Bump Stocks Legal Again In Texas

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Bump stocks can now be sold once again in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi after the federal government did not appeal a ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that struck down a ban on bump stocks that had been in place since 2019.

In January, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ban on bump stocks, imposed by the ATF was not able to ban the item and only Congress could. The federal government had a deadline to appeal the ruling, which was Monday, and no appeal was made.

As the Dallas Morning News reports, bump stocks became nationally known after the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. Four months after the Las Vegas shooting a shooter killed 17 people at Parkland High School and while a bump stock wasn't used in Parkland, President Donald Trump called for the device to be banned. The ATF issued a new ban on the device in 2018. The new rules went into effect in 2019.

Jeremiah Cottle, who invented and patented the device, which he calls a slide stock, ran his Moran, Texas-based company Slide Fire Solutions for eight years before the Las Vegas shooting.

“And then the government came after me,” Cottle said.

On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman in Las Vegas killed 58 people at an outdoor concert and wounded hundreds. Fourteen of the shooter’s 22 semi-automatic rifles were equipped with bump stocks, allowing him to shoot so many concertgoers in a matter of minutes.

The ATF can still enforce the ban outside of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi and some believe that will lead to the case going to the United State Supreme Court.