US Supreme Court overturns Trump-era bump stock ban

The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a ban on bump stocks, the rapid-fire weapon accessory used in the deadliest mass murder in the United States.

The court ruled by a 6-3 majority that the government did not have the right to ban the accessories.

The Trump administration banned bump stocks after they were used in a shooting that killed 60 people at a Las Vegas concert in 2017.

But the Texas gun shop owner challenged the ban, saying the government had gone too far by defining the accessories as machine guns. Under federal law, these weapons are mostly illegal – with a few exceptions. He fought all the way to the highest court in the United States.

Under U.S. law, the transfer or possession of machine guns is prohibited after May 19, 1986, the date the ban went into effect. However, the transfer or possession of machine guns legally acquired before that date is legal.

The court ruled that a semi-automatic rifle with an attachment is not considered a machine gun under federal law.

The Supreme Court opinion, written by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had “exceeded” its authority.

Quoting part of the statutory definition of machine guns, the court said guns with a bump stock “could not fire more than one shot 'by a single pull of the trigger,' and even if they could, they would not do so 'automatically.'”

In the split decision, the three liberal justices of the conservative-dominated, nine-member court dissented: Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

Justice Sotomayor said, “Today the Court puts bump stocks back in the hands of civilians.”

A decision that, she says, “will have fatal consequences.”

When asked whether weapons with these accessories should be considered machine guns, she replied: “If I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then I call that bird a duck.”

The Firearms Act 1986 defines machine guns as any “weapon which automatically fires more than one shot by a single pull of the trigger, is designed to fire, or can be readily made to fire again without the need for manual reloading.”

At a hearing on the case in March, some judges on the conservative-led court expressed skepticism about the ban, pointing to the minor technical differences between the firing function of a bump-stock rifle and a machine gun.

At the time, Justice Neil Gorsuch said he could understand “why these items should be declared illegal,” but stressed that this was expressly the job of Congress.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson countered that bump stocks were exactly “the kind of weapons that Congress wanted to ban because of the harm they cause.”

The bump stock uses the recoil of a rifle to fire multiple shots quickly. It replaces the stock of the gun, which is held to the shoulder, and allows the gun to slide back and forth between the shoulder and the user's trigger finger. This motion – or bump – allows the gun to be fired without the user having to move their finger.

The attacker in the Las Vegas shooting had attached a bump stock to 12 of his semi-automatic rifles, allowing him to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, the same rate as many machine guns. He killed 60 people and wounded hundreds more gathered at a music festival.

A spokeswoman for Donald Trump's campaign, whose administration issued the original ban, told the BBC: “The court has spoken and its decision should be respected.”

A spokesman for President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to debate Trump on June 27 as the two candidates battle for re-election, criticized the decision. “Weapons of war have no place on the streets of America,” he said.