ruled on Friday that the government overstepped its authority when it banned bump stocks, a gun accessory that transforms a semiautomatic rifle into aJustice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, stating that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was wrong to classify bump stocks as machine guns, which, by statute, made the devices illegal to own.
The Trump administration made the regulatory change to bump stocks in 2018, which effectively banned them. The move came in response to the Las Vegas shooting, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, which killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others the prior year.The decision is a win for Second Amendment advocates, such as the National Rifle Association, which accused the ATF of attempting to write legislation instead of enforcing it.
“The bump stock case is going to be the case that saves everything,” Cargill said, saying it would prevent the ATF from “coming after your brace, your triggers, all different parts and pieces that they’re trying to ban.”Everytown, a prominent gun control organization, responded to the decision by calling on Congress to “right this deadly wrong.”