Court upholds Trump administration’s short-selling ban after Las Vegas mass shooting

The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the Trump administration’s 2019 ban on “bullish stocks” imposed in connection with the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting.

The appeals court upheld the ruling of a Texas-based federal judge in the case against the ban in a decision Tuesday.

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The ban on crash stocks was implemented by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under the Trump administration in a rule that classifies these devices as “machine guns,” which are prohibited by religion. National Firearms Law.

Bump stock relies on the recoil energy of a semi-automatic gun for the trigger to “reset and resume firing without additional physical manipulation by the shooter,” according to the ATF. Court records show that the National Firearms Act makes it illegal to fire a continuous-fire weapon with “a single trigger function”.

Under the ban, anyone who owns the stock could be charged with a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, the AP news agency reported.

There was another challenge to the ban recently when judges in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati split 8-8 on the issue. A challenge is also compelling for the United States Supreme Court, which came from a failed attempt to overturn the ban at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The Supreme Court could decide whether to hear the ban arguments next year.

Opponents of the ATF rule say that the trigger works as many times as a rising stock is used. Judge Stephen Higginson, writing to the three 5th Circuit judges who ruled on Tuesday, disagreed and cited a lower court ruling from the 10th Street case.

“As one district court observed, there is no reason why ‘Congress should not engage in the mechanical motion of the trigger in seeking to regulate automatic weapons’, arguing that ‘the The bad guy who wants to be caught by this definition has the ability to dramatically increase the weapon’s rate of fire, not the exact mechanism to achieve that ability”, Higginson wrote in a participatory opinion piece. by judges James Dennis and Gregg Costa.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.