The news is in that the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, struck down the federal ban on bump stocks approved by President Donald Trump following the tragic Las Vegas shooting in 2017 that resulted in the deaths of 58 people. It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Here’s what Fox News is reporting:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a bump stock does not transform a firearm into an automatic weapon, striking down a federal rule that banned bump stocks. 

In a 6-3 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “Congress has long restricted access to “‘machinegun[s],'” a category of firearms defined by the ability to “shoot, automatically more than one shot . . . by a single function of the trigger.” 

From CNN:

The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a federal ban on bump stocks approved by former President Donald Trump, the high court’s latest stroke limiting the power of federal agencies to act on their own.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for a 6-3 court. The court’s liberal wing, led by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.

Trump had pushed for the ban in response to a 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas. Bump stocks allow a shooter to convert a semi-automatic rifle into a weapon that can fire at a rate of hundreds of rounds a minute.

More details to come…

 

 

 

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51 COMMENTS

  1. Pretty sure a bunch of state laws are still in place but good to see the start of some of the ATF crumbling.

    • Yep, good thing those Florida Republicans banned it in legislature in their response to parkland bill where no bump fire stock was used, otherwise bump stocks and rubber bands would be legal again!

      Republican leadership seems pretty ok with machine gun bans and bump stock bans, I wouldn’t put it past them to include this in the Senate and make it all official given the opportunity.

          • “So where is it wrong now?”

            “Republican leadership seems pretty ok with machine gun bans…”

            Full-auto is very legal in Florida, pay the $200 and wait.

            The support isn’t there to nuke MGs in Florida…

              • “And binary triggers?”

                Nuked after Parkland. I personally have no interest in one, ammo is expensive enough all on its own… 🙁

  2. Reparations for Slidefire, their employees and all the economic activity missed when?

    • theyre f**ked… Just look back to what happened during Prohibition, and uis subsequent repeal. Every legal distiller and brewer got f**ked when the Volstwad Act was signed into law. They never recovered their inventory losses after its repeal.

      • Difference being there was never a constitutional amendment let alone a law involved in the bumpstocks so I would hope a class action would have standing.

  4. Was anyone actually gullible enough to turn-in or destroy theirs before waiting for these legal challenges to play out?

    • Always regarded them as a range toy so never bought one. Willing to bet that a bunch of them turn up at the local range after they float to the surface at the site of some of those boating accidents.

  5. Might not the most important ruling we’ve had, but limiting the ability of government agencies to write and re-write it’s own laws on the fly is always a good thing.

  6. Bump-stock ban today. Pistol-brace ban tomorrow?

    If the ATF was smart (HA!) they would abandon the appeal of their District Court loss earlier this week. Same exact issue, but for a different part of the NFA. (Machine gun vs. short barrelled rifle.)

  7. Funny how Justice Thomas did a better job explaining the mechanics of bump firing than Cargill’s attorney.

    “Shooters have devised techniques for firing semiautomatic firearms at rates approaching those of some machineguns. One technique is called bump firing. A shooter
    who bump fires a rifle uses the firearm’s recoil to help rapidly manipulate the trigger. The shooter allows the recoil
    from one shot to push the whole firearm backward. As the
    rifle slides back and away from the shooter’s stationary
    trigger finger, the trigger is released and reset for the next
    shot. Simultaneously, the shooter uses his nontrigger hand
    to maintain forward pressure on the rifle’s front grip. The
    forward pressure counteracts the recoil and causes the firearm (and thus the trigger) to move forward and “bump” into
    the shooter’s trigger finger. This bump reengages the trigger and causes another shot to fire, and so on.”

    • Cool I guess. Sorry but unless/ until SCOTUS reinstates my ”rights” in ILLANNOY my interest level is quite low. Ditto pistol braces. BTW I never saw any proof the LasVegas shooter had bumpstocks. Biggest coverup since JFK or Moo-chelle being a dude🙄

    • Judge Thomas is a for real gun guy. Not a FUDD. And he also is a person who grew up in the segregated south. And saw how his own family members were robbed legally. By anyone who chose to steal from them.

      Fortunately america is a much better place now. Thanks to people like him.

      • “Judge Thomas is a for real gun guy. Not a FUDD.”

        Then how did he get this so wrong?
        “Congress has long restricted access to “‘machinegun[s],’”

        His use of “long restricted” does not meet his standard of “analog” law declared in “Bruen”.

        • The “gun community” has long supported the regulations and special taxing of machine guns. They are the same people who will tell you, a rifle bayonet is a dumb and useless, outdated weapon.

          Explosives are regulated. I don’t hear anyone except me, supporting the deregulation of all Explosive devices. And Explosives were very much part of the founding of this country. Just like guns were.

          I would love to have my own bazooka. In fact there are folks who have made their own panzfaust on YouTube.

          From 2017

          “Marion Hammer and the NRA never supported legal machine guns or the bumpstock.”

          https://jewscanshoot.org/2017/10/14/marion-hammer-nra-never-wanted-legal-machine-guns-bump-fire-stocks/

          btw
          Judge Thomas is wrong on allowing the regulation of machine guns. But I’m still very happy with his decision.

          I don’t see much support for black teenagers with machine guns in the “gun community”

          I don’t see much support for glock switches in the “gun community.”

          The open carry of guns is a 1st amendment right. And to get support for that, in the “gun community” is like pulling teeth.

          Hopefully in the future the supreme court will kill a Mulford Act.

          • Seems “gun community” support of de-regulating machine guns is kinda irrelevant. Justice Thomas wrote the rule on validity of restrictions. Doesn’t matter if any “community” agrees or disagrees.

            My note was that Thomas first declared firearms control must trace lineage back to 1791, but bans on machine guns tracing back to 1934 is “long time”, equal to that required by sthe Bruen lineage test.

  8. And in related news, the 5th Circuit just invoked a nationwide injunction on the pistol brace ban. Tears should be flowing copiously at CNN and MSNBC today. I’d be watching Rachel Madcow and Joy Reid today, but my stomach can’t stand the sight of either of them.

    Obviously, this is the end of democracy.

    • I watch Rachel Madcow and Joy Reid for other reasons. It may be a dominant Daddy and two bad little girls fantasy but who is to say?

    • See my comment just above. ATF SHOULD abandon their appeal of this loss, as it is the same thing they were just slapped down for by Cargill, namely, re-writing a part of the NFA to mean what they want, rather than what it says.

      Only difference is that it refers to short barrelled rifles, rather than machine guns.

  9. Now onto speeding up the repeal of “assault weapons” bans and “large capacity” mag bans laws.

    • Those are the ones that matter to me here in WA.

      I get that it’s important to tell the ATF that they are not lawmakers with this suit, but get to the important stuff.

      • I’m with you Swarf. We will never see lifting of those restrictions in WA with the current composition of the Washington Supreme Court, even though our state constitution is even more clear than the 2A.

  10. Whats amazing is that Justice Sotomayor still doesn’t understand the subject matter, but I really think she is being deliberately contrary and ignorant in her dissent to get the left-wing anti-gun view out there. She wrote in her dissenting opinion . . .

    “Today, the Court puts bump stocks back in civilian hands. To do so, it casts aside Congress’s definition of “machinegun” and seizes upon one that is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the statutory text and unsupported by context or purpose. When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck. A bump-stock-equipped semiautomatic rifle fires “automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” §5845(b). Because I, like Congress, call that a machinegun, I respectfully dissent.”

    See that part about “A bump-stock-equipped semiautomatic rifle fires ‘automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.’ > that’s not what a bump stock does at ll. A semi-auto rifle equipped with a bump stock can not fire “automatically more than one shot” by a single function of the trigger – the action of the rifle will still only fire one shot per trigger pull and it still takes the manual trigger pull to fire the one shot per trigger pull.

    Then see the part “Because I, like Congress, call that a machinegun” – that’s not true, Congress never called a semi-auto rifle firing one shot per trigger pull a “machinegun”.

    Then see the part about “inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the statutory text and unsupported by context or purpose.” – no it isn’t. Congress defined what a machine gun was in meaning, context, and purpose in the law – and that does not include a semi-auto rifle that can only fire one shot per trigger pull.

        • Kagan and the ‘Wide Latina’ agreed with the majority on the Starbucks labor dispute just announced.

          It’s gonna be *fun* watching the fascist left turn on them like a pit bull on a pork chop… 😉

    • She might as well state publicly that 2+2=5. She is not the only one who refuses to face the truth. When it comes to guns and liberty.

  11. AND WHEN WILL WE BE REIMBURSED BY THE REGIME FOR THE STOCKS WE DESTROYED ?

    IM SURE MANUFACTURERS AND SELLERS LOST MILLIONS.

    • Realistically never, even assuming a class action suit could succeed the costs and lawyers cut could exceed lost inventory and potential profits as damages and the likely better objective is going after the existence of the ATF (and other agencies) in it’s legitimacy and scope of authority/power.

      • The 3D printer is the remaining option. Which is why the government is so terrified of it.

        • Somehow I think a few makers will be taking preorders before Monday but yes very much support the further development of at home 3d printing/milling, and laser sintering to fill the gaps that industry does not find profitable.

          • I sure hope they don’t accept a payment until it’s fully wrapped up…

            • Depends on their lawyers but yes that can be an issue. Granted some may want to get the standing to go back for more.

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