Federal Judge Vacates Bump Stock Rule, Recognizes ‘Right to Possess’

Senior United States District Judge David Alan Ezra vacated the ATF’s bump stock ban rule on Monday and recognized plaintiff Michael Cargill’s “right to possess” the device under federal law.

The case is Gargill v. Garland, in the U.S. District for the Western District of Texas.

Cargill secured a favorable ruling against the bump stock ban in this same district court in 2023, however, the court did not provide any means of relief for Cargill. But the New Civil Liberties Alliance noted that once the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against the bump stock ban the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the district’s court denial of Cargill’s motion for relief, instructing the district court “to consider alterations to the judgment or other relief[.]”

On November 4, Judge Ezra decided “…that plaintiff Michael Cargill has the right to possess and transfer non-mechanical bump stocks under federal law, and that the federal statutory prohibitions against the possession and transfer of machineguns…do not limit Mr. Cargill’s rights or legal relations in this regard.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.