A gun kit and parts business in Prospect claims, in a lawsuit, that it was left with no choice but to suspend all retail sales after federal agents served a cease and desist order on May 9.

Not An LLC, which does business as JSD Supply, located on New Castle Road in Prospect, filed the suit against the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

JSD, which sells kits to build guns and gun parts, claims in the suit that the cease and desist order is the ATF’s most recent iteration of “secret and unannounced policy changes” aimed at gun kits, parts and manufacturing tools that are not regulated by the Gun Control Act of 1968.

The suit specifies the 80% receivers and defines them as incomplete and unfinished firearm frames or receivers that buyers can make into functional firearms with additional parts and tools. The ATF refers to 80% receivers as blanks or castings, according to the suit.

“It has been defendant ATF’s longstanding position that receiver blanks that do not meet the definition of a firearm are not subject to regulation under the Gun Control Act. Eight-percent frames and receivers have become increasingly popular with the firearms community by those who wish to lawfully manufacture their own privately made firearm, but without having to do so from scratch,” JSD argues in the suit.

JSD claims that none of the products it sells are regulated by the Gun Control Act, and the ATF has repeatedly explained that 80% receivers as well as parts such as barrels, triggers and springs are not firearms under the law and are not regulated by the ATF.

The ATF began implementing “secret and unannounced” policy changes without legal authority in December 2018 regarding 80% receivers, tools to manufacture them and firearm parts used in assembly, according to the suit, which likens the ATF’s policy enforcement to the tactics of “totalitarian regimes.”

On May 12, two ATF agents delivered the cease and desist order dated May 9 to JSD. The products in the order were described as “JSD 80% lower receivers, jigs and gun parts kits,” according to the suit.

The order claimed JSD is selling and transferring all the components necessary to produce a fully functional firearm in one or multiple transactions. The order says the ATF considers kits containing all components necessary to produce a functioning firearm as firearms under the Gun Control Act, and that those components don’t have to be sold in a single transaction to be considered firearms, according to the suit.

“These piecemeal sales circumvent the requirements of the GCA and are unlawful,” the suit says, citing the cease and desist order.

JSD argues it does not sell prepackaged kits from which a gun can be produced, and the ATF order did not identify any kits sold by JSD that contain all the components needed to build a functioning gun.

In addition, JSD contends the order didn’t specify the parts or components that could not be sold individually or in combination with other parts, and the ATF hasn’t explained whether the sale of a gun part to a customer years ago would preclude the sale of a different part today.

There is no law prohibiting citizens from buying parts in single or multiple transactions to make guns, according to the suit.

The suit also argues that the order is an attempt by the ATF to implement Final Rule 2021R-05F before it goes into effect Aug. 24. The Justice Department made the rule to amend ATF regulations regarding sales of gun parts.

The rule requires people in the business of dealing in weapon and frame or receiver parts kits defined as firearms to be licensed, mark the frames or receivers with serial numbers and other marks of identification, and maintain records of their acquisition and disposition. The rule is designed to increase public safety by preventing prohibited persons from acquiring firearms and allowing law enforcement to trace firearms involved in crime.

An ATF spokesperson said the bureau does not comment on ongoing litigation.