The Supreme Court has just made all of us more likely to be victims of mass shooting massacres. Just this month SCOTUS overturned a federal ban on bump stocks, which was instituted by the Trump administration in 2017 after the deadly Las Vegas music festival shooting.
In minutes, the shooter killed 60 people and injured at least 413. The carnage was possible because the shooter used a bump stock, which essentially converted his semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun, firing 1,000 rounds in 11 minutes.
It is important to understand that the SCOTUS ruling overturned the ban on the grounds that it is up to Congress to mandate such bans. It did not rule that a policy defining bump stocks as illegal machine guns is inherently unconstitutional.
Congress and state legislatures are free to enact this policy through the legislative process.
At least 15 states and the District of Columbia have banned bump stocks, but Pennsylvania is not one of them. Tragically, the Pa. House just last month came within one vote of passing a bill banning bump stocks.
Ironically, the excuse for not passing it, according to Minority leader Bryan Cutler, R-100, is that the bill was unnecessary due to the federal ban.
Rep. Cutler’s excuse is no longer valid. The SCOTUS decision removes the federal ban and leaves Pennsylvania citizens more vulnerable than ever to gun violence.
To keep Pennsylvanians from seeing more slaughter due to gun violence, we need to demand that our legislators immediately pass a statewide ban on these lethal devices.
Please join me in calling and/or emailing your state legislators to immediately pass a bill banning bump stocks. You can go to CeaseFirePA.org and take quick easy action at the top of the homepage.
If your Bucks County representative is Joe Hogan, Kathleen Tomlinson, Shelby Labs, Craig Staats or Kristin Marcell, let them know how unhappy you are with their “no” vote to ban bump stocks in Pennsylvania.
In addition, urge your federal representatives and senators to pass a national ban on bump stocks.
We cannot allow our schools, our places of worship, our public gathering spaces to be further endangered by a device that turns an already lethal weapon into a more efficient killing machine.
Peggy Walsh lives in Morrisville.
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