Bump Stock Legality by State 2024

A "bump stock" is a device that is placed on semi-automatic guns to ease the two-step process of firing (pulling and releasing the trigger) to one step, using the gun's recoil from the previous shot to actuate the trigger and fire the next shot. An AR-15 assault rifle equipped with a bump stock can fire 90 rounds in 10 seconds, creating an almost fully automatic weapon out of one that was initially built to be semi-automatic (i.e.: one that requires the user to manually squeeze and release the trigger for each shot).

Bump stocks were thrust into the public consciousness after the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, in which a gunman opened fire on a crowd of spectators attending a music festival. The gunman fired 1049 rounds of ammunition from an arsenal of twelve AR-15 assault rifles, all equipped with bump stocks, as well as 8 rounds from a pair of AR-10 rifles. The attack ultimately killed 60 people and wounded 413-869 more (estimates vary), making it the deadliest mass shooting committed by a single person in US history.

Federal Stance on Bump Stocks

After the Las Vegas shooting, many states were quick to ban bump stocks. Along with that effort, the US Department of Justice-led Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) declared, with support from then-President Donald Trump, that guns with bump stocks were classified as machine guns. Therefore, like all machine guns, bump stocks were illegal to privately possess or transport according to the 1968 Gun Control Act.

The specific clarification of the term "machine guns" was reworked to read: "includes all bump-stock-type devices that harness recoil energy to facilitate the continuous operation of a semiautomatic long gun after a single pull of the trigger."

The ban went into effect on March 26, 2019, at which time owners of bump stocks were required to either destroy them or surrender them to ATF, punishable by 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. However, the ban was immediately challenged in court, and on June 14, 2024, the US Supreme Court officially struck down the ban, ruling that bump stocks did not meet the definition of a machine gun.

In spite of the failure of the national law, several states passed bump stock bans of their own. In the event that the federal ban was reversed, bump stocks would be illegal in the District of Columbia and several other states, including:

Bump stocks are also banned in several cities, such as Northbrook, IL and Boulder, CO.

Background of Bump Stocks

Even the most casual of surveys of federal gun legislation will quickly reveal a unique correlation. The first two, The National Firearms Act and the Federal Gun Control Act passed in 1934 and 1968, respectively, both mirrored national angst against gun violence.

The first, The National Firearms Act, passed amidst the explosion of gun violence that began with the infamous 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and that angst did not let up as the likes of John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, and Babyface Nelson blazed a path across the Midwest in daring bank heists and shootouts with the FBI. When questioned, then-NRA president Karl T. Frederick noted before the Congressional committee, “I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I do not believe in the general toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.”

The subsequent passage of the National Firearms Act did not eliminate the availability of machine guns but rather aimed at taxing and registering the trade to keep the guns out of the hands of those with ill intent.

Three decades later, American society was once again roiled in turmoil. Beginning in 1963 with the assignation of President John F. Kennedy, the further killings of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy two months apart in 1968 led to a further tightening of federal regulations on the sale and ownership of prohibited weapons, including machine guns.

A conservative backlash attempted to claw back gun rights in the early to mid-1980s, and that pressure resulted in the passage of the Firearm Owner’s Protection Act of 1986. Seeking to loosen the reporting requirements of gun owners and gun dealers, the legislation demarcated the legal process by which a person could buy a machine gun. Specifically, machine guns made and on the market prior to 1986 were declared legal for sale and resale in the gun market. Due to their legality and limited availability, pre-1986 machine guns command a high price to this day. Bump stocks, however, did not yet exist in 1986 and so are not covered by the pre-1986 exception.