The Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s 2017 ban on bump stocks, attachments used to increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic rifles, is unconstitutional.
In a 6-3 decision, the Court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its authority when it classified bump stocks as illegal machine guns.
“We have concluded that a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machine gun.'” [sic]”A single pull of the trigger does not fire more than one bullet,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion.
“Even if a semi-automatic rifle with a bump stock can fire multiple rounds with ‘a single pull of the trigger,’ that does not mean it does so ‘automatically,'” Thomas continued.
The Trump administration implemented the bump stock ban following the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas that left 60 people dead and hundreds injured.
Texas gun store owner Michael Cargill had challenged the ban.
