Ellison joins movement to ban bump stocks

ABC 6 News – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Wednesday that he will be joining a coalition of 23 other state attorneys general whose goal is to convince the United States Supreme Court to ban bump stocks.

The coalition urges the Supreme Court to overturn an appellate court’s decision striking down a 2018 regulation that clarified that the federal law banning machine guns also bans bump stocks; which is a device that can be attached to a semiautomatic firearm in place of a conventional gunstock, enabling it to fire bullets more rapidly.

In the press release, Ellison states, “The facts are clear: bump stocks are a threat to the safety of all Minnesotans and Americans everywhere, and the rule that bans them is simply common sense.”

The press release goes on to say that the danger of bump stocks became “tragically clear” in 2017, as a gunman opened fire on a Las Vegas crowd using weapons fitted with bump stocks, killing 58 people.

The coalition includes attorneys general from various states, including Arizona, California and North Carolina; the supreme court begins hearing arguments about the bump stock ban early next year.