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WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 21: Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. Clarence Thomas has now served on the Supreme Court for 30 years. He was nominated by former President George H. W. Bush in 1991 and is the second African-American to serve on the high court, following Justice Thurgood Marshall.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a Trump-era ban on bump stocks that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns is unlawful.
The justices, in a 6-3 decision, said that the Trump administration did not follow federal law when the Trump administration banned bump stocks following the massacre at a Las Vegas music festival in 2017 that left more than 60 people dead, the Associated Press reported.
The gunman fired off more than 1,000 rounds in about 11 minutes.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said a weapon equipped with a bump stock cannot be classified as a "machine gun" because it is unable to fire more than one shot "by a single function of the trigger."
"And, even if it could, it would not do so 'automatically.' ATF therefore exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a Rule that classifies bump stocks as machineguns," Thomas wrote, referring to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that reversed its longstanding definition on machine guns after the Las Vegas shooting.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote the dissent along with the other two liberal members of the court, said the decision will have "deadly consequences."
The National Rifle Association heralded the ruling.
"The Supreme Court has properly restrained executive branch agencies to their role of enforcing, and not making, the law. This decision will be pivotal to NRA's future challenges of ATF regulations," Randy Kozuch, the executive director of the NRA said in a statement on X.
🚨NRA STATEMENT ON GARLAND v. CARGILL:
— NRA (@NRA) June 14, 2024
“The Supreme Court has properly restrained executive branch agencies to their role of enforcing, and not making, the law. This decision will be pivotal to NRA's future challenges of ATF regulations." - Randy Kozuch, NRA-ILA Exec. Dir.
Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control advocay group, said the high court's ruling will put "millions at risk of harm."
"Machine guns - guns capable of automatic firing - have been tightly regulated under federal law since the 1930s, and bump stocks and other conversion devices are designed to skirt the law and mimic automatic gunfire," Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown, said in a statement.
"This decision by the high court is dangerous and wrong. The ATF must be undeterred in continuing to aggressively enforce our nation's gun laws," he said.
The law was challenged by a Texas gun shop owner who argued the Justice Department was wrong in classifying bump stocks as illegal machine guns.
