Clarence Thomas writes Supreme Court law overturning Trump's bump stock ban
The Supreme Court legalized Bump stocks on Friday in a landmark ruling.
Bump stocks are devices that modify a semi-automatic rifle and ultimately turn it into a rapid-firing one.
Donald Trump's administration classified that bump stocks make a semi-automatic gun a machine gun, which is illegal in the U.S.
But, according to Clarence Thomas who was writing for the majority, bump stock guns require that the trigger still be held to continue firing — thus it still takes the shooter's effort.
“A bump stock does not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun any more than a shooter with a lightning-fast trigger finger does,” he wrote in his opinion. “Even with a bump stock, a semiautomatic rifle will fire only one shot for every ‘function of the trigger.’”
The ruling declared the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its authority with the ban by declaring it makes legal semi-automatic weapons into illegal machine guns.
The Supreme Court's vote 6 to 3, with liberal members angrily dissenting.
A bump stock was used in the 2017 mass shooting at the concert in Las Vegas that killed 60 people.