In our latest Lunch and Law Series we discuss the so-called “Bumpstock Ban” and the historic Supreme Court case, Garland v. Cargill, that will decide whether the ATF had the power to enact legislation when Congress had considered such legislation and chosen not to do so.
Former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell presented oral argument to the Supreme Court in the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s Garland v. Cargill case, demonstrating that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ unilateral bump-stock ban conflicts with the federal statute defining “machineguns.” ATF’s regulatory ban, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit shot down 13-3 early last year, reversed the agency’s own long-standing recognition that bump-stock-equipped firearms are not illegal machine guns. NCLA’s client, Texas gun shop owner and Army veteran Michael Cargill, made his case in the courtroom today, anticipating a Supreme Court decision later this term that will confirm the Fifth Circuit’s ruling and prevent ATF from criminalizing innocent Americans.
ATF issued its interpretive Final Rule in 2018 defining semi-automatic firearms equipped with bump stocks as “machineguns,” which federal law prohibits. The rule required Mr. Cargill and every other bump-stock owner nationwide to either destroy or turn in their legally purchased devices. ATF had no right to create this threat. Congress adopted a statute banning machineguns in 1986 that did not cover bump stocks. A
TF does not have the authority to enact regulations that create new criminal liability. Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that the government had regarded bump stocks as different from machine guns for over a decade across three administrations before ATF changed its position in creating its interpretive Final Rule. He said the government’s rule “… would render between a quarter-of-a-million and a half-million people federal felons, and not even through an [Administrative Procedure Act] process they could challenge, subject[ing them] to ten years in federal prison.