With the US Supreme Court’s decision today in Garland v. Cargill, a case about whether a rifle equipped with a “bump stock” — an attachment that transforms a semiautomatic rifle into a weapon that can discharge at a rate of hundreds of rounds per minute simply with one movement by the shooter — is a “machinegun,” National Council of Jewish Women Government Relations and Advocacy Director Darcy Hirsh issued the following statement:

“Today the Supreme Court removed an important gun safety deterrent by invalidating the federal policy that classifies bump stocks as machine guns — a policy that subjected owners to criminal liability. With this decision, the Supreme Court has opened the door to the proliferation of an extremely dangerous weapon and, as a result, the threat of more deaths from gun violence. This Court will stop at nothing to ensure guns take precedence over people. 

“Guns equipped with bump stocks were used in the largest and deadliest mass shooting in modern American history in 2017 in Las Vegas, in which 60 people were shot and killed and hundreds more were wounded. We need more regulations, not fewer, on these dangerous weapons of war. While machine guns have been outlawed in the United States for 90 years, bump stocks modify firearms to shoot up to 800 bullets a minute and were designed, in part, to circumvent that ban. When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms classified bump stocks as machine guns, National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) sent a comment in support. 

“What this Court fails to recognize is that everyone is impacted by the toll of gun violence. NCJW advocates have spent decades addressing the epidemic of gun violence — by strengthening current laws, keeping guns out of the wrong hands, and passing common-sense public safety policies to reduce gun violence and save lives — and we won’t stop now.”