The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit concluded Friday, by a 13-3 majority, that bump stocks are subject to regulatory gun control, thereby nullifying Trump’s ban on the devices.
The court reportedly wants Congress to regulate firearms rather than the president.
The majority opinion was written by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, who said that lawmakers who approved bump stock legislation did not provide “sufficient notice that possession of a non-mechanical bump stock constituted a felony.”
The ATF published the final version of the regulation on December 18, and people were purportedly given 90 days to hand in their bump stocks. Breitbart News first reported the news.
During that time, the Department of Justice provided Breitbart News with the following synopsis of the ban:
The Justice Department is changing ATF rules to clarify that devices like bump stocks, which turn semiautomatic rifles into fully automatic ones with a single pull of the trigger, are considered “machineguns” under the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968.
An article study shows that using a bump stock with a semiautomatic handgun can boost its fire rate by decreasing the time the trigger is depressed between shots. By definition, this “semiautomatic weapon” with a bump stock is a “machinegun” because of its “self-acting or self-regulating” character.
The trigger can still be pulled and reset if a bump stock is attached to a semiautomatic handgun. A WGRZ article from January 6, 2022, reports that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the weapon in question does not qualify as a machine gun.
Based on “a simple reading of the legislative language, coupled with a thorough investigation of the mechanics of a semiautomatic handgun,” Judge Elrod determines that bump stocks do not technically fulfill the definition of “machinegun” under the Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act.