The US Supreme Court has struck down a Trump-era ban on rapid-fire gun accessories known as bump stocks.The high court is soon expected to rule in another case, challenging a federal law intended to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have their own bans on bump stocks that are not expected to be affected by the ruling, though four state bans may no longer cover bump stocks in the wake of the ruling, according to the gun-control group Everytown. The court's 6-3 majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, found the Justice Department was wrong to declare that bump stocks transformed semi-automatic rifles into illegal machine guns because, he wrote, each trigger depression in rapid succession still only released one shot.
As Trump courts gun owners while running to retake the presidency, he has appeared to play down his own administration's actions on bump stocks, telling NRA members in February that "nothing happened" on guns during his presidency despite "great pressure".A total of 60 people were killed during the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, including Christiana Duarte, whose family called Friday's ruling tragic.
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