John Roe v. Steven Dettelbach
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · No. 22-1165 · 59 F.4th 255
👎Unfavorable to gun rights
Merits dismissal affirmed; the auto sear remains unregistrable contraband under the machinegun freeze.
GunMapUSA assessment of the outcome's direction, not a statement that the court decided rightly or wrongly.
What the court held
A gun owner who bought a drop-in auto sear in 1979, before ATF classified such devices as machineguns in 1981, sued anonymously seeking an order exempting his unregistered auto sear from National Firearms Act registration or requiring ATF to open an amnesty registration period, along with APA and Commerce Clause claims. The Seventh Circuit held that the district court had erred in framing the case as a standing problem but was right to dismiss: ATF Ruling 81-4 provided only a retroactive tax exemption, not an exemption from registration, and ATF lacks authority to create an amnesty that would increase the number of lawfully held private machineguns given the 1986 freeze in 18 U.S.C. section 922(o). It affirmed the dismissal, modified to be with prejudice for failure to state a claim.
Summarized from the court's opinion.
What this case is about
18 U.S.C. § 922(o) freeze on the registry of transferable machineguns
GunMapUSA summary of the issue, not a quotation from the court.
Key Dates
- 2023-01-27 — Decided
Sources
- CourtListener — retrieved 2026-08-08
Summary of public court records. Not legal advice.