The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declared unlawful a federal ban on “bump stock” devices that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, rejecting yet another firearms restriction – this time one enacted under Republican former president
“This case asks whether a bump stock – an accessory for a semi-automatic rifle that allows the shooter to rapidly re-engage the trigger – converts the rifle into a ‘machine gun.’ We hold that it does not and therefore affirm” the lower court’s ruling, Thomas wrote. Thomas wrote: “We conclude that semi-automatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machine gun’ because it does not fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger.’”
Federal law prohibits the sale or possession of machine guns, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative minority, has taken an expansive view of gun rights, striking down gun restrictions in major cases in 2008, 2010 and in 2022. In that 2022 decision, struck down New York state’s limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home and set a tough new standard for determining the legality of gun regulations. Unlike those three cases, this challenge was not centred on the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.