The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a bump stock does not transform a firearm into an automatic weapon, overturning a federal rule that banned bump stocks.
In a 6-3 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote: “Congress has long restricted access to “machine guns.”[s],'”, a category of firearms defined by the ability to “fire, automatically, more than one shot… by a single trigger function.”
“Semi-automatic firearms, which require shooters to re-squeeze the trigger with each shot, are not machine guns. This case asks whether a bump stock, an accessory for a semi-automatic rifle that allows the shooter to quickly re-squeeze the trigger (and therefore achieve a high rate of fire): turns the rifle into a 'machine gun'. We maintain that it does not,” he wrote.
The case, Garland v. Cargill asked the court whether a “stock” device is a “machine gun” as defined by federal law because it is designed and intended to be used to convert a rifle into a weapon that fires “automatically more than one shot… by a single trigger function.”
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A stock image is shown on March 15, 2019 in Harrisonburg, Virginia. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
The high court majority determined that the legal definition of “machine gun” is any weapon capable of “automatically firing more than one shot…with a single pull of the trigger.”
“We maintain that a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a stock is not a 'machine gun' because it cannot fire more than one shot 'with a single trigger pull.' And even if it could, it would not do so 'automatically,'” Thomas wrote.
“Therefore, the ATF exceeded its legal authority by issuing a rule classifying ammunition as machine guns,” he said.
A protester holds a sign that reads “Punch fists, not actions” before marching from the White House to the US Capitol. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
After a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017 that left 60 people dead and 500 more injured, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued an interpretive rule concluding that “bump stocks” are machine guns. .
“This tragedy created tremendous political pressure to ban ammunition nationwide. Within days, members of Congress proposed bills to ban ammunition and other devices 'designed to accelerate the rate of fire of a semi-automatic rifle.' “Thomas wrote in Thursday's opinion.
The Trump administration initiated a ban on the devices, reversing previous regulations, and President Biden's Justice Department defended it in court.
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the majority, saying that “the Court puts firearms back in the hands of civilians. To do so, it sets aside the Court's definition of 'machine gun.'” Congress and adopts one that is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the statutory text and not supported 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 it a duck. A stock-equipped semi-automatic rifle fires 'automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading' by a single trigger function. , because I, like Congress, call it a machine gun, I respectfully dissent,” Sotomayor wrote.
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Sprinklers water the lawn in front of the United States Supreme Court on Monday morning, April 29, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
A bump stock is an accessory that replaces the standard stock of a semi-automatic weapon, the part of the long gun that rests on the shoulder.
Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, sued the government after being forced to turn over several “booster stocks” under ATF rule. He argued that the agency exceeded its administrative authority by imposing a ban, without any congressional action.
“More than five years ago I swore that I would defend the Constitution of the United States, even if I were the only plaintiff in the case. That's what I did,” Cargill, an Army veteran, said Friday.
Mark Chenoweth, president of the New Alliance for Civil Liberties and an attorney for Cargill, praised Friday's ruling for having vindicated our client's position that the ATF does not have the power to rewrite criminal laws.”
“The statute passed by Congress did not prohibit booster stocks, and the ATF does not have the power to do so on its own. This result is entirely consistent with the Constitution's assignment of all legislative power to Congress. Any scaremongering on the part of opponents of booster stocks should be addressed to Congress, not the Court, which faithfully applied the statute before it,” Chenoweth said.
“The rule that the Court struck down today illegally confiscated more than 500,000 protective shares legally purchased from American citizens. It should never have been approved, and the bureaucrats responsible for this injustice should hang their heads in shame,” he said.
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Vince Warner shoots an AK-47 with a stock installed at Good Guys Gun and Range on February 21, 2018 in Orem, Utah. (George Frey/Getty Images)
Bump stocks entered circulation at the beginning of this century, as one of several devices that can be attached to semi-automatic weapons.
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As the shooter applies forward thrust on the barrel, the device harnesses recoil energy to cause the trigger to “slam” against the stationary finger, which then allows another round to be fired. The effect is faster shots than with a standard stock.
The ATF says more than half a million stocks were in circulation when the federal ban went into effect five years ago, requiring them to be surrendered or destroyed.
