On June 14, 2024, the United States Supreme Court in Cargill v. United States, 144 S.Ct. 222 (2024) held that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock does not meet the definition of a “machinegun” as defined under 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b) of the National Firearms Act because the Court determined it cannot fire more than one shot by a single function of the trigger and, even if it could, it does not do so automatically.
The bump stocks at issue in this case are non-mechanical bump stocks, i.e., bump stocks that rely on the forward pressure from the shooter’s nontrigger hand to force the rifle and trigger forward after recoil. Other devices that ATF has classified as machinegun conversion devices (e.g., mechanical bump stocks with springs, forced reset triggers, and switches) were not at issue in this case.
The Final Rule
On December 18, 2018, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker announced that the Department of Justice has amended the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), clarifying that bump stocks fall within the definition of “machinegun” under federal law, as such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.
The rule went into effect March 26, 2019; 90 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.
The final rule clarified that the definition of “machinegun” in the Gun Control Act (GCA) and National Firearms Act (NFA) includes bump-stock-type devices, i.e., devices that allow a semiautomatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.
Access the final rule in the Federal Register
Background
On February 20, 2018, President Trump issued a memorandum instructing the Attorney General “to dedicate all available resources to… propose for notice and comment a rule banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machineguns.”
In response to that direction the Department reviewed more than 186,000 public comments and made the decision to make clear that the term “machinegun” as used in the National Firearms Act (NFA), as amended, and Gun Control Act (GCA), as amended, includes all bump-stock-type devices that harness recoil energy to facilitate the continuous operation of a semiautomatic long gun after a single pull of the trigger.