It was two years ago this week when Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices issued a radical ruling on gun policy, striking down a New York law that required residents to apply for a state permit and show “proper cause” to carry a concealed gun in public. Among the questions that emerged soon after was how much further the high court would go on the issue.
The answer continues to come into focus. Last week, as my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin explained, the Supreme Court’s far-right majority struck down a ban on bump stocks, an after-market accessory gun owners can attach to semi-automatic rifles to make them fire faster. The devices became especially well known in 2017 when a gunman in Las Vegas was able to use a bump stock to kill several dozen people and injure several hundred more.
Now, according to six GOP-appointed justices, a Trump-era policy banning the devices is unconstitutional. The New York Times’ David Firestone described the ruling as “one of the most astonishingly dangerous decisions ever issued by the court, and it will almost surely result in a loss of American lives in another mass shooting.”
But the high court’s ruling doesn’t have to be the final word on the subject. The Washington Post’s editorial board explained over the weekend that Congress still has the option to put things right.
If there is a silver lining in Friday’s ruling, it might be that it struck the regulation down on purely statutory grounds, not as a violation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. That leaves the door open for legislation, as Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. reminded everyone; his brief concurring opinion implied there is no Second Amendment bar to banning machine guns and suggested that the “horrible shooting spree in Las Vegas … strengthened the case for amending” federal law.
The Post’s editors added that bipartisan groups of lawmakers have proposed new safeguards, and while none has passed, the Supreme Court’s ruling “should give those dormant efforts new life, urgently.”
It’s an important detail. After the massacre in Las Vegas, even many Republicans were open to banning the rapid-fire devices, and when the Trump administration acted unilaterally, it was seen as a rather obvious, common-sense move. Nevertheless, Republican Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Tom Cotton of Arkansas were separately asked during Sunday show appearances whether they’d support congressional action on the issue to prevent future mass slayings. On ABC’s “This Week,” Jonathan Karl even reminded Scott that after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, he said that a bump stock ban would pass easily. Both GOP senators, however, deflected in response to the questions and tried to change the subject. Those looking to congressional Republicans to prioritize public safety in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling are likely to be disappointed.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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