The ban was imposed by the Trump administration after the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas and is being defended by the Biden administration.
Some Supreme Court justices on Wednesday expressed reluctance to strike down a ban on “bump stocks,” a gun accessory that allows semi-automatic rifles to fire more quickly, although the final outcome remains unclear.
The prohibition was imposed by the Trump administration after the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017 in which Stephen Paddock used bump stock-equipped firearms to open fire on a country music festival, initially killing 58 people.
The Supreme Court in 2019 declined to block the regulation. The already conservative court has tilted further to the right since then, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, replacing liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in 2020.
Conservatives now have a 6-3 majority that has backed gun rights in previous cases.
I don’t need a bump stock, I need for federal agencies not to overstep Congress, which is what this is all about. Most folks don’t care about bump stocks, its just a gimmick.
This suit is about MUCH more than bump stocks and has implications across the entire federal government.
No one overstepped Congress. Congress banned machine guns, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, one of whose jobs includes regulating firearms, classified bump stocks as something that can turn a semi-auto weapon into an auto weapon and enforced the decision of Congress.
If Congress wants you to have bump stocks then Congress can pass a law saying so and there will be no question.