11th Circuit shoots down challenge to machine gun ban

ATLANTA (CN) — The 11th Circuit declined Tuesday to overturn the conviction of a Florida man prosecuted for possessing a machine gun conversion device, ruling the longstanding ban on machine guns does not violate the Second Amendment.

The case stems from the conviction of Maxon Alsenat, who sold three machine gun conversion devices to an undercover agent for $1,500 in June 2023. Alsenat pleaded guilty to possessing a machine gun, a violation of federal statute 18 U.SC. 992(o)(1). The 29-year-old was sentenced to two years in prison and is currently free on three years of probation.

During oral arguments held earlier this month, Alsenat’s public defender maintained his client’s conviction stemmed from a conversion device attached to an otherwise legal Glock handgun.

“Now, I imagine that most folks hear machine gun and clutch their pearls,” Ta’Ronce Stowes told a three-judge panel. “But let me be clear: What we’re talking about here is a machine gun conversion device, or MCD. An MCD is typically no bigger than the tip of your thumb. MCDs make small arms more useful for elderly householders and others who are too frightened to draw a careful bead on an intruder.”

But the panel unanimously disagreed in Tuesday’s eight-page ruling, citing the landmark 2008 Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which found a ban on the possession of handguns unconstitutional but allowed for the prohibition of “dangerous and unusual” firearms “not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.”

“Because machine guns are not protected by the Second Amendment as weapons in common use for lawful purposes, we affirm,” wrote Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor, adding the 11th Circuit joins “several sister circuits in holding that the Second Amendment does not protect the possession of machine guns.”

The George W. Bush appointee recounted the history of machine guns, which reached U.S. streets after World War I and were embraced by mobsters during the Prohibition era. Gruesome shootouts in the 1920s and ’30s led to dozens of states banning the possession of machine guns.

In addition, the panel upheld the lower court’s ruling that the conversion devices are considered “accessories” and not “arms” protected by the Second Amendment.

Alsenat’s public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida also did not immediately respond to an after-hours email.

U.S. Circuit Judges Nancy Abudu, a Joe Biden appointee, and Andrew Brasher, a Donald Trump appointee, joined Pryor in the decision.

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