Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era ban on bump stocks after Las Vegas shooting

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The Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks on Friday in a victory for gun rights advocates.

The ban was passed following the use of bump stocks in the deadly 2017 shooting in Las Vegas. Fifty-eight people were killed making it the deadliest mass shooting by one gunman in American history.

But the Supreme Court struck down the ban in a six-three decision. The conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for the court. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote a concurring opinion.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the dissent and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Conservative majority on the Supreme Court rules bump stocks are not machine guns, striking down ban

In the case Garland v Cargill, gun owner Michael Cargill surrendered two bump stocks to the ATF following the ban but then filed a lawsuit.

A district court ruled bump stocks are in line with machine guns, but the ruling was reversed by an appeals court.

'We hold that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a “machinegun” because it cannot fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger,”' Thomas wrote in the majority opinion.

'And, even if it could, it would not do so “automatically.” ATF therefore exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a Rule that classifies bump stocks as machineguns,' he continued.

In his concurring opinion, Alito addressed the deadly shooting in Las Vegas where a man opened fire on a music festival from his suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel.

'The horrible shooting spree in Las Vegas in 2017 did not change the statutory text or its meaning. That event demonstrated that a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock can have the same lethal effect as a machinegun, and it thus strengthened the case for amending §5845(b),' he wrote.

'But an event that highlights the need to amend a law does not itself change the law’s meaning. There is a simple remedy for the disparate treatment of bump stocks and machineguns,' he went on.

He wrote that Congress can amend the law.

Justice Clarence Thomas (front row, second from left) wrote the majority opinion. Justice Samuel Alito (front row, second from right) wrote a concurring opinion. Justice Sotomayor (front row, far left) wrote the dissent 

The ban on bump stocks passed after the deadly shooting in Las Vegas in 2017. 58 people were killed and hundreds were wounded when a gunman opened fire on a country music festival

On October 2, 2017, a gunman opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote about the horrors of the shooting and how all the gunman using bump stocks affixed to semiautomatic rifles had to do was 'pull the trigger and press the gun forward. The bump stock did the rest.'

She also wrote: 'When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck. A bump-stock-equipped semiautomatic rifle fires “automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.”' 

'Today, the Court puts bump stocks back in civilian hands,' Sotomayor wrote. 'To do so, it casts aside Congress's definition of "machinegun" and seizes upon one that is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the statutory text and unsupported by context or purpose.'

 Sotomayor warned the Supreme Court's decision 'will have deadly consequences.'

The ban on bump stocks in was done through changing federal fire regulations under Trump but some lawmakers warned without an act by Congress, the ban could soon be reversed

In late 2018, the Trump administration moved to officially ban bump stocks in response to the deadly Las Vegas shooting. 

The administration used the federal law that prohibits machine guns to support amending federal firearm regulations, which is why the Supreme Court decision focused on machine guns in its ruling.

People who owned bump stocks were required to either surrender them to the ATF or destroy them. Multiple states also took action to ban bump stocks.

But Congress failed to act. Democratic lawmakers at the time including late Senator Dianne Feinstein warned without legislative action, the ban on bump stocks could quickly be reversed or tied up in court.