The Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on bump stocks enacted by the Trump administration on Friday.
The 6-3 ruling was split along ideological lines. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its statutory authority when it announced a ban on bump stocks following a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. In the ruling, Thomas said that equipping rifles with bump stocks does not turn them into machine guns, meaning they cannot be prohibited under existing law.
“This case asks whether a bump stock — an accessory for a semi-automatic rifle that allows the shooter to rapidly reengage the trigger (and therefore achieve a high rate of fire) — converts the rifle into a ‘machinegun,’” Thomas wrote in his decision. “We conclude that semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a…
