Date Filed: March 10, 2026
Original Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Case Status: Pending
Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress has no power to enact a comprehensive criminal code. It may only create criminal offenses that are tied to an enumerated power. Nevertheless, over the last hundred years, Congress has created as many as 5,200 federal criminal offenses. Many of these offenses rely Congress’s powers under the Commerce Clause. One such offense is 18 U.S.C. § 922(o), which bans private possession of machine guns that were not in circulation at the time the statute was enacted. The ban makes no reference to interstate commerce and applies with equal force to guns transported over state lines and guns manufactured and purchased entirely within one state.
Temple Gun Club is an organization of more than 1,000 firearm owners, gunsmiths, and competition shooters who would like to be able to convert weapons that they already own into machine guns. Under § 922(o), that would be a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in jail.
CAF attorneys argue that the Commerce Clause does not give Congress the power to ban merely possessing a machine gun. Under Supreme Court precedent, Congress only has power to regulate an intrastate activity if that regulation is necessary and proper for the regulation of interstate commerce. But banning purely intrastate firearms—firearms that are never bought, sold, or traded across state lines—is not necessary or proper for regulating interstate commerce. More fundamentally, though, CAF is asking the question whether there is any meaningful limit on Congress’s powers under the Commerce Clause. This case will give the courts an opportunity to resolve that important question while also allowing law-abiding gun owners to possess a broader range of weapons.
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