A Trump appointee ruled this week that a ban on machine guns runs afoul of the Second Amendment in his dismissal of criminal charges against a defendant in Kansas.

Tamori Morgan was indicted in 2023 for having a model AM-2500 .300 caliber machine gun produced by Anderson Manufacturing and a machine gun conversion device in violation of federal law.

Machine guns were banned under a 1986 amendment to the National Firearms Act. 

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The criminal charges, though, were dropped against the defendant this week after a federal district judge said the Supreme Court’s 2022 landmark Second Amendment ruling casts the weapons as protected by the U.S. Constitution.

“The machinegun and Glock switch are bearable arms within the plain text of the Second Amendment,” wrote Judge John W. Broomes, a Trump appointee, for the District of Kansas on Wednesday.

“The court finds that the Second Amendment applies to the weapons charged because they are ‘bearable arms’ within the original meaning of the amendment.”

The judge’s ruling rested on the government not being able to prove that historically, there were laws banning these types of weapons.

According to the docket, the government has not yet filed a notice of appeal. 

A spokesperson from the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Judge Broomes cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen where a conservative majority on the court said any gun control law must be consistent with the nation’s founding to be upheld.

In that dispute, the court struck down New York’s gun licensing scheme, which required individuals to show a “proper cause” for needing a firearm for self defense outside the home.