No court action involved and no attorney notification. The agents simply announced themselves and their intention to carry out a “standard firearms compliance inspection.”
Why is this noteworthy other than the obnoxious nature of showing up without warning?
Michael Cargill is the owner of the gun shop, and he is also a litigant against the ATF. That changes things. Now you have an individual who is suing a federal agency that in turn sends agents to turn his business upside down looking for infractions.
But not only has Cargill taken on the powerful ATF, but he has won. The Cargill v. Garland bump stock case was a resounding victory in the Fifth Circuit, and these devices are currently lawful in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
In fact, Cargill noted that “by ruling 13-3 in our favor, the Fifth Circuit reinforced the principle that laws are to be written by Congress, not federal administrators. And if the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, we are confident it will uphold the Fifth Circuit’s decision.”
So, in this important instance, the ATF was served a smackdown by the courts with Cargill as the plaintiff. It was overwhelmingly established that unelected federal bureaucrats do not have the authority to establish law.
Congress banned machine guns but did not ban bump stocks. It’s that simple.
But it’s not only the bump stock case that has a bee in the ATF’s bonnet.
Cargill is also suing the agency over its newly instituted “zero tolerance” policies targeting federal firearm licensees. It is no secret that the current administration is out to harm if not destroy the gun industry, and putting retailers out of business is the order of the day.
This is being done through cracking down on so-called “rogue dealers,” and the results are shocking. There has been a 500% increase in the past two years in revocations of federal firearms licenses, proof positive that the scheme has been successful.
But Cargill put his professional life on the line once again to attack what amounted to acts of a rogue agency. He charged that the ATF made sweeping changes to what is defined as an intentional violation of federal gun laws.
How crushing are these new practices? If a word is misspelled on a 4473 form and it slips past the licensee, it is not merely a human error that is easily corrected. Under the ATF of 2023, it is now a willful violation that may result in a law-abiding American losing their livelihood.
Cargill, who should be celebrated by every Second Amendment advocate, charged in his lawsuit that new policies to double down on the 1968 Gun Control Act led to this burdensome practice. Acting Assistant Director of the ATF George Lauder specifically instructed agents to shred FFLs for just one violation in some cases, according to the filing.
No longer is “willful” a requirement for revocation. Instead, a simple human error that is not caught can be used as a pretext to shutter a legitimate business that is constitutionally protected.
To be clear, these simple errors are paperwork related and do not result in a person having a weapon who should not. Nor do they put the public in any sort of danger, but rather are merely inadvertent slips that anyone can make.
This “zero tolerance” policy adopted by the ATF is a tool to bludgeon firearms dealers with and force them out of business. Is it any wonder that the agency brought the hammer down on Cargill?
And with what result?
The proprietor reported that by the fourth day of the cavity search of Central Texas Gun Works, agents found that two customers misspelled “Austin” on their ATF Form 4473.
Surely the gallows are already being constructed.
