CASE
SUMMARY
Before reaching the Supreme Court, NCLA won a decisive victory before an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. A federal statute outlaws machine guns, not bump stock devices that attach to a rifle and allow it to fire many shots in succession. For years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives correctly concluded that firearms equipped with bump stocks are not illegal machine guns under federal law, but in 2018 the agency switched course and branded firearms with the devices “machine guns”, which are federally banned. That switch threatened to instantly turn half a million people, including Texas gun shop owner, Army veteran and firearms instructor Michael Cargill, into criminals who could face a 10-year prison sentence for owning something the government had told them was legal to possess when they bought it.
Mr. Cargill bought two bump stocks in April 2018, relying on ATF’s clear conclusion that they were entirely legal to own and use. NCLA represents him in a constitutional lawsuit that challenges ATF’s effort to rewrite a federal statute. If bump stocks are to be banned, Congress must make that decision and exercise the authority to ban them. If an agency such as ATF can rewrite a statute as it pleases, then any agency can do so the same. The Fifth Circuit agreed with NCLA.
In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit’s decision, a major victory for NCLA.