US Supreme Court hands down deadly Cargill decision on bump stocks

Today’s Supreme Court’s decision in Garland v Cargill will increase gun deaths, injuries and weaken the role experts have in shaping policy.

On June 14, 2024, the Washington Post reported that the United States Supreme Court conservative majority led by Justice Clarence Thomas has given shooters the ability to use a device called a bump stock that allows firearms to function as machine guns.  In the Supreme Court decision, Garland v Cargill, the conservative  majority ruled that a bump stock does not qualify as a machine gun even though a bump stock enables a firearm to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute just like a fully automatic machine gun.

A bump stock device allowed a gun owner who brought an arsenal of firearms into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas in 2017 to open fire on an entire concert, committing the largest mass shooting in US history leaving 60 people dead and 500 injured. The bump stock allowed the shooter to fire at least 1,00o rounds in 11 minutes.

It must be noted that, in the immediate aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre, even then-President Donald Trump was so alarmed by the carnage of  bump stocks that he banned them after the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting.

According to the Washington Post, “the [SCOTUS] majority said the bump stocks do not qualify as machine guns under a 1986 law that barred civilians from owning the weapons.” Arguments made in the original case (Garland v Cargill) did not directly involve the Second Amendment but “rather a test of the reach of a federal agency to enact and interpret regulations…” In the Cargill case, the federal agency is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, a longtime punching bag for the gun lobby. Lobbyists for arms dealers and manufacturers have so weakened the ATF that the agency and federally licensed firearms dealers are not permitted to  digitize firearm information like serial numbers. The lack of digital records makes tracing a crime gun very  difficult, denying justice to survivors and victims of gun crime and allowing criminals to commit more gun crimes.

The deadly Cargill decision further erodes the 1984 SCOTUS Chevron ruling (Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council, 1984). In Chevron, SCOTUS stated that federal agencies (like the Environmental Protection Agency) can make rules or interpret statutes. Chevron held that courts can determine if the agency’s ruling is “clear,” “ambiguous,” or if the agency is “silent” on an issue. If a court rules a statute to be ambiguous or silent, the court decides whether the agency’s interpretation is “reasonable” or “permissible.” If so, the court defers to the agency’s expertise. 

However, over the past 10 years, the Roberts court has shifted from deferring to an agency’s expertise to taking on the mantle of self-appointed experts in all things. Chief Justice Roberts has clearly forgotten the claim he made in his 2005 confirmation hearing to only “call balls or strikes.” 

Will this decision eventually nullify laws against ghost guns or high-capacity magazines? That is yet to be determined, however, this deadly ruling ensures that more people will be fatally shot or suffer gunshot injuries because of the US Supreme Court’s deadly pandering.

WHAT CAN YOU DO: 

• Ask your state attorney general to protect your state by prohibiting possession, sale, or transfer or bump stocks or ghost guns.
• When you travel, ask your hotel what measures they are taking to ensure that guests are not bringing firearms into public spaces.
• Before attending an event, ask the event organizers or promoters what security measures are in place to shelter people from another Mandalay Bay – style massacre. Is a  solid roof over the event? Are the nearby building windows bullet proof?