The 5th circuit Court of appeals struck down the Trump bump stock ban today, but not on 2A grounds. The appellant said that a bump stock can’t be a machine gun because the law defines a machine gun as one that fires multiple times with a “single function of the trigger” and a bump stock causes the trigger to function multiple times.
The government argued that the key is the action of the shooter, who only has to do one thing, the shooter’s trigger finger isn’t doing anything other than sitting still.
That would be a great argument if the law said a machine gun is one that fires multiple shots with a single action taken by the shooter, but that isn’t what the law says. It specifically says “single function of the trigger.”
7 Comments
Jonathan · January 6, 2023 at 9:06 pm
I’m glad to hear this, I thought the fight was dead on this issue.
The disagreement between courts pretty much guarantees the Supreme Court will take up the issue. What they’ll rule is anyone’s guess…
Chris · January 6, 2023 at 11:06 pm
We Shall See.
neomunitor · January 7, 2023 at 8:44 am
Now let’s see them do forced reset triggers. Should be a slam dunk.
ruralcounsel · January 8, 2023 at 3:36 pm
Sounds almost like a patent infringement-style argument. Parsing the words means everything. Now wait to see the definition of machine gun get modified, just like they did to the word “recession.” Never trust these mother f*ckers.
Divemedic · January 8, 2023 at 7:12 pm
Except changing the definition of a machine gun literally requires an act of Congress.
Gryphon · January 9, 2023 at 6:11 pm
“Changing the Definition of a Machine Gun” takes what, the Votes of 5 or 6 RINO’s ?
At some point, these ridiculous ‘laws’ will be all too Easy to Ignore, i.e. if “Assault Weapons” (semi-autos) are “Banned”, what percentage of Owners decide they may as well “Drop in the Fun Switch” because it won’t be “Any More illegal”.
Divemedic · January 9, 2023 at 6:57 pm
In both the House AND the Senate. With both houses of Congress being as deadlocked as they are, the likelihood of that (for at least the next two years) is rather low.
Realistically, I don’t see the politics going that way during this term.
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