District Judge Carlton Reeves has struck down the federal machine gun ban as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. However, Judge Reeves specified that the ruling was narrowly tailored to cover just the defendant Justin Bryce Brown, who was charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun.
Decided on January 29, 2025, the case from the Southern District of Mississippi is called United States v. Brown.
Reeves is the second federal district judge to rule against a machine-gun ban since the Bruen decision in June 2022. The other was U.S. District Judge John Broomes in United States v. Morgan, a Wichita, Kansas decision from August 2024. In Morgan, Judge Broomes wrote the statute “criminalizes the mere possession of such weapons without regard to how the possessor uses them,” which wasn’t allowed in Bruen. Mr. Brown cited the Morgan decision in his defense.
In the more recent decision, Judge Reeves found there were no Bruen historical analogues that supported banning the possession of machine guns in one’s home, especially when not used offensively or in public.
Judge Reeves wrote, “To be clear, though, there is no record evidence that Mr. Brown is dangerous. He’s never been convicted of a felony. More than four months passed between his indictment and his arrest, which suggests that he didn’t pose any particular danger to public safety. And when he was ultimately arrested, the Magistrate Judge held the initial appearance and arraignment, and promptly released Mr. Brown on an unsecured bond. The government didn’t object to his release. The government also did not oppose Mr. Brown’s motion to travel outside of the district. For nine months, Mr. Brown has continued to live in the free world without any known concern.”
To justify its ban, the government had to show that the restriction fit into an American “historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’” However, while machine guns are “dangerous,” they aren’t unusual, as the Morgan case showed. ATF data in Morgan established that more than 740,000 machine guns were lawfully possessed in the United States in 2021.
Also, in Morgan, Judge Broomes observed that as Congress did not ban machinegun possession until 1986, making the modern ban inconsistent with history and tradition.
However, don’t expect to run out and buy a full-auto M4 after the Brown decision. This was a criminal case, and the decision applies only to Justin Bryce Brown. Also, it’s likely to be appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which has previously ruled against machine-gun protections.
To read the full decision, click here.
