Cargill argued the Trump administration did not follow federal law when the bump stock ban was implemented. This came after the 2017 Las Vegas massacre that claimed 60 lives, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
But many Second Amendment advocates believe the federal government overreached in its response to the tragedy.
To Cargill, the bump stock ban opened the door to a growing wave of prohibitions on legal products related to firearms.
As the gun store owner told Breitbart News, “They’re going after AR-15 stabilizer braces. They’re going after triggers, after 80% frames and receivers, all with the same words and language as they used against bump stocks.”
In other words, the classic slippery slope danger that follows after one questionable but accepted action leads to many others.
Cargill further told the Washington Times that the battle must be fought at every step. “Once you give them an inch, they will take a mile…If we win, we will use this case law down the road for the Second Amendment community.”
The gun rights proponent became involved in the legal dispute when he purchased two bump stocks in 2018. He turned them over to authorities and then sued after the new federal rule became final the next year.
Cargill’s case already achieved one victory in Jan. 2023. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, determining that a bump stock does not fit the definition of a machine gun.
That decision was appealed by the federal government and is now before the high court.
Before Las Vegas, regulators had approved bump stocks and they were legal to purchase across the land. The ATF went on record deciding that bump stocks did not convert weapons to machine guns and were lawful under federal statutes.
Laws against machine guns date back decades, but these usually plastic accessories did not result in that classification.
At issue for the plaintiffs is not the rule itself. In a sense, the case is not about the Second Amendment but rather the ability of federal agencies to unilaterally pass what amounts to new laws.
The argument is that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) went beyond its authority when it instituted the bump stock prohibition.
Mark Chenoweth is the president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which is representing Cargill before the high court. He plainly declared, “If Congress had passed this law, the NCLA would not be bringing this lawsuit.”
In other words, the plaintiffs recognize the constitutional right of Congress to enact legislation. But that responsibility is not delegated to federal agencies, which do not enjoy the same right to establish laws.
There was a strong push to do “something” after the Las Vegas tragedy, but horrific circumstances generally do not translate into good law. A government overreach after such an emotional event is still an overreach.
The Supreme Court will decide if the ATF has legal footing to put into place sweeping bans on previously legal accessories. This decision will be closely watched and will unquestionably have far-reaching effects on gun rights.
If permitted to stand, it very well could open the floodgates for more arbitrary decisions that would whittle away the right to keep and bear arms. Cargill was right — it will be used in a variety of ways to squeeze the Second Amendment into something the Founding Fathers never intended.
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