Chevron Deference, a legal principle established in 1984, allowed courts to defer to interpretations of ambiguous laws to the agencies that enforce them. This meant agencies like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) could further define regulations around firearms. However, on June 28th, 2024, the Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference.
What this means for Connecticut gun owners
If you recall back in January of 2023, BATFE rolled out the “Pistol Brace Decision” banning braced firearms as SBRs. For weeks the gunowners of CT were stuck in limbo where federal and state statutes suddenly clashed, as “Others” were now illegal and classified as Rifles. From this, BATFE and the state of Connecticut decided to divorce the federal definition of a firearm from the state definition. But, this wasn’t the only time that BATFE used Chevron to interpret the law in a more restrictive way recently.
The Pistol Brace Ruling was struck in its own case recently on similar grounds to the Chevron case.
Shortly after the BATFE Bump Stock ruling, Connecticut passed their own ban of “Rate of Fire Enhancement” devices, so that will stand for now along with FRTs/Binary Triggers despite being overturned federally. There are several cases challenging the Form 1 Suppressors Rule, but for now those stand as well.
Beyond guns… a House of Cards…
Since 1984 numerous decisions have been made by all regulatory agencies. We’re currently living in a house of cards based on Chevron, in order to keep the system from collapsing SCOTUS decided that all previous decisions will still stand for now. As time goes on, perhaps these will be challenged in court individually and overturned with Chevron out of the picture? This creates some uncertainty, but it also opens the door for potential legal victories.
The end of Chevron
The defeat of Chevron is a victory for the 2A community, henceforth only our elected officials will be making decisions regarding our rights. If they pass an ambiguous, bad law federally? Their ambiguity becomes our freedom.
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