Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) did not mince words about his thoughts on the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to strike down a ban on bump stocks.

During an interview on CNN, Heinrich alleged that Judge Clarence Thomas was unfair about the components of bump stocks – a modification that gives the shooter the ability to easily fire multiple rounds rapidly.

In his written opinion, Thomas said the stock “does not turn a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun any more than it does a shooter with a lightning-fast trigger finger.”

The Supreme Court’s stock decision puts gun rights back in the spotlight

CNN host Brianna Keilar played a segment from a YouTube video that showed an AR-15 rifle being fired both with and without a bump stock. It also pointed out differences in how the weapon performed in both cases.

She then asked the senator for his response to Thomas’ statement.

“It’s just not fair. I know these mechanisms. Not only have I seen the videos, but I have used some of these weapons,” he said. “He’s not being honest about what this does, and it’s incredibly dangerous.”

Heinrich added that “there is no legitimate use” of the bump stocks.

“Who is going to use these bump stocks? It will be street gangs, cartels and mass shooters,” Heinrich said. “And innocent Americans will die because of this decision. I find it incredibly disturbing.”

His comments come after the Supreme Court ruled against the scheme, which was introduced by former President Trump in the wake of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, considered the deadliest in US history. In that incident, the gunman used a bump stock to kill 60 people and injure hundreds of others.

The Biden administration has long advocated the ban, having urged Congress several times to pass legislation banning all semi-automatic weapons.

But in a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled that the categorization stretched the law too far and ruled in favor of a Texas gun store owner who challenged the ban after surrendering his two bump stocks.

Following the decision, Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote a fierce dissent, claiming the decision “eviscerates” machine gun regulations.

“Today the Court is returning bump stocks to citizens,” wrote Sotomayor, joined by liberal justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “To do so, it overrides Congress’s definition of ‘machine gun’ and adopts a definition that is inconsistent with the plain meaning of the bill and unsupported by context or purpose.”

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