More on what is an AR-15 "receiver"

I guess my question is: How can this be resolved without causing huge damage to us as gun owners? The after market/ custom building your own configurations the whole thing?

So this guy was happy to spend 26 years enforcing this law, and now is saying it's bogus?

The judge nailed it with the comment "misapplying the law for a long time provides no immunity from scrutiny." I yearn for the day when a majority of SCOTUS applies that and original intent to the mess that has been made of the Constitution. How will new rules affect those of us who like building AR's or machining our own 80% lowers? We can't know until until we see any proposed regulations. God help us if it is a Buttigieg, Bloomberg, or Warren administration proposing them. Will Trump be better than that? Maybe, but with his bump-stock dance and comments about "silencers" who really knows?

...we need a congressional investigation into how an agency willfully misinterpreted the law by giggering their application of it. Somebody made this decision long ago to lie about it. Rip off the scab and reveal the truth. Then go back and vacate the convictions that resulted from this misconduct. Class action settlement of wrongfull prosecutions. Mass pardons for the victims.

But we are supposed to accept Chevron/Auer deference as law.

It is time for the SCOTUS to look closely at agency regulations and not just accept that the agency knows best.

Evidentiary hearings that look at both sides of an issue without bias. What a novel concept.

Am I right in thinking that the law specifies there be ONE part in a gun that is the "firearm" subject to serialization and FFL transfer procedures, and the litigation here was just about whether the ATF regulations had properly/adequately conformed to that law in cases where several different parts might reasonably be used as "THE" part?

BTW, it occurs to me that the Ruger standard 22 pistol (and its Mk II et seq descendants) matches the AR-15 pattern - barrel & bolt in one (upper) assembly, with the hammer, trigger, recoil spring, mag well and grip in another (lower) assembly. Except on the Ruger, the serial number goes on the upper.

I wonder who made the decision that THAT was OK? The Ruger long-predates the GCA, so was probably being numbered on the "upper" when the law was passed (I don't have one that old to confirm.) But if the "lower" is the proper place to number an AR-15 pattern gun, what had to happen to let Ruger keep numbering the "upper?"

A concern is that the ATF will begin requiring both upper and lower receivers to be serialized. On some rifles (the SCAR, for example), the upper is the serialized portion. While "doing it wrong" may not generally be justification for continuing a course of conduct, it may be the best path in this instance. There are millions of guns built to this standard. Changing course today would be like deciding that we're going to start driving on the left side of the road.

"It is time for the SCOTUS to look closely at agency regulations and not just accept that the agency knows best."

That would lead to SCOTUS arguing over the power of executive agencies to create regulations instead of legislative bodies creating enforceable laws.