Supreme Court strikes down ban on bump stocks, used during deadly 2017 Las Vegas shooting

Decision comes as demolition begins at high school in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed in 2018 mass shooting

A bump stock device is shown next to a AK-47 semi-automatic rifle at a gun store in Salt Lake City, Utah. Getty Images North America / AFP

The US Supreme Court on Friday struck down a ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire like machineguns and was used in the deadliest mass shooting in America's modern history.

The rule was imposed in 2019 by the administration of former president Donald Trump after the devices were used during a 2017 mass shooting that killed almost 60 people people at a Las Vegas country music festival.

The gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds in the crowd in 11 minutes, leaving 60 people dead and injuring hundreds more.

The 6-3 majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas said a semi-automatic rifle with a bump stock is not an illegal machinegun because it does not make the weapon fire more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger.

“A bump stock merely reduces the amount of time that elapses between separate functions of the trigger,” Mr Thomas wrote.

Bump stocks help with bump firing, or using the recoil of a semi-automatic weapon to fire cartridges in rapid succession. They assist rapid fire by "bumping" the trigger against the finger - as opposed to it being pulled - allowing the recoil and the forward pressure by the non-shooting arm to activate the trigger.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed to the Las Vegas gunman, saying that “in murdering so many people so quickly, he did not rely on a quick trigger finger – instead, he relied on bump stocks”.

Ms Sotomayor called it “deeply regrettable” that Congress has to act but that she hopes it does.

A woman walks near a memorial to victims of the Route 91 Harvest music festival mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, in October 2017. Reuters

Justices from the court’s liberal wing suggested it was “common sense” that anything capable of unleashing a “torrent of bullets” was a machinegun under federal law.

The ruling came after a Texas gun shop owner challenged the ban, arguing the Justice Department wrongly classified the accessories as illegal machine guns.

President Joe Biden's administration, which defended the rule in court, said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives made the right choice for the gun accessories, which can allow weapons to fire at a rate of hundreds of rounds a minute.

The arguments in the bump stock case were primarily focused on whether the ATF had overstepped its authority, rather than the Second Amendment, which grants people the right to bear arms.

Fifteen states and Washington, DC, have their own bans on bump stocks.

"Americans should not have to live in fear of this mass devastation," Mr Biden said, adding that he has "used every tool in my administration to stamp out gun violence".

"I call on Congress to ban bump stocks, pass an assault weapon ban and take additional action to save lives - send me a bill and I will sign it immediately," Mr Biden said.

Parkland demolition

Also on Friday, demolition began on the building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Several members of victims' families stood in the school’s car park watching the destruction of the site of the tragedy.

“I’d like to see it gone,” Dylan Persaud, who was a pupil at the time and lost several friends in the shooting, told the Associated Press.

“It puts a period on the end of the story. They should put a nice memorial there for the 17.”

Officials plan to complete the weeks-long demolition project before the school's 3,300 pupils return in August from summer holidays.

People watch as crews begin to demolish the building where 17 people were killed during the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. AFP

The building had been kept up to serve as evidence at the gunman's 2022 trial.

The gunman, Nikolas Cruz, a former pupil at the school who was 19 at the time of the massacre, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parole in 2022.

Broward County is not alone in taking down a school building after a mass shooting.

In Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary School was torn down after the 2012 shooting and replaced. In Texas, officials closed Robb Elementary in Uvalde after the 2022 shooting there and plan to demolish it. Colorado's Columbine High had its library demolished after the 1999 shooting.

Over the past year, some victims' relatives have led Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress, school officials, police officers and about 500 other people from across the country on tours of the building, showing how improved safety measures could have saved lives.

US Representative Jared Moskowitz, an alumnus of the school, said on Friday that the community was forever changed by the shooting.

“I never thought I’d see the high school where I graduated from turned into a war zone. What I’ve seen in that building is truly haunting – windows with bullet holes, homework scattered everywhere, blood in the hallway,” Mr Moskowitz said.

“The people of Parkland will no longer have to pass by this horrific reminder of our grief. The families of those innocent lives taken that day will never be able to move on, just move forward.”

The Broward County school board has not decided what the building will be replaced with.