Austin gun store owner fights Supreme Court over bump stocks
AUSTIN, Texas - An Austin gun shop owner, who is fighting to end the ban on bump stocks, took his battle to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
Michael Cargill said the Trump administration did not follow federal law.
According to court documents, the case Garland vs Cargill will determine if a semi-automatic rifle, equipped with a bump stock, is considered a machine gun.
"A historic day, this is a day where I never thought in a million years, I would be in front of the United States Supreme Court, deciding a case, a case that actually would affect gun control laws, and gun laws for the entire country for decades to come," says Michael Cargill, Owner of Central Texas Gun Works.
On Wednesday morning, the owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin, Michael Cargill, said he presented his oral arguments against United States Attorney General Merrick Garland on bump stock.
A bump stock is a device that can be attached to a semi-automatic firearm, allowing it to fire bullets rapidly.
"This is a very important case because this case decides the definition of what a machine gun is. This case also talks about if administrative agencies like the ATF, OSHA, U.S. Commerce Department, can those different agencies actually create a right law," says Cargill.
In February 2018, Former President Donald Trump placed a ban on bump stocks.
In December of that same year, the Department of Justice amended the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, clarifying that bump stocks fall within the definition of "machine gun", according to the ATF.
Cargill says the ban was in response to a mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed nearly 60 people.
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"It was probably the worst mass shooting in the United States history and because of that the government under the Trump administration decided they were going to ban bump stocks. I surrendered my bump stocks, I actually went into the Austin ATF and turned them in that afternoon. Then, I filed a lawsuit," says Cargill.
He says he filed a lawsuit against the federal government, the ATF, and the Department of Justice.
"And that was for Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. We won in the fifth circuit, and so the government appealed this case to the United States Supreme Court in Washington D.C.," says Cargill.
The gun shop owner says he is hopeful that the ruling will be in his favor.
"It should not be illegal, and the government does not have the authority, especially the ATF, an agency within the government, they don't have the authority to actually ban bump stocks and actually turn millions of Americans into felons overnight," says Cargill.