CT officials condemn Supreme Court ruling striking down Trump-era bump stock ban

The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory that allows semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, but Connecticut Attorney General William Tong the “decision has zero impact” on state law here.Other officials vowed to push a law in Congress that would ban the devices.The high court’s conservative majority found that the Trump administration did not follow federal law when it reversed course and banned bump stocks after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with assault rifles in 2017. The gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds in the crowd in 11 minutes, leaving 60 people dead and injuring hundreds more. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.“This disappointing decision is a serious threat to public safety. Bump stocks—however you define them—are dangerous. That’s why I wrote Connecticut’s bump stock ban as co-chair of the Judiciary Committee in 2018,” Tong said.Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a ban in 2018 on so-called bump stocks — the devices used the previous year by the Las Vegas shooter.The Connecticut law also bans trigger cranks and other accessories that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at near-automatic speed. From a high-rise hotel, the Las Vegas shooter fired 90 rounds every 10 seconds.Tong, who pushed for the ghost gun bill as co-chairman of the legislature’s judiciary committee, was running for attorney general in 2018 and not the General Assembly.Connecticut Governor Signs Bill Banning Bump Stocks “This decision has zero impact on Connecticut’s law—which remains strong and enforceable. But what this means is that, once again, we’re back to a patchwork of state laws and porous interstate borders where federal leadership is sorely needed. I’m going to continue to do all that I can do advance and defend Connecticut’s lifesaving and necessary gun laws,” he said.Tong issued the statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Garland v. Cargill, which challenged the federal ban on bump stock. In a 6-3 decision, the court found that a bump stock did not meet the statutory definition of a machine gun, Tong said. He said it was not a Second Amendment challenge.U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the Supreme Court struck down a rule issued by the Trump Administration banning bump stock devices, “which allow semi-automatic weapons to be modified to fire at the rate of automatic weapons, which have been illegal for more than 30 years.”“The Roberts Court just effectively legalized machine guns on American streets,” he said. “Bump stock devices are crime and carnage force-multipliers and they should be banned completely. If the Court won’t allow law enforcement to take completely reasonable steps to take weapons of war off our streets, then Congress must act.”U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, also said she is “deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court would strike down a policy that would prohibit the use of bump stocks which take already dangerous semi-automatic weapons and turn them into far more deadly automatic weapons.“This decision is outrageous, dangerous, and will have deadly consequences,” she said. “I will work alongside my colleagues in Congress to enact the Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act, a bill that would give legislative strength to the policy that the Supreme Court struck down today and that would keep these dangerous devices out of the hands of criminals.”DeLauro also noted, “The gunman responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting, used a bump stock so that his semi-automatic weapon would fire in quick succession.”“Because of this, he was able to fire more than 1,000 rounds that killed 60 people and wounded at least 413.”The Connecticut bump stock bill bans the purchase, possession, use and sale of the devices. The new law took effect Oct. 1, 2018, and gave anyone who then owned the devices time to get rid of them. There is no grandfather clause.

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