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.
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.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2uyR9et Tyler Durden