Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-Minn.) didn’t mince words when he shared his thoughts about the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to strike down the bump stock ban.
In an interview with CNN, Heinrich argued that Justice Clarence Thomas had not been honest about what constitutes a bump stock, a modification that makes it easier for a shooter to fire multiple bullets quickly.
In his written opinion, Justice Thomas said the stock “does not transform a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun, any more than a shooter with lightning-fast trigger powers would.”
CNN host Brianna Keilar played a segment from a YouTube video that showed an AR-15 rifle being fired with and without a bump stock, and noted the difference in how the gun performed in both cases.
She then asked for the senator’s reaction to Thomas’ comments.
“He’s not being honest. I know how these things work. I’ve not only seen the videos, I’ve used some of these weapons,” he said. “He’s not being honest about what this does, and it’s very dangerous.”
Heinrich added that bump stocks have “no legitimate use.”
“Who is going to use these bump stocks? Street gangs, drug cartels, mass shooters,” Heinrich said. “And innocent Americans are going to die because of this decision. It’s deeply disturbing.”
His comments came after the Supreme Court ruled against the restrictions put in place by former President Trump following the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, the deadliest in U.S. history, in which a gunman used a bump stock to kill 60 people and wound hundreds more.
The Biden administration has repeatedly pressed Congress to pass legislation banning all semi-automatic rifles and has long advocated for the ban.
But in an ideologically-lined 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court found that the classification went beyond the scope of the law, ruling in favor of a Texas gun store owner who challenged the ban after returning two bump stocks.
Following the ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a stern dissent, arguing that the decision “eviscerates” machine gun regulations.
“Today, the Supreme Court has put bump stocks back into the hands of private citizens,” Justice Sotomayor said, joining liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. I have written“In doing so, the bill ignores Congress’ definition of ‘machine gun,’ adopting a definition that is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the statutory text, and is not supported by context or purpose.”
