Durbin Statement on Supreme Court Bump Stocks Ruling

CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling today in Garland v. Cargill, which ruled a bump stock does not convert a rifle into a machine gun:

“This ruling is deeply disappointing. Like Justice Sotomayor notes in her dissent: ‘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.’ A bump stock effectively turns a semi-automatic rifle into a rapid-fire weapon like a machine gun, plain and simple. The federal bump stocks ban enacted after the Las Vegas mass shooting was an important line of defense against the plague of gun violence. And let’s not forget: this rule was issued by a Republican Administration’s ATF and had bipartisan support.

“Today’s ruling renews a call for Congress to enact further gun safety legislation, and I stand ready to work with any of my Republican colleagues willing to do so.”

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