckling down, getting ready for our first ice storm of the year here in Texas. We've got some, you know, pretty bad weather that's really hitting the most of the country, but, you know, we're gonna be low freezing, freezing rain, ice and here in Texas. That's never a good thing because the only thing that we have to, to take care of, of that or remediate it, is a big red fall in the sky. And so if it doesn't come out for a few days, we're frozen in. And it's happened more than once here, so we just kinda have to get used to it. And I am planning on a few days at least, of not getting outta the house. But in that meantime, you know, let's talk about what happened in the federal courts. Today. So we're gonna talk about a recent decision outta the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit case. You know, it shows how much work we still have ahead of us if we truly intend to defend our Second Amendment. So what happened? A federal appellate court, one of the biggest and most influential in the country, upheld the existing federal ban on civilian possession of machine guns manufactured after May 19, May 19th, 1986. So let's unpack it back in the 1986, Congress passed an amendment to the Firearm Owners Protection Act. Known as the Hughes Amendment, that law essentially froze the civilian gun registry Machine. Gun registry. If your automatic firearm wasn't registered before that date, you could not legally own it. And here's the practical effect of that decision. There are tens of thousands of fully automatic firearms already in civilian hands. The supply is capped. And because of that cap machine guns have gone to absurd prices because if you have a limited supply of something and there's a demand. Price goes up. That's why I am, I'm so big into, into Bitcoin and I've talked about that in the past. I may do another Bitcoin episode here in the next few weeks or months just to kind of update on where we're at. But, but a full auto machine gun, I mean, it can be as much as as a small house. I mean, because there's just so rare. And that's what the Fifth Circuit upheld. They didn't strike the ban. They didn't question that it limits rights. They simply said, we're gonna leave this law on the books. So why is it matter? Well, machine guns are a niche farm. Most of us aren't. Aren't after him. And maybe that's true for many listeners. But here here's the deeper issue. If the courts can uphold one restriction on the basis that is an old law, even after brewing stresses that firearm restriction must align with historical tradition, then we should be able to see what's at stake. The courts are still not guaranteed fortress for the Second Amendment. Our rights don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in a political and legal battlefield. And if we think just one Supreme Court ruling will singularly handily protect all of our rights. Well, that's just wishful thinking. So here's the truth. Lower courts are still upholding longstanding federal loss that limit firearm ownerships, particularly those firearms that politicians bureaucrat label as unusual or dangerous. So how many firearm times have you heard that argument? Machine guns are not common. Machine guns are dangerous, therefore they're not protected by the second amendment. That's the very language that has been used against us in federal courts. Let's be clear. Who gets to decide what's dangerous or unusual? The courts politic, politicians, academia. If you follow that kind of subjective judgment to to be the metric for rights, then we've seeded the foundation of the Second Amendment before the fight even starts. So the broader implication, according to Second Amendment, advocates like Texas Gun Rights, the decision proves we still have a long way to go, and they're right. You can't just rely on the courts, relying solely on the legal system, defender rights is like counting on a single round in the magazine to win a gunfight. It's fair, nothing, but it's not enough. So we have to be engaged in all fa on all fronts. And the legislatures where the laws are made and the elections where the representative choose reps are chosen in culture where our hearts and minds are shaped. And yes, the courts are integral important of that for the interpretations they make. No single avenue is imaginable, and that's the lesson here. So let's be honest, the full matic machine gun ban stays in place. The practical ability of civilians to own those farms, even if they have the legal right, is severely limited by cost and scarcity. We should ask ourself. Does a right truly exist if only a tiny portion of the population can exercise it? I don't think so. Our founding fathers understood that rights require not just the theoretical protection in in words, but practical access and reality. If you're not willing to fight for that access, we're leaving the future of the Second Amendment in the hands of judges who might see those rights through a different lens. So what's the takeaway? Well, this Fifth Circuit decision isn't the end of the fight. It's just a stark reminder, freedom itself. Freedom doesn't defend itself. Rights aren't self-executing, and the war for liberty is fought in courts, legislature, and in the hearts of citizens. So that's where we come to. We don't just sit back and hope the courts get it right. We need to stay diligent. We need to stay informed and we need to engage. We need to fight, fight, fight, as I've always said. And as the midterms are coming up, we're gonna have to continue to fight, and we're gonna have to fight for our Second Amendment rights because things can be taken away just as easily as, as, as we've gained those rights. But those rights are not for anyone to take away because they're God-given rights to protect us through the use of firearms. So. We need to stay alert, stay armed, and always stay free. So appreciate you listening. Take care and we will talk later.