Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, celebrated his victory Friday before the Supreme Court, saying the federal government overstepped in taking away his bump stocks by classifying them as machine guns.

“This is huge for the Second Amendment community. This is huge for everyone in America. If you’re pro-gun, or anti-gun, it doesn’t matter. This is about the administrative agency,” he told The Washington Times, adding an agency can’t write laws.

“It has to go back to Congress. Congress has to write the law,” he said.

---

---

Mr. Cargill surrendered his bump stocks after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives banned them in 2018 in the aftermath of a shooting that killed 60 people and wounded at least 413 in Las Vegas.

Bump stocks were used by the gunman in the 2017 massacre. Though they’re not firearms themselves, bump stocks let semiautomatic weapons fire repeatedly at high speed.

The agency pointed to a law passed decades prior by Congress banning machine guns, saying that also applied to bump stocks.

Mr. Cargill subsequently filed a lawsuit arguing that the ATF’s ban violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how agencies create, issue and enforce regulations.

The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, reasoning that the government’s use of a decades-old ban on machine guns and applying that to bump stocks was ambiguous.

The Supreme Court’s decision, which was split 6-3 down ideological lines, affirms that ruling.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, reasoning machine guns are different from semiautomatic rifles equipped with a bump stock.

“A bump stock does not alter the basic mechanics of bump firing. As with any semiautomatic firearm, the trigger still must be released and reengaged to fire each additional shot,” he wrote. “Machine guns can ordinarily achieve higher rates of fire than semiautomatic firearms because the shooter does not need to release and reengage the trigger between shots.”

The three Democratic appointees — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — dissented, arguing the majority was wrong in saying that bump stocks don’t operate the same as a machine gun.

“When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck,” wrote Justice Sotomayor.

Mr. Cargill is hopeful his victory will also prevent the government from coming after braces, triggers and other gun accessories.

He told The Times that he won’t get his bump stocks back right away but is hopeful he will once his case is remanded back to the lower court, which had ruled against him.