BY JENNIFER CABRERA
Kramer cited guidance issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on October 9, stating that the agency would no longer enforce registration requirements for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, or suppressors.
The policy shift followed a lawsuit, Silencer Shop Foundation v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which found that the National Firearms Act provisions covering those items could no longer be upheld after Congress reduced the applicable transfer taxes to zero. The ruling initially applied only to members of Gun Owners of America, but the October 9 guidance expanded its effect to anyone legally permitted to possess firearms.
Kramer said Florida law does not ban firearms that are lawfully owned and possessed under federal law. He also pointed to Rinzler v. Carson, which “further emphasized that ambiguity… must be resolved in favor of the person against whom criminal liability is asserted.” Suppressors, he added, present an “even simpler” situation because Florida statutes do not “independently prohibit suppressor possession.”
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According to Kramer, the changes “affect probable cause and the constitutional basis for searches and seizures.” As a result, the “mere possession” of a short-barreled firearm or suppressor “should not be relied upon to establish reasonable suspicion or probable cause for a detention, search, seizure, arrest, or search warrant.”
Kramer further instructed officers not to presume that possessing a short-barreled firearm or suppressor is unlawful. He stressed, however, that the guidance does not override any other restriction that makes firearm possession illegal for “a particular person, weapon, location, or criminal use.”