The Supreme Court agreed Friday to rule on whether the Trump-era ban on bump stocks, gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire as rapidly as a machine gun, violates federal law.
The justices will hear arguments early next year on the rules put in place by the Justice Department after the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Federal appeals courts have made different decisions about whether regulations defining bump stocks as machine guns comply with federal law.
The justices said they would review the Biden administration’s appeal of a ruling by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that overturned the ban.
The Supreme Court is already weighing a challenge to another federal law that seeks to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders, a case stemming from a landmark decision in 2022 in which a six-justice conservative majority expanded gun rights.
The new case is not about the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms,” but rather whether the Trump administration complied with federal law in changing the bump stock rules.
A federal appeals court has ruled differently on whether rules defining bump stocks as machine guns are consistent with federal law.AP
The ban on bump stocks comes into effect in 2019.
It stems from the Las Vegas shooting in which the gunman, a 64-year-old postal service retiree and high-stakes gambler, used an assault-style rifle to fire more than 1,000 shots in 11 minutes at 22,000 music fans.
Most rifles have been fitted with bump stock devices and high capacity magazines. A total of 58 people were killed in the shooting, and two died later. Hundreds were injured.
The Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks is an about-face for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The Las Vegas shooting happened in 2017, when a 64-year-old retired postal service worker and high-stakes gambler used an assault-style rifle to fire more than 1,000 shots in 11 minutes into a crowd of 22,000 music fans.AP People attended a candlelight vigil for the Las Vegas Metro Police Officer who was killed during a shooting on Oct. 1. 2017.AFP/Getty Images
In 2010, under the Obama administration, the agency found that bump stocks could not be classified as machine guns and therefore should not be banned under federal law.
After the shooting in Las Vegas, officials reviewed the determination and found it was incorrect.
Bump stocks harness the recoil energy of semi-automatic firearms so that the trigger “resets and continues to fire without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter,” according to the ATF.
A custom-made semi-automatic hunting rifle with a high-capacity detachable magazine is on display at a gun shop in Rocklin, Calif., on Oct. 3. 2013.AP The interior of Stephen Paddock’s room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel following the shooting in Oct 2017.AP
A shooter must maintain constant forward pressure on the weapon with the non-firing hand and constant pressure on the trigger with the trigger finger, according to court records.
The full US 5th Circuit ruled 13-3 in January that Congress needs to change federal law to ban bump stocks.
“The definition of ‘machinegun’ as set forth in the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act does not apply to bump stocks,” wrote Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod for the 5th Circuit.
But a three-judge panel at a federal appeals court in Washington looked at the same language and came to a different conclusion.
Undated photo of Stephen Paddock, the gunman behind the Las Vegas shooting.AP Supreme Court decision expected in early summer in Garland v. Cargill, 22-976.AP
Judge Robert Wilkins wrote for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that “under the best interpretation of the statute, a bump stock is a self-regulating mechanism that allows a shooter to fire more than one shot through a single pull of the trigger.
As such, it is a machine gun under the National Firearms Act and the Arms Control Act.
A decision is expected in early summer in Garland v. Cargill, 22-976.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
