Washington (Associated Press) supreme court On Friday, it rescinded the Trump administration’s ban. Bump StockRapid-fire gun accessories, The deadliest mass shooting The ruling was the first in modern U.S. history to bring firearms back into the national political spotlight.
High Court Conservative majority The Trump administration was deemed to have gone too far in reversing course from the previous administration and banning bump stocks, which allow fire rates comparable to those of machine guns. The decision came after a Las Vegas shooter stormed a country music festival with an assault rifle equipped with the accessory.
The gunman fired more than 1,000 shots into the crowd over an 11-minute period, wounding hundreds, killing dozens and sending thousands fleeing in terror.
The ruling, in an unusual turn of events, has thrust gun issues back to the center of political debate, with Democrats criticizing the Republican administration for changing its behavior and many Republicans supporting the ruling.
The 6-3 majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, held that the Department of Justice erred in declaring that bump stocks turned semi-automatic rifles into illegal machine guns because pulling the trigger in rapid succession only fires one bullet.
The ruling reinforced the limits of executive power, with conservative Justice Samuel Alito and liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor each emphasizing that congressional action can result in more durable policy if there is the political will to act on a bipartisan basis.
Originally, under President Donald Trump, the ban was imposed through regulation rather than law to ward off Republican pressure to act in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting and other mass shootings. Any gun control measures are unlikely to pass in the current divided Congress.
President Joe Biden, a supporter of gun control, called on Congress to reinstate the ban imposed under his political rival, while the Trump campaign, after saluting the ruling, quickly shifted focus to the endorsement by the National Rifle Association.
While Trump has courted the support of gun owners to return to office, he has appeared to downplay his administration’s actions on bump stocks. In February, he told NRA members that “nothing has happened” on guns during his presidency despite “tremendous pressure” to do so. He told members that if he is re-elected, “nobody is going to get their hands on your guns.”
The motive behind the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, which was blamed on a high-stakes gambler who killed himself and whose motive remains a mystery, left 60 people dead, including Christiana Duarte, whose family called Friday’s verdict a tragedy.
“This sentence is just another avenue for people to commit another mass shooting,” said Danette Myers, a family friend and spokeswoman. “It’s unfortunate that they have to go through this again. They’re really not happy.”
The ruling follows a ruling by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. A landmark decision and expanding gun rights in 2022. The Supreme Court is also expected to rule in another gun case in the coming weeks, challenging a federal law aimed at keeping guns away from minors. Domestic violence restraining orders.
However, the argument in the bump stock case was not about the Second Amendment governing firearms, but about whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, an agency within the Department of Justice, exceeded its authority.
In a video posted online, plaintiff Michael Cargill, a Texas gun shop owner and former military officer, praised the ruling and predicted the case would have a ripple effect blocking other ATF gun regulations. “I’m glad I stood up and fought,” he said.
The court’s liberal justices suggested during oral argument that it was “common sense” that anything capable of firing a “flood of bullets” is a machine gun under federal law, but the conservative justices questioned the impact of changing their mind 10 years after the ATF declared the accessories legal.
The High Court took up the case following a disagreement from the lower courts. Bump Stockwere invented in the early 2000s. Under Republican President George W. Bush and Democrat President Barack Obama, the ATF determined that bump stocks don’t turn semi-automatic rifles into machine guns. The agency reversed that decision. At Trump’s requestThis came after the Las Vegas massacre and the Parkland, Florida, shooting that left 17 people dead.
The Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, Thursday, June 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Bump stocks are accessories that replace the stock of a rifle, the part that rests on the shoulder. They use the recoil energy of the gun to pull the trigger against the shooter’s motionless finger, allowing the gun to fire at the same speed as an automatic rifle. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have banned bump stocks, but they are not expected to be affected by the ruling. However, according to the gun control group Everytown, the ruling means that the bans in four states may no longer cover bump stocks.
Cargill was represented by the New Civil Liberties Union, a group funded by conservative donors such as the Koch Network. Cargill’s lawyers acknowledged that bump stocks allow rapid fire, but argued they are different in that the shooter must exert more effort to keep the gun firing.
The Biden administration had maintained that the ATF had reached the correct conclusion regarding bump stocks after conducting a more thorough investigation following the Las Vegas shooting.
The plaintiffs said in court documents that there were about 520,000 bump stocks in circulation when the ban went into effect in 2019, and people would have to return or destroy them, with total losses estimated at $100 million.
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Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Lisa Mascaro in Washington, Jill Colvin in New York, Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, Jim Salter in St. Louis and Jim Bertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
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