A pro-gun group will sue the Trump administration over its decision to ban bump-fire stocks, CNN reports.
The Gun Owners of America said Thursday that it was challenging the recent ban on the devices and suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department. It has asked for an injunction to prevent the ban from going forward and being enforced.
“These dangerous regulations can go much farther than just bump stocks. The goal of the anti-gun left is, ultimately, not just banning bump stocks, but, rather, putting ‘points on the board’ toward its goal of banning civilian ownership of all firearms,” said Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, in a statement.
Bump-stocks gained the public attention after the deadly Las Vegas massacre last year in which a gunman used the devices, killing 58 people attending a concert. As a result, the administration decided recently to ban bump-fire stocks.
According to Justice Department officials, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker signed the new rule earlier this month, after the administration took a “fresh look” at the case law, technology, and the devices and their functionality “in light of modern developments.”
It then concluded that these devices, along with “slide-fire” devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics all fall within the prohibition on machine guns by allowing a “shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger,” and are thus illegal under federal law.
The official had also stressed before that the Trump administration was prepared to defend against any challenges to the rule which the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department had signed off on.
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