Florida AG Uthmeier: Bump Stocks Are Protected by the Second Amendment

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier used an X post Friday to explain how bump stocks work and to make clear his office “will not defend a conviction under [a 2018 Florida bump stock ban] going forward.” The text of his X post begins: “People are being arrested and prosecuted under a 2018 law that banned ‘bump stocks.’ As currently written, the overly broad law appears to restrict the use of trigger enhancements used by firearms owners for lawful purposes, subjecting them to five years in prison.” In the opinion attached to the post, Uthmeier wrote, “Bump stocks are widely used for lawful purposes including self-defense; indeed, their very creation was spurred to help disabled Americans.” Moreover, he noted, “In United States v. Miller, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the Second Amendment protects not just operable weapons but also the supplementary equipment carried on the person that is useful for a firearm’s operation.” Uthmeier noted that a bump stock does not turn a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun and that a ban cannot on the accessories cannot survive the Bruen (2022) test. He observed, “…a bump stock falls within the ‘Arms’ protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment.” RELATED: AWR Hawkins Demoes Bump Stock, Debunks Myths He concluded his X post with these words, “Today, my office issued a legal opinion recognizing the law as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, and this office will not defend a conviction under the statute going forward.” AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.