Key Takeaways
- Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a legal opinion concluding that the state’s 2018 bump-stock ban violates the Second Amendment.
- Uthmeier said his office will not defend any conviction brought under Section 790.222 of the Florida Statutes going forward.
- The 2018 law makes importing, possessing, or transferring a bump-fire stock a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
- The opinion cites the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Garland v. Cargill, which addressed whether bump stocks convert rifles into machine guns.
- The opinion does not change the text of the law, and it is unclear whether local prosecutors will stop bringing charges under it.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a legal opinion Friday concluding that the state’s 2018 ban on bump-fire stocks violates the Second Amendment. He also said his office will not defend a conviction under the law going forward.
Uthmeier announced the opinion in a post on X. “People are being arrested and prosecuted under a 2018 law that banned ‘bump stocks,’” he wrote. He called the law overly broad, saying it “appears to restrict the use of trigger enhancements used by firearms owners for lawful purposes, subjecting them to five years in prison.”
The law at issue is Section 790.222 of the Florida Statutes. It bars importing a bump-fire stock into Florida. It also bars transferring, distributing, selling, keeping for sale, offering for sale, possessing, or giving one to another person. Every one of those acts, including simple possession, is a third-degree felony. The definition is not limited to stocks. It covers “a conversion kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device” used to mimic automatic fire or to make a semiautomatic firearm fire faster than a person could fire it unassisted.
The opinion, dated November 13, 2026, takes up one question: whether Section 790.222 “contravenes the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Uthmeier concluded that it does. “Section 790.222 imposes a categorical prohibition on an entire class of firearm components that can increase a semiautomatic weapon’s rate of fire,” the opinion states. “But semiautomatic firearms with these and similar structural modifications are bearable arms covered by the Second Amendment’s plain text. No identifiable historical tradition justifies prohibiting their possession and use by law-abiding citizens for sporting, defensive, or other lawful purposes.” In plain terms, the opinion argues that the Second Amendment’s wording covers these rifles and that Florida has no historical precedent for banning them.
The opinion’s background section explains why a bump stock does not turn a rifle into a machine gun. It cites Garland v. Cargill, the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision, and the National Firearms Act. Under 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b), the National Firearms Act defines a machinegun as a weapon that fires “automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” A bump stock works differently. The shooter rests the trigger finger on a ledge and pushes the rifle forward. The trigger bumps into the finger. The rifle fires. Recoil carries it back, and the trigger resets. “Each function of the trigger fires only one shot,” the opinion explains, “so a semiautomatic rifle outfitted with a bump stock does not qualify as a machinegun.”
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The opinion does not change the text of the law. Section 790.222 still appears in the 2026 Florida Statutes. Uthmeier’s post does not say whether local prosecutors will stop bringing charges under it. His stated commitment is that his office will not defend a conviction under the statute going forward.
I will continue tracking how Florida prosecutors and courts respond to the opinion.
Bill data from the U.S. Congress via api.congress.gov (public domain).
