On Friday, the US Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on firearms modifications that increase the speed of firing bullets from semi-automatic rifles. The Court ruled in a vote of six to three that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had exceeded its authority in 2018 when it classified bump stocks as light machine guns, which have been prohibited by law since 1934.
Judge Clarence Thomas explained that a semi-automatic rifle with a bump stock does not meet the definition of a light machine gun because it is capable of firing only one shot with each trigger pull, as required by law. The decision came in response to a case brought to light by the tragic mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, where 58 people were killed and over 500 were injured, most of whom were armed with assault rifles equipped with bump stocks.
Following this incident, President Trump vowed to ban bump stocks and ordered the ATF to do so after another deadly shooting occurred at a high school in Florida. In December 2018, the ATF declared bump stocks to be light machine guns and instructed their owners to either destroy them or surrender them within 90 days.
