Conservative Supreme Court justices strike down Trump-era ban on bump stocks after Las Vegas shooting by ruling they are not machine guns

The Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks on Friday in a victory for gun rights advocates.

The ban was passed following the use of bump stocks in the deadly 2017 shooting in Las Vegas. Fifty-eight people were killed making it the deadliest mass shooting by one gunman in American history.

But the Supreme Court struck down the ban in a six-three decision. The conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for the court. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote a concurring opinion.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the dissent and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In the case Garland v Cargill, gun owner Michael Cargill surrendered two bump stocks to the ATF following the ban but then filed a lawsuit.

A district court ruled bump stocks are in line with machine guns, but the ruling was reversed by an appeals court.

'We hold that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a “machinegun” because it cannot fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger,”' Thomas wrote in the majority opinion.

'And, even if it could, it would not do so “automatically.” ATF therefore exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a Rule that classifies bump stocks as machineguns,' he continued.

This story is developing and will be updated.