The Supreme Court will rule to ban the rapid-fire firearms used in the Las Vegas mass shooting

Washington (AFP) – supreme court A decision was agreed on Friday on whether the ban would be imposed under Trump Stock bumpgun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire as quickly as machine guns, violate federal law.

The justices are scheduled to hear arguments early next year on the regulation then set by the Justice Department Mass shooting in Las Vegas In 2017.

Federal appeals courts have reached differing decisions on whether the regulation defining the bulky stock as a machine gun is consistent with federal law.

The Supreme Court is already considering a challenge to another federal law that seeks to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders, a case that stems from… Historic decision in 2022 The conservative majority of six justices expanded gun rights.

The new case is not about the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms,” but rather whether the Trump administration followed federal law in changing the regulation of bump stocks.

The ban on bump stocks went into effect in 2019. The ban stemmed from the Las Vegas shooting in which the gunman, a 64-year-old retired postal service worker and high-stakes gambler, used assault rifles to fire more than 1,000 rounds in 11 minutes. In front of a crowd of 22,000 music fans.

Most rifles are equipped with stock devices and high-capacity magazines. The shooting killed 58 people, and two died later. Hundreds were injured.

The Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks marked a sea change for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In 2010, under the Obama administration, the agency found that a stockpile of machine guns should not be classified as a machine gun and therefore should not be banned under federal law.

After the shooting in Las Vegas, officials reconsidered this decision and found it incorrect.

Bump stocks exploit the recoil energy of a semi-automatic firearm so that the trigger is reset and firing continues without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter, according to the ATF.

The shooter must maintain constant forward pressure on the weapon with the non-shooting hand, and constant pressure on the trigger with the trigger finger, according to court records.

Full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Ruling 13-3 This past January, Congress will have to change federal law to ban bump stocks.

“The definition of ‘machine gun’ as set forth in the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act does not apply to stocks,” Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote for the Fifth Circuit.

But a three-judge panel on the federal appeals court in Washington looked at the same language and reached a different conclusion.

Judge Robert Wilkins wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that “under the best interpretation of the law, a bump stock is a self-regulating mechanism that allows the shooter to fire more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger. As such, it is a machine gun under the gun law.” National Firearms and Gun Control Act.

The decision is expected by early summer.