Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-976_e29g.pdf
Page Number: 35.0

Cite as:  602 U. S. ____ (2024) 

11 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

fire  an  M16  from  that  required  to  fire  a  bump-stock-
equipped  AR–15.    The  majority  argues  that  “holding  the 
trigger down on  a fully automatic rifle is not manual input 
in  addition  to  a  trigger’s  function—it  is  what  causes  the 
trigger to function in the first place” whereas “pushing on 
the front grip [of a bump-stock equipped semiautomatic ri-
fle] will not cause the weapon to fire unless the shooter also 
engages the trigger with his other hand.”  Ante, at 16.  The 
shooter  of  a  bump-stock-equipped  AR–15,  however,  need 
not “pull” the trigger to fire.  Instead, he need only place a 
finger on the finger rest and push forward on the front grip 
or barrel with his other hand.  Instead of pulling the trigger, 
the forward motion pushes the bump stock into his finger. 
  Second, the majority tries to cabin “single function of the 
trigger”  to  a  single  mechanism  for  activating  continuous 
fire.  See ante, at 14–15.  A shooter can fire a bump-stock-
equipped  semiautomatic  rifle  in  two  ways.    First,  he  can 
choose  to  fire  single  shots  via  distinct  pulls  of  the  trigger 
without exerting any additional pressure.  Second, he can 
fire  continuously  via  maintaining  constant  forward  pres-
sure on the barrel or front grip.  The majority holds that the 
forward pressure cannot constitute a “single function of the 
trigger” because a shooter can also fire single shots by pull-
ing the trigger.  That logic, however, would also exclude a 
Tommy  Gun  and  an  M16,  the  paradigmatic  examples  of 
regulated machineguns in 1934 and today.  Both weapons 
can  fire  either  automatically  or  semiautomatically.    A 
shooter  using  a  Tommy  Gun  in  automatic  mode  could 
—————— 
more than one shot by a single function of the trigger, it could not do so 
‘automatically.’ ”  Ante, at 13, n. 6.  That is correct, as far as the majority’s 
reasoning goes.  The majority defines “ ‘single function of the trigger’ ” as 
a reset of a rifle’s internal trigger mechanism.  Ante, at 11.  A more accu-
rate  definition  is  the  human  action  required  to  initiate  the  firing  se-
quence.  Supra, at 7–10.  The majority’s argument for why “something 
more  than a  ‘single  function  of  the  trigger’  is  required  to  fire  multiple 
shots,” ante, at 15, is therefore relevant to both its discussion of “auto-
matically” and my discussion of “single function of the trigger.”