The Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era ban on rapid-fire bump stocks, saying bump stocks did not fit the definition of machine guns. A bump stock is an attachment to a semi-automatic rifle that allows a rate of fire comparable to a machine gun. However, Loyola New Orleans law professor Dane Ciolino (see-oh-lean-oh) says a gun can be classified as a machine gun…
“It’s only if the operator doesn’t need to do anything other than pull the trigger once in order for the weapon to fire multiple times.”
The Court ruled 6 to 3, along party lines, that the ATF had overstepped its boundaries when it banned bump stocks in 2018. The ruling also says that bump stocks shouldn’t be classified as machine guns since they don’t make the weapon fully automatic. In fact, Ciolino says…
“Under the facts of this case, “bump stocks” require more of the operator for repeat fire.”
Though this ruling undoes a ban that came after a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, in which a man killed 60 and injured hundreds more using semi-automatic rifles equipped with bump stocks, Ciolino says it has more to do with regulation than with guns.
“It’s not a landmark second amendment opinion. It’s not a ruling on a fairly commonly used firearm device.”
The ruling leaves the door open for Congress to ban bump stocks through legislation.
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