Immediately after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced its decision to rescind its approval of the bump stock, the Gun Owners of America announced its plan to file a lawsuit to try and overturn the move.

Of course, talk is cheap.

However, the GOA announced yesterday that it wasn’t just talk.

GOA Files Suit Against ATF’s Illegal and Unconstitutional Bump Stock Ban

Springfield, VA – Gun Owners of America (GOA) and its Foundation (GOF) filed suit today against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) for their regulations on bump stocks.

Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America said, “Our suit challenges the legality of ATF’s action and asks for an injunction to stop enforcement of the regulations.

“These dangerous regulations can go much farther than just bump stocks. The goal of the anti-gun left is, ultimately, not just banning bump stocks, but, rather, putting ‘points on the board’ toward its goal of banning civilian ownership of all firearms.”

The suit is filed strategically in the Western District of Michigan, and GOA is joined by other pro-gun groups and individuals.

“Not coincidentally, Michigan is located within the jurisdiction of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals — a circuit which is not only very pro-gun, but also has been more skeptical of illegal government regulatory actions than many other circuits in the country,” Pratt stated.

“GOA is happy to announce that the Virginia Citizens Defense League has joined the suit as a plaintiff — as well as Tim from the Military Arms Channel and GOA’s Texas state director Rachel Malone,” Pratt continued. “And I’m pleased to report that several state gun organizations, such as the Oregon Firearms Federation and BamaCarry, have contacted GOA and will be contributing financially, and by other means, to this case.

For more information about the suit, please see here.

I’m not sure the Trump administration accounted for the firestorm it was going to ignite.

While bump stocks aren’t the most popular devices out there and many gun owners had little to no interest in owning one, this decision and the way it was handled rightly upset many in the gun community.

After all, why wouldn’t we get upset at something being perfectly legal one minute and then illegal the next, all with the stroke of a pen?

In addition to the lawsuit, there’s also a petition on the White House’s website seeking to reverse the bump stock ban, though it has only received a small number of signatures as of the writing of this post.

Regardless, this has angered many in the firearms community, and it’s not likely to get better any time soon.

So what will the ramifications of the lawsuit be? Honestly, depending on how far the lawsuit gets, it has the potential to impact far more than bump stocks.

Congress has long shirked its role as a lawmaker by empowering the executive branch’s agencies to create regulations for any number of things, from guns to the environment. The thinking was that an agency could adjust on the fly far better than Congress can. Plus, these agencies would theoretically operate outside of politics, making decisions based on data and not popular opinion.

We see how that worked out, don’t we?

A lawsuit could potentially overturn that decades-long policy and require Congress to create laws, making elected officials answer to the voters for what the Environmental Protection Agency and ATF do.

That would be a nice change of pace, now wouldn’t it?

The question is, will it happen?