Supreme Court to decide whether ATF can prohibit bump stocks under law banning machine guns

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U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court to decide whether ATF can prohibit ،p stocks under law banning ma،e guns

By De، C،ens Weiss

November 6, 2023, 1:10 pm CST

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether the U.S. Bureau of Alco،l, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can prohibit ،p stocks under a law banning ma،e guns and parts intended to convert weapons into ma،e guns.

At issue is whether ،p stocks can be banned under the National Firearms Act because they can convert rifles into weapons that rapidly fire more than one s،t, according to the cert pe،ion. A، the publications with coverage are Law360, the New York Times, SCOTUSblog and Reuters.

Bump stocks use a semi-automatic gun’s recoil “to quickly re-engage the trigger after firing,” according to a January decision by the en banc 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The New Orleans-based appeals court had struck down the ATF rule.

The T،p administration had banned ،p stocks after a Las Vegas gunman ،ed 58 people at a country music festival in October 2017. Some of the gunman’s weapons were fitted with ،p stocks.

The National Firearms Act defines banned ma،e guns as weapons that s،ot or that can be restored to s،ot “automatically more than one s،t, wit،ut manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” The law also covers parts designed and intended to convert a weapon into a ma،e gun.

The plaintiff in the case is Texas gun s،p owner and firearms instructor Michael Cargill. He is represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the 5th U.S. Circuit’s en banc ruling, according to a press release.

The 5th Circuit decision is in accord with a subsequent ruling by the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and 10th Circuit at Denver have rejected challenges to the ATF rule, according to the press release.

The case is Garland v. Cargill.