Garland v. Cargill

Garland v. Cargill, 602 U.S. 406 (2024), was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the classification of bump stocks as "machine guns" under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2018.

In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns for purposes of the NFA, vacating the ATF rule and finding that the ATF exceeded its statutory authority.

Contents

• 1 Background

  • 1.1 Prior legal history

• 2 Supreme Court

  • 2.1 Concurrence

  • 2.2 Dissent

• 3 Reactions

• 4 Notes

• 5 References

• 6 External links

Background

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garland_v._Cargill&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Background")

Machine guns are regulated through a federal law in the United States known as the National Firearms Act of 1934. Since enactment, this law requires the payment of a $200 excise tax, accompanied with vetting by the ATF , before a person can legally make, possess, or transfer a machine gun, short-barreled rifle or shotgun, silencer , destructive device , or any other weapon (AOW). Transport of such items across state lines or international borders also requires prior approval by ATF. Subsection (b) in section 1 of the Act, as codified under section 5845 of the Internal Revenue Code , provides this law's definition for a machine gun:

The term "machine gun" means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.

— Sec. 1 of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (26 U.S.C.  § 5845 (b))

A bump stock is a firearms accessory designed to facilitate the process of bump firing. Bump firing is the practice of using the recoil of a semiautomatic firearm to increase its rate of fire. In the 2017 Las Vegas shooting , a gunman using semiautomatic rifles equipped with bump stocks fired hundreds of rounds into a crowd, killing 58 people, wounding more than 500 others. In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, ten states had banned bump stocks, and while there was legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress, the bills did not pass. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) also had not taken action, having treated bump stocks outside the definition of "machine guns" in the NFA. Following the Parkland high school shooting in February 2018, President Donald Trump spoke out against bump stocks, and the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) also threw its weight behind banning bump stocks. The ATF began public comment for a new run in March 2018 which received over 36,000 comments. Most supported the ban, but other comments cautioned that the ATF's rule seemed like a runaround the Congressional definition and could lead to criminalization of semi-automatic firearms. Following the public commenting period, the ATF proceeded to publish a new rule in December 2018 to repudiate its previous stance and "clarify" that bump stocks were machine guns as defined under the National Firearms Act.

Prior legal history

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garland_v._Cargill&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Prior legal history")

Ever since the 2018 ATF final rule, the legality of the final rule has been challenged at the state and federal level, raising the question if bump stock could be classified as machine guns under the NFA. In one case, the Supreme Court opted not to hear a challenge to the final rule brought by firearm owners and firearm rights organizations, with Justice Neil Gorsuch writing "Whether bump stocks can be fairly reclassified and effectively outlawed as machineguns under existing statutory definitions, I do not know and could not say without briefing and argument. Nor do I question that Congress might seek to enact new legislation directly regulating the use and possession of bump stocks." The Court also denied other cases that challenged the final rule.

The plaintiff in the case was Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, who in 2018 purchased two bump stocks a few months before the ATF published its new rule. On March 25, 2019, Cargill surrendered his bump stocks to the ATF under protest, and filed suit later the same day in the Austin Division of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas challenging the rule. Following a bench trial, district judge David Alan Ezra ruled in favor of the government, ruling that the act of pulling the trigger on a bump stock-modified firearm "is automatic fire". A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment in December 2021, with circuit judge Stephen A. Higginson , writing for the unanimous majority that "ATF's interpretation of the statute is the best interpretation. The phrase 'single function of the trigger,' as used in the National Firearms Act, means 'a single pull of the trigger and analogous motions'". Following additional briefing and argument, the en banc court reversed and remanded in January 2023 in a 13–3 decision. The majority, written by circuit judge Jennifer Walker Elrod , wrote that it was up to Congress to amend the law to classify bump stocks as machine guns, and that the ATF final rule did not provide "fair warning that possession of a non-mechanical bump stock is a crime." The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit also decided against the ATF's final rule in April 2023.

Supreme Court

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garland_v._Cargill&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: Supreme Court")

On April 6, 2023, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland petitioned the court for a writ of certiorari in Cargill's case. The court granted the petition on November 3. Oral arguments were heard on February 28, 2024. Cargill was represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance .

On June 14, 2024, the Court ruled 6–3 in favor of Cargill, ruling that the ATF exceeded its authority in ruling bump stocks as machine guns. The majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas , stated that under the National Firearms Act, bump stock attachments did not qualify as machine guns since, even if they did fire more than one round per trigger pull, they did not do so automatically, and thus could not be regulated by the ATF through administrative action, and that only congressiona

…