Supreme Court invalidates Trump-era bump stock ban

The Supreme Court invalidated the Trump-era ban on bump stocks along ideological lines on Friday, ending the nationwide ban on the devices, which convert semi-automatic weapons to fire hundreds of rounds per minute.

The Biden administration defended the regulation in front of the high court after the Trump administration first implemented it in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, the deadliest in U.S. history. The shooter had used a bump stock to kill 58 people and wound hundreds of others.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations have since made possessing the devices a criminal offense by newly classifying them as machine guns under longstanding federal law.

In a 6-3 decision authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the court said the classification is an impermissible reading of the law, ruling in favor of the challenger.

Michael Cargill, an Austin-based gun store owner, challenged the bump stock ban after surrendering two in 2019. He was backed by the National Rifle Association and other major gun advocacy groups.

The case did not implement the Second Amendment but instead asked whether the Trump administration, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), stretched the statutory definition of machine guns too far to cover bump stocks.

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