ATF Returns Bump Stock to Rightful Owner After Five-Year Legal Struggle

Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Independence Ohio Field Office surrendered what ATF had classified as a “FIREARM: OTHER FIREARM… TYPE: MACHINE GUN” to this correspondent Friday, returning property held in a vault since 2019. It was, in fact, a bump stock, once more deemed not a machine gun and “legal” to own following the United State Supreme Court’s landmark Cargill ruling.

Longtime readers will recall mine is a unique one, signed by inventor Bill Akins, still in its original packaging, initially approved as “legal,” then deemed “illegal,” subsequently returned for rework to remove the spring and once more deemed “legal,” and then ruled illegal again.

The reason I obtained the stock in the first place was to establish standing for a legal complaint (I don’t even own a Ruger 10-22 rifle the stock is made for and never intended to use it). I’d originally joined in a lawsuit to force the issue to the Supreme Court. Ours was merged with another lawsuit, but ultimately, the Cargill case prevailed.

This column reported in July that ATF had emailed attorney Stephen Stamboulieh to provide a field office contact so that pickup could be arranged.

That done, the drive from my home to the field office (accompanied by my wife, Maureen) took about half an hour and ended at some pretty nice digs, with marble walls and floors, “gold” trim and an indoor lobby fountain. ATF keeps offices on the seventh floor, with a security anteroom displaying portraits of Director Steve Dettelbach, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden, leading directly into a conference room affording a killer view of the Cleveland skyline on the horizon.

One agent met us at the elevator and escorted us to the anteroom, where we were met and brought into the meeting room by the RAC (Resident Agent in Charge) and a TFO (Task Force Officer). They were both respectful and cordial and seemingly understanding of how untenable it is to repeatedly go back and forth from legal to illegal. I asked if anyone else had come to reclaim their property and was told I was the only one, that others had forfeited theirs, and that one business that had made stocks wrote the loss off on taxes.

Business completed, we shook hands, wished each other a good day and left ATF offices with something that less than two months ago would have been considered an unregistered machinegun. Getting caught “illegally” possessing it would have subjected me to a felony conviction and becoming a “prohibited person,” barred for life from exercising rights recognized by the Second Amendment.

Now, until somebody declares them illegal again, it’s just some pieces of inert plastic joined together that wouldn’t even make a very good club. And that brings us to a particularly dangerous admission coming from some influencers on “our side,” who say ATF didn’t have the authority to ban them, but that Congress does. Reject that. There’s no clause in the Constitution delegating that authority or exempting them from the universal “shall not be infringed” mandate intended to be binding on all branches. Saying it was the purview of Congress was used in legal arguments to get the ban overturned– now that it has been, it’s time to stop saying it.

One other idea making the rounds of late is that this was all some brilliant 3D chess master class by Donald Trump, who knew the ban would result in being overturned by the Supreme Court. Look, I’m going to vote for Trump because the alternative is surrender to Democrat gun grabs or fight, but it doesn’t do us any favors making excuses for the guy, it just sends him signals that we’re so desperate we’ll swallow whatever he feeds us. So, to those who want me to accept that scenario, I’m going to hold you to the same standard I hold myself to when making a claim:

Prove that’s what he did. Show us the contemporaneous evidence that was always his intent, and he could predict the outcome, so it was OK to put so many at risk without their knowledge or consent. Not to mention the folks mentioned above who were forced to forfeit their investment and write off a loss and those like them… Otherwise, Captain Fletcher from The Outlaw Josey Wales come to mind.

If I’m getting people mad at me, there are some others I want to call out—the naysayers, the ones who thought it was only about “a stupid piece of plastic,” the (anonymous) ones who told me I was a cowardly surrenderer for playing the government’s game, and most of all, the ones who have given up on doing anything in the civil arena, including supporting worthy gun groups and legal efforts, and especially voting. This is a small but concrete example that we still have at our disposal the remarkable system bequeathed to us by the Founders and that we can still use the courts to our advantage, as frustratingly drawn out as that process can be. We won’t be able to do that anymore if apathy and cynicism turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy that cedes the power to appoint the federal judiciary to the Democrats, who will then be able to have the Bruen opinion reversed and any citizen disarmament edict they pass upheld.

Feel free to rudely disagree — I can take it. If you help the Democrats win by doing nothing, you’re not my friend anyway.

Here’s the “title” to my property:

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.