The fate of a ban on bump stocks is now in the hands of Congress after the Supreme Court ruled Friday that current law doesn’t allow the government to outlaw them as equivalent to machine guns.
The fate of a ban on bump stocks is now in the hands of Congress after the Supreme Court ruled Friday that current law doesn’t allow the government to outlaw them as equivalent to machine guns.
The justices said in a 6-3 ruling that the Trump administration’s attempt to reinterpret definitions to try to shoehorn bump stocks into the ban on machine guns wouldn’t fly, but nothing stops Congress from changing the law to explicitly cover bump stocks.
Democrats were quick to take up the invitation.
“It is really critical that we continue to make sure we can keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida Democrat.
“Send me a bill, and I will sign it immediately,” President Biden said.
Conservative Republicans signaled that the idea would be met with resistance.
“It was a foolish mistake under both administrations. I think this was a Trump-era rule,” said Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican. “The court striking it down is a win for people’s Second Amendment rights.”
A bump stock is a device that attaches to the rear of a rifle, helping it quickly slide back and forth. The resulting motion helps repeatedly engage the trigger fast enough to simulate automatic fire.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing the key opinion for the court, said that doesn’t match the law’s definition of an automatic weapon, which specifies “a single function of the trigger.”
He said a rifle still requires the right amount of pressure from the hand on the barrel to operate.
