Damien Guedes, et al. v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives: Defending ATF’s bump stock ban
Case Information: Damien Guedes, et al. v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, No. 21-5045 (United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit filed November 8, 2021)
At Issue: In 1986, Congress banned machine guns, with careful consideration of potential loopholes. Still, the gun industry developed technological workarounds that allowed them to avoid regulation. Such workarounds include bump stocks, which are used to convert semi-automatic rifles into machine guns. Following the use of bump stock technology in the Las Vegas shooting, ATF issued a rule classifying bump stock technology as a banned machine gun.
Our Brief: In a joint brief filed with Brady and Everytown for Gun Safety we defend the ATF’s authority to classify bump stock technology as banned machine guns. Our brief explains the history of the ban on machine guns, including the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act—both of which strengthened the ban on machine guns—as well as Congress’ ultimate decision that there is no legitimate civilian use for such firearms. We then describe bump stock technology, which only serves the purpose of converting semi-automatic rifles into machine guns by automating the process of pulling the trigger and increasing the rate of fire. In doing so, it is functionally equivalent to and just as dangerous as a machine gun.