Supreme Court overturns Trump-era ban on gun stocks

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

0 4 minutes read

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that devices that turn a semiautomatic rifle into something closer to a machine gun are legal, a victory for gun rights advocates and a blow to efforts to to reduce the armed violence that has besieged the country.

The court split 6-3 along ideological lines in ruling that the federal government was wrong to classify a humped stock as a machine gun.

“A bump stock no more turns a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun than does a shooter with a high-speed trigger,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his opinion for the majority.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who read the liberals' dissent, said the majority used an “artificially narrow definition” to reach a conclusion that would have “deadly consequences.”

“Quack like a duck”

“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,” she wrote.

The controversial devices were banned by the Trump administration after the deadliest mass shooting in the country's history. A gunman who used safety stocks on some of his many weapons shot at spectators in Las Vegas in 2017, killing 58 people.

But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' 2018 finding that bump stocks meet the legal definition of a machine gun was a reversal from past rulings.

At Supreme Court oral arguments in February, conservative justices — many of whom have long worried about the regulatory power of federal agencies — were concerned about the carnage these devices can cause, but also questioned whether the Justice Department had interpreted a gun law too broadly. .

The hyper-technical problem they were asked to solve was whether a rifle with a bump stock fired more than one shot “automatically” and “by a single function of the trigger.”

The stock exploits the rifle's recoil to accelerate trigger presses, technically “bumping” the trigger with each shot after it bounces off the shooter's shoulder. A rifle can then fire 400 to 800 rounds per minute.

The judges had to decide whether this means a stock allows the weapon to fire continuously once the shooter pulls the trigger or whether the trigger is reactivated by the shooter between each shot.

The majority said that firing multiple shots with a bump stock requires more than a single trigger function, because the shooter primarily maintains forward pressure on the rifle's foregrip.

“Without this continuous manual input, a semiautomatic rifle with a stock will not fire multiple shots,” Thomas wrote.

“Blood in our streets”

Justice Samuel Alito, in a concurring opinion, said there was no doubt that when Congress banned machine guns, lawmakers would have seen no real difference between a machine gun and a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a butt.

But that's not how the law was written, Alito said, so the “simple remedy” is for Congress to change it.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said Congress must act.

“This decision will bring blood to our streets,” Newsom posted on social media. “This blood will be on the hands of every Republican in Congress who refused to enact common-sense reforms.“

President Joe Biden on Friday called on Congress to ban bullion stocks. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats are willing to do it “but we're going to need the votes of Senate Republicans.”

The Trump campaign's response did not mention the role he played in banning wholesale stocks.

“The Court has spoken and its decision must be respected,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump has been and always will be a fierce defender of Americans’ Second Amendment rights and is proud to be endorsed by the NRA.”

Efforts to pass legislation after the Las Vegas shootings were opposed by the National Rifle Association. That's why the Trump administration turned to administrative action, according to Adam Winkler, author of “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.” “.

“Given the Supreme Court's hostility toward administrative agencies, the NRA correctly predicted that such regulation of agencies would be more likely to be challenged,” said Winkler, a professor at the University of Texas Law School. UCLA.

The NRA said Friday that the court's decision would be crucial in fighting future ATF regulations.

“The Supreme Court has rightly restricted executive branch agencies to their role of enforcing the law, not enforcing it,” said Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA's Legislative Action Institute .

Ban challenged by gun store owner

Michael Cargill, a gun store owner and gun rights advocate from Austin, Texas, sued the government over the ban. The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals sided with Cargill, and the Biden administration appealed.

In its ruling, the appeals court said the government sought to ban bump stocks “by administrative fiat” even though the ATF had authorized the devices.

Congress banned automatic weapons for private use through a 1934 law, after machine guns became the weapon of choice for gangsters like Al Capone and John Dillinger.

Unlike another case brought before the court this year – whether domestic abusers can possess guns – this one did not rely on the Second Amendment.

Lina Portman

Related Articles

The Roanoke City Sheriff's Office and Advance Auto Parts work together to promote traffic safety

Omaha firefighter injured while battling blaze released from hospital

Several Arrested After Participating in Pro-Palestinian Protest – NBC10 Philadelphia

Man held at knifepoint and stabbed in both hands in car in Allston, police say