Image source, Getty Images
- author, Kayla Epstein
- role, BBC News
On October 1, 2017, Heather Goodes was serving drinks at the Route 91 Music Festival in Las Vegas when a concert-goer came running into her bar, screaming and covered in blood.
A gunman perched high above a Las Vegas hotel opened fire on a festival below, killing 60 people and wounding more than 400. The device he attached to his gun, known as a bump stock, enabled him to carry out the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
In the aftermath of the mass shooting, then-President Donald Trump banned bump stocks, a modification that allows a rifle to be fired like a machine gun, a rare change in US gun control policy following a mass shooting and a reform welcomed by survivors of the incident.
The ban was all the more unusual because it was enacted by a Republican president and supported by the National Rifle Association, which typically opposes gun control proposals.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its authority in making the devices illegal, striking down the ban.
For victims like Goose, who identifies as a liberal and thinks Trump’s travel ban is “phenomenal,” the ruling felt like a setback for the country.
“Has anyone ever used bump stocks for good?” she told the BBC. “There is no reason for civilians to use mass shooting machines.”
Gouze, 50, still vividly remembers the panic as he helped people flee the carnage and the desperate fight to save those hit by more than 1,000 bullets fired by the gunman from a modified gun.
“I had my finger in the bullet hole in the back of the head of one of our angels,” she said of one of the victims she tried to save. She remained by the body of another victim for hours, contacting his family using a cell phone she found in his pocket.
“I saw not only my life but people’s lives change right before my eyes,” she said.
One of them is Brittany Quintero, who was separated from her friend in the chaos of the shooting, and although both survived, they have spent years dealing with the trauma the shooting left behind.
She told the BBC she was upset by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“To be honest, it feels like another slap in the face,” she said.
Quintero, 41, said he doesn’t necessarily believe stricter gun laws would prevent mass shootings, and he doesn’t think enough of the proposed solutions address mental health.
“I don’t believe that taking away people’s Second Amendment rights is going to solve these problems,” she said, referring to gun owners’ protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
“If someone is determined to do it, they will find some way or means to do it.”
But despite her concerns, she believes the Supreme Court erred in restoring access to bump stocks.
Route 91 survivors were not uniformly devastated by the Supreme Court’s decision. Goose said some had discussed the news in private Facebook groups, and some community members said they weren’t concerned by the ruling.
“Guns are not the problem, we need guns to protect what little freedom we have left. The enemy is the government,” one survivor wrote in a message read out to the BBC by Goues.
Gun violence remains a major public safety issue in the United States. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 215 mass shootings in the United States so far in 2024. (The Archive’s methodology defines a mass shooting as when four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter.)
Both Gouz and Quintero lamented that the gun debate has become so politicized.
“I don’t think we’ll see any real legislation or decisions enacted in my lifetime that will solve the problem of gun violence,” Goose said.
Repeated attempts to ban bump stocks through federal legislation have stalled, with a divided Congress making it unlikely they will pass in the near future.
Trump, who is running for president again, said he respected the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his policy and reiterated his support for greater access to guns.
“The Supreme Court has ruled and its decision should be respected,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump has been and will continue to be a fierce defender of the Second Amendment rights of Americans and is proud to have the endorsement of the NRA.”
In a video from former Twitter user X, a gun store owner who challenged the bump stock ban in the Supreme Court celebrated his victory, saying he had stopped the government from banning other gun parts.
The nation’s highest court upheld his argument that the Trump administration exceeded its authority in trying to regulate bump stocks like machine guns.
“I stood up and fought,” gun shop owner Michael Cargill said, “and that’s why the bump stock case is going to be the case that saves it all.”
