Conservative Supreme Court justices strike down Trump-era ban on bump stocks after Las Vegas shooting by ruling they are not machine guns
The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a victory for gun rights advocates.
The ban was passed after the use of bump stocks in the deadly 2017 Las Vegas shooting. Fifty-eight people were killed, making it the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history.
But the Supreme Court overturned the ban in a six-three decision. The conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns.
Judge Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for the court. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote a concurring opinion.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the dissent and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority rules that bump stocks are not machine guns and strikes down the ban
In the case of Garland v. Cargill, gun owner Michael Cargill surrendered two bump stocks to the ATF after the ban, but subsequently filed a lawsuit.
A district court ruled that bump stocks are in line with machine guns, but the ruling was reversed by an appeals court.
“We hold that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a “machine gun” because it cannot fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger,” Thomas wrote in the majority opinion.
‘And even if it could, it wouldn’t do it “automatically.” “ATF therefore exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a rule classifying bump stocks as machine guns,” he continued.
This story is developing and will be updated.