The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), on Friday (June 14), overturned a ban on bump stocks, the rapid-fire gun accessory used in America’s deadliest mass shooting. This restriction was implemented by former US President Donald Trump following the Las Vegas mass shooting.
About the SCOTUS Ruling
The apex court, with a six-three majority, determined that the federal ban on bump stock devices, which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, was unlawful.
The ruling, authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, affirmed a lower court’s decision in favor of Michael Cargill, a Texas gun shop owner who contested the Trump-era ban.
Cargill argued that the US agency misinterpreted a federal law banning machine guns as also applying to bump stocks. The highest court’s conservative majority supported the decision, while the liberal justices dissented.
The SCOTUS found that the Trump administration exceeded its authority by declaring bump stocks turned semiautomatic rifles into illegal machine guns because each trigger pull still only releases one shot, Thomas wrote.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who opposed the ruling, said, “Today, the Court puts bump stocks back in civilian hands,” adding that the decision “will have deadly consequences.”
During the hearing, justices on the conservative-led court were skeptical of the ban due to technical distinctions between bump-stock gunfire and machine guns.
The arguments centered on whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) overstepped its authority.
The ban was enacted after bump stocks were used in a 2017 mass shooting when a gunman in Las Vegas opened fire on a country music festival, killing 60 people and wounding around 400 others.
SCOTUS ruling criticized
The ban was notable as it was enacted by a Republican president supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
The current ATF Director, Steve Dettelbach, stated that bump stocks “pose an unacceptable level of risk to public safety.”
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, a Republican who has refused to sign several gun control measures passed by the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature, said while he supports Second Amendment rights, he is “disappointed” by the court’s decision.
Victims of the 2017 mass shooting also expressed their shock and disappointment over the SCOTUS ruling.