“Today, the Court puts bump stocks back in civilian hands. To do so, it casts aside Congress’s definition of ‘machinegun’ and seizes upon one that is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the statutory text and unsupported by context or purpose.”
“We conclude that [a] semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machinegun’ because it does not fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger"
“When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck,”
Ignoring reality in favor of weird essentialism to support your base, is like peak conservative. How dumb.
She's basically saying it's irrelevant that one trigger pull equals one bullet fired. That has nothing to do with "being a machine gun". That is just how semi auto guns work.
How would you outlaw this? You'd have to outlaw belt loops too because functionally they do the same thing.
Her argument is invalid. A goose walks like a duck and flaps like a duck and looks like a duck but it's not a fucking duck.
The idea that accessories like a pistol grip and stock choice and flash suppressor "make a gun into a machine gun" despite one bullet per trigger pull is simply not true and disingenuous.
Sotomayor should be ashamed. She's saying a dog is a duck if you glue on wings and webbed feet.
That has nothing to do with "being a machine gun". That is just how semi auto guns work.
This sort of "X is X no matter what changes, it is always X" essentialist thinking is why conservites are increasingly getting frustrated and loosing touch with the more complex reality the rest of the world occupies. This is the same line of thinking that keeps y'all upset about trans rights and understanding systemic racist.
You're arguing with an anti-gun audience that knows nothing about any of this. All they know is, "Guns bad!" (Wait till they find out about the shoestring conversion kit.)
Tell you what guys: Grab an AR-15 with a bump stock and I'll square off with mine, which is, well, stock. Good luck.
It was a poorly written ruling with poor reasoning. If y'all want to bitch, bitch at Congress to create a solid definition of "machine gun" that's a little newer than the 1930s. I'd be right behind it.
Or, we could forget the whole notion of "law" and "precedent", just go with "feels". (Which seems to be lemmy's take on anything more complex than jaywalking.)