After Rahimi, Bruen Remains Tanned, Rested, and Ready for Future Cases
By focusing on Rahimi’s “dangerous” conduct, the high court did not foreclose a series of other challenges to federal disarmament laws already pending at the Supreme Court, including one related to Hunter Biden’s felony gun case. One of those cases that has been appealed to the justices centers on a Mississippi man who is challenging a […]
The Supreme Court Lets ATF Know What It Thinks About Its Arbitrary ‘Rulemaking’
In Cargill, SCOTUS Ruled that Words Mean Things and Congress Writes the Laws
By Shelby Baird Smith Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court took a major step in reining in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) administrative overreach. The Court held in Garland v. Cargill that the agency exceeded its statutory authority by classifying semiautomatic rifles equipped with bump stocks as “machineguns” under the National Firearms Act […]
Faria: Bump Stocks Are Just the Latest Shiny Object for Anti-Gun Democrats
The Democratic Party’s incoherence on gun control leads to politicians chasing the next shiny object for regulation with little regard for how to seriously address the issues they claim they are handling. Senate Democrats attempted to push through a bump stock ban by unanimous consent, which predictably failed and will turn into yet another gun control talking point for […]
Garland v. Cargill Strengthens the Plaintiffs’ Case on ATF’s Force Reset Trigger Ban
In August 2022, A.T.F. agents showed up at the home of a Rare Breed customer, Patrick Carey, near Baton Rouge, La., with a letter warning him that he might be breaking federal law because he owned guns outfitted with forced-reset triggers, according to court papers. He surrendered two of the triggers to the agents. “I […]
OSD: The Cargill Ruling Makes Eventually Taking Down the NFA Look Problematic
Antonin Scalia once described the presumption against ineffectiveness as “the idea that Congress presumably does not enact useless laws”. (He probably intended that to be read half-sarcastically.) The point is that courts should not interpret a law in a way that nullifies the law’s goal. In this case, Sotomayor uses that to suggest that courts should […]
Never Interrupt Your Opponent When She’s Making a Mistake
With the announcement of Friday’s 6-3 Supreme Court decision overturning the block on bump stocks, there were the usual responses from the industry (yay!), the Brady bunch (boo!) and the typical bloviation from observers on both sides of the issue. On the pro-gun side, comments were calm and measured. At the same time, pro-gun leaders […]
Biden Forgets That Trump Banned Bump Stocks in New Anti-Gun Campaign Commercial
“When Trump was president— children gunned down in classrooms, innocent people killed in church and massacred at a concert. Still, Trump did nothing,” Biden said in the ad. “He sided with the NRA, but I sided with you. I’ve expanded background checks, created an office of gun violence prevention, and now murder rates are […]
Cargill: We Can Use the Bump Stock Ruling to Protect Everything
I was told over five years ago, ‘Why are you going down this road? No one cares about bump stocks. Let’s go ahead and let them take the bump stocks.’ But instead, I stood and fought. And because of this, the bump stock case is gonna be the case that saves everything. It’s gonna stop […]
What Today’s Ruling in Cargill Means for the 2A and Other Gun-Related Cases
As Dan’s initial post reported, in an opinion by the ever-reliable Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court drop-kicked the ATF’s reinterpretation of the National Firearms Act, depositing it on the ash heap of history. However, for those of you looking for another expansion of Second Amendment rights, you won’t find it here. Garland v. Cargill is and always […]