The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a ban on bump stocks — attachments that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire more quickly— implemented by former President Donald Trump back in 2017 was unconstitutional.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had overstepped its authority by classifying bump stocks as illegal machine guns.
“We conclude that semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machinegun’ [sic],” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, “because it does not fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger.’”
“Even if a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock could fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger,’” Thomas went on, “it would not do so ‘automatically.’”
The Trump administration instituted the bump stock ban following the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas that killed 60 people and wounded hundreds more.
A Texas gun store owner, Michael Cargill, had challenged the regulation.
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