The United States District Court for the Southern District of California ruled against Ares Armor in its lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in a decision filed Thursday. United States District Judge Janis L. Sammartino, a George W. Bush appointee, ordered dismissal of plaintiff claims.
Ares claimed First, Second and Fifth Amendment violations by ATF, as well as a violation of the Firearm Owners Protection Act. ATF argued for dismissal, citing “lack of subject matter jurisdiction …  [and] failure to state a claim,†as well as for summary judgment on the claim by Ares that classifying the part as a firearm was “arbitrary.â€
Lawyers for the Department of Justice submitted a memorandum Friday in the United States District Court, Southern District of California, in support of defendant’s motion to dismiss Lycurgan, Inc., dba Ares Armor vs. B. Todd Jones [successor name to be substituted], in his official capacity as Head of the San Diego Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case involves Ares’ contention that ATF erred and overstepped its authority in declaring the firm’s EP80 polymer precursor receivers (“80 percent receiversâ€) to be complete receivers, and thus “firearms†as defined by the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Ares CEO is suing the San Diego Sheriff’s Department because he was banned from their Facebook page.
Facebook and the 1st Amendment: When a government entity exerts dominion over a particular space
and then designates that particular space as a public forum they cannot arbitrarily violate people’s right
to free speech in that space.
Facebook is a private entity and therefore they can arbitrarily censor if they so choose.
An individual user of Facebook is a private person and can arbitrarily censor their own page if
they so choose.
A government entity that uses tax dollars to set up and maintain a Facebook page as a
designated public forum cannot use more tax dollars to then violate the 1st amendment rights of
speakers in that designated public forum through arbitrary censorship.
Here’s a not so well kept secret, there’s no such thing as an 80% lower in the eyes of the BATF — it’s either a gun or it isn’t. The phrase “80% lower†was coined by a cleaver marketer of incomplete AR lowers years ago and it stuck.
The actual regulation in the Gun Control Act that all this hubbub is based on states, “(A) any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; (B) the frame or receiver of any such weapon.â€