Bump stocks harness the recoil energy of a semiautomatic firearm so that a trigger "resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter," according to the ATF. A shooter must maintain constant forward pressure on the weapon with the non-shooting hand, and constant pressure on the trigger with the trigger finger, according to court records.
The full appeals court Friday sided with opponents of the ATF rule. They had argued that the trigger itself functions multiple times when a bump stock is used, so therefore bump stock weapons do not qualify as machine guns under federal law. They point to language in the law that defines a machine gun as one that fires multiple times with a "single function of the trigger."
"A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machinegun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act," Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote in the lead majority opinion.
Most of the majority also agreed that if the law is ambiguous, it’s up to Congress to address the issue under a court doctrine known as "lenity." In a dissent, Judge Stephen Higginson disagreed that bump stocks don’t fall under the federal definition of machine guns. And he wrote that the majority’s interpretation of the lenity principle was too broad. "Under the majority’s rule, the defendant wins by default whenever the government fails to prove that a statute unambiguously criminalizes the defendant’s conduct," Higginson wrote.
Seems like bump stocks are the only reason the media will mention the Vegas shooting.
Funny and Democrats think they can ban assault rifle…when bump stocks can’t even get bam now.
How are you gonna deny a free human the right to protect themselves from threats, foreign and domestic?
Such a dumb ban in the first place 🤦