WASHINGTON—U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on March 26, rejected a bid by gun rights activists to put on hold a ban by President Donald Trump’s administration on “bump stock” gun attachments that enable semi-automatic weapons to be fired rapidly.
Today, the Department of Justice’s final rule to prohibit the production, sale, and possession of bump stocks went into full effect. This is an important first step at the federal level among common-sense measures to keep Americans safe. https://t.co/tZqKYJrOBg
— Everytown (@Everytown) March 26, 2019
Justice Sonia Sotomayor has not yet acted on another similar request. The ban goes into effect on Tuesday but lower courts have yet to rule on appeals brought by gun rights activists in Michigan and the U.S. capital.
Trump pledged to ban the devices soon after a gunman used them to shoot and kill 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017. The Justice Department on Dec. 18 announced plans to implement the policy.
The federal ban on bump stocks goes into effect today.
The devices, which make a semi-automatic rifle fire rapidly like a fully-automatic, were used in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, cost $300 or less, and were not previously regulated. pic.twitter.com/TXNAc12tes
— AJ+ (@ajplus) March 26, 2019
A Washington-based federal district court judge in February upheld the ban, prompting gun rights advocates to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court heard oral arguments on Friday but has not yet ruled. The appeals court, however, say that the ban cannot go into effect in relation to the specific individuals and groups challenging it.
The action by Roberts concerned only the Washington case. The challengers in the Washington case include individual gun owners and gun rights groups such as the Firearms Policy Foundation and Florida Carry Inc.
In the Michigan case, a federal district court judge last week ruled in favor of the administration. The challengers include individuals and the gun rights group Gun Owners of America. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday refused to put the ban on hold pending appeal.
A ban on bump stocks took effect today as gun rights groups asked the Supreme Court for a delay https://t.co/bwxtRG90bo pic.twitter.com/4knx7uwiEz
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) March 26, 2019
Sotomayor is now weighing an emergency request in that case.
A Fort Worth arms retailer turned over its entire inventory of bump stocks to the ATF to be shredded and recycled, as the federal ban on the firearm accessory used in the Las Vegas massacre went into effect. https://t.co/GHbFHIoRUb pic.twitter.com/CgDJaxO6Lb
— ABC News (@ABC) March 27, 2019
VIDEO: Boxes of bump stocks being destroyed at a Fort Worth recycling center. Ban goes into effect today. #bumpstockban @CBSDFW pic.twitter.com/mcT5Xt2Vie
— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) March 26, 2019
On the day the administration announced plans to put the policy in place, gun rights advocates sued in federal court to challenge it. They have argued that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) lacks the authority to equate bump stocks with machine guns under a decades-old law.
One of the laws at the center of the legal dispute was written more than 80 years ago, when Congress restricted access to machine guns during the heyday of American gangsters’ use of “tommy guns.”
By Lawrence Hurley