Every once in a while a court loses a case in a way that matters more than most wins. That’s what happened at the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Jamiel Wilson, the case covered in the video above. The full court declined to rehear a challenge to the federal machine gun ban, so the ban stands. But several judges used that no to hint the machine gun ban might be unconstitutional, and that’s the real story.
I’m Lance Rankin, a Type 07 FFL and SOT dealer here in Roanoke, Texas, which means NFA law is my daily reality, and the Fifth Circuit is my circuit. Standard caveat up front: I’m a gunsmith, not a lawyer, this is commentary on a moving case, and as of this writing nothing about machine gun law has actually changed. Check the current status before you assume anything.
What happened
Wilson’s team asked the full Fifth Circuit, all seventeen judges sitting en banc, to reconsider whether 18 U.S.C. 922(o), the federal machine gun ban, is unconstitutional. Seven judges voted to rehear it; ten voted no. Case closed, ban intact. Except several judges attached written opinions, and those opinions read like a set of instructions.
What the judges wrote
Judge Willett framed it as a double failure. The Constitution protects liberty two ways, he noted: it limits the government to enumerated powers and it guarantees the people enumerated rights. On the powers side, he questioned the Commerce Clause reasoning that lets Congress criminalize mere possession of a machine gun, no commerce involved. On the rights side, he poked at the “dangerous and unusual” label courts have used to exclude machine guns from Second Amendment protection. His point is hard to dodge: there are millions of registered machine guns in this country. Under Heller’s “common use” standard, how does something that common stay “unusual”?
Judge Ho went at it more bluntly, urging courts to decide these cases on history rather than fear, and using the word “hoplophobia” to describe what he thinks drives some of the reasoning. His reminder: the founders expected an armed citizenry, and the Second Amendment is about defense and liberty, not duck season.
Judge Oldham added the Bruen point: after that decision, gun laws must be justified by historical tradition, not modern policy preference, and there’s no historical tradition of banning an entire class of arms, which is exactly what 922(o) does.
So why didn’t they strike it down?
Procedure. Per Willett, Wilson’s case didn’t raise the right arguments in the right way, so it wasn’t the vehicle to decide the question. That’s not a technicality dodge; appellate courts genuinely can’t reach issues that weren’t properly presented. The message between the lines is almost louder than a ruling: bring us the right case, built the right way, and we’re listening.
The roadmap to getting the machine gun ban ruled unconstitutional
Which is why Second Amendment lawyers are treating this as a blueprint. Future challenges now know to raise the Commerce Clause issue squarely, structure the Second Amendment claim around common use, and build a deep historical record for the Bruen analysis. Constitutional shifts almost never arrive as lightning bolts. They arrive like this: a denial with opinions attached, then a properly built case a few years later. That’s how Heller happened, and how Bruen happened.
I’ll keep saying it in every one of these legal posts: nothing has changed at the counter. Machine guns remain heavily restricted, and this shop follows the law as it is, not as some judges hint it might become. The legal side of the NFA world, like the suppressors I sell every week, keeps humming right along. But if you care about where NFA law is headed, put U.S. v. Wilson on your watch list. Federal judges willing to call the machine gun ban unconstitutional in all but name means the foundation just showed a visible crack.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
