(LibertySons.org) – Stephen Paddock, 64, allegedly opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 1, 2017. The shooting left 60 people dead and more than 800 injured. Then-President Donald Trump took action to ban one of the gun accessories the killer used. The US Supreme Court has now reversed the policy.
On Friday, June 14, the justices ruled 6 to 3 to reverse the Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks. The accessory replaces a rifle’s standard stock and frees the weapon, allowing it to slide back and forth quickly. It harnesses the energy from the kickback a rifle user feels when they fire the weapon, bumping it back and forth between the shooter’s trigger finger and shoulder. If the shooter maintains that position while holding their finger in place and maintaining pressure on the barrel, the weapon can fire at the rate of a machine gun — even though it’s technically still a semi-automatic firearm.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion and peppered it with drawings. He explained that the court determined the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was wrong to call the weapon with the accessory a machine gun because it still only fires one shot with each squeeze of the trigger. Thomas implored Congress to take up the issue if they wanted to extend the federal ban on machine guns to bump stocks.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented and said the majority’s opinion would “have deadly consequences.” Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan joined her.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment and former county sheriff in Las Vegas, issued a statement saying he was “disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision” and has long opposed bump stocks.
President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to codify Trump’s ban. The possibility of passing a gun control bill during an election year is unlikely.
~Here’s to Our Liberty!
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