The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has a bad habit of forgetting it isn’t part of the legislative branch of government, and trying to accomplish through unelected bureaucrats and administrative rules what gun control activists in Congress could not.
Fortunately for the rule of law and the separation of powers, the ATF is also on a bit of a losing streak in federal court—a losing streak that continued Friday at the highest level in Garland v. Cargill.
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court held that the ATF exceeded its statutory authority when it reclassified bump stocks as “machine guns” under federal law.
Although Cargill was centered around firearms, it didn’t involve any arguments over whether the Second Amendment protects a right to own bump stocks, specifically, or machine guns, generally.
Rather, the question in this case was far…
