Jan 6 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a rule the Trump administration had adopted following a 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that banned “bump stocks,” devices that allow people to rapidly fire multiple rounds from semi-automatic guns.
In a 13-3 decision, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that despite “tremendous” public pressure to impose a ban, it was up to the U.S. Congress rather than the president to take action.
While the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives had interpreted a law banning machineguns as extending to bump stocks, U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod said the law did not unambiguously prohibit them.
Elrod, writing for the majority, said the law also did not give “fair warning that possession of a non-mechanical bump stock is a crime.”
One of the dissenting judges, Stephen Higginson, wrote that the majority employed reasoning “to legalize an instrument of mass murder.”
This came about because of a knee jerk reaction to a shooting event in Las Vegas, a shooting event with lots of shady stuff going out.
I less intreseted in the bump stock than the shady back story.
We will never know.
So does that mean that the manufacturer and bump stock owners that destroyed thousands of dollars worth of bump stocks to comply with this obvious unconstitutional rule will be reimbursed by the .gov? But, if I had to guess, it will be just like every other illegal government overreach where the guilty officials just shrug, say “my bad” and walk away.
If given the ability, I would pass a new Federal law which would apply equally to federal, state and local levels.
Any legislator who proposes for or votes for a law which is later found to be unconstitutional or any executive who signs such law if and when it is passes will be tried under 18 USC Section 242 - Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law. Punishments being up to and including capital punishment. I know some politicians think they are above the law, but it may scare the poop out of enough of them to stop the stupidity.
When an individual or unit has used either terrain or urban features to draw personnel into a no way out ambush except through your fully automatic field of fire.
To lay down suppressive fire to allow for maneuver on enemy positions.
What does this have to do with bump stocks?
A bump stocked AR15 on a bipod fills both of those roles surprisingly well especially with a Magpul drum magazine.
Of course the likelihood of deploying it that way is low, sometimes it’s more about just having the capability.
Of course I’m being dramatic. But ammo is too valuable for booger eating nonsense like bump stocks. They shouldn’t be banned, but they are level 10 retardation.
I really do wonder what’s going on in the AFT’s offices right now as they stare at this loss. The parallels are obviously there, whereby the agency is torturing established criminal code and “interpreting” it to include more than the law actually says. Between this and WV vs EPA, the courts are being pretty damn clear that agencies can’t fabricate new criminal law.
So the question is, will AFT go ahead and do it anyway under political pressure or will they hold off?
I think there’s a better than average chance they’ll do it anyway. By the time the dust settles and it’s overturned 2 years from now, all of the brace manufacturers will have been forced out of business and a good number of braces will have been removed from firearms in circulation.
They’ll lose in court later, but so what…Since there are no real penalties to ATF, it’s all upside.