WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed President Donald Trump a victory by rejecting for the second time in three days a bid by gun rights activists to block his new ban on “bump stock” attachments that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly.

FILE PHOTO: A bump fire stock, (R), that attaches to a semi-automatic rifle to increase the firing rate is seen at Good Guys Gun Shop in Orem, Utah, U.S., October 4, 2017. REUTERS/George Frey/File Photo

The policy, embraced by Trump in the wake of an October 2017 massacre in Las Vegas in which bump stocks were used, went into effect on Tuesday. The ban is a rare recent instance of gun control at the federal level in a country that has experienced a succession of mass shootings.

The court in a brief order refused to grant a temporary stay sought by the group Gun Owners of America and others in a lawsuit filed in Michigan challenging the ban while litigation continues. Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday rejected a similar bid to block the policy in a separate legal challenge brought in Washington by individual gun owners and gun rights groups including the Firearms Policy Foundation and Florida Carry Inc.

Michael Hammond, Gun Owners of America’s legislative counsel, said many owners of the estimated 500,000 bump stocks in the United States would refuse to turn them in despite the ban and related criminal penalties. People caught in possession of bump stocks could face up to 10 years in prison under the policy.

“GOA will continue to fight the issue in the court system, as the case now returns to the lower courts. We remain convinced that the courts will consign this unlawful, unconstitutional ban to the trash bin of history, where it belongs,” Hammond said in a statement, using the group’s acronym.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said the administration was pleased with the high court’s action.

Bump stocks use a gun’s recoil to bump its trigger, enabling a semiautomatic weapon to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, which can transform it into a machine gun. The Justice Department’s regulation followed the lead of many states and retailers that imposed stricter limits on sales of guns and accessories after a deadly shooting at a Florida high school in February 2018.

LAS VEGAS SHOOTING

Trump pledged to ban bump stocks soon after a gunman used them in a spree that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas. The Justice Department on Dec. 18 announced plans to implement the policy on March 26.

The FBI said in January it had found no clear motive for the 64-year-old Las Vegas gunman, Stephen Paddock, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

In the Michigan case, a federal judge already has ruled in favor of the administration. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to put the ban on hold pending appeal. Other plaintiffs in that case include the Gun Owners Foundation, the Virginia Citizens Defense League and three individual gun owners.

In the Washington case, a federal judge also upheld the ban, prompting the gun rights advocates to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court has heard oral arguments but has not yet ruled.

Those challenging the policy have argued that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) lacks the authority to equate bump stocks with machine guns. 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.”

Trump’s fellow Republicans typically oppose gun control measures and favor of a broad interpretation of the right to bear arms promised in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment. In 2017, there were 39,773 gun deaths in the United States, according to the most recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures released in December.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request by gun rights activists to put on hold the Trump administration’s ban on “bump stock” attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to be fired rapidly, a rare recent instance of gun control at the federal level.

The court in a brief order refused to grant a temporary stay sought by plaintiffs including the group Gun Owners of America in a lawsuit filed in Michigan challenging the ban while litigation continues.

The policy took effect on Tuesday on the same day that Chief Justice John Roberts rejected a similar bid to delay implementation in a separate legal challenge brought in Washington by individual gun owners and gun rights groups including the Firearms Policy Foundation and Florida Carry Inc.

An appeals court previously exempted specific people and groups involved in the Washington case from the ban while that litigation proceeds.

President Donald Trump pledged to ban the devices soon after a gunman used them in an October 2017 shooting spree that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas. The Justice Department on Dec. 18 announced plans to implement the policy.

Bump stocks use a gun’s recoil to bump its trigger, enabling a semiautomatic weapon to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, which can transform it into a machine gun. The Justice Department’s regulation followed the lead of many states and retailers that imposed stricter limits on sales of guns and accessories after a deadly shooting at a Florida high school in February 2018.

In the Michigan case, a federal judge already has ruled in favor of the administration. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to put the ban on hold pending appeal. Other plaintiffs in that case include the Gun Owners Foundation, the Virginia Citizens Defense League and three individual gun owners.

In the Washington case, a federal judge also upheld the ban, prompting gun rights advocates to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court has heard oral arguments but has not yet ruled.

Those challenging the policy have argued that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) lacks the authority to equate bump stocks with machine guns. 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.”

Trump’s fellow Republicans typically oppose gun control measures and are protective of the right to bear arms promised in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment. In 2017, there were 39,773 gun deaths in the United States, according to the most recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures released in December.

The FBI said in January it had found no clear motive for the 64-year-old Las Vegas gunman, Stephen Paddock, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.</s>The Supreme Court won't stop the Trump administration from enforcing its ban on bump stock devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns.

The ban took effect Tuesday. Gun rights groups asked the court on Monday to stop the government from enforcing the ban for now. Chief Justice John Roberts declined one request for the court to get involved on Tuesday and a second request was declined by the court on Thursday. That was the only remaining request.

The administration's ban puts it in the unusual position of arguing against gun rights groups.

President Donald Trump said last year that the government would move to ban bump stocks. The action followed a 2017 Las Vegas shooting where bump stocks were used. Fifty-eight people were killed.</s>The Supreme Court will not stop the Trump administration's ban on bump stocks from going into effect, it was announced on Thursday.The ban on bump stocks was announced by the Justice Department in December 2018 and took effect on Tuesday. On Monday, the Supreme Court was considering an emergency request from Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation and the Virginia Citizens Defense League to stay the ban while cases challenging it were appealed.</s>Although local law enforcement hasn’t reported having a large amount of run-ins with the instrument, with Tuesday’s federal implementation of the bump stock ban, law enforcement is looking into how to enforce it.

Bump fire by use of a bump stock is the act of using the recoil of a semi-automatic firearm or revolver to fire shots in rapid succession at the cost of accuracy of individual shots.

The ban of bump stock devices was first announced on Dec. 18, 2018, by then-Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker who announced that the Department of Justice has amended the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), clarifying that bump stocks fall within the definition of “machine gun” under federal law, as such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the final rule is clarified by the definition of “machine gun” in the Gun Control Act (GCA) and National Firearms Act (NFA) to include bump-stock-type devices that allow a semiautomatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semiautomatic , so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation.

In short, those who own bump-stock-type devices must rid themselves of them. You can destroy the device, according to the AFT. That means completely melting, shredding or crushing the device to make it incapable of being restored to function.

Of course, the ATF suggest you abandon the devices at the nearest ATF offices and that it’s best to make an appointment beforehand. The closest drop point would be the ATF’s Oklahoma City Field Office, 901 NE 122nd Street, Suite 200.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to stop the Trump administration from enforcing its ban on bump stock devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns.

The ban took effect Tuesday. Gun rights groups asked the court Monday to keep the government from enforcing the ban for now. Chief Justice John Roberts declined one request for the court to get involved on Tuesday and a second request was declined by the court on Thursday. That was the only remaining request. The justices didn't say anything in declining it.

The administration's ban puts it in the unusual position of arguing against gun rights groups. President Donald Trump said last year that the government would move to ban bump stocks. The action followed a 2017 shooting in Las Vegas in which a gunman attached bump stocks to assault-style rifles he used to shoot concertgoers from his hotel room. By using the devices, which allow shots to be fired more rapidly, the gunman was able to fire more than 1,000 rounds in 11 minutes. Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds were injured.

The Trump administration's move was an about-face for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In 2010, under the Obama administration, the ATF found that the devices were legal. But under the Trump administration, officials revisited that determination and found it incorrect. The revised regulation, which went into effect Tuesday, requires owners either to destroy their bump stocks or surrender them. The government estimates hundreds of thousands of the devices have been sold.

The revised regulation was met with resistance from gun rights advocates, and several lawsuits were filed to try to stop the ATF from enforcing the ban. But lower courts have so far declined to keep the administration from moving forward with the ban, and the Supreme Court declined to get involved to halt it.</s>The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block the Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks, devices that effectively speed up how quickly rifles can be fired.

Groups supporting gun owners and opposing firearms restrictions have sharply criticized the bump stock ban and challenged it in court, including filing two petitions seeking to delay the ban from taking effect – which it did earlier this week.

Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday denied one such request, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor had asked for more filings in response to another. She referred that stay request to the full court, and Thursday the justices denied the petition. There were no noted dissents released by the court.

After a gunman used weapons with bump stocks attached during the October 2017 massacre in Las Vegas – killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more while firing at a country music festival – lawmakers began calling for the devices to be banned. President Donald Trump directed the Justice Department to change regulations and ban the devices in February 2018, shortly after a former student killed 17 people in a Parkland, Fla., high school; that attacker did not utilize bump stocks, but the carnage fueled a new push for new gun control measures.

The Justice Department announced the ban in December, declaring that bump stock owners had until Tuesday – the day the change was set to take effect – to either destroy the devices or hand them over to authorities. Under the change, the Justice Department said bump stocks would be classified as machine guns because they “allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.”

A Justice Department official said Tuesday that the department believed the ban had gone into effect as scheduled.

Pro-gun groups fighting the Trump administration’s bump stock ban in court have decried the action as government overreach and accused the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) of trying “to bull through this sea-change in interpretation and enforcement.” Responding on the Justice Department’s behalf Tuesday, Solicitor General Noel Francisco dismissed their arguments and describe the ban as legally sound and necessary for public safety.

“The protection of the public and law enforcement officers from the proliferation of prohibited firearms is a bedrock foundation of federal firearms legislation. . . . Implementation of the rule promotes that public interest by protecting the public from the dangers posed by machine guns prohibited by federal law,” Francisco wrote in a filing to the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Gun Owners of America, one of the groups that had asked Sotomayor to delay the ban until they can appeal a lower-court ruling, argued that the case had a broader meaning, saying that preventing the bump stock ban could keep “a future anti-gun president” from seeking to ban other firearms.

The Supreme Court’s decision Thursday does not end the legal fight but means that the ban will remain in effect while challenges continue. Michael Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, said in a statement that the group was “disappointed” and pledged that it would “continue to fight the issue in the court system, as the case now returns to the lower courts.”

Hammond also said the group predicted “that a large majority of the 500,000 bump stock owners will refuse to turn in their property in what they view as an illegal, unconstitutional gun grab.”

ATF has posted guides explaining how to destroy various bump stocks, urging people to follow these guidelines because otherwise the attempts at disabling the devices “may be legally insufficient.”
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• Letter: Gun owners are not a militia and certainly not ‘well-regulated’ A spokeswoman for ATF declined Wednesday to say how many bump stock devices had been turned over to them, saying it was “not discussing who has or has not abandoned bump stocks” with the bureau. The spokeswoman also said that number would not be “an accurate measure” of bump stocks people have shed, since some may opt to destroy them on their own or give them to other agencies.

In other cases, people with bump stocks had announced their plans to give them to federal authorities. RW Arms, a retailer in Fort Worth that sells gun parts and accessories, said in a statement Monday that it planned to turn over its “entire inventory of bump stocks” – 60,000 devices – to ATF to be destroyed. Bump stock options that had been posted on the retailer’s site were listed as out of stock Wednesday.</s>The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to stop the Trump administration from enforcing its ban on bump stock devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns.

Gun rights groups had asked the court Monday to temporarily keep the government from enforcing the ban - which took effect Tuesday.

Chief Justice John Roberts declined one request for the court to take up the case on Tuesday and a second and final request was declined by the court on Thursday.

Supreme Court justices didn't issue any statements or opinions with their decision to decline the case.

The administration's ban puts it in the unusual position of arguing against gun rights groups.

Republicans typically oppose gun control measures and are protective of the right to bear arms, which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.

President Donald Trump said in December that the government would move to ban bump stocks, a decision that followed a 2017 shooting in Las Vegas in which a gunman attached bump stocks to assault-style rifles so he could rapidly shoot concertgoers from his hotel room.

The devices allowed the gunman was to fire more than 1,000 rounds in 11 minutes. Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds were injured.

The Trump administration's move was an about-face for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In 2010, under the Obama administration, the ATF found that the devices were legal. But under the Trump administration, officials revisited that determination and found it incorrect.

The revised regulation requires owners either to destroy their bump stocks or surrender them. The government estimates hundreds of thousands of the devices have been sold.

The revised regulation was met with resistance from gun rights advocates, and several lawsuits were filed to try to stop the ATF from enforcing the ban.

But lower courts have so far declined to keep the administration from moving forward with the ban, and the Supreme Court declined to get involved to halt it.

Some 39,773 people died by gun in 2017 in the United States, according to the most recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.</s>The Supreme Court has declined to stop the Trump administration from enforcing its ban on “bump-stock” devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns.

Ahead of the ban, which took effect on Tuesday, gun right groups had asked the court to stop the government from enforcing the ban.

“This case represents the single biggest A.T.F. seizure of private property in history,” their lawyers wrote, “made even more noxious because all existing bump stocks were manufactured and purchased in accordance with A.T.F. rulings approving their sale.”

Under the regulation, Americans who own bump stocks have 90 days to destroy their devices or to turn them in to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. An appeals court previously exempted specific people and groups involved in the Washington case from the ban while that case continues.



 Banning bump stocks is easy but the way it was arbitrarily done with a “rule” by a bureaucracy, sets a very dangerous precedent.

Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco, representing the administration, urged the justices to deny the stay in the case, Gun Owners of America v. Barr, No. 18A963.

“The protection of the public and law enforcement officers from the proliferation of prohibited firearms is a bedrock foundation of federal firearms legislation,” he wrote, adding that the regulation “promotes that public interest by protecting the public from the dangers posed by machine guns prohibited by federal law.”

And now, as AP reports, Chief Justice John Roberts declined one request for the court to get involved on Tuesday and a second request was declined by the court on Thursday.

The administration’s ban puts it in the unusual position of arguing against gun rights groups.



 Alex Jones coins a new word while breaking down how elites manipulate online comments to control content creators.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t stop the Trump administration from enforcing its ban on bump stock devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns.

The ban took effect Tuesday. Gun rights groups asked the court on Monday to stop the government from enforcing the ban for now. Chief Justice John Roberts declined one request for the court to get involved on Tuesday and a second request was declined by the court on Thursday. That was the only remaining request.

The administration’s ban puts it in the unusual position of arguing against gun rights groups.

President Donald Trump said last year that the government would move to ban bump stocks. The action followed a 2017 Las Vegas shooting where bump stocks were used. Fifty-eight people were killed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The Supreme Court of the United States rejects a request by gun rights activists to grant a temporary stay on the Trump administration's ban on bump stock attachments that allow semi-automatic firearms to be fired rapidly. The policy took effect Tuesday after a similar bid to delay implementation was rejected.