Proposed Legislation Would Ban Bump Stocks in Michigan

New legislation proposed by State Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, would ban bump stocks in Michigan. The device essentially makes semi-automatic rifles fire shots rapidly like a machine gun.

Bump stock (ATF photo)

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal ban of the device that first came to the attention of the nation in October 2017 when Stephen Paddock used the device to kill about 60 people and wound more than 400 at a music festival in Las Vegas.

Sen. Polehanki called her bill a "life-or-death matter," the Detroit Free Press reports. 

The Supreme Court struck down the ban in a 6-3 vote.

Justice Clarence Thomas, author of the majority opinion, wrote that the Justice Department was wrong to declare that bump stocks transformed semiautomatic rifles into illegal machine guns because each trigger depression in rapid succession still only releases one shot, AP reported.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissenting opinion saying: “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.”