The Loper Bright ruling that ended so-called “Chevron deference” last June was described as a “return to judicial balance” — a technical correction. But its consequences are now impossible to ignore.
This decision gas hit gun regulation especially hard, stripping the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms of one of its key tools for enforcing gun control. Between Loper Bright and the Supreme Court’s striking down of the ban on bump stocks in Garland v. Cargill, courts across the South have begun systematically overturning rules.
Before Loper Bright, the ATF claimed the authority to decide what counts as a firearm — including whether modifications or added parts fell under regulation. The agency used that flexibility to slow the spread of dangerous modifications.
After the demise of Chevron, however, courts are no longer required to defer to agency interpretations, meaning that agencies like the ATF can no longer count on winning if they “fill in the blanks” where Congress was vague. That means every new restriction must be clearly written into law, and older rules are now being challenged in court. The ATF is left watching from the sidelines as Loper Bright has become a standard reference in gun-related cases.
Southern states didn’t waste time. Immediately after the decision, judges began citing it, and one year later we’re seeing regional changes. For example, efforts are now underway to draft looser rules on pistol braces — add-ons that effectively turn pistols into rifle-style weapons — after the stricter Biden-era rule was struck down as impermissibly vague.
A judge in Texas also blocked ATF’s attempts to regulate forced-reset triggers — devices that let semi-auto rifles fire almost like automatics — on the grounds that only Congress can decide what counts as a machine gun. This ruling shows how, after Chevron ended, agencies lost their ability to stretch unclear laws into gray areas.
The argument is clear and consistent: If something isn’t explicitly defined as a firearm in the law, the agency cannot necessarily count on its claims of authority over it holding up in court. Without Chevron, regulators can’t just interpret or assume provisions “in the interest of public safety” and expect their interpretations to carry the day by default.
Chevron’s fall didn’t just weaken the ATF — it shook the foundation of how regulation works. Now, every gun rule must be spelled out. Until that happens, loopholes remain open.
Meanwhile, Congress’s continued silence has opened the door to a wave of new weapon variations and modifications. The market is drifting into chaos, making rules hard to enforce and define.
— Artem Kolisnichenko in One year after Chevron’s demise, gun regulation is unraveling
Remember when The Hill had a comment section? In the pre-Trump era, most sites had a comment section for every article.
even heyjackass ended comments. the last of my newsfeeds with comments is 2ndcitycop. and all the other ones had banned me anyhoo.
i like the overall tenor of this article.
“…the spread of dangerous modifications.” and
“…new weapon variations and modifications. The market is drifting into chaos…”
tells me that the good here is coming from an unhappy place. melikey.
I remember when the ‘Huffington Post’ had a comment section, before we took it over and mocked them incessantly.
Fun times! So, they killed their comment section…
Not letting an unelected bureaucracy arbitrarily rule the people on ignorance, whims, feelings, make-believe and political winds is literal fascism. Or so CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Politico, the NY Times, the Washington Post, CBS and the rest of the peoples press spreading nothing but the unbiased, untainted and complete truth have told me.
“The agency used that flexibility to slow the spread of dangerous modifications.”
Ya mean like the pistol brace? Yeah, that piece of attached plastic for which 99.99999% of them went to the firing range or sat in gun case somewhere … evidently “sooo dangerous” said the ATF, then afterwards the ATF terrorized and threatened to shoot innocent men and women and children who had committed no crime – and then – ‘murdered’ a man who had not committed any crime by deciding it was OK for them to hoodwink a judge into issuing a ‘fishing expedition’ search warrant with zero probable cause for any arrest or actual search warrant ’cause they said so’ and could have served at any time but instead decided ‘hey, lets make it exactly like a criminal home invasion in the dark’ and killed an innocent man trying to defend his home from ‘criminal home invaders’ who did not identify their selves as law enforcement (it turns out in the details exposed in the lawsuit) like they should have thus creating the condition to force reactionary defense of the mans wife and home and thus essentially murdering an innocent man ’cause the ATF said so’.
The only “dangerous modifications” was letting the ATF ‘modify’ its self to have self-granted authority to do as it pleased and allowing Joe ‘lets take a shower Ashley’ Biden let them do it in his tyranny regime.
Thank you to President Trump for the judges he has appointed. That have given us so much of our freedom back. And we still have a long way to go.
He just got another one confirmed, replacing an Obama appointed judge.
Good