Lone Republican Thwarts Democrat-Led Bump Stock Ban

Last week, we reported on the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse a ban on bump stocks. Now, less than seven days later, a Republican senator has thwarted a new bump stock ban led by Democrat lawmakers.

Republican Senator Thwarts Democrat-Led Bump Stock Ban

On June 15, 2024 the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Garland v Cargill to reverse a ban on bump stocks. Although the Supreme Court reversed the Trump-era ban, Justice Samuel Alito added a caveat to the decision.

Background

The National Firearms Act (NFA), passed in 1934, has legally defined what a “machinegun” is for nearly 100 years. The NFA specifically states that “any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger” is a machinegun.

Bump stocks are firearm accessories that allow a semi-auto gun to simulate fully automatic fire. They achieve this by harnessing a gun’s natural recoil to slide the receiver against the shooter’s finger. In this way, bump stocks circumvent the NFA definition of “machineguns” by exploiting a legal loophole.

In his concurring opinion, Alito said that there was nothing stopping Congress from drafting a new ban to close this loophole.

That led New Mexico Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich called for Congress to approve a new bump stock ban on June 20. A Republican Senator, Maine’s Susan Collins, co-sponsored the bill.

New Developments

Heinrich called for the vote using a process called unanimous consent. Under this rule, the Senate can expedite a new law if every member of the assembly agrees to do so.

Every Democrat-aligned senator consented to expedite the new bump stock ban. However, Senator Pete Ricketts, a Republican from Nebraska, objected. This effectively blocked the initiative, and prevented the Senate from fast-tracking the new ban.

It remains to be seen whether Heinrich will continue trying to push his proposed bump stock ban forward.

A bump stock on an AKM.

The Big Picture

Many politicians are insisting that bump stocks are indeed machineguns. However, that’s not true – and the Supreme Court decision has confirmed that.

The firearms world felt the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision immediately. Less than 24 hours after the ban was lifted, some enterprising gun owners had already listed their pre-ban bump stocks for sale on sites like Gunbroker.

The decision is likely to impact another firearms-related Supreme Court case in the future. Michael Cargill, an Army veteran and Texas gun shop owner, was the plaintiff in the bump stock case.

Cargill is also the plaintiff in another Supreme Court case regarding forced reset triggers (“FRTs”). These types of triggers work similarly to bump stocks to increase a firearm’s rate of fire. Since Cargill is making the same basic argument in both cases, it’s likely that the Supreme Court will declare FRTs legal under current law as well.

If he wins both of these cases, Cargill will be one of the biggest Second Amendment advocates in a generation. We’ll see how this pans out.