The US Supreme Court has recently lifted a ban on gun accessories that was put in place in 2019, ruling that the Trump administration had acted illegally. In a 6-3 vote, the court declared that the ban on “multi-talking” imposed by the former President Donald Trump’s administration was unlawful and therefore lifted related restrictions.
The ruling came after a lawsuit was filed by Michael Cargill, a Texas firearms store owner and gun rights advocate, who accused US federal agencies of misinterpreting the machine gun ban and imposing unjust restrictions. The lawsuit was defended by representatives of the current President Joe Biden’s administration.
In his statement following the verdict, Supreme Justice Clarence Thomas emphasized that a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a machine gun stock does not turn it into a machine gun as it only fires one shot per trigger pull. The ban on gun accessories was put in place following the mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017 that left 58 people dead.
The machine gun accessory allows individuals with disabilities to operate firearms more easily and enables semi-automatic rifles to fire an entire magazine with just one trigger pull. Despite its high rate of fire, it does not technically turn the weapon into a machine gun as it only supports the trigger pull of the gunner’s finger after each shot.
The US government had allowed commercialization of handgun accessory in 2010 after determining it did not violate federal laws. The fast rate of fire provided by this accessory does not necessarily make it more dangerous but allows for greater density of fire, resulting in more casualties in a shorter period.
