LEGAL ALERT: The Supreme Court has struck down former President Trump's bump stock ban, ruling 6-3 that the ATF exceeded its authority when it issued the rule. The opinion was written by Justice Thomas: https://t.co/canMOuyFLv pic.twitter.com/C8SgYkESXW
ā Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) June 14, 2024
According to Fox News:
SCOTUS ruled that a bump stock does not transform a firearm into an automatic weapon, striking down a federal rule that banned bump stocks.
In a 6-3 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, "Congress has long restricted access to "'machinegun[s],'" a category of firearms defined by the ability to "shoot, automatically more than one shot . . . by a single function of the trigger."
The case, Garland v. Cargill, asked the court whether a "bump stock" device is a "machine gun" as defined by federal law because it is designed and intended for use in converting a rifle into a weapon that fires "automatically more than one shot ... by a single function of the trigger." After a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 60 people dead and 500 more wounded, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued an interpretive rule concluding that "bump stocks" are machine guns.
The Trump administration initiated a ban on the devices ā reversing earlier regulations ā and President Biden's Justice Department is now defending it in court.
In a 6-3 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, "Congress has long restricted access to "'machinegun[s],'" a category of firearms defined by the ability to "shoot, automatically more than one shot . . . by a single function of the trigger."
The case, Garland v. Cargill, asked the court whether a "bump stock" device is a "machine gun" as defined by federal law because it is designed and intended for use in converting a rifle into a weapon that fires "automatically more than one shot ... by a single function of the trigger." After a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 60 people dead and 500 more wounded, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued an interpretive rule concluding that "bump stocks" are machine guns.
The Trump administration initiated a ban on the devices ā reversing earlier regulations ā and President Biden's Justice Department is now defending it in court.
The bump stock ban was the only new āgun controlā policy under the Trump administration (and one which had bipartisan support at the time), and his gun policies were obviously overwhelmingly in the opposite direction, with gun laws weakened overall under his administration. As the Heritage Foundationās Amy Swearer documented:
- In 2019, the White House issued a statement threatening to veto two gun control bills passed by the House, should those measures also make it through the Senate.The first bill would have imposed sweeping universal background checks on the American public, requiring almost every private transfer of a firearmāno matter how temporary and low-riskāto be conducted through a federal firearms licenseeā¦..The second bill Trump threatened to veto similarly dealt with federal background checks.
- Early in the Trump presidency, federal agencies reversed course on several Obama-era gun control policies. Under Trump the State Department settled a previous Obama Administration lawsuit with Defense Distributed and permitted that organization to publish its blueprints for 3D-printed guns online.
- Trump rescinded (before it could go into effect) an Obama-era regulation that would have effectively stripped the Second Amendment rights of any person who checked a particular box on a form submitted to the Social Security Administration.
- Trump fought back against state closures of gun stores, shooting ranges, and government permitting offices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What will the immediate aftermath of the bump stock ban reversal be? The Babylon Beeās Kyle Mann has one ideaā¦
Weird, every American who lost their bump stocks in a boating accident back in 2017 realized their bump stocks were right there in the gun safe all along haha crazy
ā Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) June 14, 2024
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