June 28, 2024 4:05PM # Are Bump Stock Bans Useful? By [Jeffrey Miron](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-miron) --- SHARE Listen to this article Generated with [ ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) AI technology. Loading the [Elevenlabs Text to Speech](https://elevenlabs.io/text-to-speech) AudioNative Player... [Bump stocks](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/04/us/bump-stock-las-vegas-gun.html) are devices that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire faster—although still slower than—fully automatic weapons. Bump stocks became the target of legal and public scrutiny after a gunman used them in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, after which then-President Donald Trump [called](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/06/14/bump-stocks-what-to-know-about-controversy-over-gun-devices-as-supreme-court-drops-ban/) for a ban. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) responded by [reclassifying](https://www.nraila.org/articles/20240614/us-supreme-court-invalidates-atf-rule-classifying-bump-stocks-as-machineguns) bump stocks as machine guns, effectively banning them. The Supreme Court recently [reversed](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/us/bump-stocks-supreme-court-guns.html) the ban, arguing that it lacks specificity and puts any accessory that makes firearms easier or safer to shoot at risk of an ATF ban. Supporters of the now-defunct ban are therefore [arguing](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/20/supreme-court-bump-stocks-guns/) for Congress to explicitly ban bump stocks. A new ban, however, is unlikely to reduce the harm from mass shootings. Bump stocks can easily be [made at home](https://www.city-journal.org/article/getting-it-right-on-bump-stocks), via 3D printing or improvised devices produced from standard household items. Bump stocks make semi-automatic weapons significantly less accurate than automatic weapons because of the recoil movement of the gun. The bump stocks used in the Vegas shooting may actually have [reduced](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8-0cGmRayA) the number of fatalities. *Lemoni Matsumoto, an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, contributed to this article.* ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).