cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15645865

If the Supreme Court rules that bump stocks aren’t machine guns later this summer, it could quickly open an unfettered marketplace of newer, more powerful rapid-fire devices.

The Trump administration, in a rare break from gun rights groups, quickly banned bump stocks after the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert that was the deadliest in U.S. history. In the ensuing years, gun rights groups challenged the underlying rationale that bump stocks are effectively machine guns — culminating in a legal fight now before the Supreme Court.

  • partial_accumen
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    25 days ago

    Not too surprised by this, the law says one shot per trigger pull so neither of the devices technically violate that rule.

    That law doesn’t say that. It says this:

    "by a single function of the trigger. "

    And this is where the legal arguments are sitting in court. Is the “single function”:

    • the action of the operator moving their finger, causing the trigger to be moved

    or

    • the trigger releasing the sear to cause the hammer/bolt to drop, and then resetting

    Various courts have ruled if the written rule means the first or the second. Under a single definition bump stocks would be allowed, on the other, they are not allowed.