Democratic Lawmaker Criticizes Stock Decision: ‘Incredibly Concerning’

Sen. Martin Heinrich (DN.M.) didn’t mince words about how he felt about the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to strike down the ban on bump stocks.

During an interview on CNN, Heinrich claimed that Judge Clarence Thomas was not being honest about the components of bump stocks – a modification that gives a shooter the ability to fire multiple shots easily and quickly.

In his written opinion, Thomas said the stock “does not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun any more than a shooter with an extremely fast trigger finger does.”

CNN host Brianna Keilar played a segment of a YouTube video that showed an AR-15 rifle being fired with and without a stock. She also pointed out differences in the weapon’s performance in both cases.

She then asked the senator his reaction to Thomas’ statement.

“It’s not honest. I know these mechanisms. I didn’t just see the videos, but I used some of these weapons,” he said. “He’s not being honest about what this does and it’s incredibly dangerous.”

Heinrich added that there is “no legitimate use” for bump stocks.

“Who is going to use these bump stocks? It will be street gangs, cartels and mass shooters,” Heinrich said. “And innocent Americans are going to die because of this decision. I find that extremely troubling.”

His comments came after the high court ruled against the regulation, which was implemented by former President Trump following the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, considered the deadliest in U.S. history. In that incident, the shooter used a gunshot to kill 60 people and injure hundreds of others.

The Biden administration has long advocated the ban, after repeatedly pressing Congress to pass legislation banning all semiautomatic weapons.

But in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court concluded that the categorization went too far from the law, ruling in favor of a Texas gun store owner who challenged the ban after turning in his two bump stocks. .

Following the ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a harsh dissent, claiming the ruling “eviscerates” machine gun regulations.

“Today, the Court returns stocks to civilian hands,” said Sotomayor, who was joined by liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. he wrote. “To do so, it sets aside Congress’s definition of ‘machine gun’ and uses one that is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the legal text and is not supported by the context or purpose.”

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story