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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Thursday, February 29, 2024

The Supreme Court is looking at the bump stocks that caused the Las Vegas music festival shooting to be so deadly.

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FTA:

On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on the crowds at a music festival in Las Vegas from the 32nd floor of a hotel across the street. It lasted just 10 horrific minutes. Yet in that time, the shooter fired more than 1,000 rounds, killing 60 people and wounding at least 413. He was only able to achieve this carnage by attaching bump stocks to semiautomatic rifles, radically increasing their rate of fire"from 180 rounds a minute to a maximum of 800 rounds a minute. The bump stocks effectively transformed rifles into machine guns. Donald Trump's administration quickly took action, clarifying that these dangerous devices are illegal under federal law.

On Wednesday, however, the Supreme Court indicated an inclination, if not an outright hunger, to invalidate the ban. The morning's oral arguments in Garland v. Cargill provided an ominous sign that five justices may make such weapons of mass slaughter legal once again. Should they follow through, civilians will regain access to a device whose sole purpose is to kill hundreds of people in a single minute.

This gruesome prospect is the result of devious and dishonest lawyering on the part of the gun lobby, abetted by judges who pretend not to know better. The bump stock ban is hardly liberal overreach"it was, after all, enacted by Trump's Department of Justice in conjunction with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Nor is it a dubious fit under existing federal law, which prohibits any device that enables automatic firing. But this particular ban sits at the intersection of two obsessions on the legal right: demolishing gun safety legislation and dismantling the administrative state. It was inevitable, then, that the far-right 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would find the ban unlawful. And given the current Supreme Court's pro-gun extremism, it was always going to be an uphill climb to persuade a majority that the ban should stand.


#1 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-02-28 11:11 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Conservatives are responsible for the Las Vegas shooter.

theintercept.com

#2 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2024-02-29 12:07 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Donald Trump's administration quickly took action, clarifying that these dangerous devices are illegal under federal law.

#1 | POSTED BY GAL_TUESDAY AT 2024-02-28 11:11 PM | FLAG:

Yet another in the Don's long line of illegal activities.

The ATF clarified multiple times during the Obama admin that a bump stock does not turn a semi-automatic firearm into a machine gun.

#3 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-02-29 07:49 AM | Reply

No one should ever forget that anti-2nd amendment dictator wannabe Donalt Trunk turned a whole lot of law abiding citizens into felons with this executive order.

Why was he so hell bent on disarming us?

It might have something to do the fact that he was never planning on leaving office, right?

Those democrats though, they sure do despise guns and gun owners...

#4 | Posted by tres_flechas at 2024-02-29 09:33 AM | Reply

"Amy Coney Barrett Gets to Decide If Machine Guns Are Legal"

Describe " Machine Gun"

#5 | Posted by HanoverFist at 2024-02-29 09:33 AM | Reply

The ATF clarified multiple times during the Obama admin that a bump stock does not turn a semi-automatic firearm into a machine gun.

#3 | POSTED BY SITZKRIEG

Was the reasoning that it didn't modify the sear?

Because functionally, they do.

#6 | Posted by jpw at 2024-02-29 09:36 AM | Reply

Bump firing exists without bump stocks. Bump stocks make that shooting technique somewhat easier. No matter what it's one trigger pull, one bullet, the definition of semi-automatic. There is no sear modification created by this setup at all, even functionally.

"In order to use the installed device, the shooter must apply constant forward pressure with the non-shooting hand and constant rearward pressure with the shooting hand," Spencer said. "Accordingly, we find that the bump-stock' is a firearm part and is not regulated as a firearm under Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act."

"The FTISB examination of the submitted device indicates that if as a shot is fired " and a sufficient amount of pressure is applied to the handguard/gripping surface with the shooter's support hand " the AR-type rifle assembly will come forward until the trigger re-contacts the shooter's stationary firing-hand trigger finger: Re-contacting allows the firing of a subsequent shot. In this manner, the shooter pulls the receiver assembly forward to fire each shot, each succeeding shot firing with a single trigger function."

#7 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-02-29 10:29 AM | Reply

Also bump stocks come in a lot of different styles, so you can find grounds to ban a model like the Akins Accelerator, but not the SlideFire. The Accelerator modified the fire control group.

#8 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-02-29 10:31 AM | Reply

I'm well aware there's no seat modification. That's why I pointed out the technicality of the ruling.

But the stocks do functionally make the weapon a "machine gun."

In any case, I don't really care. I don't own one. Have no plans to own one. Have only tracked this case because it's a perfect example of how frothy 2A advocates get at any "infringement."

#9 | Posted by jpw at 2024-02-29 10:39 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Functionally most models do not make the weapon a machine gun, as noted repeatedly by the ATF. The ones that do get banned.

The definition doesn't change on opinion. It takes an Act of Congress.

#10 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-02-29 10:41 AM | Reply

It's rather ironic that the Trump SCOTUS may take down one of the very few things that Trump actually did right.

#11 | Posted by Whatsleft at 2024-02-29 02:07 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

What part of "effectively" don't folks understand? (emphasis mime):

On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on the crowds at a music festival in Las Vegas from the 32nd floor of a hotel across the street. It lasted just 10 horrific minutes. Yet in that time, the shooter fired more than 1,000 rounds, killing 60 people and wounding at least 413. He was only able to achieve this carnage by attaching bump stocks to semiautomatic rifles, radically increasing their rate of fire"from 180 rounds a minute to a maximum of 800 rounds a minute. The bump stocks effectively transformed rifles into machine guns. Donald Trump's administration quickly took action, clarifying that these dangerous devices are illegal under federal law.

#12 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-02-29 03:27 PM | Reply

l someone please call all the victims of that Las Vegas shooter and infoem them that they aren't dead because some ass***e said the bump stocks really didn't turn those AR14s into machine guns. I suspect the victims really don't care about the technical definition of the weapons used to kill them. If they do have any comments I suspect thry will be more about civillians having weapons of war available to them.

#13 | Posted by danni at 2024-02-29 04:42 PM | Reply

Not being allowed to legally modify your assault weapon to fire 800 times a minute is the destruction of democracy!
#23 | POSTED BY BELLRINGER

#14 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-02-29 05:00 PM | Reply

The ATF clarified multiple times during the Obama admin that a bump stock does not turn a semi-automatic firearm into a machine gun.

Do you rely on Barack Obama and his handpicked cabinet heads for all of your legal positions or just the ones you like?

#15 | Posted by JOE at 2024-02-29 05:06 PM | Reply

#15 | POSTED BY JOE AT 2024-02-29 05:06 PM | FLAG:

That was for you. Let me restate it more factually since you think it's partisan.

The ATF clarified multiple times across Democrat and Republican administrations that bump stocks that do not modify the FCG are legal and do not make semi-automatic weapons into fully-automatic weapons.

#16 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-02-29 07:06 PM | Reply

To change this requires an Act of Congress, not an Executive Order. Full stop.

#17 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-02-29 07:07 PM | Reply

Trump knowing it was unconstitutional, passed the EO. So Joe, do you support Trump's constitutional violations and executive overreach for all your legal positions or just the ones you like?

#18 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-02-29 07:09 PM | Reply

To change this requires an Act of Congress, not an Executive Order. Full stop.
#17 | POSTED BY SITZKRIEG

Even the tiniest gun control measure requires an Act of Congress.

But there's no "historical tradition of firearm regulation" when it comes to bump stocks.

So the Act of Congress will be just as illegal as the Executive Order.

#19 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-02-29 08:00 PM | Reply

I love it when privates with no education think they're Constitutional scholars.

#20 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2024-03-01 12:40 AM | Reply

So Joe, do you support Trump's constitutional violations and executive overreach for all your legal positions or just the ones you like?

Just the ones i like. Gun violence and the current day "interpretation" of the 2A is such a travesty that i would support ATF officers throwing a stun grenade into your living room and taking every gun in the house.

#21 | Posted by JOE at 2024-03-01 09:42 AM | Reply

Just the ones i like.

#21 | POSTED BY JOE AT 2024-03-01 09:42 AM | FLAG:

lol, well, there you are. Trumper when convenient.

#22 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-03-01 11:38 AM | Reply

At least i'm honest about my bias. You'll get there someday.

#23 | Posted by JOE at 2024-03-01 11:49 AM | Reply

So it comes down to the definition of what IS is.

Semantics sham-antics.

I don't care how it's accomplished but if a weapon can fire hundreds of rounds a minute and you don't have to keep squeezing the trigger then it's a frickin machine gun.

#24 | Posted by donnerboy at 2024-03-01 11:59 AM | Reply

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