The US Supreme Court has recently overturned a ban from the Trump era on bump stocks, devices that allow semi-automatic rifles to simulate automatic fire. The ruling is tied to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the deadliest in US history, and has ignited substantial controversy.
On that tragic day in October 2017, the shooter used bump stocks to fire rapidly at a Las Vegas concert crowd. He killed 58 people and injured around 500. His arsenal included 22 guns, most equipped with bump stocks, enabling them to discharge up to nine bullets per second.
In a 6-3 decision led by conservative justices, the court ruled that the Trump administration’s extension of machine gun bans to include bump stocks was unlawful. Justice Clarence Thomas stated that bump stocks do not convert rifles into ‘machine guns.’
This ruling drew immediate praise from the National Rifle Association, which praised the decision to limit executive agencies to enforcing rather than creating laws.
However, the decision was met with vehement criticism from gun control advocates and Democrats. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign criticized the justices for siding with gun lobbyists over public safety. Campaign spokesman Michael Tyler emphasized the risk to children and communities.
Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and Esther Sanchez-Gomez of the Giffords group echoed this sentiment. They described the ruling as dangerous and out of step with public opinion, favouring a bump stock ban.
The Trump administration had initially acted against bump stocks in 2018 after the Parkland high school shooting left 17 dead. The ATF then classified bump stocks under the 1934 machine gun law.
In oral arguments in February, the Biden administration argued that bump stocks perform exactly as the original machine gun ban intended to prohibit. However, Michael Cargill, a Texas gun seller, countered that the ATF exceeded its authority with this classification.
The case centred on the technical definition of a machine gun in the 1934 law, drafted long before bump stocks were invented. Justice Thomas noted that the law defines a machine gun as a weapon firing automatically from a single trigger function.
The majority’s decision prompted a sharp dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She argued that the ruling ignored Congress’s clear intent in defining a machine gun, likening it to recognizing a duck by its characteristics.
