SCOTUS strikes down federal ban on rifle accessory used in deadliest mass shooting – National & International News – FRI 14Jun2024

Supreme Court strikes down federal ban on bump stocks.

US attack sub in Cuba after Russian warships arrive.

NATIONAL NEWS

Supreme Court strikes down federal ban on rifle accessory used in deadliest mass shooting

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled that a former President Trump overreached his authority with a 2019 executive ban on bump stock accessories for semi-automatic rifles.

Bump stocks, when fitted to rifle, allow for a rate of fire that is comparable to a machine gun. For this reason, the ATF decided to classify accessories as machine guns, which are illegal. However the court took issue with this classification because machine guns allow continuous fire with a single pull of the trigger. When activated, the bump stock mimics this by using the weapon’s recoil to cause the gun to move in such a way that it rapidly repeats the trigger action for you.

Both conservative and liberal Justices emphasized that this device should be banned but that Congress must act to ban them.

In Las Vegas in 2017, a single gunman used twelve rifles fitted with bump stocks to fire over 1000 rounds in less than 11 minutes. The gunman was firing from a high floor in the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of 22,000 people below him attending a music festival. He killed 60 people and wounded over 400. The Mandalay Bay shooting remains the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Worldwide, it is only the second deadliest mass shooting by a single perpetrator. In 2011, Anders Breivik shot to death 69 people at a youth retreat on Utoya island in Norway in a shooting spree that lasted hours.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

US attack sub in Cuba after Russian warships arrive

Earlier this week, several Russian warships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, arrived in Cuba. This has been seen by many as a show of force by Russia, after the US and other allies authorized Ukraine to use the weapons they’ve provided to strike within Russia. Cuban and Russian statements have characterized the Russian warships’ arrival as “routine” and said they would be taking part in planned drills. 

The White House has also played down the significance of these events, saying the presence of the Russian ships does not pose any sort of threat to the region. However, the US and Canada apparently decided to mount a show of force of their own. The US has dispatched a rapid attack sub to its naval base at Guantanamo Bay, while Canada has sent a naval patrol ship.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova intimated to reporters that the visit of the Russian ships to Cuba was an attempt to get the West’s attention, since Western countries appear “completely deaf” to Russia’s diplomatic signals on Ukraine and other matters.

Putin lays out Ukraine ceasefire terms; Ukraine and US immediately reject

Tomorrow, a “peace summit” on the Ukraine war will take place in Switzerland. However, no representatives from Russia have been invited. China was invited but says they will not attend without Russian representation. Chinese state media and representatives have characterized the term “peace summit” as being “meaningless” in this case since all parties to the conflict are not even represented.

China’s view is that the purpose of this “peace summit” is not to reach peace, but to provide Ukraine’s President Zelensky an opportunity to showcase how much international support he has. Zelensky offered some support to this view by voicing his displeasure that even President Biden, his greatest benefactor, will not be attending the summit. VP Kamala Harris and National Security advisor Jake Sullivan will attend in his stead. Zelensky told reporters that Biden’s absence at the summit would be “met by an applause by Putin”.

Ahead of this “peace summit” Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out terms for a ceasefire, which Ukraine and the West immediately rejected as “Hitler-like”. Essentially, Putin said that Ukraine must withdraw from four regions of Ukraine Russia is currently occupying, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Furthermore, there must be an end to any talk of Ukraine joining NATO. “As soon as Kyiv declares that it is ready for such a decision…” Putin said, “an order to cease fire and begin negotiations will immediately follow from our side, literally at the same minute.”