The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether a Trump era-ban on bump stocks, the gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, violates federal law.
QUICK READ
- Supreme Court to Review Bump Stock Ban: The Court will decide if the Trump-era ban on bump stocks aligns with federal law.
- Justice Department Regulation: After the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the Justice Department redefined bump stocks as machine guns.
- Conflicting Court Decisions: Federal appeals courts are divided on whether bump stocks fit the legal definition of a machine gun.
- Biden Administration’s Appeal: The Supreme Court will hear the Biden administration’s appeal against the 5th Circuit’s ruling that invalidated the bump stock ban.
- Current Gun Rights Cases: The Court is already considering gun rights expansion from a 2022 decision regarding domestic violence restraining orders.
- Legal Focus: The case centers on the administrative process of the bump stock ban, not the Second Amendment.
- 2019 Bump Stock Ban: Following the Las Vegas shooting, where bump stocks were used to fire rapidly, the Trump administration implemented the ban.
- ATF’s Change of Stance: The ATF reversed its earlier position that bump stocks were not machine guns and therefore not subject to federal ban.
- Mechanics of Bump Stocks: Bump stocks use recoil to simulate rapid fire, requiring constant pressure by the user, as per ATF and court records.
- 5th Circuit’s Opinion: A 13-3 ruling by the full 5th Circuit stated bump stocks do not fit the statutory definition of a machine gun, suggesting Congress must act to ban them.
- D.C. Circuit’s Contrary View: A three-judge panel in Washington D.C. found that bump stocks do qualify as machine guns under current laws.
- Upcoming Decision: The Supreme Court’s decision in Garland v. Cargill is expected by early summer.
The Associated press has the story:
SCOUT to rule on ban on rapid-fire gun bump stocks, used in LAS mass shooting
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP)
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether a Trump era-ban on bump stocks, the gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, violates federal law.
The justices will hear arguments early next year over a regulation put in place by the Justice Department after a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.
Federal appeals courts have come to different decisions about whether the regulation defining a bump stock as a machine gun comports with federal law.
The justices said they will review the Biden administration’s appeal of a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that invalidated the ban.
The Supreme Court already is weighing a challenge to another federal law that seeks to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders, a case that stems from the landmark decision in 2022 in which the six-justice conservative majority expanded gun rights.
The new case is not about the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms,” but rather whether the Trump administration followed federal law in changing the bump stock regulation.
The ban on bump stocks took effect in 2019. It stemmed from the Las Vegas shooting in which the gunman, a 64-year-old retired postal service worker and high-stakes gambler, used assault-style rifles to fire more than 1,000 rounds in 11 minutes into a crowd of 22,000 music fans.
Most of the rifles were fitted with bump stock devices and high-capacity magazines. A total of 58 people were killed in the shooting, and two died later. Hundreds were injured.
The Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks was an about-face for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In 2010, under the Obama administration, the agency found that a bump stock should not be classified as a machine gun and therefore should not be banned under federal law.
Following the Las Vegas shooting, officials revisited that determination and found it incorrect.
Bump stocks harness the recoil energy of a semi-automatic firearm so that a trigger “resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter,” according to the ATF.
A shooter must maintain constant forward pressure on the weapon with the non-shooting hand and constant pressure on the trigger with the trigger finger, according to court records.
The full U.S. 5th Circuit ruled 13-3 in January that Congress would have to change federal law to ban bump stocks.
“The definition of ‘machinegun’ as set forth in the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act does not apply to bump stocks,” Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote for the 5th Circuit.
But a panel of three judges on the federal appeals court in Washington looked at the same language and came to a different conclusion.
Judge Robert Wilkins wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that “under the best interpretation of the statute, a bump stock is a self-regulating mechanism that allows a shooter to shoot more than one shot through a single pull of the trigger. As such, it is a machine gun under the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act.”
A decision is expected by early summer in Garland v. Cargill, 22-976.
