cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15645865
If the Supreme Court rules that bump stocks aren’t machine guns later this summer, it could quickly open an unfettered marketplace of newer, more powerful rapid-fire devices.
The Trump administration, in a rare break from gun rights groups, quickly banned bump stocks after the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert that was the deadliest in U.S. history. In the ensuing years, gun rights groups challenged the underlying rationale that bump stocks are effectively machine guns — culminating in a legal fight now before the Supreme Court.
Practicality/public safety aside, I was always skeptical of the actual legal grounds of bans/potential bans on things like the bump stock ban, forced reset triggers, etc. Not too surprised by this, the law says one shot per trigger pull so neither of the devices technically violate that rule.
Don’t get me wrong, I think people should at least be required to pass a background check and get special training for stuff like this, but I also think the NFA is kind of crazy and has a lot of arbitrary rules that don’t make anyone safer (like what is and isn’t a short barrelled rifle, suppressors, etc.)
That law doesn’t say that. It says this:
"by a single function of the trigger. "
And this is where the legal arguments are sitting in court. Is the “single function”:
or
Various courts have ruled if the written rule means the first or the second. Under a single definition bump stocks would be allowed, on the other, they are not allowed.