OAN’s James Meyers
10:18 AM – Friday, June 14, 2024
The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a ban on bump stocks attachments that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire more quickly was unconstitutional.
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In a 6-3 ruling, the court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) 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 ‘machine gun’ [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.’”
“A bump stock does not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun any more than a shooter with a lightning-fast trigger finger does.”
Even though the federal ban is no longer in place, bump stocks will still not be readily available nationwide. Eighteen states have already banned them, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit gun-control group.
The Trump administration put in place the bump stock ban following the October 1st, 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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