The Supreme Court overturned the federal bump stock ban. What does that mean for Washington state?

In a 6-3 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on bump stocks on Friday. So, what does that mean for Washington state's ban on the devices that make semi-automatic guns shoot more rapidly?

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In short, not much.

Alan Gottlieb, founder the Bellevue-based gun rights group the Second Amendment Foundation, said the SCOTUS ruling does not affect the state law banning bump stocks. Nor does the ruling make the state law more vulnerable to legal challenges, Gottlieb said, noting he is not aware of any ongoing legal challenges in Washington.

That's because of the rulings focus on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' federal authority to issue the ban. The justices essentially ruled that the ATF does not have the authority to redefine a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a bump stock as a "machine gun." The federal ban, instituted in 2017 under former President Donald Trump, did exactly that.

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The federal ban came after a gunman at a Las Vegas concert used guns modified with bump stock devices to kill 60 people and injure 400 in just 11 minutes. The ATF's ban on bump stocks determined the devices effectively transformed legal semi-automatic weapons into illegal machine guns because of the rate of fire.

But that's at the federal level, authority over which the conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled lies only with Congress.

That has no bearing on bans enacted by state legislatures, though, according to Gottlieb.

Six Republican senators in Washington state joined Democrats in 2018 to approve a ban on bump stocks. It has been illegal to own or posses them since July 2019.

In a statement Friday, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson praised state lawmakers' work to ban the devices.

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"Thanks to the Legislature’s bipartisan work, this Supreme Court decision will not have an impact on Washington law," Ferguson said via a spokesperson. But he added, "Anything that makes these dangerous tools easier to obtain makes us all less safe."

Advocates of the bump stock ban lamented the ruling.

The Seattle-based Alliance For Gun Responsibility urged states to enact their own bans, as Washington has.

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"While Washington state’s bump stock ban is not impacted by the Supreme Court’s ruling today, it is a severe setback for gun safety in America," Alliance For Gun Responsibility CEO Renée Hopkins said in a statement. "The decision further demonstrates that the majority of Supreme Court Justices are siding with the gun industry and its profit margins over the lives of Americans."