Federal appeals court strikes down Trump-era bump stock ban

The Supreme Court will likely end up hearing a case in the near future that will decide whether a Trump-era ban on bump stocks will remain in place or whether the ban is unconstitutional after a federal appeals court struck down the ban this week.

The ban on bump stocks – devices that allow a semi-automatic weapon to fire multiple rounds automatically – went into place after the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 60 people and injured over 400. The gunman in that massacre used a bump stock to maximize the carnage, leading to a national ban on the parts.

On Friday, a New Orleans Federal Appeals Court ruled that the ban on bump stocks does not fall under the category of machine guns, while the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives does categorize them as such, and used that categorization as the crux of the ban.

“A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machine gun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act,” reads the majority opinion.

The court ruled on Friday that while the United States’ public largely supports a ban on bump stocks, the decision should be left to Congress, not the courts. The decision will now go back to a lower court, and will likely ultimately end up in the hands of the US Supreme Court.