Everytown Responds to Supreme Court’s Cargill Decision Striking Down ATF Rule Prohibiting Bump Stocks

NEW YORK – Today, the United States Supreme Court struck down a rule issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to prohibit the production, sale, and possession of bump stocks, devices that are designed and intended to convert semi-automatic firearms into machine guns.

As a result, the deadly bump stocks used in our nation’s deadliest mass shooting are once again legal in a majority of states across the country. Any states that do not have their own laws on the books restricting bump stocks will immediately find that bump stocks are legal—and people can easily turn assault weapons into machine guns. With this decision, most protections against bump stocks have completely disappeared, with as many as 35 states immediately impacted.

“Guns outfitted with bump stocks fire like machine guns, they kill like machine guns, and they should be banned like machine guns — but the Supreme Court just decided to put these deadly devices back on the market,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “We urge Congress to right this wrong and pass bipartisan legislation banning bump stocks, which are accessories of war that have no place in our communities.”

“Communities are still grieving the damage bump stocks can cause following the mass shooting at Route 91 Harvest Festival. Despite the real and present danger bump stocks present, the Supreme Court has just opened the door for these accessories to be legalized once again in a majority of states across the country,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “But this decision won’t slow our movement down: Congress can fix this. Our volunteers will be taking action, from the streets to the ballot boxes, to ensure our Representatives hear our demands and correct this deadly mistake.”

“Today, the Supreme Court failed to right the Fifth Circuit’s wrong, putting millions at risk of harm. It remains our belief that the ATF had the authority to categorize bump stocks as machine guns and keep them out of our communities,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law. “Machine guns – guns capable of automatic firing – have been tightly regulated under federal law since the 1930s, and bump stocks and other conversion devices are designed to skirt the law and mimic automatic gunfire. This decision by the high court is dangerous and wrong. The ATF must be undeterred in continuing to aggressively enforce our nation’s gun laws.”

“I have lived through the terror and trauma that comes from when a gun is equipped with a bump stock, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” said Geena Marano Springmann, a Moms Demand Action volunteer from Las Vegas. Geena and her sister, Marisa, survived the mass shooting at Route 91 Harvest Festival, where a gunman, using AR-style rifles equipped with bump stocks, killed 60 people and wounded at least 411. “We have the answers to combat gun violence in the United States. But today, the Supreme Court got it wrong and issued a decision that will only put more lives in the line of fire. This is a stain on the memory of those killed, wounded or impacted by the events of that night in 2017.”

Litigation and policy experts as well as survivors of bump-stock related gun violence are available for interviews to discuss. Please reach out to [email protected] for more.

Following the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history at the Las Vegas 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival, where a gunman, using AR-15-style rifles equipped with bump stocks, killed 60 people and wounded at least 411, the ATF issued a new rule to prohibit the production, sale, and possession of bump stocks. Immediately after ATF finalized this lifesaving new rule, the gun lobby filed suit to block it. Though two appeals courts upheld the rule, extremist judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals eventually struck down the rule, effectively legalizing bump stocks in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Today’s Supreme Court decision in Garland v. Cargill opens the door for these deadly accessories to be bought, sold, and possessed in a majority of states across the country. 

A “bump stock” is a device that harnesses the recoil of a semi-automatic firearm to fire several shots in succession, mimicking automatic fire. One distributor, Slide Fire Solutions, advertised that its bump stocks enabled a shooter to fire 100 rounds in seven seconds. These devices are a blatant attempt to skirt around the National Firearms Act (NFA), which has successfully regulated the sale of machine guns and other deadly weapons for nearly a century.

Last summer, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich, Susan Collins and Catherine Cortez Masto introduced the Banning Unlawful Machinegun Parts (BUMP) Act, bipartisan legislation to prohibit the sale of bump stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic firearms to increase their rate of fire and effectively operate as fully automatic weapons. Representatives Dina Titus, Brian Fitzpatrick and Dan Kildee introduced similar bipartisan legislation, the Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act, in the House.