The 2025 Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Show® put on by the National Shooting Sports Foundation brought all kinds of activists and advocates to Sin City. While attending, we had a chance to catch up with Michael Cargill. Cargill was the lead plaintiff in Garland v. Cargill, a case heard and decided by the United States Supreme Court on the bump stock ban. Cargill was victorious in his pursuits. Cargill talked with us about his case against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as his latest moves, and more!
“[The] bump stock [case] goes back to Las Vegas, where the guy allegedly used a bump stock attached to a rifle to be able to shoot concert goers that were attending a concert here in Las Vegas,” Cargill explained the inception of his challenge to the administrative ban. “The government, at the time, decided to go through the ATF to actually ban bump stocks. And so I thought that was insane. I filed a lawsuit against the federal government, which is the ATF, to stop them from doing that.”
Cargill noted that “something had to be done” about the ban that was put in place. “In essence, they were going to walk into my house, they were going to take my bump stock from me and then turn me into a felon if I did not [comply],” Cargill stated.
Cargill’s case, he said, was originally filed in the First court of Austin, where the court did not side with him. After that, he appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and a three-judge panel ruled against him, again. It was only after a full en banc hearing did Cargill get a decision favoring his challenge to the rule. The United States Supreme Court heard the case on appeal at the request of then Attorney General Garland.
“That was February of 2024 [when the] Supreme Court heard the case,” Cargill said. “The ruling came down on June 14 of 2024, which is Flag Day and the Army’s birthday.”
The win was not just about a piece of plastic that gets attached to a firearm. It was much more than that. Cargill explained:
Not only did we win, we also got everything that we wanted. I got the Supreme Court to clarify the definition of a machine gun. The Supreme Court said that the ATF, an agency within the federal government, cannot create or write law. So we got everything we wanted, and more. I love it.
More recently Cargill was thrust back into battling the ATF over their “zero tolerance” policies on paperwork and administrative mistakes. Cargill explained that the ATF would go after independent “Mom and Pop” shops and revoke their licenses for simple mistakes. Some of the errors, Cargill said, included if “a customer has walked into the gun store, fill[ed] out the 4473 [and…] they put down, ‘country’ instead of ‘county.’ Because of that simple mistake, the gun store gets their license revoked, and they lose their livelihood.”
Cargill said he started to get calls from FFLs who faced losing everything and that’s why he decided to challenge the policy. There was a filing seeking a summary judgement and Cargill said that “the judge was getting ready to rule on the summary judgment, but before he was able to rule, the ATF came back and reversed their policy and went back to the original policy where they’re just conducting normal inspections and assisting gun stores in those mistakes.”
The victory was a big “W” for FFLs across the country. “A big huge win,” Cargill said. “Because we were able to get them to back down because the Biden administration did not want to take another loss.”
Before cutting Cargill loose, he was prodded about a really remarkable thing that he participated in. Towards the end of 2023, Cam reported on another newsworthy endeavor that Cargill took part in and he was asked about teaching a man without any hands or arms how to shoot a handgun.
Cargill told the story:
A guy came into the gun store one day, and he was trying to figure out how to get his license to carry a handgun. He wanted to be able to carry. He had no arms, no hands at all. He wanted to shoot. I said, “Okay.” He goes, “Can I pass the test? Can you teach me how to shoot?” I said, “Sure, not a problem at all.” We worked on figuring out what firearm would work for him, because he’d already had the skills. It didn’t take much from me, this guy, he had it within himself, where he does everything with his feet already. We just need to apply him using his feet to brush his teeth to using that to firing a firearm. We found the perfect gun and worked with him on loading the magazine, because that’s usually the hardest part for everyone…loading the magazine. “Push down, push back.” We taught him how to do that work with him there. And then we talked about how you put your feet on the gun and pull the trigger to hit that target. And boy, let me tell you, this guy was he…he did it all by himself. He had that heart. And I almost cried at the gun range.
Cargill said that the biggest challenge he had when working with the individual came after the training. He noted that the applicant got pushback because he was unable to provide fingerprints for his license. After some back and forth, Cargill noted they got it all straightened out, but it was still a hurdle.
In parting Cargill did point out something rather important. “We need to continue on and put our foot on the gas all the way to the floor, because we have two years to make sure that we get a director in the ATF and get a comprehensive [pro-gun] bill passed through Congress,” Cargill said. “That way we have some good stuff going forward and we don’t get another president that’s a ‘D,’ to actually change things and roll things back that Trump has already done.”
Michael Cargill is one of many patriotic Americans who refuses to stand by idly while the government goes unchecked. If you’d like to follow what Cargill is up to, he said that his business is Central Texas Gun Works and you can find him personally at MichaelCargill.com. He also noted that on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, he’s @MichaelDCargill. If you’re interested in catching the whole conversation with Michael Cargill, you can check that video out HERE or in the embed below.
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