The U.S. Supreme Court decided this week to strike down a ban on the use of ‘bump stocks’ for semi-automatic weapons. The decision was derided by a number of Second Amendment activists as being against the right to bear arms.
The court ruled 6-3 that the ban enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was unconstitutional. According to the ruling, bump stocks do not make the semi-automatic weapons into automatic ones and said that the ATF “exceeded its statutory authority.”
Bump stocks were banned at the direction of former President Donald Trump after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting that killed 60 people. The shooter utilized semi-automatic rifles with a bump stock. The former president criticized Republican lawmakers at the time, saying that they were afraid to act because of their association with the National Rifle Association (NRA).
“This tragedy created tremendous political pressure to outlaw bump stocks nationwide. Within days, Members of Congress proposed bills to ban bump stocks and other devices ‘designed to accelerate the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle,’” wrote Justice Clarence Thomas in the decision.
LEGAL ALERT: The Supreme Court has struck down former President Trump's bump stock ban, ruling 6-3 that the ATF exceeded its authority when it issued the rule. The opinion was written by Justice Thomas: https://t.co/canMOuyFLv pic.twitter.com/C8SgYkESXW
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) June 14, 2024
The ‘bump stock’ allowed for repeated pulls of the trigger without additional effort, making a semi-automatic firearm fire more like an automatic one.
Despite opposition from Second Amendment activists, the Trump campaign was more reserved in its statement.
“The Court has spoken and their decision should be respected,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
President Trump has been and always will be a fierce defender of Americans’ Second Amendment rights and he is proud to be endorsed by the NRA. During a time when our border is open to terrorists and criminals, and migrant crime is on the rise, the right to keep and bear arms has never been more critical, and Joe Biden wants to take that right away from law-abiding Americans. President Trump won’t let that happen,” she said.
The former president has retained the support of the NRA, and spoke at a recent event. He criticized gun owners, stating that they do not vote enough.
