O’Melveny Secures Appellate Victory for Giffords Law Center Affirming Bump Stock Ban

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC—April 1, 2019—In a major victory for O’Melveny pro bono client the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) recent rule banning bump stocks.

The ban, which took effect last week, requires owners to turn in or destroy the devices, which convert otherwise legal weapons into illegal machine guns.

O’Melveny drafted the Giffords Law Center’s amicus brief in the case, which was brought by bump-stock owners and advocates who claimed, among other things, that the rule exceeds the scope of the ATF’s rulemaking authority. But the court found that, in adopting the ban, the ATF had acted in accordance with the National Firearms, Gun Control, and Firearm Owners Protection acts—the same position the Giffords Law Center took in its brief.

The rule was adopted in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, in which a lone gunman armed with bump-stock-enhanced semiautomatic weapons killed 58 people and wounded hundreds more.

Today’s decision upholds a lower court ruling that denied a request by opponents of the rule for a preliminary injunction halting the ban. Last week, the US Supreme Court, in two different cases, rejected stay requests from bump stock advocates.

The Giffords Law Center is a non-profit policy organization dedicated to reducing gun violence. The organization was founded in 1993 after a gun massacre at a San Francisco law firm and was renamed Giffords Law Center in October 2017 after joining forces with the gun-safety organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

The O’Melveny team representing the Giffords Law Center was led by partner Ian Simmons and included counsel Tony Beasley, and associates Matt Schock and Allison Smith.

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