WASHINGTON — Former President didn't really want to ban bump stocks. When he did, he knew the Supreme Court was likely to overturn his action. In a , that's exactly what the justices did.
The ruling revealed Trump's true feelings on the issue after a seven-year political drama, as he accepted the court reversing him, with his spokesperson saying that Americans should respect the decision. It is possible that the Supreme Court — at a lower level but in similar fashion to its decision to overturn abortion rights — will unleash a backlash that helps President Joe Biden and hurts Trump in their November rematch. But for the time being, Trump's strategy for sidestepping a lasting response to the appears to have played to plan.
In the immediate aftermath of that massacre, which claimed 58 lives and resulted in hundreds of injuries, Trump found himself faced with a thorny political dilemma. Shocked and outraged by the murders, roughly said that the government should cut off access to bump stocks, the style of shoulder-pad device that allowed the killer, Stephen Paddock, to fire a semiautomatic rifle at the speed of a fully automatic weapon. Democrats, then in the minority in both chambers, demanded congressional action, and some Republican lawmakers agreed with them.
Trump was faced with an unpalatable choice: do nothing and alienate mainstream voters or push Congress to legislate a ban, which would infuriate some gun-rights voters in the GOP's base and highlight divisions wit.