Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill has joined more than 20 other Republican attorneys general in a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ban on firearm accessories known as “bump stocks.”
Hill joined AGs from Kansas, South Dakota and 19 other states in filing a “friend of the court” brief in support of the Gun Owners of America’s lawsuit against federal Attorney General Merrick Garland over the federal ban on bump stocks, calling the ban a violation of Second Amendment rights.
“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms’ erroneous rulemaking would abridge [the right to bear arms] by immediately transforming hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners in the States into criminals,” the brief said.
Bump stocks are devices attached to the rear of a rifle and are designed to reduce recoil, prevent injury and allow the user to more safely and accurately fire the weapon. However, they were banned in 2018 by former President Donald Trump following the Las Vegas shooting, one of the deadliest in the nation’s history.
The ATF adopted rules that the stocks essentially made semi-automatic rifles — those that fire one round when the trigger is pulled — into machine guns by allowing for more rapid firing.
Mark Jones, Wyoming’s legislative director for Gun Owners of America, told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he was delighted to see so many AGs supporting the organization in its fight for gun rights.
“Almost half the nation’s attorneys general have agreed with us that the ban is unconstitutional,” he said. “It’s very powerful.”
Jones said that while the ban began under Trump’s administration, GOA is fighting Biden’s attempt at using executive orders to pass laws that might not succeed in Congress.
“This idea of executive action to ban constitutional rights is something we have to stop,” he said. “I think people that appreciate their constitutional rights should be against an executive taking that type of action. Congress is supposed to make the laws, not the president.”
Although Jones was supportive of Hill’s action in joining the brief, Second Amendment supporter Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, was less than enthusiastic.
“Mark Gordon’s appointed AG has been AWOL,” Bouchard told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. “In fact, it was the same AG that tried to overturn Stand Your Ground in Wyoming.
“The Biden administration’s recent actions go way beyond a bump stock ban,” he continued. “At best, signing on a bump stock brief, three years after the fact, and after the appeals court has deadlocked it, is at best a political stunt during an election season. It’s shameful!”
