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.
Rules-making agencies have to conform to the the statute when issuing rules. They can interpret within the bounds defined by the law, but they aren’t allowed to invent regulation wholesale.
That’s kind of the point of this suit. The ATF’s rule appears to conflict with the statutory text; if the court decides that to be the case, then the statute takes precedent and the rule gets invalidated.