Schumer urges Congress to pass ban on bump stocks after Supreme Court ruling

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday urged Congress to create and pass a bill that would ban the use of bump stocks on semi-automatic guns, after the Supreme Court overturned the Trump-era ban.

The high court ruled in a 6-3 opinion on Friday that the devices do not actually turn semi-automatic weapons into full machine guns as critics claimed, and that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms overstepped its authority by imposing the ban on the devices. The ban was implemented by former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, which killed 60 people.

Schumer claimed that the Supreme Court was even further to the political right than Trump, and urged Congress to pass legislation that closes the loophole that allows bump stocks to be used by the public. The Democrat also claimed that he would need votes from Senate Republicans in order to achieve this ban.

“The far-right Supreme Court continues their unprecedented assault on public safety by reversing the commonsense guidance issued in 2018 by the ATF," Schumer said in a statement. "Bump stocks have played a devastating role in many of the horrific mass shootings in our country, but sadly it’s no surprise to see the Supreme Court roll back this necessary public safety rule as they push their out of touch extreme agenda ... Senate Democrats are ready to pass legislation to ban bump stocks but we will need votes from Senate Republicans."

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the majority opinion, claimed that the device did not make the semi-automatic weapons into machine guns because it does not give rifles the ability to fire multiple shots with just one press of the trigger. 

“Even if one aspect of the weapon’s operation could be seen as ‘automatic,’ that would not mean the weapon ‘shoots … automatically more than one shot … by a single function of the trigger,’” Thomas wrote. “Thus, even if a semiautomatic rifle could fire more than one shot by a single function of the trigger, it would not do so ‘automatically.'"

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.